Knock yourselves out.

(runs head first into the wall)



Seriously, uh... go Seattle.

Gonna go with them Seahawks here.

Steelers. For a bet. And I like Roethlisberger. And want Bettis and Cowher to get rings.

And I was on the Seattle bandwagon like 3 years ago when they kept laying turds. So fuck them.

I do have an Official Myron Cope Terrible Towel, an autographed Terry Bradshaw football and a hat signed by the front four of the original Steel Curtain in my basement .....and my pappy was a real life Pittsburgh Steeler (not a football player, he loaded coke in the mills). Plus, I kicked a kid's ass in first grade for making fun of my Bradshaw Super Bowl t-shirt. I was even born in one of them big hospitals in downtown Pittsburgh. Gotta' go wit' dem' Stillers.

And hey...WITHOUT looking it up, can any of yunz name the original front four of the Steel Curtain? Four d-linemen.

I only ask, cuz' that particular fact has gotten me loads of free beer over the years. You too can learn it, my son....

Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn & Ole Anderson. :D

Nice.

"Mean" Joe Greene, LC Greenwood, Ernie "Fats" Holmes and Dwight White

I'm from Pittsburgh Nukka. I got that shit on lock.

I'm going with my Stillers biyotches.

Yay you! Trust me, out here, nobody's EVER gotten Dwight White. People thnk I'm a Football Oracle because I know that.

But hey, out here, 99% percent of the local "Football Fans" can't even name TWO guys from the "famed" 1977 Orange Crush defense. "Umm... umm...Mecklenburg??!" is a common response.

(waits for the 5 hours of pre-game crap to end to see the game)

Easy there with the head banging, Gus Frerotte.

...?

If you're going to make a funny reference, make sure I know who it is. :D

Gus Frerotte was a QB for the Redskins from '94-'98. In a game during the '97 season against the Giants, he ran for a TD, then proceeded to ram his head into the wall. He ended up hurting himself, and missed a few games.

You learn something new every day... thanks for that tidbit. :)

That last Seattle drive was astoundingly incompetent. What the hell happened?

Pittsburgh seemed completely incompetent in the first half, and Seattle was killin them with the quick pass. I thought Ike Taylor was gonna shoot himself. Then from when Seattle went stupid at the end of the first half, they never quite recovered. They came out and moved it easily again, but Hasselbeck just threw a duck to I don't know who. And then the last drive.....yeah. Dump passes? With no timeouts?

Best parts of the game: Obviously the trick play. AWESOME, especially in the Super Bowl. Jerramy Stevens returning to suck-land. Guy got overrated just from this week. I don't even know if anyone was in his head: he has always sucks.

And why can't I type Ike Taylor without typing Ike Turner first. Dammit.

Coupla' Super Bowl firsts:

-Aaron Neville officially gave the Shittiest First Half of the National Anthem in Super Bowl History. It took no less than Aretha Franklin to bat cleanup and bring that thing home.

-Other first-- and I'm going cleanly on the eStragand Sports Almanac, here: first non-QB to throw a TD pass in the Super Bowl: Antwan Randle-el!? It's possible a non-QB Cowboy threw one, around Super Bowl 6 or so... have to check.

Other crap of note:

-Cool pregame ceremony, where they were introducing the former MVP's. Well, most of 'em..with two inexcusable omissions; NO Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana. The hell was up with that? Those two guys combined for 5 MVPs and 8 titles. Both are synonymous with the words "Super Bowl Quarterback". Pretty embarassing that they weren't able to coax those two guys onto the field.

-The Budweiser "animal streaker" ad gets my vote for best commercial.

-Diet Pepsi....still not funny. These fuckers cannot write a funny commercial to save their lives.

-The Hummer "baby monster" ad. Neat idea and production, but the pay-off was weak and the theme didn't really connect. "At least they tried..."

-During the promos for "Dancing with the Stars" my mom started talking about the "beautiful female wrestler with the long legs".

-During the Stones' halftime performance of "Start Me Up", Jagger was censored as he sang the lines : "You'd make a dead man ----". They just blocked out the microphone feed for that split second.

-Decent game, but not a classic unless you're a Steeler fan. Really sucks that two big scoring plays were subjected to review (Ben's TD dive that wasn't, then was ....and Hasselbeck's TD that was, then wasn't)

-Dug that Umpire going into the pile.

-Lott'a controversy last week about the NFL skipping over a halftime Motown tribute. How quickly we forget the Motown anniversary halftime special that occurred in Super Bowl 32 in San Diego. 8 years is usually too soon to repeat performances.

STILLERS WIN MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOO

What? "no yeah baby, whooooooo"?

That was probably the worst officiated Super Bowl that I've ever seen. Why didn't they just give Pittsburgh the trophy after the championship games if the refs were going to make almost every call in their favor.

I can't believe they were actually going to give Pittsburgh the ball after Hasselbeck was completely on the ground and the ball popped out.

I totally agree. There were so many terrible calls that it was physically painful. I don't think the refs conspired to hand the game to the Steelers, but that was just a pitifully reffed game.

I have an explaination for MD's feelings Choate. He's a Browns fan.

he he he

There was nothing wrong with the Hasselbeck call until replay revealed that he was indeed touched (grazed) on his way down.

