For the past 10 days, I've been putting on my "PIGSKIN ASSASSIN" by The SPORTZ ASSASSIN blog 40 different things about the Super Bowl and it's participants. Please check out those things....
#40-40 YEAR OLD SUPER BOWL VIRGIN: Seattle will appear in their first Super Bowl....taking their name off a list of franchises that have never played in the big game. Right now, that list consists of Arizona, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans. Of those teams, only the Jags and Texans weren't around when the Super Bowl Era began. Heck, Arizona and New Orleans haven't even been close.
#39-ASK JACKSONVILLE HOW TO BEAT THEM: Last year, the Super Bowl was in Jacksonville. This year, Jacksonville is the lone team to beat both the Super Bowl participants this season. The Jags won on opening weekend over the Seahawks, 26-14. The key was FIVE turnovers by the Seahawks....including two picks thrown by Hasselbeck. One month later, the Jags went into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers in overtime, 23-17. The Steelers turned the ball over FOUR times. Of couse, Big Ben didn't play in this game, due to injury.#38-AFC DOMINANCE: The AFC has won 6 of the last 8 Super Bowls.....just after the NFC ran off a streak of 13 straight wins. It started with Denver beating Green Bay in Super Bowl XXXII. Green Bay was coached by.....Mike Holmgren. Denver won it the next year. Since then, AFC teams Baltimore and New England [3x] have won it. The only slip ups?? Tennessee lost to St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXIV and Tampa Bay beat Oakland in Super Bowl XXXVII. Currently, the NFC still owns a21-18 edge in the Super Bowl. But, if you take out that 13 game winning streak, the AFC has won 18 of 26.
#37-MIKE HOLMGREN'S PLACE IN HISTORY: If Seattle wins the Super Bowl, Mike Holmgren will be the first head coach to lead two different franchises to a Super Bowl title. No one else has done that. In Super Bowl XXXI, he led the Packers to the Super Bowl championship. Now, he's not the only coach to lead two teams to the big game. Dick Vermeil [Eagles, Rams], Don Shula [Colts, Dolphins], Bill Parcells [Giants, Patriots] and Dan Reeves [Broncos, Falcons] have all led two different franchises to the game...with only Reeves not winning one with either team.#36-WE USED TO BE ON YOUR SIDE!!! A few years ago, the Seattle Seahawks made the move from the AFC to the NFC...to welcome in the expansion Houston Texans and the newdivisional format. Many people forget that when the Seahawks came into the league in 1976, they were an NFC team [Tampa was in the AFC...and then after that season they switched]. When the NFL merger came in 1970, the Pittsburgh Steelers moved from the NFL league to the AFC. Neither team appeared in the Super Bowl in their original conferences. The only franchise to be in the Super Bowl as an "NFC" team and an AFC team is the Colts....who lost Super Bowl III to the Jets as a member of the "NFC"...then won Super Bowl V over the Vikings as a member of the AFC. The Colts, like the Steelers and Browns, were moved to the AFC as part of the merger.
#35-THE ONES AND DONES: The Chicago Bears are entrenched in Super Bowl lore. The thing that many people forget is that....well, that's Chicago's only appearance! We all know about Joe Namath's "promise" and that the Jets win was the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. It's also the only time the Jets went to the Super Bowl. Many feel the 2000 Ravens defense was one of the best all time. That's their only Super Bowl. Other one-timers are the Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, San Diego Chargers and Atlanta Falcons. Oh, and the Seattle Seahawks. Amazing that 14 of the 32 NFL franchises have only been to the Super Bowl one time or less...amounting to just 8 of the 80 berths.
#34-ONLY DALLAS HAS BEEN THERE MORE: This will mark the Steelers 6th Super Bowl appearance and only the Cowboys have been to more [8]. The team that Pittsburgh beat in the AFC Championship has been to 6 as well. If Pittsburgh wins...it will be their 5th Super Bowl title...tying them with Dallas and San Francisco for most ever. The Niners are the only team with more than one trip to the game to be undefeated [5-0].
#33-THE GREATEST SUPER BOWL QUARTER EVER PLAYED. Sure, this is a biased remark...but it seems to be true. Super Bowl XXII.....Denver goes up 10-0 quickly. Then came the 2nd quarter. Doug Williams, Ricky Sanders and Timmy Smith led Redskins onslaught. Five TDs in an 18-play frame that took up 5:47 off the clock. 35 points. When halftime came around, Washington was up 35-10....and coasted in the second half for a 42-10 victory. Timmy Smith ran for 204 yards, still an NFL record. And the 10 point deficit is still the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.
#32-THE L WORD: Many people are calling this "Super Bowl Extra Large" after the funky "XL" number for 40. The Roman numeral "L" makes it's debut in Super Bowl lore. It the first new Roman numeral for a Super Bowl since Super Bowl IX, when the "X" made it's debut. As far as the "XL"...that's the shortest name for the Super Bowl in 20 years....when Super Bowl XX was played between the Bears and Patriots. This comes just TWO years after the longest Super Bowl name to date....Super Bowl XXXVIII....which was played between the Patriots and Panthers.
