G-Hog and Other Links

I can’t decide if this is unintentionally funny or not. From Wonkette, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor is promoting Health Career week by having a groundhog, called G-Hog, rap about health careers. I think Steely McBeam has some competition.

According to the Turnkey Team Brand Index, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the number 1-ranked brand in sports. Of the 122 professional sports teams, the Penguins finished at 20, the Pirates at 72 (how are they ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers at 73?), the Capitals are 118 (yikes), and the Nationals are 100. (I found this on Deadspin)

Here’s a vocabulary game where, apparently, 10 grains of rice are donated through the UN to help end world hunger for each correct answer.

Steelers-Ravens Recap

First, I would like to thank the fine folks at Dulles Airport for ensuring that I missed the first quarter and half of the second quarter of Monday night’s Steelers-Ravens game. While my flight actually arrived on time, I waited at baggage claim at least 15 minutes before receiving my luggage and this is after taking the people-mover thing to the main terminal. Why does it always take so long to get your bags at Dulles airport? I know it’s a big airport, but only once can I remember luggage arriving within a few minutes. After finally getting my bag, there were 15+ people waiting for a taxi. I silently (and not so silently) said c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon…well, you get the point.

By the time I walked through the front door, the Steelers were already up 21-0. While I would love to talk about James Harrison’s incredible performance, I did not see the three forced fumbles and two of his 3.5 sacks. I also missed seeing Ben’s first three touchdown passes including Nate Washington’s first TD of the season. It may finally be time for Tivo. So this is what I did see live on television:

- Hines Ward blocking. It was great seeing him level Ed Reed. How do fans of other teams feel about Hines Ward? Is he seen as a dirty player? I can guarantee that every fan would love to have Hines on their team.

- Santonio Holmes burned the Ravens secondary on several occasions. It’s hard to believe that he’s only played in 24 NFL games.

- If you are a Ravens fan (or player), you had to be embarrassed by linebacker Terrell Suggs. Down 35-7 late in the first half, Suggs sacked Ben proceeded to celebrate. Losing by 28 points is no reason to celebrate!

- I know it has been written and discussed in many places, but I hated seeing Ben return to the game in the fourth quarter. There was no reason for him to re-enter the game after being injured earlier.

- Harrison’s performance reminded me of several dominant games by defensive players. I watched Osi Umenyiora record six sacks against the Eagles earlier this season and remember Derrick Thomas and Jason Taylor causing havoc with multi-sack games.


The comments on the Baltimore Sun message board are fun. Billick must go; McNair must go; “Stick a fork in them. THEY'RE DONE! I don't see them winning one more game this season.” Naturally, some Steeler fans living in Baltimore are happy and share their comments; Raven fans reply; hilarity ensues.

I’m getting really excited about attending the Steelers-Browns game on Sunday! I will not forget the tickets in Virginia!


P.S. The picture is by Peter Diana of the Post-Gazette.

The Return of Name That Tune

After a several month absence, welcome to a new edition of name that tune. Hopefully this will be a nice distraction for your Monday. Lyrics from five songs are listed below. Your challenge is to name the song title and artist. Please try not to search the internet for the answers. Either you know the songs or you don't. Good luck!

1a. Out on the road today I saw a deadhead sticker on a cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, don't look back. you can never look back.
1b. Out on the road today, I saw a black flag sticker on a cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, don’t look back. you can never look back.

2. I'm dope on the floor and I'm magic on the mic
Now why would I ever stop doing this
With others makin' records that just don't hit
(Full disclosure here: I thought the first few words were I go four for four and I’m magic on the mic)

3. I know that you're gonna have it your way
Or nothing at all
But I think you re moving too fast

4. And just like fashion it's a passion for the with it and hip
If you got the goods they'll come and buy it just to stay in the clique

5. Oh can't you see me standing here,
I've got my back against the record machine

Deception in New Mexico

I am writing live from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Yesterday, I arrived at the Albuquerque airport and traveled north on Interstate 25 towards Santa Fe. A few miles north of Albuquerque (I like typing Albuquerque – is there another large city with two Qs in its name?), I saw a sign that stated 101 miles to Las Vegas. I did not realize that Santa Fe was so close to Las Vegas, so I immediately started to think of an excuse to leave Santa Fe for a few hours to go to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, as most people familiar with U.S. geography already have figured out, the sign referenced the number of miles to Las Vegas, New Mexico, not Las Vegas, Nevada. I wonder how many people have seen the mileage signs and visited Las Vegas, New Mexico thinking that they were going to Nevada. Is it so much to ask the fine folks at the New Mexico Department of Transportation (and I really do mean the fine folks since the speed limit here is 70 or 75 in some places) to put Las Vegas, NM on the signs? I guess that most people driving in New Mexico already know that the sign means Las Vegas, NM, and it may offend the residents of this historic town.