If he wasn't touched, which it appeared he wasn't in real time, and he goes to the ground on his own accord without doing the "I'm giving myself up" baseball slide, then the play is live until he IS touched. So if you dive headfirst, and the ball pops out, be it on the ground or anything else, it is a fumble.

So I'm not sure what people are bitching about here, other than the fact that the refs didn't see Foote graze him, which I'm not sure anyone saw.

And I thought the game was refereed quite well. There were no stupid calls that changed the outcome of the game. Darrell Jackson pushed off, plain and simple. You can never get full extension of your arm, especially standing 1 foot in front of the ref. It looked like a bogus call because the ref missed his flag the first time he reached for it, which put the infamous "opponents begging for it" look on it.

There was one holding call ESPN has dissected, saying refs can't be missing that call. But he fuckin hooked him! I'm not sure why they're calling it out, when he grabbed him around the neck, even for 1 minute. Everyone who follows football knows holding can be called on most any play, so to be bitching about a holding call is very odd.

Overall, I loved this game. People have been shitting on it all day today, but it was the defense struggle that I thought it would be. The Steelers made about 3 big plays. Seattle made none, and had poor clock management, and some missed (LONG) field goals that make the difference.

It definitely was a good game. I don't agree that the officiating was good, but to each their own.

That being said, I think the Steelers probably would've won either way. I'm just sick to death of watching bad officating in the NBA, MLB, and the NFL.

It has nothing to do with being a Browns fan. It has to do with the refs increasingly effecting the outcomes of the games and using instant replay as a crutch for not making the right calls. Being able to challenge plays is meaningless when the refs force you to use them because they don't feel like making the right call.

I know, it was a joke.

But seriously, the Steelers have been victims to this more than ANY other team in the league over the last 7-8 years. We lead the league in NFL apologies. I'll admit that the officiating in the game was not stellar...............it usually never is. But in all fairness for people to complain about the officiating on Seattle's part is bullshit. They still turned the ball over too many times and they did miss two field goals. So in closing...........one for the thumb muhfuckas!

I don't think it changed the outcome of the game but it was highly annoying. I'm also annoyed at the 2 weeks bullshit. Both teams played like shit and it wouldn't have happened had it been one week.

I couldn't agree more about the 2 weeks thing myself. It hurt both teams and honestly, I don't really see why they need 2 weeks to build to the game. Everyone will still make it the biggest deal ever without the hype. It's safe to say that the Super Bowl is generally the US's biggest pop culture day of the year.

I think the two week period is sound thinking in terms of injury and building hype, but let's be frank, it no longer needs it. As you pointed out, it's a pop culture event, and teams shouldn't have that time to recoup.

Regarding the 2 week thing: over the past few decade, they've experimented with a one week gap. I think the second Dallas-Buffalo game was played with that schedule.

It also sucks to have it happening in FEBRUARY. The majority of Super Bowls have been played from about Jan 20-Jan 30. The NFL likes to drag it out so they can get ratings and what not. Typically, the regular season would start right before, or right after Labor Day. The past two years, it's started a full WEEK after Labor Day. Their excuse is that Labor Day takes away from ratings.

A few years ago, there was even talk of adding an extra bye week, to bump the schedule to 18 weeks instead of 17. If the NFL had their way, they'd run a 48 week season.

48 week season? Color my worthless for more than just the Fall-Winter. Damn I love football.

Honestly though, on the 2 week subject. The NFL doesn't give a shit if this game is good. They give them all the time off to break this great momentum that both teams have gained by winning consecutive games to make it. They give you a super long pregame where the players are on the field, and then off it for almost 30 minutes until the kick. They change the fuckin game ball on every play, making it impossible for a QB to get a feel or on any kind of a roll. They take a 40 minute halftime, killing momentum. Its just obvious that they don't give a shit about the product. They care about money. And they've already sold the fucker out, and sold all the endorsements, and all that shit.

Really, Super Bowls usually aren't good. We just go spoiled the last few years.

Actually I take back the effect the outcome of the game thing. I just watched the Rothlisberger TD again and he missed the endzone by a solid foot. That wasn't a TD. You take away that and give Jackson the TD he actually scored and Seattle wins 17-14.

Though before anyone bitches I thought the officials were trying to job Pittsburgh against Indy so there's no bias in that opinion.

I would hardly say he missed the endzone by a foot. We're talking about inches. And frankly, you really can't tell where his arm is, and where the ball is. It just has to graze the white paint to be a touchdown.

Also, if you watch the official, he runs into the play signalling ball spot at the inch line. As he runs in, Roethlisberger picks the ball up from under his stomach and pushes it over the line. The official then signals Touchdown.

I think (even though I haven't heard this mentioned anywhere) that the official was calling him down at inside the 1, and then saw a fumble. Roethlisberger then regained posession over the goal line, prompting the official to signal Touchdown.

I havent seen anyone mention this yet, but it certainly looked to me like that is what the official did.

Dude, that just sounds like horseshit to me. He didn't miss by a solid foot, it was called a TD on the field and you nuts if you think they were going to overturn that. First off, there wasn't indisputable evidence that he didn't get in, and after the Indy fuck up...............no official in his right mind would have taken that away from Pittsburgh.

I'd hope no official would be thinking about a game 4 weeks ago when he looks at a replay. But otherwise.....yeah, you're right. That wouldn't ever get overturned....just like it wouldn't have gotten overturned if it was called short and Pittsburgh challenged it.

I remember back in '97, they started the season on August 31st.