Show and Sea hawks took differ in a paths oaths to Super SUDer Bowl Ken Murray i The Baltimore Sun They will arrive in Detroit for the Super Bowl next week from diametrically diametrically diametrically cally opposite directions The Pittsburgh have taken the hard road as a No 6 seed in the the Seattle steam in as an unchallenged No 1 l in the Pittsburgh 5 14 knocked off the top three seeds in a heavy-duty heavy bracket Seattle 3 15 swept a pair of playoff games against the offensively challenged challenged challenged chal chal- Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers the Nos 6 and 5 seeds in the The had to win three consecutive consecutive consecutive con con- road games to give favorite son Jerome Bettis a fitting Super Bowl sendoff with a return trip to his home home- town The stayed in the Great Northwest listening to the roar of their man home crowd to go where they've never gone before The came out of the stout North won by the 5 11 Cincinnati The won the ugly duck-ugly West by seven games They are as different as the conferences conferences conferences confer confer- they represent In two weeks they will play playa a collar blue-collar Super Bowl at Ford Field while the Indianapolis Colts Denver Broncos and New England Patriots all sit and wonder why they arent aren't there This may not be the Super Bowl that TV executives wanted or that purists preferred but it is not without allure Story lines abound starting with Bettis the burly running back Bettis almost certainly will close out outa a distinguished year 13 NFL career with his first appearance in a Super Bowl Reduced to yardage short-yardage runner runner runner run run- ner and inspirational leader Bettis will willbe willbe be countered by the Shaun Alexander who was the NFL's Most Valuable Player this season Bettis is a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame For all his success Alexander has a long longway longway longway way to go before he can think about Canton There is a delicious coaching parallel paral paral- lel too Bill Cowher ended a year nine-year Super Bowl drought and a three-game three championship round losing streak when his pummeled the Broncos 34 17 in Denver After going 4 1 in championship games in Pittsburgh Cowher won in his first championship game on the road Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren hasn't been to the Super Bowl since the 1997 season when as coach of the Green GreenBay GreenBay GreenBay Bay Packers he lost track of downs and conceded a Denver touchdown that ultimately proved decisive in a 31 24 loss Holmgren has spent seven years in Seattle trying to get back to that stage A 34 14 rout of the Panthers on Sunday served as his ticket Overlooked in his own postseason misadventures is the fact that Cowher now has been in the championship championship championship champi champi- game in six of his 14 seasons in Pittsburgh Holmgren hangs his hat on the fact he became the fifth coach to lead different teams to the Super Bowl joining Bill Parcells Dan Reeves Don Shula and Dick Vermeil He can become the first to win with two different different different dif dif- dif dif- ferent teams While both coaches have Super Bowl pedigrees neither quarterback has been there before This years year's finale elevates Pittsburgh's Ben and Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck to new status among Elite status That probably will be reserved for the winner but both have earned their way The 11 th pick in the 2004 draft already has overtaken Eli Manning and Philip Rivers the first and fourth picks that year as the cream of that crop At 23 years and days on Super Bowl Sunday he will become the second- second youngest quarterback to start in the big game behind only Dan Marino who was 23 years days in 1984 was flawless against the Broncos throwing for yards and two touchdowns In five playoff games over his two seasons he has completed percent of his throws for an average of yards per attempt and 2174 yards per game In his out coming-out party Hasselbeck threw for yards to balance Alexanders Alexander's rushing yards He hadn't won a playoff game until this season but now the former sixth-round sixth draft pick has won two and is headed to the Super Bowl Consider it another contrast to this years year's game |