It really is an historic town. According to New Mexico Las Vegas website, "Las Vegas was founded in 1835 by Mexican settlers, whose family roots went back to the early 1600's when the Spanish arrived, Las Vegas was the first town wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail, which went through the heart of town, hit after 600 miles of tough travel from the last town in Kansas. General Kearney in 1846 announced to the residents that they were no longer citizens of Mexico but under the "protection" of the Army of the United States of America. Located on the edge of the eastern plains at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the town became a key stop on the Santa Fe Trail and later host to outlaws, Rough Riders, and silent screen stars. Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Teddy Roosevelt, and Tom Mix all strolled these streets. The town's history is preserved in the city of Las Vegas Museum & Rough Riders collection."

Who knew that there was a museum for DMX? Despite the interesting description, I am not going to try to leave Santa Fe for a few hours to visit this Las Vegas, especially since I do not have a car.

Top 10 Bands Named for Places

I recently found the following list of the top ten bands named for a location from the folks at tenning.com:

10. America
9. Asia
8. Berlin
7. Nazareth
6. Styx
5. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
4. Kansas
3. Boston
2. Europe
1. Chicago

One of the first topics I posted on this site was bands that have a city, state or country as part of the name. When I wrote this, I used HaloScan for comments, so I do not have the responses anymore. Anyway, I now present my own top 10 list:

10. Hannah Montana (You can laugh at this, but Hannah Montana tickets are the hottest in town)
9. Asia
8. Europe (The Final Countdown is not enough for me to make Europe higher on this list)
7. Berlin
6. L.A. Guns / Hollywood Rose (precursor of Guns ‘N Roses; GNR would be at or near the top)
5. America
4. Kansas
3. Boston
2. Alabama
1. Chicago

Honorable mentions: Frankie Goes to Hollywood, New York Dolls and Bay City Rollers

I should probably include more rationale for my picks, but I’ll wait to see everyone else's comments before defending my selections.

Colclough Released

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “the Steelers today released fourth-year cornerback Ricardo Colclough, the team's second-round draft pick in 2004.” I’m a little confused by this decision. Although he is the #4 cornerback, he made the Pro Bowl team last season and looks like he has a good chance to make it again this season. Colclough is dangerous coming on the blitz from the dime package. Sorry, I just realized that I described Colclough in my Madden 2007 game.

The real Colclough will be best remembered as a Pittsburgh Steeler for his muffed punt against the Bengals in 2006, which ended up costing the Steelers a victory. AOL Fanhouse has more about the Ricardo Colclough era.

Division III Football

I could write about the impressive Steelers victory over the Bengals (the way the Bengals have been playing this season, it might be easy for Steeler fans to get group tickets again like it was pre-Carson Palmer days), the Red Sox winning the World Series, Ohio State defeating Penn State, or even Pitt and the Penguins. Instead, I want to write about a topic that I haven’t mentioned much this season…Division III football. More specifically, Ithaca College football, but I’ll start with D3 football as a whole. Perhaps you read about or saw video of the amazing ending of the Trinity-Millsaps game in which Trinity had 15 laterals on the last play of the game to score the winning touchdown. While much of the article describes the play itself, it ends with the following:

With the victory, Trinity remained in contention for the Southern CollegiateAthletic Conference title and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs. Millsaps would have clinched the playoff spot by winning.

"This puts us in position to play for something in November," said Mohr, 143-53 in his 18 seasons at Trinity. "It doesn't guarantee anything. Our kids understand it, but at least it kept us in the hunt."

Unlike the ridiculous Division I Bowl Championship Series where you may not have the best teams meet in the championship (are the best college teams really Ohio State and Boston College or could Arizona State, Oregon, LSU, West Virginia, Oklahoma or others beat either of these teams on a neutral field?), Division III football has a real playoff system where the argument over the best team is settled on the field. I included the above quote because the Trinity coach realizes that the victory, although incredible, keeps the team alive for the D3 playoffs.

