By Steel Hesske
When we were 7-5 Trivia wrote an essay, �Heart and Soul�, about how the Stillers seemed to be lacking same while an example of pure heart and soul could be found in Havre, MT in the presence of the Montana State University-Northern girls� basketball team (Skylights). (LINK?). The women of Northern, returning from a tough road trip where they�d played well, were in a terrible van accident. Most required emergency room treatments, a couple were seriously injured. The girls, after some recuperation time, played on with eight on the roster and started winning, going 12-3, most of it post-accident.
Meanwhile, after the story, the Stillers went on an improbable but totally earned 8-0 run that culminated in the franchise�s fifth Super Bowl Championship. Hats off to Coach Bill Cowher and all of his coaches, everyone who played a down in the exhibition season and anyone who carried water onto the field. It was a team win and Coach C deserves maximum credit for instilling his team, its back to the wall, with the heart and soul of a champion, the qualities that Triv had called for and the Skylights provided an example of. I doubt Coach C or anyone affiliated with the Stillers is aware of the Northern story, but Cowher does have three daughters competing at a high level of women�s basketball, so I�m sure he would appreciate the tale and understand it.
Going into Super Bowl weekend the Skylights had fallen on hard times, losing four in a row, but on Friday and Saturday they got home wins against tough conference rivals, getting the ship righted as the Frontier Conference playoffs approach. I took that as a good omen. By Saturday night I was taking my omens wherever I could find them. I had convinced myself that if both teams showed up with their �A Games� the Stillers would win easily, but I was worried that we wouldn�t show up with our A game and we didn�t. Fortunately for us Seattle showed up with hardly any game at all. The Steelers tenacity in the face of adversity and mishaps and Joey Porter getting in some Seattle heads before the game were factors for sure, but I�ve seen few worse teams participate in a Super Bowl. Make fun of the 100-year old Rolling Stones all you want: at least they showed up to play.
But the STORY of the game is that the better team, by far, the Steelers won and won convincingly after a turtle-like (sorry) start. What if we�d gone the entire first quarter without a first down in any of our conference playoff games? However, brace yourselves, because the absurdly fictitious STORYLINE is going to be how the horrible officiating took it away from the Seahawks. Calling this storyline a crock would be over-praising it. Apparently, there are several �controversial plays?� To me, anyone calling any of these plays �controversial� is the same person who watched the videotaped Rodney King police beatdown of many years ago and claimed that the officers were only doing their jobs, subduing a suspect.
But here are the key components of the fictional storyline that is going to be fed to you 24/7 for the next several weeks:
- That wasn�t offensive interference on Jackson in the EZ against Hope. He barely touched him. First, anyone who says something like this isn�t taking into consideration that Jackson�s arm is one of a set that probably routinely bench presses 175 pounds 25 times without stopping. Being barely touched with this arm extended, is like being �barely touched� by a Taser. Either will freeze you in your tracks. Also, the official was about 18 inches away. Now I see where some of the pundits are cawing that the official waited until Hope complained before he threw the flag. Wrong. He reached for the flag immediately; he just double-clutched. Clearly in violation of the rules. Clearly. No, it�s not always called, but if everything was always called, there�d be multiple penalties on every play of every game.
- Ben wasn�t in on the TD. Before we get to the particulars of this admittedly close call let me direct your attention to some comments by your national sports media. Al Michaels, calling the game for ABC, chosen out of all other humans in the world, said that Ben didn�t land over the goal line, therefore blah blah blah. WHAT??!!?? There�s more. I heard more than one pundit today yammering that the ball didn�t go �over� the goal line. HUUUHHH??? Go to your local Pop Warner squad and the majority of them will be able to quote the rule to you. The goal line extends upward to infinity and if any part of the ball breaks any part of the goal line it�s a TD. And that�s what Ben�s dive looked like to me. The tip of the ball, while in the air, grazed the outer most reach of the GL. Touchdown. The play was called a TD on the field. Clear evidence is needed to reverse the call. Next.
- The holding call on Seattle�s Locklear with 12:35 to go in the game, Steelers leading 14-10, after Hasselbeck had hit Stevens at the Steelers one-yard line. �I didn�t see any holding,� is the mantra initiated by Madden and parroted by pundits from Kansas City to Oakland, Green Bay to Miami. Well, I did. I�ll grant you that it�s not the kind of holding I always see CALLED holding, but it�s my understanding that it�s illegal for an offensive lineman to employ the WWE arm bar across a rusher�s neck. Granted, I�ve seen 25, at least, worse holds against the Steelers not called this year, but I�m not going to complain that this clear hold was called what it was. Another thing the �experts� aren�t jabbering about regarding this play: During a game, players talk to officials, officials talk to players. Haggans may have been complaining all game that he was being held. The ref could have warned Locklear about the maneuver earlier in the game, maybe even more than once. Again, holding can be called on virtually any pass play in every game. There was subjectivity involved in this call, but Locklear was CLEARLY in violation of the rules. Good teams play through these iffy calls, as the Steelers did through the entire playoffs.
