Hawks’ Bentley has inside scoop
KIRKLAND, Wash. – The Seahawks are about to thank Kevin Bentley.
Not for beating up and effectively removing Carolina star receiver Steve Smith from the NFC championship. They’ve already done that during a joyous postgame celebration last Sunday.
No, the Seahawks will soon be glad to discover the reserve linebacker, a former Cleveland Brown, kept handwritten notes on the eight games he played against the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2002-04.
They may even convene a study hall around him before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl.
“Oh, I’ve got lots of stuff,” said Bentley, a 2002 Northwestern graduate who’s about to use his degree in communication studies. “I keep all my notes on every game I play.”
He and starting cornerback Andre Dyson are the two Seahawks with the most experience playing the AFC champions. That means only they could explain to their new mates why this Super Bowl will be a blue-collar experience – and not just because of the uniforms Seattle will be wearing.
Dyson, a former Tennessee Titan also in his first year with Seattle, played the Steelers four times from 2001-03 – including once in the AFC divisional playoffs.
The Seahawks beat Pittsburgh at Qwest Field on Nov. 2, 2003, in their only matchup in the last six seasons.
Bentley and Dyson both played within the same division as Pittsburgh – though Dyson’s Titans quit playing the Steelers twice each season in 2002, when the league went to four divisions in each conference and put Tennessee into the new AFC South.
So what lessons do they have to share?
Tighten all equipment straps, especially the one under the chin.
“Oh, man,” Dyson said, sighing and shaking his head slightly. “That was our grudge match. It used to be a war. No matter when we played, no matter what the score was, it was a war.”
Bentley and Dyson also have unique perspectives to offer because they have seen both sides of Pittsburgh’s still-dynamic offense: the smash-mouth, running-heavy one and the finesse-filled, creative-passing one.
“They used to spread you out and run any play imaginable,” Dyson said. “They’d give the ball to anyone.”