#31-BE GOOD ON SUPER BOWL EVE: There have been many blunders in sports....but there three paramount screw-ups in the history of the Super Bowl. Stanley Wilson, Eugene Robinson and Barrett Robbins. Wilson was set to play for the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII in Miami when the night before he was found by police high of cocaine after a binge. Ten years later, Robinson, who just won the Bart Starr Award for "high moral character", gets caught by an undercover cop trying to get a hooker to put her mouth on him the night before the big game. Robbins takes the cake. He disappeared from the Raiders before Super Bowl XXVII, went to Tijuana on a drinking binge. The team finally found him......in jail and on suicide watch.
#30-ON TO MIAMI: Super Bowl XLI [that's 41 to you and me] will be played in Dolphins' Stadium in Miami. This will mark Miami's NINTH Super Bowl....tying them with New Orleans for the record. Miami will break that record in 2010 when they will host Super Bowl XLIV.
#29-COLD WEATHERED FANS: The Super Bowl is in Detroit...which marks just the 3rd time the game has been played in a "cold weather town". The others were in Pontiac, MI [XVI] and Minneapolis [XXVI]. In the Pontaic Silverdome, the San Francisco 49ers had a 20-0 lead....before a furious comeback by the Cincinnati Bengals. But a big goalline stand and a few late FGs, the Niners sealed the deal on their first Super Bowl title. In Minneapolis, the Redskins spanked the Bills after opening a 37-10 lead [Buffalo scored 2 garbage TDs to make the game a respectable 37-24].
#28-BRETT FAVRE WORD VOMIT: I'm almost willing to bet everyone in cyberspace that John Madden will say the name "Brett Favre" during the telecast of the game. We all know how much Madden loooooooves Brett Favre...so would it surprise you that he'd throw his name out there? What clinches it is the fact Seattle is in the Super Bowl. That gives him a good segue with former Packer coach Mike Holmgren or former Packer backup QB Matt Hasselbeck. I swear that he's gonna say "Brett Favre" sometime during the game!!! [PS...last year, my best was Chris Collinsworth referencing the Bengals during the game. He did].
#27-SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE: It's weird to see Seattle in the limelight like this. This is the Seahawks first Super Bowl appearance. The Mariners have never made the World Series. There is no NHL team. The last time they were in something like this was when the Sonics were in the 1996 NBA Finals [which they lost to the Bulls]. Their lone championship was waaay back in 1979 when the Sonics beat the Bullets for the NBA title.
#26-THE AD GAME PT 2: Go to that website for a quick preview of some of those ads. Apparantly, Burger King will have an ad with the "Whopperettes"; another Dove commercial with those "robust women" in their drawers and that annoying song; a preview for "16 Blocks"; another for "V For Vendetta"; Leonard Nemoy discussing Bayer; and Jessica Simpson trying to make us order Pizza Hut during the game. Enjoy!#25-THE AD GAME: There are three major themes during the Super Bowl. The actual game, the halftime entertainment and the commercials. Whether it is Bud Bowl, the Bud-Weis-Er frogs, those dot-com companies littering our airwaves a few years ago, learning about 4-hour erections for the first time, Michael J Fox running around for a Diet Pepsi, the Apple computer ad in 1984 [which didn't feature the product], Jordan and Bird banking shots all over the place in the ultimate game of horse, or the Pepsi or Coke delivery guy trying to get a sip of the competition and getting caught on the security camera spilling all the drinks. Ya know....YOU KNOW....that there will some some ad that everyone will be rolling on the day after the Super Bowl. Go to SuperBowl-Ads.com for more on those crazy ads.
#24-THE FOURTH WILD CARD: The Pittsburgh Steelers are trying to become the 4th wild-card team to win the Super Bowl. The others? The 1980 Oakland Raiders, the 1997 Denver Broncos and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. Only four other wild-card teams have even made it to the Super Bowl. The 1975 Dallas Cowboys, 1985 New England Patriots, 1992 Buffalo Bills and 1999 Tennessee Titans.
#23-GET YOUR GRUB ON: More food is eaten on Super Bowl Sunday than on any day....except Thanksgiving. So, what does the Sportz Assassin eat on Super Bowl Sunday?? Well, my wife usually makes cheese steak fries with bacon [like they have at Outback Steakhouse]. She also makes potato skins, wings and we have chips and the normal snackage. My beverage of choice?? Pepsi. I don't drink alcohol...so Pepsi does me just fine!
#22-FORD FIELD WINNERS: This isn't the first time the Steelers have set foot inside Ford Field. In fact, the Steelers won the first ever game in Ford Field...when they beat the Lions 34-22 in a preseason game in 2002.
#21-DAVIS, SMITH AND....ALEXANDER???: Shaun Alexander is only the THIRD player to ever lead the NFL in rushing....then appear in the Super Bowl that season. The other two?? Terrell Davis and Emmit Smith. And they both won their Super Bowl appearances. In fact, in 1998...the AFC and NFC leading rushers [Davis and Jamal Anderson] met in the Super Bowl. Emmitt Smith was the NFL's leading rusher in the Cowboys Super Bowl wins in 1992, 1993 and 1995. Good omen for Seattle fans
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