Fantastic football
What a difference a year can make.
The words are not mine, but they could have been. It was one year ago exactly this weekend that I wrote a column about the Seattle Seahawks playing in last year's Super Bowl - yeah, that's right, the one between Philadelphia and New England.
The headline of the piece told the whole story: It was called "Fantasy football." But what a difference a year can make.
This year, the Seahawks' appearance in the Super Bowl is not just a fantasy I wrote for laughs; it's the real thing. And I have to be prepared, along with thousands of other fans, for the distinct possibility that Seattle will actually win. Despite our being conditioned to failure by years of let-downs, we need to admit that this is not our father's Seahawks team anymore.
These guys actually know how to play the game.
All year long, they kept surprising us. It's not just running back Shaun Alexander, although he is a remarkable athlete who set league and team records in a number of categories this year. It's not just quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who was the highest rated QB in the NFC and threw for more than 3,000 yards. And it's not just Mike Holmgren, who is hoping to add a Super Bowl victory as Seahawks coach to the one he already gained when he was coach of Green Bay during Brett Favre's heyday.
Those guys have been doing their thing all along. Heck, Alexander missed the rushing title last year by just one yard; Hasselbeck has already been to the Pro Bowl twice before being selected again this year; and Holmgren got the team to the playoffs in both 2003 and 2004. But something was different this year.
Like an 11-game winning streak. Like a playoff victory, their first in 21 years, and then the conference title - their first ever. Like the jaunt in their step, and the fire in their bellies. Call it the alchemy that turns a bunch of individually talented football players into a team - a real team. The bottom line: They were winning games, which surprised everybody, even their fans, and not least of all their opponents.
And so later today, the Seahawks will face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Seattle is the underdog. This is the classic tale of the new kid on the block versus the tough brawler who is battle-scarred and a little cocky. Pittsburgh has been to the big game five times, and won it four times. Sure, they have a young quarterback who is still wet behind the ears, but Big Ben Roethlisberger can toss the ball as well as anyone. So the Seahawks are not taking anything for granted.
Victory is not inevitable, not by a long shot.
But you know what? We are in the Super Bowl, and nobody thought it would ever happen.
What a difference a year can make.
It wasn't me who said that. It was Mike Holmgren as he reflected back on how far he and his team had come since a disappointing loss to St. Louis in the wild-card round of the playoffs last year.
It turns out that Holmgren felt as bad as anyone about the team's inability to win the big games, and after that tough loss he was ready to hang it up after six years as head coach in Seattle.
You can't blame him. It only took him five years with Green Bay to earn a Super Bowl ring, but in Seattle it always seemed like two steps forward, one step back, and sometimes two steps back, and then three. People were calling Holmgren names. Even I had a pet nickname for him which was not complimentary and which shall now remain forever unspoken.
But he hung in there. And so did Shaun Alexander, for at least one more year before hitting the free agency highway. And so did Hasselbeck, who signed a big-money contract but kept playing like he was having fun and thought he should earn his money, too. And so did the mostly no-name defense that finished seventh in the league. And so did owner Paul Allen, who bought the team when it was in despair and gave it hope and then left it alone when he had to and gave it a shove when he had to.
What a difference a year can make.
You got that right, Coach. Good job __ and get 'er done.