Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 7

 It’s day seven of the 40 til 40 series of blog entries about anything and everything relevant to the number 40 as part of the countdown to my 40th birthday on July 10.

Last time I spoke about the more famous folks who share a July 10 birthday with me.  Today’s entry talks about Super Bowl XL and the controversy surrounding the game.  (WARNING:  If you are a Seahawks fan, then I suggest you stop reading this entry and click your browser’s back button.)

On November 1, 2000 the NFL owners met in Atlanta and awarded Super Bowl XL to Detroit as a reward for building Ford Field.  The game would be played on February 5, 2006.  It was the first Super Bowl played on the then-new FieldTurf playing surface.

The Seattle Seahawks, the NFC champion, were making its first ever Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.  Coached by Mike Holmgren, the Seahawks easily won the NFC West division, a first round bye and home field advantage in the NFC bracket.  They defeated the Washington Redskins in the NFC Divisional Round and the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship to reach Super Bowl XL.  The Seahawks had seven Pro Bowlers, including quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and tailback Shaun Alexander.

The Pittsburgh Steelers started 7-5, but won their final four regular season games to clinch the final wild card spot in the AFC bracket.  This was the sixth appearance for the Steelers in the Super Bowl.  Coached by Bill Cowher, who grew up in nearby Crafton, the Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC wild card round, the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC divisional round and the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship to reach Super Bowl XL in Detroit.  For good measure, tailback and fan favorite Jerome Bettis, whose nickname was “The Bus”, actually hailed from Detroit.  The Steelers had five Pro Bowlers, including center Jeff Hartings and strong safety Troy Polamalu.

While the Seahawks were in search of their first Lombardi Trophy, the Steelers were on a 26 year mission for the “One for the Thumb”, popularized by Mean Joe Greene as an allusion to a fifth Super Bowl ring.

Super Bowl XL was promoted by the National Football League under the slogan “The Road to Forty”, in honor of the fortieth edition of the Super Bowl as well as the host city of Detroit’s traditional role as the center of the American automobile industry.

The game would be televised by ABC in its final NFL telecast before ABC Sports merged with ESPN that fall to form ESPN on ABC.  Al Michaels and John Madden called the game, with Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber serving as sideline reporters.  Madden had been selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2006 the day before the game.  It was the first Super Bowl ever to be televised in high definition.

The price tag for a 30 second commercial for Super Bowl XL was $2.6 million.  Ten different companies purchased multiple commercial spots.

Problems began to surface that the game would be rigged in favor of the Steelers before the game even kicked off.  The Steelers arrived in Detroit on January 30 wearing Jerome Bettis’ Notre Dame jerseys.  On January 31, then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and city council presented Bettis with the key to the city and declared “Jerome Bettis Week” to honor him as “a shining example of what a kid with a dream from Detroit can accomplish with hard work and determination”.  The next morning, then-Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm proclaimed Jerome Bettis Day in the state of Michigan in honor of Bettis’ accomplishments.  These problems would continue on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Friday before the game, I spent the long turnaround in between my algebra and biology classes at Penn State Shenango passing out black and yellow helium balloons to some female friends as part of the buildup to the Super Bowl.

Leading the pre-game ceremonies were performances from Stevie Wonder and The Four Tops.  30 of the 34 previous Super Bowl MVPs were honored (Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw were absent with prior family commitments, Jake Scott was traveling through Australia, and Harvey Martin had passed away on Christmas Eve in 2001).  A moment of silence was observed to pay tribute to civil rights activists Coretta Scott King, who had died six days earlier, and Rosa Parks, a longtime Detroit resident who passed away in October 2005.

Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, was joined by Aaron Neville with accompaniment from pianist Dr. John and a 150 member choir sang the national anthem as part of a tribute to past Super Bowl host city New Orleans in the midst of relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina.  Angela LaGuardia, who was a teacher at the Michigan School for the Deaf, performed the national anthem in American Sign Language.

