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Pastimes : NNBM - SI Branch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (49982)	2/5/2006 12:46:00 AM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104216

those gambling towns...they give me the heebee geebies....I find them to be really sad places. Here's picking Seahawks . . . BY MARK PURDY Knight Ridder Newspapers DETROIT - Not far from Ford Field, site of Sunday's Super Bowl, sits a small brick building. The address is 2468 Grand Blvd. It once made my life a little more beautiful. Your life, too, if you are of a certain age. The small brick building, now a museum, houses the former Motown recording studios, which in the 1960s and 1970s produced so many fabulous songs. One was a soulful ballad by the Temptations called "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)." The song's message: Don't get too caught up in a fantasy relationship. Stick to reality. It was good advice then. It is good advice Sunday, as we approach kickoff time. Do not let your imagination run away with the idea that the Pittsburgh Steelers will have an easy time with the Seattle Seahawks. Amazing, don't you think, how that opinion has been allowed to grow and nurture over the past two weeks? You'd think the Steelers are some awesome juggernaut who are going to mop up the soft and squishy Seahawks. Well, that won't be happening. The Seahawks will win Sunday's game. I am going with the team that is fresher, has had better practices this week, has the more experienced quarterback, owns the better running back and possesses the only coach here who has won a Super Bowl. That would be Mike Holmgren, of course. Amid the overload of information that clogs up every Super Bowl week, the following statistic seems to have been ignored: In five head-to-head matchups, Holmgren has defeated Steelers Coach Bill Cowher four times. Granted, two of those victories came when Holmgren was coaching the Green Bay Packers. But so what? Winning four out of five against another coach - and Cowher isn't just another coach, he's a very good coach - must mean something. Here's what I think it means: Holmgren will have his Seahawks more ready to play than the Steelers. Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck opened the door to Holmgren's technique the other day. "If you don't perform at a certain standard, he's not fine with it," Hasselbeck said. "He will say, `I owe this to you because you're not just in this to be in this, we're in it to win. And if you're not good enough, it's my job to let you know.' " I think Holmgren has been letting the Seahawks know. And I think Cowher has been trying to let the Steelers know. But he has had a much tougher task getting the Steelers to listen. Pittsburgh's players have earned a ton of respect for the way they won three consecutive road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl. Winning in Cincinnati, then Indianapolis, then Denver was a remarkable achievement. But you don't do that without getting beat up or suffering a slight letdown when you reach the Super Bowl - especially when you are suddenly no longer the underdog. My hunch was the Steelers would come to Detroit and be uncertain how to handle the favorite's role while soaking up a little too much attention. And the more I paid attention to the Steelers' behavior last week, the more I became convinced I was right. First, you had running back Jerome Bettis, returning to his home town of Detroit and has been appearing everywhere nightly. Daily, too. He visited his old high school. He received the key to the city. He helped raise money for a celebrity charity bowling event. He invited 40 teammates to his mother's house for dinner. He sat courtside at a Detroit Pistons game. Yeesh. It makes me tired, just writing about it. What if you were Bettis himself? A warning sign also flashed in my mind when I saw the report that Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend was carrying a mini-camcorder through part of an early-week practice. Huh? As the week progressed, I kept hearing about nagging injuries of the Steelers. Troy Polamalu, their all-world defensive back, missed three practices because of a mysteriously twisted ankle. As recently as Friday, he was listed only as probable for Sunday's game. He will surely play. But will he be as effective? Also, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will wear a protective glove for his slightly cracked throwing thumb. And I haven't even mentioned the dopey words of Joey Porter, the Steelers' linebacker. He went way too ballistic over the remarks of Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens, who simply said that while Bettis' story was heartwarming, it would be sad when he would have to go home without a trophy. In response, Porter called Stevens "soft" and said he'd be looking to flatten him today. If Porter is out headhunting Stevens, it will simply allow running back Shaun Alexander more room to roam. Word out of the Seahawks practices is that they are kicking butt and taking names. The same day Townsend was carrying his mini-camcorder, the Seattle defense reportedly made interceptions on three consecutive throws by Seahawks backup quarterback Seneca Wallace - who was playing the role of Roethlisberger. I'm not saying Roethlisberger, still in his second season, is due for a bad game. I'm just saying he is still in his second season, and the Seahawks defense is better than most people think. Seattle 24, Pittsburgh 17. Don't let your imagination hit you in the butt on the way out.