This all brings me to Ithaca College football. The Bombers started the season 2-2, but have now won four straight games going into this Saturday’s game at #19 Alfred. Following the Alfred game is the annual Cortaca Jug game against SUNY Cortland, one of the greatest rivalries in sports (yes I’m being serious). In my opinion, Ithaca will earn a playoff spot with two wins. Things are a little dicey if IC wins only one of these two games. I’m sure that I’ll write more about the 2007 Cortaca Jug game as it gets closer, but in the meantime, visit D3football.com for all of your Division 3 football news.

Giant Jason Taylor

I am very intrigued by this giant Jason Taylor robot. Is this really helping to promote American football in London? Maybe "Big JT" was designed to keep the pigeons out of Trafalgar Square.

Personally, I'm hoping to see "Big JT" come to Pittsburgh and visit Woodland Hills High School, where the real JT played football. I'd love to see Big JT walking on the Parkway East, although I'm not sure how he'll get through the Squirrel Hill tunnel.

My favorite part of the video may be where the announcer attempts to define a sack.

I Am An Idiot Part 3

Welcome to the latest edition of Sean is an idiot. In part one, I left tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers game in Virginia. In part two, I decided to throw salt at the tires of my car when it was stuck in snow. The tires were spinning quickly, so the salt flew back at me. I now present a new version of “I Am An Idiot.”

The DC area has had little rain over the past few months, so we certainly needed the 4-6 inches we received over the past few days. While I do not have the exact rainfall total, the rain was steady during rush hour on Friday afternoon. When I left my office to make the short walk to Metro, I checked my bag and noticed that my umbrella was not there. I couldn’t remember if I used the umbrella in the morning, so I figured I either left it in my car, home or office. On a normal day, the only time I would have needed the umbrella was waiting for the bus. However, I was going to Bethesda for dinner so I was sans umbrella for the evening. To reach my destination, I needed to take Bethesda’s free trolley and then walk a block or two. Since I had never used the trolley system, I got off about 5 blocks earlier than I should have, making the entire walk much longer than necessary. Did I mention that the rain was fairly heavy at the time, and I was walking without an umbrella or jacket? Naturally, by the time I arrived, I was soaked.

So here is why I am an idiot (this time) besides walking 5-6 blocks instead of just one. I needed to get something in my bag this morning, and what did I find? Of course, the umbrella. Apparently it was there the entire time, and I did not see or feel it with all of the papers and copies of the Express in my bag. I blame Rihanna.

Why I Am Rooting Against the Red Sox

Before you send me hate e-mail and comments, please bear with me. This post is not directed to die-hard Red Sox fans, the fans who suffered through years of heartbreak. I should also state that I dislike the Yankees (again, please hold off on the hate e-mail and comments) and always root for the Red Sox to defeat the Yankees, especially during the 2003 and 2004 American League Championship Series. I remember cheering for Red Sox in 1986 because, as a Pirates fan, I hated the Mets (I even have an autographed picture of Bill Buckner from when he was a Chicago Cub), and was excited for Boston when they won the World Series in 2004. The 2004 Red Sox were amazing as they became the first team in baseball history to come back from a 3-0 deficit. Unless you were a Yankees fan, how could you not like the team with the slogan “Cowboy Up” and the nickname of the Idiots? They were a fun team and one that you wanted to support.

However, at least in my mind, things have changed. The Red Sox have essentially turned into the Yankees. What I have hated about the Yankees for years was their ability to buy any player they wanted (see Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, Carl Pavano, Randy Johnson and A-Rod – yes I know that they acquired him through a trade, but do you really think he’s going to get $30 million from another team next season?). The Red Sox have done the same thing. Instead of trying to repeat with the team that won the 2004 season, Boston allowed Dave Roberts, Derek Lowe and Orlando Cabrera to leave and replaced the latter with Edgar Renteria (I have no problems with the team’s decision not to match the incredible contacts of Damon and Pedro). They paid $8 million for Renteria, but after a mediocre season, he was gone. After a year or two of failure particularly when having one of the highest payrolls in baseball, what did the Red Sox do? They spent more money. The team signed J.D. Drew to a 5-year, $70 million contract (yes, we all know Drew is now worth the $14 million salary this season just because he hit a grand slam in the ALCS), Julio Lugo to a 4-year, $36 million contract and Daisuke Matsuzaka to a 5-year, $52 million deal plus another $51 million just for the negotiating rights. Overall, the Red Sox have a team payroll of more than $143 million! While that is less than the insane $195+ million payroll of the Yankees, the payroll is greater than every other team in baseball, and it’s not even close (the Mets are 3rd at $116 million). Unless you are a die-hard Red Sox fan or one that recently joined the bandwagon in 2004 (the main reason why I am sick of the Red Sox; see the terrible Fever Pitch movie), how can you root for this team? I’ll concede that I still like seeing David Ortiz in a clutch situation and Josh Beckett has been incredible this postseason, but I’m not supporting the Red Sox in this World Series. I'm sure that real Red Sox fans don't want me to support the team, and I'm fine with that. I don't want people jumping on to the Steelers or Pirates bandwagon (when the team is good again in 2037). The Rockies are an incredible story, plus I can't imagine seeing Josh Fogg actually pitching in the World Series.

