Steelers Favored in Super Bowl XL
Peter Culkih
Arts and Entertainment
Editor
ball sixty-six percent of the time
throughout the playoffs, wide, receiver Cedrick Wilson should have
a lot of opportunities to make big
plays as well. Wilson had an exemplary performance in the AFC Championship game, with five catches for
ninety-two yards and a touchdown.
A key for offensive production in
has excellent speed and can potentially put a lot of pressure on
Ben Roethlisberger
-Pittsburgh s Joey Porter versus Seattle's offensive line
This sounds like some sort of
football trial, but Joey Porter likes
to blitz... a lot. Last week, he
chased Broncos ball carriers alt
over the field, knocked down multiple passes, and left quarterback
Jake Plummer looking out his ear
hole. Seattle has three prd-bo.wl
offensive linemen in Walter Jones,
B O O T 'N' PADDLE
J a m e s Passanisi
Columnist
However, anyone involved in the
worldof football knows that it's not
. just another game. It's the reason
that the Seahawks have two weeks
to prepare. It's the reason the players were given a two day vacation
after beating the living hell out of
their bodies for over four months.
This Sunday is the Super Bowl, the
biggest spectacle on one of the biggest stages in the world. However,
it's a s c e n a r i o that the Seattle
Seahawks-have never known. It's
been thirty years since the
Seahawks joined the National Football League, but they have never
made it to the big game. Throughout the early n i n e t i e s , the
Seahawks were consistently among
the bottom of the NFL. Their history of failure came to an abrupt half
in 1999 with the signing of former
Green. Bay Packers coach Mike
play of the- offensive linemen. The
Steelers have a. Pro Bowler hi right
guard Allen F a n e c a , but the
-Seahawks defense is one of the
Holmgren, who had led the Packers
seemingly built for stopping the run.
Ever since my first year at St. Lawrence, many of the finest professors
that I; have taken classes with have tried, to convey to me that the learning
process often involves sorting out conflicting ideas regarding a particular
subject. The moment you think you understand something, another concept refutes the notion that you, only moments ago, thought was so con
vincihg. According to many of my teachers, coming to terms with this
process instead of being consumed by frustration is a sign of intellectual
maturity.
Unfortunately for me, I am not quite there — at least regarding philo
sophical questions. But over the past few weeks, I have come to terms with
my own confusion regarding ice climbing. Although this event is not
nearly as important as determining what defines a good society, it was a
Steve Hutchinson, and Robbie small victory for me.
Tobeck, which will hopefully be
When I was rock climbing in Mexico over break, I occasionally thought
enough
to
protect
Matt
about the absurdity of scaling frozencliffs and waterfalls, This sort of
Hasselbeek.
makes sense considering that the experiences I had in Mexico involved
-The health of Shaun Alexander .
beautiful limestone features, hot weather, and a dry desert climate. One
Alexander suffered a concusday when I was back at the Posada (the climbing campground near the
sion during the divisional playoff
cliffs), I randomly saw a back issue of Rock and Ice or it may have been
game against W a s h i n g t o n . He
Climbing, I cannot remember. Regardless, one of the feature articles was
carte back and played well against
about ice climbing in the Adirondacks. I thought to myself: "This is
Carolina, but will this be able to
strange. I am in the middle of the desert in a foreign country and I come
carry over to Sunday?
across a feature about winter climbs in my own backyard." At that point,
-Seattle's Rocky Bernard versus
the last thing I wanted to think about was coming back to New York to
Pittsburgh's Allan Faneca
freeze my fingers off in the mountains around Keene Valley.
Both of these guys have.made
I have very little ice climbing experience, but have always been intrigued
an impact in the trenches. Bernard
by it. So I sat in Mexico during a warm weather rock climbing trip, capfi
had eight and a half, sacks this, seavated by reading this piece about smashing crampons and tools into fro-*
son and plays like a young- Warzen water. Until that point, I had mixed feelings about my own longing to
ren Sapp. He has an excellent bullengage in a sport with a seemingly high degree of misery and danger; I.had
rush, but can.chase down the quara simultaneous desire to avoid the cold and treachery associated with it.
terback. If Faneca can't slow him
to several Super Bowls in the midnineties. Last year, the Seahawks
punctuated their rise to the top by
winning their- division, but lost a
divisional playoff game to the St.
They run a 3-4 (three defensive lineman, four linebackers) and attack
opponents with both speed and
power, blitzing so often that they've
been dubbed "Blitzburgh". A vital
down, Pittsburgh will not be able
to run the football and that will significantly slow down their offense.
-Jerome Bettis versus Seattle s
defense
Louis Rams. However, it's more than
. Holmgren's talent as a coach that
has turned a r o u n d the Seattle
Seahawks. Some new acquisitions
and a group of hardworking veter^
ans have finally put Seattle in the
last game of the season and in the
hunt for Super Bowl pay-dirt.
The Seahawks face a daunting
task heading into Sunday's meeting a t ' D e t r o i t ' s Ford F i e l d / T h e
P i t t s b u r g h Steelers
powered
through the playoffs, on the
strength of their rushing attack and
became the first sixth-seed team.to
make it to the Super Bowl. They
have a thunder and lightning combination in running, backs Willie
Parker and Jerome Bettis. Parker is
a relative new comer to the Steelers
organization, while Bettis is a-future Hall of Famer, possibly playing in his last game. Quarterback
Ben RoethlisbergeF has quickly es^
tablished himself as the leader on a
Steelers team that hasn't been to
the Super Bowl since 1996, when
part of the "Blitzburgh" defense is
linebackers James Farrior and Joey
Jerome Bettis, better known as
"The Bus" stands 5 ' i l " and
Porter, joined in the secondary by
2551bs, essentially a bowling ball
Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu.
