Can Seattle finally shrug off XL loss?

"We played the game, Pittsburgh won ... It really is time to move on."

Sunday, October 07, 2007
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

No Steelers player could be found wearing a Super Bowl XL ring the past week. One thing's for certain, though, the Seattle Seahawks did not take them.

"They're not going to get our Super Bowl rings," safety Troy Polamalu declared as the rehash of events that led to the Steelers' 21-10 victory on Feb. 5, 2006 in Detroit heated up prior to today's game in Heinz Field.

The complaints by the Seahawks, their fans and, most importantly, coach Mike Holmgren, that the officials stole a Super Bowl victory became infamous in Pittsburgh, where it sounded like sour grapes.

Holmgren finally told fans in Seattle last week that enough was enough. But his own team helped keep the fires burning in its weekly press release for today's game that described how the Steelers won Super Bowl XL.



"Seattle outgained Pittsburgh in various statistical categories but an uncharacteristic seven penalties and two Pittsburgh big plays aided to the final outcome,'' it read on the first page.

So let the angle of today's 1 p.m. game between the Steelers and Seahawks, both 3-1, be Super Bowl XL rematch, if you will. The Steelers just aren't buying it.

Twice the Steelers played the New England Patriots early the next season after losing to them at home in AFC championships following the 2001 and 2004 seasons.

Never, they say, did they think it was a rematch of anything.

"No, no, I didn't,'' guard Alan Faneca said. "It wasn't like I was going to get a Super Bowl ring for beating them this time around. In a lot of senses, it was just another game.''

Many players return from Super Bowl XL on both sides but there are plenty who no longer will be on the field today either.

The Steelers have the fewest changes in their starting lineup -- four on offense, three on defense. Seattle has five official new starters, although Super Bowl starting receiver Bobby Engram might as well be even if he's not listed as such, and six on defense.

Both starting quarterbacks return in Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers and Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck, as do their starting halfbacks in Willie Parker and Shaun Alexander.



Among the big names gone are Steelers linebacker Joey Porter and the man he called out, tight end Jeramy Stevens of the Seahawks. So too is Jerome Bettis, not a starter but certainly a star in his hometown of Detroit all week. Receiver Antwaan Randle El, who threw the back-breaking TD pass to MVP Hines Ward in the fourth quarter, plays for the Redskins. Seattle defensive tackle Grant Wistrom has retired, but the Seahawks have added end Patrick Kearney and outside linebacker Julian Peterson.

"You know, it doesn't seem that long ago, it really doesn't,'' Faneca said of Super Bowl XL. "It's still very fresh.''

It's more like a fresh wound in Seattle. Holmgren helped fire up Seattle's complaints about the officiating when he told a crowd, at a post-mortem rally the day after losing the Super Bowl, that "We knew it was going to be tough going against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well."

The Steelers say they weren't exactly angry over those comments and others made in Seattle after the game.

"I thought it was comical,'' Faneca said.

Naturally, he felt there was no validity to the Seattle protests.

"No, I don't think so. Sometimes, it seems like they go your way and sometimes they seem like they don't. I remember that first Patriots championship game we played here in '01, it just seemed like every call we had go against us, we had to burn some challenges and we could have used them later. Even though we won the challenges, we didn't have them any more. It's just the way it goes sometimes."

Said linebacker Larry Foote, "I wasn't upset. They had a great year and they just didn't quite want to put it to rest yet. I know when they watched film and everything set in, they didn't honestly think the refs took it from them. They had opportunities to win the game and they didn't do it. The bottom line is, they only scored one touchdown."

This week, 20 months later, Holmgren said it was time to put it all behind them.

"We played the game, Pittsburgh won. Getting to the Super Bowl is special and hopefully we can get back there one day. It really is time to move on."

First published on October 7, 2007 at 12:00 am
Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.