It’s the rare Super Bowl that never fails to disappoint, and yesterday’s was not one of them. Though I’ve been a life-long fan of the Steelers, I aligned with the Seahawks for two reasons: 1) with everything I read and heard Seattle apparently had no chance to win and 2) Shaun Alexander, one of the best runningbacks to come from ‘Bama, my favorite college football team.
After realizing the horrible idea of having Aaron Neville sing the Star Spangled Banner with Aretha, things started off well enough. We had nachos in full effect and I’d mastered the proper mixology of ice, tequila and margarita mix for some perfectly blended maggies. Seattle was moving the ball nicely from the get-go, whereas Pittsburgh couldn’t even register a first down until midway through the second quarter. And the commercials were all right. In particular I enjoed the Bud Light spots, but my all-time fave of the day had to be the Fedex cavemen.
I knew Seattle was doomed, however, when their first touchdown was negated by an egregiously bad call of offensive passing interference and they had to settle for a field goal. Then their fieldgoal kicker missed two long tries that had the distance but not the right direction. Somehow Pittsburgh managed a touchdown, but what shoulda/woulda/coulda been a 13-7 Seattle lead was instead a snooozy score of 7-3 in Pittsburgh’s favor and the two teams abandoned the field at halftime for a short perfunctory set by the Rolling Stones.
Any remaining hope for Seattle was lost when on the Steelers first possession at the start of the second half their runningback busted through a glorious hole in the line and sprinted 75 yards to the endzone, breaking Raider Marcus Allen’s previous 74-yard Super Bowl record set back in 1984. Seattle never quit, but couldn’t manage more than another touchdown, which the Steelers matched. Final score 21-10.
I thought it bad form of the winning coach Bill Cowers to start his celebration with 3:20 left on the clock, but once the final seconds ticked off, I wasn’t at all upset. Seattle may have earned the right to be there with their super 13-3 season behind QB Matt Hasselbeck and league MVP Alexander, but the Steelers at 7-5 had to fight tooth and claw just to get into the playoffs and then did the unthinkable: won three playoff games on the road to end up there in Detroit. Congrats to them, they deserved it.
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