SUPER BOWL EXTRA LARGE

Enough with the clydsdales playing football.

that call was some bullshit

That dude was stuffed like an olive.

Seattle clock management: 0
Sprint/Crime Deterrent: 0

Robert Palmer is dead.

i like the "joe meek after he died" mix job 4 th stones

(ok so here this is on a different channel to the regular season, which means instead of c5's endearingly inept Green Bay Allstars we have Dhani Jones dressed as dude from Black Eyed Peas and um Martin Johnson well rugby is nearly the same right right?) (Pittburgh by eleven)

jgger is so hot

no deadman cum :(

jagger fucking rules

Hello we are teh rolling stones can we have our check now?

(an aside: the last two halftime shows have been british)

ronnie is htt

quick finale pick:satisfaction?

its kinda sad that jagger looks like he can outrun me

so does chrlee for that matter

that riff is relentless

that was way better than th strokes

Distey World: 8+

Shaun Alexander cradles the lombardi trophy like a homo

hey motherfucker willie parker how come you didn't do that during the season

also: seattle gettign jobbed buyt who cares

also: i've had a vew beders

Ameriquest/Plane: 5
Motorola/PEBL: 8
Sharpie: 2

Bud/Baby Clydesdale: 2
Nationwide/Fabio: 6.5
NFL Mobile: 4.5
Hummer H3: 5
PS Disinfectant: 0, most unmemorable Super Bowl commercial ever
Careerbuilder/Jackasses: 5
Taco Bell/Look of Love: 1
Toyota/Tide: 6.9, beyond the other side of stupid and into clever

wtf is going on with these officials ?

ooooooooooooo

Sprint/Benny Hill: 5.5
Emerald Nuts: 0
Bud/Stadium Cards: 5
Mastercard/McGyver: 8
Hines Ward jumping like a little kid as he went into the end zone: priceless

i'm surprised an official didn't run that back for a touchdown

Yosemite Sam/mudflap girl: 6, although I already forgot who the automaker was
Herestobeer.com: 4
World Baseball Classic: 2 (the flags superimposing themselves on the players' faces was kinda gross)

was that ref trying to recover a fumble?

my son says: "remember the REAL score. and they're the best in their league."

"their league" = cfl

squawks shoulda remembered the REAL clock

roffle

haha blount you are so funneeeee, but you are still making fun of them after they outplayed* yr bluecollar steelers?

*okay, mostly

Wow, did Holmgren leave the field without congratulating Cowher?

also:

Steelers by 11, and I don't need my lucky quarter to tell me.

haha is it true matt's son got sonned by a witeboy in a jurevicious beef?
they ain't my steelers! i mean i picked them and won 50 bucks thanks to holmgren not going for that fg late, but i'm all falcons. i felt sortsa bad for the squawks cuz man that crowd was clearly for pitt plus they got some calls go bad against them though nothing historic, nothing like what the steelers overcame a few weeks back. lynn swann looked like a total douchebag coming outta that tunnel, franco harris fucking badass coming out nonchalant and then pulling the towl out the pocket, i loved how at least half those dudes looked pissed off as hell walking out that tunnel. i didn't get drunk :(, i ate too much like nine wings and the burger and some chz fries and i only had 3 blue moons and i think belgian white doesn't get you drunk or something. i'm too fat for drunk. stat you hear all the time athens btw: hines ward is the steelers all time leading receiver (in yards i think). he's a totally standup dude btw. anyhow i gotta find out where yr boy willie parker went to school cuz my sister's bf says nc state and i'm like he's a tarheel, ten bucks on it. stoked for heigl's anatomy.