Now I’ll get to spend the next week listening to how great Red Sox are from Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and read the same from Bill Simmons.

Randomness Part II

I still have a lot to write about, but I don’t think anything is worth a post by itself.

- “Phenomenon” debuts on Wednesday night on NBC. According to NBC’s description, the show is an intriguing and mystifying meeting of the minds on live television where famed mentalist Uri Geller and world-renowned mystifier (this can’t be a real word) Criss Angel conduct an intensive search for the next great mentalist. I think I’ll pass simply because I got sick of seeing the commercials during the Steelers game on Sunday night. Uri Geller’s eyes/stare is scary and Criss Angel needs to put on a real shirt.

- Remember the Taco Bell promotion I wrote about? It’s not really that good of a deal.

- If you haven’t heard, J.K. Rowling announced that Albus Dumbledore is gay. Here’s a discussion with Melissa Anelli of The Leaky Cauldron website from The Washington Post. Personally, this does not change the Harry Potter stories one bit, although it’s interesting that Rowling is revealing information about the characters outside the pages of the books.

- This is as good a place as any to mention my conversation with “Sloppy Drunk Penguin Fan” at a bar after the hockey game Saturday night. I walked over towards the television to see some college football scores, and this guy comes up to me asking about the Michigan-Illinois score. We talked for a minute or two as he managed to spill some beer on my shoe, and we figured out that we attended high schools close to each other. He then told me at least four times in about three minutes how he made an open field tackle against current Arizona Cardinal rookie Steve Breaston in high school. In addition, I learned that he and his friends came up with the nicknames “Uncle Gary” for Gary Roberts and “Big Dick” for Jordan Staal. According to SDPF, the Penguins players use those nicknames because of him and his friends. Um, yeah. Thankfully, one of my friends came up to me since he was leaving, which gave me a perfect excuse to walk away.

Actually, this conversation could have been a post on its own.

Randomness Part I

- A nice article about California Tortilla in Monday’s Washington Post with the following quote, “Another newly opened restaurant in Reston needs more word of mouth to boost traffic.” Well, I’m doing the best I can to help the word of mouth for the Cal-Tort in Reston, so GO TO CAL-TORT IN RESTON! Of course, reading the article also makes me worry a little bit about overexpansion.

- When I was in Utah last week, I learned that Utahns is spelled, well, Utahns. However, according to Microsoft Word, Utahns should be spelled Utahans.

- I also learned that someone named Frank Lynch is on the ballot in Utah’s Democratic primary for President. According to Frank Lynch’s website, he is “the most important emerging national leader since Abraham Lincoln came out of nowhere to transform America.” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Abraham Lincoln will be slightly more important than Frank Lynch.

- Major League Baseball is having a “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion with Taco Bell. If any player steals a base in the 2007 World Series, Taco Bell is going to give one free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco to every person in America. Join the rest of America in praying for the health and success of Coco Crisp, Willy Taveras and Kaz Matsui. Taco Bell should give away franchises if Curt Schilling gets a stolen base (he has one career stolen base when he was on the Phillies in 1997).

- This is more a reminder for me than anything else; the Penguins game against the Rangers tonight at 7:00 is on Versus.

Penguins Capitals Game

I am heading to the Penguins-Capitals game tonight, for what is always a fun evening. My group consists of 11 people, and we're all Penguins fans. Since it's the beginning of the season, my guess is that there will be more Capitals fans than Penguins fans, but it will be loud on both sides, particularly on a Saturday night with alcohol involved. Near the end of last season, with the Capitals nearly eliminated from playoff contention, the crowd was seemingly 60%/40% in the Penguins favor. So if you're at the game tonight, I'll be the guy in a Penguins shirt (along with several thousand other people).