Tom Brady became the first active NFL player to participate in the coin toss, which resulted in tails, selected by the Seattle Seahawks.

The game began with the Steelers and Seahawks exchanging punts on their first two possessions.  On the Seahawks’ third possession of the game, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck completed a pair of passes to Darell Jackson and Joe Jurevicius.  On the third play, Hasselbeck found Jackson in the end zone for an apparent touchdown, but the touchdown was nullified as Jackson was flagged for pass interference after he pushed off of Steelers’ free safety Chris Hope.  Two runs by Shaun Alexander netted only three yards, and a Hasselbeck pass on third down fell incomplete.  That forced the Seahawks to settle for three points off of a 47 yard field goal by placekicker Josh Brown.  3-0 Seahawks after one quarter.

The second quarter began with both teams exchanging punts, but Seahawks punt returner Peter Warrick’s 34 yard punt return was nullified on a holding penalty.  Following the two minute warning, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger faked a third down and goal handoff and dove into the end zone.  After some initial confusion as to whether or not Roethlisberger had scored, referee Bill Leavy eventually signaled touchdown.  The call stood following a booth review.  Josh Brown missed a 54 yard field goal attempt wide right.  7-3 Steelers at halftime.

The halftime show was headlined by The Rolling Stones, performing their hit songs “Start Me Up”, “Rough Justice” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”.

On the second play from scrimmage in the second half, Steelers tailback Willie Parker broke through an open hole and ran 75 yards for a touchdown.  After another missed Josh Brown field goal attempt, this one wide left from 50 yards, the Steelers ensuing possession ended with a Kelly Herndon interception, leading to a Jerramy Stevens touchdown pass from Hasselbeck.  After three more punts by both teams, the third quarter ended with the Steelers leading 14-10, but the Seahawks were driving.

The drive continued in the fourth quarter with the Seahawks getting to the red zone.  An 18 yard pass completion to Stevens was nullified by a holding penalty against offensive lineman Sean Locklear, who was holding Steelers linebacker Clark Haggans.  Steelers linebacker Joey Porter got away with a horse collar tackle on Shaun Alexander that was not flagged.  But the drive ended when a Hasselbeck pass was intercepted by Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor, who was tackled by Hasselbeck. In the process, Hasselbeck was flagged for a personal foul after he blocked Deshea Townsend below the waist.  The interception and subsequent penalty led to a wide receiver reverse that turned into a passing play when wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, a former college quarterback at Indiana under Cam Cameron, threw to a wide open Hines Ward, who scored the touchdown.  The Seahawks appeared to lose a fumble which was recovered by the Steelers.  But coach Holmgren threw his red challenge flag, where replays showed that the ground caused the fumble after Hasselbeck was brought down by Steelers linebacker Larry Foote.  The initial ruling of fumble lost was reversed and the Seahawks drive continued.  But the drive stalled around midfield, and the Seahawks were forced to punt.  Cowher turned to his closer Jerome Bettis with the instructions to hold on to the ball.  The Steelers used Bettis seven times in eating up around four and a half minutes of clock, during which the Seahawks were forced to use all three of their timeouts to stop the clock.  After the two minute warning, the Seahawks had to score a combined 12 points in the final 111 seconds.  But the Seahawks wasted time and made questionable play calls, and the Seahawks turned the ball over on downs with three seconds left.  One Ben Roethlisberger kneel down later, the Steelers had won Super Bowl XL 21-10.  Bill Cowher got a Gatorade shower as he finally won the one thing missing from his coaching resume, a Super Bowl ring.  Ben Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.  Hines Ward was named Super Bowl XL MVP with five receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown.  Jerome Bettis had finally won a championship.

The postgame ceremonies were led by Super Bowl I and II MVP Bart Starr, who brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the podium and along with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, presented it to longtime Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney.  Jerome Bettis announced that he was now a champion, thus the last stop for The Bus was in his hometown of Detroit; he officially announced his retirement.