- The blocking call on Hasselbeck. He TRIED to roll a blocker, but missed him and got the ball-carrier by accident. First, it�s not a good rule�the Steelers were burned by it earlier in the year�but the call was correct, if you consider intent rather than execution. Even if it wasn�t, it wasn�t that pivotal.
By hammering this fictional storyline, the national sports media will be missing the actual story of Super Bowl XL, which may be even more unpleasant for some diehard Steelers fans. However, let�s offer the most important FACTUAL story first: The best team won the game and is enjoying a championship that it richly deserves and clearly earned. But the secondary, FACTUAL story (as opposed to storyline) is a troubling one and it begins with this question, how did a team as dreadful as the Seahawks even make the Super Bowl?
Let me be brief in my analysis of Seattle. They stink. As one of many examples, in his typically brilliant pre-game analysis FC pointed out that Manuel might be the worst starting DB in the NFL. Then Manuel got hurt and the guy he BEAT OUT was left in his stead. We tooled him twice. I LOVE Parker, and his run was a punch that Seattle never recovered from, but Pruett�s angle on that play couldn�t have been worse if it was a parallel line. Then on the trick play � Death to the Turtle! � called and executed brilliantly, Pruett bit so hard his tongue and lower lip were bleeding afterward. You couldn�t fake out a two-year old with an Oreo any easier. You have to make the plays against whoever�s lined up across from you and that�s what the Steelers did, but � let�s face it � there wasn�t much there. Again, Poor Pruett is one of many obvious examples. How about Hampton�s one-handed pancake of Pro Bowler Robbie Tobeck? I could go on, but you all have your own examples I�m sure.
Mike Holmgren did an embarrassingly bad coaching job. Tell me you weren�t at least mildly concerned after the opening kickoff when Seattle got in that early quick rhythm and was easily exploiting that all too familiar ten-yard cushion we were giving their WR. It wasn�t just the complete passes, it was the alacrity of the carving. Am I dreaming this or did that offense disappear after the first two Seattle series? Look what showed up in its place at the end of the half and the end of the game. There are endless examples of Captain Kangaroo�s sleepwalking during the game. Talk amongst yourselves. Is he still whining about that interference call against Jackson? Is Cowher still waiting at midfield for the handshake? Holmgren�s best days as a coach are long past. Now we find out that not only is he clueless, he�s not very nice.
An adjunct to the storyLINE is that Hasselbeck outplayed Ben. No, he didn�t. Hasselbeck played great until the ball got around the Steelers 30. Then you could hear the sound of his sphincter tightening. Not a pleasant sound, but watching it was even worse, especially if you are �hawks fan or one of the national media trying to develop your storyline. With the latter, fuck facts -- let�s just go with the pre-established narrative: �Hasselbeck played better.�
Ben ran for a TD, gunned an amazing pass to set up a TD, threw an important block on a TD. Hasselbeck drove his team 18 yards after a gift interception and converted a TD on an illegal pick play to a guy who couldn�t have been more wide open had he been in the Ford Field parking lot. And it�s a good thing no one was within 10-yards of the gutless Stevens or he�d have dropped that one too. Watch the replay; there�s some juggling.
As another example of Hasselbeck�s fine play, Tell me that Ike�s interception didn�t remind you of Larry Brown in SB XXX, except that Ike�s on our team. Hooray and thanks for the gift.
Don�t get me wrong. I�ll take the win. I�ll love the win. I�ll give all credit to Coach Cowher and his hard-working team. But the fact is we played nearly flawless and won three actual SUPER bowls before we got to the one people call the Super Bowl. There we showed up flat, were a little too vanilla at times on offense and defense, but had enough in our arsenal to ultimately win easily. The victory feels a bit Pyrrhic to me (it shouldn�t feel that way to anyone involved with the organization) because of our dismal opponents in what�s supposed to be the ultimate game. Again though, the Steelers don�t have any say in who lines up across from them. The team�s job is to go out and win any way it can and that�s what it did in Super Bowl XL.
All praise to them but I�m happier for some of the younger friends I�ve made at Stillers than I am for myself. Those Steelers teams of the �70s that I and a few others at Stillers enjoyed were great because, among other foes, the Cowboys were great. The 2005 Steelers approached greatness with that amazing, singular run (or should I say pass?) through the playoffs. Part of the reason that Seattle looked bad is because the Steelers made them look bad. Nonetheless the NFL needs to seriously re-assess concepts like parity where I guess the goal is for everyone to finish 8-8 and then have the Poindexters with the slide rules and pocket protectors come in to figure out the playoff matchups. Because when all is said and done Seattle in the Super Bowl looked like an 8-8 team for a while until the Steelers found their tempo and made them look even worse.