As always, go to the Post-Gazette's Empty Netters and The Pensblog for Penguins coverage and On Frozen Blog for Capitals news.

Go Pens!

UPDATE: The Penguins defeated the Capitals 2-1. A great time was had by all (Penguin fans)! While there may have been more Capital fans in the bottom section of the arena, it looked like there were a majority of Penguin fans in the cheaper seats. The Washington Post and Post-Gazette have the game story. Stay tuned for coverage of my conversation with a drunk Penguin fan at Regional Food and Drink.

Big Budah

I’m back from a three-day trip to Utah, and I must write about the Salt Lake City Fox morning news show, Good Morning Utah. It’s your typical local news show with traffic and weather, some local news and an on-site reporter who goes to a different place each day. However, Good Morning Utah stands out for one particular reason, Big Budah, GMU’s (not George Mason University) Feature Reporter. I certainly did a double-take when the credits saying that I was watching GMU with Joe Smith, Mary Jones, Fred Thomas (I’m making these names up) and Big Budah. After Big Budah throws the story back to the anchors, they say “Thanks B.” It was somewhat surreal.

Now I understand that this is a local morning news show, so I’m not expecting hard-hitting journalism from Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Morrow. However, a journalist that goes by Big Budah? I checked the station’s website and that really is his professional name. For some reason, I can’t see Dan Rather saying, “Now let’s go to Big Budah reporting live from Iraq.”

Notes From the Denver Airport

Does the Denver airport realize that the Colorado Rockies are in the World Series? Based on my observations today, the answer is clearly no. While I did see about a dozen people wearing Rockies hats or shirts, I was shocked to find newsstands and other stores not only failing to sell National League Champion merchandise but also not selling ANY Rockies merchandise. If the Pittsburgh Pirates ever made the World Series, stores in the Pittsburgh airport would certainly sell Pirates gear. When the Steelers made and then won the Super Bowl in 2006, nearly every store in the airport sold Steelers merchandise or in the very least had black and gold decorations.

I couldn't take it anymore, so I went into a newsstand and asked if they sold any Rockies memorabilia. They directed me to a sports store across the concourse. I found the store, and the first thing I saw when I walked in was hats: Nuggets, Broncos, Colorado University, Avalanche, Colorado State University and Rockies hats. There was plenty of Rockies gear in the store but no more and possibly less than Broncos and Nuggets merchandise. I did found two types of "Rocktober" T-shirts, but they were all the way in the back of the store. That was it. In case you are wondering, I was in this sports store at 11:45 am Mountain time, so they had plenty of time to have NL Championship shirts or signs.

My only other comment about the Denver airport is a suggestion to the guy next to me at a McDonalds line. Did you really need to use a $100 bill to buy a Quarter Pounder?

Select a Presidential Candidate Quiz

With so many candidates running for President, wouldn’t it be easier to choose one who is most aligned with your views and opinions in a quiz format? Well, this 11-question quiz is designed to do just that! (Actually, the disclaimer states that “this quiz is not meant to pick your candidate for you; it is designed to inform the public of the various stances candidates make.”)

The candidate ranked highest by how much I agree with their stances is John Edwards. In last place: Tom Tancredo. I have no idea who Mr. Tancredo is unless he is related to Sara Tancredi from Prison Break.

I hope this quiz is a nice distraction for your Monday. Feel free to share your pick in the comments section.

Michael Clayton

By now, there is a good chance that you have seen commercials or trailers for the movie Michael Clayton, opening nationwide today. If you are debating whether or not to see it, I’m going to give an excellent reason to go to the theater. It’s not because of the 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the talk of an Oscar nomination for Best Picture or for the great acting of George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson. No, I recommend that you see the movie because of the major motion picture debut of Jason Strong starring as First Year. Not only is Jason an experienced stage actor and Pittsburgh native, but he’s also my opponent in fantasy football this week. There is no truth to the rumor that he will get bonus points if Michael Clayton makes over $25 million this weekend. If you do see Michael Clayton this weekend (the Steelers are on a bye, so you don’t have to worry about missing the game), get to the theater on time since Jason is in the opening sequence.