Polamalu is considered one of the
hardest hitting safeties in the NFL,
with cornerback speed and. linebacker hostility. Look for a furious
blitz package. from-the Steelers to
try and throw off. the timing of
Seahawks
quarterback
Matt'Hasselbeck and take away deep
threats. Bobby - E n g r a m , Joe
Jurevicius, and Darrell Jackson.
Both the S e a h a w k s and the
Steelers boast underrated, yet exceptional defenses and powerful
with legs. He's notorious as one
The Seattle Seahawks returned
fo practice last Wednesday after a
two day break. Their goal for the
past two weeks was simple: treat.
. their game on Sunday, February 5'"
against the Pittsburgh Steelers as
just another football game.
Sunday's upcoming game will be the
most underrated in the league. The
group is anchored by a very young
and very good core of linebackers
in Lofa Tatupu, D. D. Lewis, and
Leroy Hill. F u r t h e r m o r e , the
Seahawks host a talented secondary that was able to virtually shut
down the Carolina Panther's Steve
Smith a week ago. Despite Seattle's
excellent defense unit, the Steelers
will, be most concerned with their
own defense and a t t e m p t i n g to
slow down Seattle running back and
N F L MVP Shaun A l e x a n d e r .
Alexander had one-thousand eighth u n d r e d a n d eighty yards and
t w e n t y - s e v e n t o u c h d o w n s this
season, leading the NFL. However,
the Steeler's defense is one-that was
run games, but that should be true
of almost any team, that makes the
Super Bowl. The truth is that, like
most Super Bowl t e a m s , the
S e a h a w k s and the Steelers are
pretty much evenly matched: However, here are a few key factors and
match-ups that could affect the outcome of the game.
-Seattle's Grant Winstrom versus
of the hardest runners in the NFL
and, though no longer the feature
back in the Pittsburgh offense, hewill see ten to fifteen carries a game
and k n o w s h o w to score.. He
weighs more than any of the Seattle linebackers and has more than
twice the experience of all of them
put together. The deciding factor
to slowing down Bettis will be winning the battle at the line of scrimmage, hoping to hold him up tong
enough to get linebacker and secondary support. If "The Bus" getson a'roll in the open field, it's all
over for the Seahawks.
These teams are very evenly
matched. While I'm not counting
the Seahawks out, I'm giving the
Steelers the edge in this one. Seattle has had a great run, but has a
tradition of choking in clutch situations. Pittsburgh's hard hitting
they lost, to Dallas. Roethlisberger's
Pittsburgh's tackles Marvel Smith defense will overpower Seattle's
primary target throughout the season has been wide receiver Hines
Ward, who had sixty-eight receptions and eleven t o u c h d o w n s .
Without a bevy of talent around him
and a Pittsburgh team that ran the
and Max Starks
' Winstrom is an underrated defensive end with a lot oT experience.
He's a guy you could potentially
forget about in the pass rush and
he doesn't play every down, but he
offense and force them into a short
y a r d a g e , West Coast offense,
THE CASUAL
OBSERVER
Evan Kivlen
Sports Editor
With the fervor surrounding Super Bowl XL (Forty), it is. easy to. overlook everything else in" the world of sports. Not to take away from this
craze, but we must not forget about the upcoming Olympic games in Torino
Dating back to 771 BC, the Olympics originated as a five-day event throughout the Greek world in order to celebrate athleticism and worship Zeus.
After the Opening Ceremony on February 10,h, the 2006 Winter Olympics
will be sure-to live up to expectations.
It is striking to compare the first Olympic games to the games of today.
At their origination, the athletes would compete naked for a prize of a
wreath of olive leaves, far from the dazzling gold, silver, and "bronze medals
that today's athletes garner. Also, the first Olympians could ever have
imagined the number of games that are available to athletes in the current
games. These choices have gone from the origins of foot racing, chariot
racing, discuss, and wrestling to bobsled, skeleton, and figure skating.
Imagine ripping down a.luge track on a cold sled, in below zero weather, in
front of millions of viewers, naked? It's easy to see the reasons for today's
differences.
This year, the United States look to continue their recent success in
Olympic contests. After the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah,
the United States athletes came away wearing a total of 34 medals, two
which won't get the job done: in , behind Germany with 36 including 10 Gold medals. This year, they look to
the Super Bowl. My Super Bowl
pick is the Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Seattle Seahawks 31-24. '
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LETTER TO!
However, after reading about the history and development of Adirondack
ice climbing, I did. not feel afraid to climb, and was not angry: that the warm
weather would be gone as" soon a s I flew back home. Instead, I got excited
for the winter. It became crystal clear that my two conflicting notions romantic danger versus staying warm and safe - were both unfounded.
Upon opening my own ice season last Friday, I realized that the satisfaction of the sport lies somewhere between those two poles of recklessness
and security.
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improve upon this total as the games move back over seas to Torino, Italy.
The household names have been through intense training and look to
fulfilling results. The regulars Michelle Kwan, Bode Miller, Shaun White,
Apolo Anton Ohno, Jeremy Bloom, and Kris Freeman all look to take at
least a medal. A local boy to watch, Bill Demong looks to mark his first time
on the medal stand after three competitions (1998, 2002, and 2006) as he
competes in the Nordic Combined event! A resident of Vermontville, New
York, and a graduate of Saranac Lake High School, Demong's sister Katy
recently graduated from St. Lawrence University.
The Super Bowl takes place every year and rarely lives up to the two
weeks of hype that surrounds the event, but the Olympics only take place
every four years. NBC will be covering, the majority of the events and will
provide a nice outlet from the cold winter weather we are facing at the
moment. Though the athletes won't be naked, it can still be entertaining/