worst year for commercials that i can remember, sofa king boring. i had pretty low expectations for this game, but i didn't think that the stones would be the highlight! (sorta damning w/faint praise, but they seriously were awesome) i guess i'm glad HW got the mvp, i was afraid 'berger would get it. (also lol@squawkz)

i felt bad for the seahawks cuz of those bad breaks and the awful yella crowd, but at the same time i didn't really feel like they could've won it or anything. if they'd capitalised on pitt's mistakes and made fewer of their own it would've been closer, but it basically seemed like they played about as well as they could? tom brady grinning each time the crowd booed him was lol (as was ray lewis hanging his head in shame), like he was just thinking about all the supermodels he's gonna bang tonight. fuck lynn swann's corny ass

i hope this means we never have to take matt hasselbeck seriously again.

you win money, willie p is a tarheel yo. sammy and I had fun watching the game despite our slight disappointment, only had two beers because I only had four because I'm saving one for "grey's anatomy" and another for "flavor of love"

FEBRUARY 2006: WHAT A GREAT MONTH

ALSO: did you see dan rooney bumping fists with (i think) joey porter?

Why didn't Seattle appeal the weird Hasselbank blocking penalty call? I mean even if there was a penalty they'd clearly keep the timeout 'cos it was called on the wrong player right?

Best NFL International Feed moment: "that looked more like a scrum! A lot of you will be familiar with that, of course, because of European Football, soccer." (also the uk-specific announcer not knowing how many points a touchdown was worth was pretty classic.)

Blount you misspelled Hegel.

xpost - greg, that was a non-challengeable play.

That horseshit broke-the-plane TD before the half (+ Kris Brown kicking like Steeler Kris Brown) won me $20. I think the Steelers winning got me an extra $50 for my online poker account, too - I will celebrate by pissing it away before I go to sleep. I was playing Shotglass Roulette during halftime, and did 3 shots of Cuervo, so no Stones did I see. Spent the 2nd half standing up so I wouldn't rolf. The intro to Grey's Anatomy was NICE. This could very well be the best birthday weekend I will ever have. That I spent most of it shitfaced is probably the #1 reason for its awesomeness. Also, implied lesbionic showering. Kudos, Pittsburgh, & godspeed.

PS - I am still a little blotto, but clearly not blotto enough, damn it.

good game! I enjoyed it. Certainly not a classic for the ages but a decently entertaining game. Happy for Pittsburgh -- big up ya chest rust belt brethren -- happy for Bus, happy for Cowher, happy for my high school buddy Gabe Parra who has been a massive Steeler fan his whole life, happy for Detroit - the city looked good. Oh, and the Stones totally rocked. that was sweet. Ronny sounded gnarly with some of that slide stuff on "Rough Justice". cute that they cut "dead man come" and "cocks".

I didn't think the reffing was that egregious -- I initally thought Ben didn't make it, but you know what- after watching a couple replays I really do think that nose got in there before he was brought down. similarly, at first I thought that PI call on DJ was total BS -- but you know what, after looking again I think he uses enough force with that arm that the Pitt defender is kind of "out of the play", you know? Sure it's total puss for that to even be the rule -- but hey, that's today's NFL, and if that IS the rule, then ya gotta enforce it ... it was close enough to be a "hey waitaminute" play to throw the flag I guess. If Seattle wanted to win they should have cut down on the 75 yard TD runs, it's a simple as that

Worst officiated game ever.

Fact.

someone's never seen a big ten or sec officiating team in action.

fact.

At last gameday is here
Far-flung Steelers Nation makes its pilgrimage to Detroit for football's grandest theater
Sunday, February 05, 2006

By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Steeler fan Albert Holm, from Mexico City, gives a mean look while getting his photo taken in the Steeler cutout at NFL Experience in Detroit.
Click photo for larger image.

DETROIT -- Brothers Noel and Morgan Burbridge, clad in their subdued green and blue Seahawks gear, arrived at 4 a.m. yesterday on a red-eye flight from Seattle and felt like they had walked smack into the enemy camp.

"I feel as though we are alone," said Noel, 31, looking out over the wave of black and gold that has inundated Detroit on the eve of Super Bowl XL. "It's like we're on an island surrounded by sharks. We're out-numbered 700 to 1."

