Thanks for jumping back out of the clown car again. I know you're happy just to be part of the show... hey watch it wiht that pie.

Paul Allen is in no way deserving of your disrespect here. He's poured quite a bit of money into the Seahawks and lowered ticket prices and I believe other prices so going to a game is more affordable to the fans. He kept the Seahawks in Seattle by buying the team, spent 100 million of his own $ to help finance the new stadium, underwrote the referendum and spent his own $ campaigning for it.

I see you didn't mention anything about the Steelers stadium being new and taxpayer funded. Most stadiums are and have far less contributed by the owners. The owners are usually whinging that they'll move the team unless they get a new staium at taxpayer expense. Paul Allen said "If we fund this, we can keep the team here and have a new stadium!" And the voters said yes in a referendum, by a large margin. How'd the Steeler's referendum go?

back to you kneel

(doo doo doodedoodoo... clown music swells for your appearance)

It's difficult to say how disappointing this superbowl was. Usually it involves a melt down or a brain fart by one player on one team that can be traced back as being the cause of defeat. I am getting so tired of reading about how the officials have influenced the outcome of the game. This may or may not be true, but you'd have to come up with a mighty long list of tapes to demonstrate that these official calls have not been going on for many years. There is a certain WWF element in the calls made in any level of football games, but, certainly, not more than the degenerate calls made in the NBA where rookie hazing has oozed out of the locker room and reappeared on the center court where they have to bend over and get butt-fucked by the refs until they earn a certain status which is never specifially defined in the rookies' initial 'job description. What baffles me is why everyone accepts this as normal. Is this a traditional hazing or right of passage? Is this a way of giving veterans a time for cruise control and bully practice? What is really bothersome is my inability to understand how this treatment builds team committment. Looking back on my draft physical in 1968 on the "Group W bench" in lower Manhattan I can see that some of us are comforted by a strong authoritarian structure and others, like me,head for the hills. Nither one is right or wrong and, going to a Jesuit prep school, I am grateful for the disciple and strict moral standards. It's just that there are times and places for this attitude. To me the main, overriding moral principle is that we, as human beings learn how to get along. As my wonderful wife once pointed out, "Would you rather be right than happy?" Getting along with people, in a truly communal way (which is all we have in central Montana) now seems much more important than exercising my testosterone level.

It now seems, after living in Lewistown, MT for the past 6 years (after having lived in New England for the past 30 years that urban folk have to turn down the volume, SLOW DOWN, and TAKE A BREATH. The World will survive no matter what our opinions are of the NFL refs are. It seems pretty obvious to me that a "real issue" is Bush's 776 billion dollar "defense buget' while trying to cut 270 billion dollars from Medicare, developement and AIDS care. Look it up. Gonzalez defends domestic spying. If you would like to see how this is a "Sequel" I suggest you review the history and demise of the Soviet Union with its stupid propaganda, unimaginable secrecy, and total ignorance of the significant issues in the countries it was dealing with. It is a shocking parallel.

May all of us Americans support each other no matter what our personal opinions may be

because our country is much more than our personal axes to grind. That's why I so much enjoy living in central Montana--I am living in a community that, for the most part, does not share my political opinions, but who turn out to be my best friends. I would definitely recommend living in a community that is different because learning how to get along with people you would normally avoid enriches your life. God Bless America. Sincerely, Ken Alexander

Few people have talked about the most likely reason we get crappy calls in the playoffs (which I think we do) - hyped up home crowds. Whether they know it or not, the pressure of 50,000 drunk, screaming fans in close proximity affects the refs' perception and their judgment (trust me, I study these things for a living). I bet an analysis of “controversial calls” in playoff games over the past 10 years would show a strong bias in favor of the home team. Explains the calls in the Denver-NE game, the PGH-IN game, and notably, SBXL - who was the home team? - the Steelers with about 40,000 fans just going berserk. Anyone who claims this doesn’t affect refs is either lying or doesn’t understand the way people’s minds work. It is one reason among many why home teams tend to win. And one that is certainly larger in the playoffs.

But even given all that, Seattlites should just shut up and drink their latte's. The Steelers won 8 straight. They beat "one of the best defenses in years" (Bears; Bill Simmons whined that there was snow that day). And of course they beat the top three seeds in the supposedly stronger division. On the road. Yes, the Steelers played an ugly game compared to the three previous. But Seattle was even uglier all on their own. At least the Steelers had a few big plays up their sleeves. The only decent team not beaten by up along the way by the Steelers or Seahawks was the Patriots (who's fans would whine even if they won the damn thing), so it isn't as if either team didn't deserve to be there. They just didn't play like they did up to that game. Oh well. Boring TV, but not worth rescinding all of their great games til that day.

And for everyone that thinks the Steelers lucked out - this is the same team (minus Plexico Burress and The Bus having any stamina, but plus Heath Miller) as last year. That team went 15-1. Remember? Lots of people had them pegged to beat the Pats (experienced Steeler watchers knew last year's team was not really as good as their record and this year's team was better than their record). Inexperience did cost them in the end. But they rebounded this year even if they lost more games. Mark of a good team learning to win when it counts. To claim this Steelers team isn't a good team is ridiculous (or perhaps at the end of the day, the best team in the league when it counted). Their two season record is incredible. Reminds me of many Superbowl teams that almost made it the year before ('73 Steelers for example) that then managed to push through the next year. So who knows? Three years from now the Steelers might be up to the middle finger of the other hand...