A Zapruder film of football history

 

In the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, film study is one of the most important elements of preparation. By breaking down your opponent's previous games, you can familiarize yourself with personnel and try to discern tendencies. Finding just one key – such as how a receiver's release signals what pattern he is running or which play is most likely to be called from a particular formation – might mean the difference between victory and defeat.

 

Given that same amount of down time between NFL games, Team CHFF has tried to be as productive as our infrequent sobriety will allow. We have meticulously analyzed the Super Bowl from every possible angle, looking for an edge in predicting the winner. Through careful examination of the grainy Zapruder film of football history, we have discovered some Cold, Hard Football Facts that will tell you what to look for when the bullets start to fly on Super Bowl Sunday.  

 

The Seahawks are making their first appearance in a title game. Since entering the league in 1976, the closest they had come to reaching the Super Bowl was a 30-14 loss to the Raiders in the 1983 AFC championship. Seattle played its inaugural season in the NFC, going 2-12, and returned there in 2002. The team had not won a playoff game in that conference prior to this season.

The Steelers, on the other hand, were once a gridiron dynasty. They captured four Super Bowls over a six-year stretch during the 70s, generating a national fan base that persists to this day. Pittsburgh's only other trip to the title game came after the 1995 season, when it lost to Dallas in Super Bowl XXX, 27-17. Carrying a 4-1 all-time record, the Steelers can become the first AFC team to win five championships, tying the 49ers (5-0) and Cowboys (5-3) for most Super Bowl victories.

 

Bill Cowher was Pittsburgh's coach for that one Super Bowl loss. It happened in his fourth season at the helm, and now, 10 years later, he has an opportunity for redemption.

 

But his staff is extremely light when it comes to Super Bowl success, or even experience. Including Cowher, Pittsburgh's staff has appeared in 12 Super Bowls as coaches and won just four of them. Even those four Super Bowl rings are a bit misleading. They all belong to running backs coach Dick Hoak, who has been kicking around as a Steelers assistant for 34 years and was with the team for all four of its Steel Curtain Era championships. Offensive line coach Russ Grimm did appear in four Super Bowls, winning three of them, as a guard with the Redskins in the 80s and early 90s.

 

Seattle's head man, Mike Holmgren, has already been on both sides of the outcome. He guided Green Bay to a 35-21 victory over New England in Super Bowl XXXI, but his favored Packers were beaten by the Broncos, 31-24, the following year. However, that doesn't quite tell the whole story. 

 

Holmgren and his staff are plump with Super Bowl experience. They own 15 rings, having coached in 21 Super Bowls. Defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes leads the list with five Super Bowl championships in five attempts during his tenure as an assistant at San Francisco. He joined the 49ers in 1981, the year they won their first Super Bowl, and was with the team for the rest of its Joe Montana Era titles (1984, 1988, 1989). He left to become Green Bay's defensive coordinator in 1992, but returned to San Francisco in that same capacity in 1994, the year the franchise won its fifth Super Bowl championship.

 

Like their coach, Seattle defensive end Grant Wistrom and wide receiver Joe Jurevicius have known both joy and pain in the Super Bowl. Wistrom's Rams were victors in Super Bowl XXXIV, but they were upset by the Patriots two years later. Jurevicius lost to the Ravens (and current teammate Jamie Sharper, a linebacker now on injured reserve) while with the Giants, but he won as a member of the Buccaneers (as did defensive tackle Chartric Darby). In total, six Seattle players have been part of the Super Bowl. All of them have tasted victory except center Robbie Tobeck, whose Falcons were defeated by the defending-champion Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII. Denver's punter in that game – and for its previous championship – was Tom Rouen, the only Seahawk with two rings.

 

Conversely, the Steelers have just one player with any Super Bowl experience: backup cornerback Willie Williams. He is their last remaining member from the '95 team, and he also played seven seasons with Seattle. Cut and then re-signed by Pittsburgh earlier this season, Williams has been inactive for 10 of the last 12 games.

 

Even the most ardent game-film buff might need a few minutes to come up with the highest-drafted player in this year's Super Bowl. He has been a seldom-used wideout and special teamer for Seattle, catching only 11 passes and returning just eight punts. He is Peter Warrick, the former two-time consensus All-America at Florida State, who was selected by Cincinnati with the fourth overall pick in 2000. After opting to be released by the Bengals instead of taking a pay cut before this season, he signed a one-year deal with the Seahawks. Warrick was inactive for four games, including the divisional playoff against Washington, but he resurfaced as a punt returner in the NFC championship.

 

The Seahawks also have the two players taken next-highest in the draft. St. Louis made the aforementioned Wistrom the league's No. 6 pick in 1998, and Pro Bowl tackle Walter Jones was chosen by Seattle in that same spot the year before.

 

The highest-drafted Steeler is inside linebacker James Farrior, who was selected eighth by the Jets in 1997. Running back Jerome Bettis (No. 10 by the Rams in 1993) and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (No. 11 in 2004) round out Pittsburgh's top three.

 

Super Bowl teams are generally defined by their quarterbacks, and quarterbacks are often remembered by their jersey numbers. This season, the Steelers' signal caller is Roethlisberger, who sports No. 7, while the Seahawks are led by No. 8, Matt Hasselbeck.

 

Consider this list of the numbers worn by all of the Super Bowl quarterbacks (Nos. 7 and 8 are in bold italics):

 

 

Quarterbacks who have donned No. 8 jerseys are 5-0 in the Super Bowl. Those who have worn No. 7, meanwhile, have posted a 3-7 record. Hasselbeck will be trying to maintain the perfect streak for No. 8, while Roethlisberger will look to join Washington's Joe Theismann as the only QBs to win a Super Bowl debut in No. 7.

The only three previous times that the Super Bowl has been played in February, it has been won by New England (2002, 2004, 2005). The AFC trend would obviously continue with a Pittsburgh victory, whereas Seahawks fans are hoping that their ancestral links give them the advantage. Hasselbeck's dad is former Patriots tight end Don, and rookie linebacker Lofa Tatupu is the son of former Pats running back Mosi.

 

So what does all of this information reveal to us? How do we now envision Super Bowl XL playing out?