If raw numbers of fans provide any barometer, Pittsburgh has exerted its dominance. Spirited members of the far-flung Steeler Nation who made the pilgrimage here to experience football's grandest theater seem to be everywhere. Seahawks fan might as well be part of the background.

Even the weather has taken a Pittsburgh shift. Yesterday morning dawned gray and gloomy with a blanket of fog that made Seattle denizens feel right at home. But my mid-day, a steady rain had turned to snow -- Steeler weather.

Eight inches of the white stuff is expected to be on the ground this morning. It won't affect the game, which will be played indoors in the cozy surroundings of Ford Field. But a city that has toiled mightily to be a good host for America's party had to implement emergency plans because of the winter storm. Salt trucks and snow plows were on standby to deal with the accumulation, and the plan called for city crews to truck the white stuff to a landfill in Windsor, Ontario, to keep streets open for the big game.

A different sort of blizzard has already descended on Motown. Tens of thousands of Steelers fans, waving towels and chanting songs, have taken over the streets and bars of Detroit and its suburbs.

The migration peaked on Friday when the Ohio Turnpike was nearly bumper to bumper with cars, trucks, vans and bus loads in one long convoy headed to Detroit.

"They were blaring their horns, waving their flags, twirling their towels. I've never seen anything like it. It looked like an invasion," said Susan Anderson of Green Tree.

She and her husband, Carl, have been season-ticket holders for 38 years but couldn't score tickets to the Super Bowl. (The asking price for a ticket listed at $700 topped $3,000 yesterday, and isn't expected to fall. Seattle fans had issued a plea not to sell their tickets to anyone from Pittsburgh.)

But the Andersons didn't think twice about making the five-hour drive and paying $159 a night for a room at a Red Roof Inn in suburban Livonia. It didn't matter that they'll be outside the perimeter. It didn't matter that the weather was bad. It didn't matter that the game was in Detroit. All that mattered was the Steelers were in the Super Bowl.

"We just wanted to soak it all in," said Anderson, 70. "I wanted to get a flavor of it."

So many Steelers fans have made the trek that the Seattle contingent is wondering what ever happened to neutrality.

Joel Bearce, 42, checked into his hotel in Ann Arbor on Thursday to find himself surrounded. The banner at the door welcomed Steelers fans, the women behind the front desk were wearing Steelers jerseys and a busload of Pittsburghers were filing off their charter and into the lobby.

"Come on. Aren't hotels supposed to be neutral?" said Bearce, laughing.

Not only have Detroiters jumped on the Steeler bandwagon because native son Jerome Bettis came home to receive the key to the city, southern Michigan is heavy with transplanted Pittsburghers who maintain ties with their relatives.

That point was not lost on Casey Bricker, a native of Seattle who works at the M1A1 tank manufacturing plant in Warren, Mich. She and her son, James, wore their Seattle gear to yesterday's festivities and conceded being in the minority as they rode the elevated train that serves downtown commuters.

"The people mover was a sea of black and gold," she said. "I just wish the news would be a bit more two-sided. I can pick up any paper and find The Bus schedule everywhere. I looked on the internet and couldn't find anything about Seattle's schedule."

Make no mistake. Seattle fans are euphoric about being in the big game for the first time in the 30-year history of the franchise. They want to win, but the big difference between the two camps is, the Steelers need to win. If they had to, their following would have set out on foot.

There is no limit on the fervor that surrounds the Steelers.

Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby, upon being named the star of a recent home game, twirled a Terrible Towel during his curtain call. Newly acquired Pirates first baseman Sean Casey signed autographs at PirateFest wearing his Steelers sweatshirt.

The cultured crowd at the Pittsburgh Public theater has been greeted by the site of Terrible Towels in the lobby, but so have patrons of strip clubs.