Jason also has a blog, where he wrote about his experiences at the Michael Clayton premier.

Life Insurance

This is an extremely random topic, but I’m looking for some advice. I’m interested in getting additional life insurance above what my company provides. I’m not planning on dying or anything; just looking for some information. Does anyone know of good companies to contact or of reputable insurance agents, preferably in Northern Virginia? I really have no idea where to start.

Eastern Promises Movie Review

Welcome to the first ever movie review here at Sean’s Ramblings. I’ve written about movies numerous times in the past although it generally involved movie quotes, the Oscars or a debate about the genius of Kevin Costner. Anyway, over the weekend, I saw the movie “Eastern Promises” starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. Although this movie has been out a few weeks, I have heard very little about it except for positive reviews from BDK on the Junkies and my friend Chris. According to the October 5-7 box office numbers, "Eastern Promises" finished 11th this weekend with slightly less than $2.1 million. Compare that to "Mr. Woodcock" that finished in 9th place earning $2.3 million. Now in its fourth week in theatres, Eastern Promises has only made about $14.5 million in cumulative gross, so this is obviously not going to be Titanic or even The Kingdom (that’s the current movie where The Rock is a quarterback who learns he has a daughter; the daughter grows up to kidnap approximately 100 Dalmatian puppies for their fur, or something like that).

Since I don’t feel like writing a summary of the movie (I’m great at this movie review thing), here’s the plot outline “borrowed” from IMDB: “The film follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.”

So here’s my review: “Eastern Promises” is a fantastic movie. The acting is terrific, particularly Mortensen and Armin Mueller-Stahl (I had to look up his name), who plays the head of the Russian crime family. I think both of them will earn Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively. The story certainly kept me intrigued following Watts enter this completely different world and watching Mortensen just being a bad-ass. I’m not going to give away anything regarding the plot, but I just wanted to give a warning: there are a few scenes that are extremely violent. There were audible gasps by most of the audience on one or two occasions, and one woman ran out of the theatre appearing to suppress vomiting. You really could just close your eyes or look away for five seconds. So because of her, I’m writing to highly recommend Eastern Promises, but if you are against strong brutal violence, you may want to pass.

Steelers Seahawks Recap

On February 5, 2006, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 in Super Bowl 40 (sorry, I don’t feel like using Roman Numerals today). There was great celebration throughout the land! Well, except from Seahawk fans, the one Washington football fan that watched the game at my house and thought Seattle winning would make the Washington team look better for losing to them in the playoffs (I’m not friends with him anymore) and especially Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren. According to Holmgren, the Steelers did not defeat the Seahawks, the referees defeated the Seahawks. I wrote much more about this in the days following the Super Bowl here and here.

What really bothered me at the time and still does a little now is that Holmgren’s complaining somewhat muted my joy and elation at the Steelers’ Super Bowl victory. Instead of stories and news about the success of the Steelers, much of the post-Super Bowl coverage focused on the officiating and Holmgren.

On October 7, 2007, the 3-1 Steelers met the 3-1 Seahawks at Heinz Field in a regular season game. There have been a lot of stories this week leading up to this game about revenge or at the very least that the Seahawks would use that Super Bowl loss as motivation. In a conference call with Pittsburgh reporters, Holmgren said that people on the street talk about the Super Bowl, and now he says that it’s time to move on. However, the loss still haunts some fans as displayed in this The Olympian article (I’ll get back to this momentarily).

So what happened today? The Steelers, playing without Pro Bowlers Casey Hampton, Troy Polamalu, Hines Ward as well as Bryant McFadden and Santonio Holmes, overcame the loss of these players and six penalties for 64 yards and crushed Seattle 21-0. Pittsburgh dominated both sides of ball as the Steelers out-gained Seattle 342-144 and had over 40 minutes in time of possession. What Holmgren did not or could not say after the Super Bowl loss is that great teams win even when facing adversity. Maybe there were some questionable calls that went against the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, but there were also some calls that went against the Steelers today (were those really holding penalties on Wilson and Miller during the Steelers' third quarter drive?).

So to Mike Huston, president of the Snohomish County branch of the Sea Hawkers Booster Club, who desparantly wanted the Steelers to lose and said, “Steeler Nation and their stupid yellow towels…I’d like to see the Seahawks slap them down,” maybe next time! And never call the Terrible Towels stupid. And what kind of name is the Sea Hawkers Booster Club?