2006 Super Bowl Gambling
By: Q.
Smyth
Wednesday
January 25th, 2006 - Page Updated at 7:45am
Senior Editor For WagerOnFootball.com Handicapping.
2006
super bowl gambling
Steelers-Seahawks: a Super Bowl
that shouldn't be at a neutral site
Associated
Press - Wed, Jan 25, 2006
Courtesy
of MySportsbook.com -- If ever a Super Bowl was
made to be played in a home stadium, Steelers-Seahawks
is it.
Just think: The road warriors against
the unvanquished hosts. A dominant sixth seed needing
one more away victory, and needing it at the NFL's
toughest venue for visitors.
How juicy that would be.
Sorry, folks, but the big game is so
BIG it needs to be planned years in advance. And 2006
was reserved for Ford Field in Detroit, where thousands
of Pittsburgh fans figure to drive in and paint the
city black and gold.
Many, perhaps most of them, won't have
tickets, though. So the Seahawks could get something
of a fair shake in the stands on Feb. 5.
What the Seahawks (15-3 overall, including
10-0 at Qwest Field) won't have is the ``12th man,''
the boisterous crowd that every player and coach credited
with providing that extra impetus to get to the NFL
title game. One player even claimed (mischievously
and anonymously) that he expected the 12th man flag
that sits atop the Seattle Space Needle to somehow
fly above Ford Field on Super Sunday.
And what the Steelers (14-5) won't
have is the opportunity to shatter yet another opponent's
air of invincibility at home after winning at Cincinnati,
Indianapolis and Denver in the playoffs.
Too bad.
Certainly Seahawks owner Paul Allen,
who raised the 12th man flag at Qwest Field before
the rout of Carolina for the NFC championship, wouldn't
mind another home game.
``If you're a fan of NFL football,
how great is it to be able to root on your team to
win the Super Bowl?'' he said. ``It just doesn't get
any better than that in football. It's incredible.
No more special than in the Steel City,
which has seen its share of big NFL games. Bill Cowher
has led the Steelers to six AFC championship matchups
in his 14 seasons as coach. But they are a mere 1-4
at home in those games.
So another road trip wouldn't be such
a big deal for a team that is 9-2 away from Heinz
Field. In fact, although the Steelers technically
are the home team for the Super Bowl - it's the AFC's
year to be the host - they chose to don road whites.
``We're not playing at Heinz Field
so, in my mind, it's an away game,'' Cowher said of
his 4-point favorites.
``We've been playing well the last
three weeks on the road, and this is a fourth game
on the road - I don't know if that's superstitious.''
So if Cowher is so comfortable taking
his team on the road, why not switch the site to Seattle
and give everyone the delicious matchup the championship
game deserves?
That's pure fantasy. The showdown will
come in Detroit.
Still, it's been a long time since
the two Super
Bowl teams have had such diverse home-road characteristics.
Of course, without their skills away from Pittsburgh,
the wild-card Steelers would have had no shot at getting
this far.
And had the Seahawks been any less
dominant at home, they easily could have gone the
way of the three AFC division winners who lost to
Pittsburgh in the postseason.
But here they are. And there they will
be, on a neutral field in Detroit. And, heck, the
Seahawks were 5-3 away from Seattle, with the last
loss in a meaningless game at Green Bay.
``This is just huge because this is
the biggest game in the world,'' NFL Most Valuable
Player Shaun Alexander said. ``I think every little
kid thinks about playing in the Super Bowl when they
are little. I remember the Bengals going in '88, and
all the talk about Joe Montana and how great it was,
that comeback.
``I was a Bengals fan. I was crying.
``But I was thinking I would love to
be in this game, and now we are.''
His smile made it clear the site didn't
really matter at all.
2006
Super Bowl Gambling By:
Q.
Smyth
Wednesday
January 25th, 2006 - Page Updated at 7:45am
Senior Editor For WagerOnFootball.com Handicapping.
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