The fever extends into church. At the Third Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh this morning, organist Charles Heaton will play as his postlude the notes that belt out "Here We Go, Steelers."

Blessedly, the countdown to the 6:22 p.m. kickoff is being measured in hours now, not days or weeks or years.

The ramp-up has been a study in Americana. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue refers to the Super Bowl as America's unofficial mid-winter holiday, with a worldwide audience of 1 billion viewers tuning in. From Detroit, it has felt more like Roman Bacchanalia meets Thunderome: two teams enter, one team wins.

Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette
Steelers fans post in front of a huge picture of Jerome Bettis at the NFL Experience at the Cobo Conference & Exhibition Center in downtown Detroit yesterday.
Celebrities and corporate movers-and-shakers have gathered to sip Cristol champagne and munch on yak steak at $50 a plate. At the same time, Detroit officials are luring homeless people off the streets with the promise of a meal and a place to catch the game on TV.

The media center has been ground zero for the big party. In the course of a week, anyone with a media credential could have pulled up a chair in an interview room and asked questions of the mayor, the governor, racing mogul Roger Penske, the coaches and players of both teams, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Aaron Neville, Dr. John and The Rolling Stones, who will be providing the halftime entertainment.

Mick Jagger conceded he didn't know much about American football, but his Super Bowl memory involved the Steelers.

"I remember Lynn Swann ... the levitated leap," Jagger said at the most heavily attended media function of the week.

Detroit opened its arms to visitors, aiming to reintroduce them to the city by throwing a winter party. At the same time, the Super Bowl was put on level one alert status by the Department of Homeland Security. NORAD fighter jets will provide air cover and enforce a no-fly zone within a 10-mile radius of Ford Field. In addition, 10,000 federal, state, local and private security officers patrol the ground and the Coast Guard cruises the Detroit River. Talk about playing dee-fense.

With the help of some Western Pennsylvania interests, the U.S. Army is providing some high-tech assistance. Robots that can look under vehicles for potential bombs are part of the milieu. The gadgets were provided by Kuchera Defense Systems of Windber, Pa., and were introduced to the NFL by FirstLink, a Department of Defense Center for National Excellence located at University of Pittsburgh.

One who has an insight on why people would drive five hours to watch a game on TV is Steelers defensive back Mike Logan, who played for McKeesport High School, West Virginia University and the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars before signing with the Steelers as a free agent in 2001.

He has 15 game tickets for the family and friends, but there will be at least that number driving to Detroit just to be here.

"They just want to share in the experience with us. We have a great fan base, and they travel well with us. You can't say enough about them. When you go into an opposing stadium and you see 10,000 Terrible Towels swinging, it just signifies what we're about -- hard working people. Some of my family members saved up money just to be here, to share in this experience with us, to make it a special event," Logan said.

"Pittsburgh has been gearing up for this moment for so long. I think this is a special moment, not just for this team, but for the whole city and the whole organization."

Logan grew up idolizing the Steelers. Pickup football games were played at 6C Rivers Stadium, which was his old apartment number in a McKeesport housing project. He used to wear a No. 12 jersey while his buddies wore Nos. 88 and 82.

"It wasn't one of them authentic jerseys, either. I just had one of them black and white shirts from Hills with No. 12 painted on it," Logan recalled, laughing. "There we were, pretending to be Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. We used to try to re-enact the Immaculate Reception and Swann's catch in the Super Bowl. We wanted to emulate the Pittsburgh Steelers."

What's more, Logan's grandfather once worked at the Jones & Laughlin Steel Mill on the South Side, the very reclaimed site where the Steelers now practice.

"I would never try to take away from Jerome's story. But in the little paragraphs, I have my own little story brewing. This is a special time for me," Logan said. "I would be cheating myself if I tried to put into words how I feel. It's almost too good to be true."

But a dream needs a happy ending to avoid becoming a nightmare, and the Steelers know it. It's game time.