My mother and father were watching the Super Bowl at the Rusted Route restaurant outside of Sackets Harbor, New York, and I was at home by myself, getting ready to go to sleep in my pajamas when my phone rang.  My mother called to alert me that it was bedlam at the Rusted Route and the Steelers had won.

The next morning, after I parked my car at the Penn State Shenango campus to arrive for my Monday classes, I pulled my Terrible Towel out of my trench coat and waved it as I walked towards Forker Lab for my algebra class.  Although there were some students who were still delirious from the Steelers’ victory, there were others who were whining about the officiating.  In fact, everyone across America was whining about the officiating.  Seahawks fans raised a big stink about the offensive pass interference call that wiped out a Darrell Jackson touchdown.  But Mike Pereira, who was the NFL’s Director of Officiating, said the call was correct as Jackson did push off of Chris Hope.  The 12th man also disputed a holding call on Sean Locklear where he held Clark Haggans, stating that Haggans was offsides.  But Pereira again said that Locklear was definitely holding and the call was the right one. But there was also a dispute over the illegal block below the waist penalty against Matt Hasselbeck while he attempted to tackle Ike Taylor on an interception return.

Members of Steeler Nation also whined about an incomplete pass call in the first quarter from Hasselbeck to Jerramy Stevens in the flat where Stevens appeared to have possession, then fumble.  But officials ruled that Stevens never maintained possession.  Steeler Nation was also upset on the aforementioned fumble by Hasselbeck that was negated after a replay challenge determined that Larry Foote brought Hasselbeck down to the ground, and the ground caused the fumble, which under the rules, cannot happen.

Jason Whitlock, a sportswriter for the Kansas City Star wrote that Bill Leavy and his officiating crew ruined Super Bowl XL.  A poll on ESPN online showed that a majority of fans complained of officiating mistakes affecting the outcome of the Super Bowl.  Seahawks coach Holmgren criticized the officiating at a rally at Qwest Field when he stated that they knew it would be tough going against the Steelers, but he didn’t know they had to play the guys in the striped shirts as well.  The NFL investigated his comments, but did not fine Holmgren.  But the NFL defended its officials’ performance, calling it a well officiated game with tight plays producing disagreement about calls made by the officials.  It wasn’t until 2010 when Bill Leavy visited Seattle’s training camp for an annual rules interpretation session when he apologized to the Seahawks in a press conference with the Seattle media.

Super Bowl XL was also the center of Operation Slapshot, where then-Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach Rick Tocchet along with then-head coach Wayne Gretzky’s former agent Michael Barnett admitted to placing a wager on the game.  In addition, Wayne Gretzky’s wife Janet was framed along with the San Jose Sharks’ Jeremy Roenick and Travis Green of the Toronto Maple Leafs.  There was also an alleged connection to the infamous Bruno-Scarfo organized crime family in Philadelphia.  But it turned out that Tocchet and suspended New Jersey state trooper James Harney were equal partners in this crime.  On August 3, 2006, Harney pleaded guilty to conspiracy, promoting gambling and official misconduct and sentenced to six years in prison in exchange for his assistance with authorities for their case against Tocchet and others.  December 1, 2006 saw James Ulmer of Swedesboro, New Jersey pleading guilty to conspiracy and promoting gambling in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.  Finally, on May 25, 2007, Tocchet pleaded guilty to conspiracy and promoting gambling and was placed on probation for two years, but did not serve any jail time.  Tocchet, who was already on administrative leave, would not return to the Coyotes until February 2008, provided he refrained from gambling and submitted to NHL and NHLPA doctors to determine if he is a compulsive gambler.

Super Bowl XL’s rosters featured Hall of Famers Troy Polamalu, Jerome Bettis, Alan Faneca, Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson.  In addition, there was representation from Penn State with Bobby Engram, Joe Jurevicius and Jeff Hartings.