"After the Denver game, I was almost overcome with emotion," Logan said. "But we have a game on Sunday, and we have to finish it off the right way."

The psyche of a city -- the psyche of a Nation -- depends on it.

Wasn't the biggest penalty (non-penalty) the holding call on the SeaCocks after they sposedly got to the 2yd line on pass play?

From espn, this morning:

Game's third team upstaged Steelers, Hawks
By Michael Smith
ESPN.com
Archive

DETROIT -- Three weeks ago, after the Steelers held on to upset Indianapolis, Joey Porter was unhappy about the overturning of Troy Polamalu's fourth-quarter interception that could have sealed the win much earlier. Believing that deep down the league preferred Peyton Manning and the Colts to win, Porter publicly criticized the game officials, asking them not to "take the game from us."

Well, the Steelers can call it even now, as the officials who performed well enough throughout the season to earn the privilege of working Super Bowl XL performed Sunday as though they were trying to make it up to the Steelers by giving them the game -- not just any game, but the biggest game. And, yes, this time the other guys, the Seahawks, cried conspiracy, only not quite as loudly as Porter.

"You know, that's what happens when the world is against you," one Seahawk said after the 21-10 loss at Ford/Heinz Field. "No one wanted us to win. They wanted Jerome Bettis to win and go out a hero, and they got it."

Seattle had its share of goats: in particular, tight end Jerramy Stevens, who dropped four balls, and kicker Josh Brown, who missed two field-goal attempts. Almost to a man, the Seahawks pointed the blame finger at themselves for converting only one of three red zone attempts (when they had been the best in the league in that area, scoring a touchdown on 71.7 percent of their trips inside the 20-yard line); for allowing Ben Roethlisberger to improvise and complete a 37-yard pass to game MVP Hines Ward to the 1; for giving up a 75-yard touchdown run to Willie Parker; and for getting beaten by a trick play on Antwaan Randle El's pass to fellow receiver Ward for a touchdown, a first in Super Bowl history. If you read between the lines, though, they pretty much spelled out in bold letters that they had plenty of help in handing Pittsburgh its fifth Lombardi Trophy.

Namely, the boys in black and white.

"Those things are out of our control," Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said of the three major penalties that helped change the game completely. Not saying the outcome of the game would have been any different, but for sure it would have been a different game. "That's the way [the officials] called them," Hasselbeck continued. "The Steelers played well enough to win tonight, and we didn't. They should get credit. It's disappointing, it's hard, but what are you going to do?"

Here's what referee Bill Leavy's crew did, point blank: It robbed Seattle. The Seahawks could have played better, sure. They could have done more to overcome the poor officiating. We understand that those things happen and all, but even with all the points Seattle left on the field, there's a good chance the Seahawks would have scored more than the Steelers if the officials had let the players play.

In the biggest game of the year, the biggest game in sports, even, the officials were just a little too visible. In that regard, the Super Bowl provided a fitting conclusion to a postseason packed with pitiful performances by the game's third team. There were incorrect down-by-contact rulings in both NFC wild-card games; a touchdown that could have gone either way and should have gone the other way -- in favor of Tampa Bay -- in the Bucs' loss to the Redskins; the Patriots got no love in Denver in being hit with a bogus pass interference penalty and not catching a break on Champ Bailey's fumble at the goal line that looked as though it could have been a touchback; and, of course, the Polamalu play.

Still, what happened to the Seahawks wasn't the same as, say, New England going into Denver and playing badly (five turnovers) on top of the bad calls. Seattle gained almost 400 yards and turned it over just once.

You see, you can spend weeks -- and we did; two, in fact -- analyzing and dissecting matchups and giving each team the edge in certain areas and trying to figure out how the game is going to play out, but the two things you can't account for are turnovers and officials. The latter were the X-factor Sunday. Edge: Steelers.

It actually was a fairly clean game from a penalty standpoint, without a whole lot of yellow on the field -- 10 accepted penalties between the teams. Seven were against the Seahawks, though, a team that tied with Indianapolis for the second-fewest penalties (94) in the regular season. But those calls against the Seahawks stuck out like the Space Needle on the Seattle skyline.

Consider: The Seahawks lost 161 yards to penalties when you combine the penalty yards (70) and the plays the flags wiped out (91). By halftime alone, when it trailed 7-3, Seattle had had 73 hard-earned yards and a touchdown eliminated.

Hasselbeck hit Darrell Jackson with an apparent 16-yard scoring pass in the first quarter, but the play came back when Jackson was called for offensive pass interference. It was a touch foul. Jackson extended his arm, yes, but both players were fighting for position, and he didn't create any separation by doing so. It was like a referee calling a hand-check in a key moment of Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

The Seahawks had to settle for three instead of seven.

Still, that was early, and that one didn't change the game as much as did a holding call against Sean Locklear early in the fourth quarter with Pittsburgh leading 14-10. That one wiped out an 18-yard catch by Stevens that would have taken the ball to the 1. Locklear supposedly held Clark Haggans, so instead of first-and-goal at the 1 and the chance to complete a 98-yard touchdown drive and take a three-point lead, Seattle faced first-and-20 at the 29.

Three plays later, Ike Taylor picked off a Hasselbeck pass, and Hasselbeck went low to make the tackle on Taylor's return and was called for a 15-yard personal foul for a low block. The Steelers set up shop at their 44. That one right there made no sense.

Pittsburgh likes to run its trick plays in the middle of the field. Boom! Four plays later, from Seattle's 43, Randle El took a reverse and threw a sweet strike on the run to Ward. It was 21-10, and that was all she wrote. Everyone knows how important it is to play Pittsburgh with a lead or with the score tied. The Steelers don't lose when they're up by 11.

Eleven just so happens to be the total points taken away by bogus calls. Some penalties meant points; others meant field position. A holding call in the second quarter negated Peter Warrick's 34-yard punt return that would have started Seattle in Pittsburgh territory.

By contrast, the Steelers might have gotten a break on Roethlisberger's 1-yard touchdown plunge on third-and-goal in the second quarter. Leavy reviewed the play under the booth's orders, since it occurred inside the two-minute mark, and while still photos of an airborne Roethlisberger showed that the ball might have broken the plane of the goal line, he landed short of it and reached the ball over. It was close. Head linesman Mark Hittner didn't seem so sure of it, hesitating before signaling touchdown.

"I don't think he scored," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.

It was that kind of evening for the Seahawks, who represent a town where residents know all too well that when it rains, it pours. If having what seemed like 90 percent of the 68,200 in attendance waving Terrible Towels wasn't enough to make Seattle feel as though it was playing on the road, the officials called it as though the Seahawks actually were.

Pittsburgh capitalized on its opportunities. And guys like Bill Cowher, Ward, Dan Rooney and The Bus are all very deserving of a championship -- and it's nice to see them win one -- but it would have been better had it not happened like this. It's like the Seahawks said: Not taking anything away from the Steelers, but keep it real.

"We had a touchdown taken away from us, the first one we scored," said Hasselbeck, who was measured in his words but clear in his frustration, "and then we had the ball at the 1-yard line, they called a penalty on us. That was unfortunate."

"I thought they were offside [on the play Locklear was called for holding]," center Robbie Tobeck said. "I thought we had a free play on because they had two guys come across. You know, that's the game. In a game, there's situations you have to overcome, and all night long we didn't do a good job of overcoming those things, and that's something we've done all year."

In the offseason, 31 teams will be back at the drawing board, evaluating what they need to do to knock off the Steelers in the fall. After the postseason they just had, Mike Pereira and the NFL's crew of officials would be wise to take a long, hard look at themselves. It's a real shame when, on the game's biggest stage, the major players aren't players at all. We saw too much of the third team in Super Bowl XL and not enough Seahawks and Steelers.