Hawks arrive in Detroit
DETROIT – The Seahawks were fortunate to arrive in Detroit one day ahead of the Steelers.
It gave them an extra few hours to get used to seeing so much black and gold in the Super Bowl city.
Even though the Lions’ home jersey is a shade of blue close to what the Seahawks wear, the color of choice this week already appears to have a Pittsburgh hue. At the airport, in the shopping malls, in Greektown – wherever – the only non-Lions NFL apparel seems to sport the names Bettis and Roethlisberger.
The Seahawks did get some feel for home Sunday at the suburban Dearborn hotel where they are staying. A 12th man flag flew above the hotel, and a dozen or so fans gathered in the lobby, all of them dressed in Seattle garb.
Team owner Paul Allen also brought along one of the flags, symbolizing the encouragement of the Seahawks’ supporters, on the plane ride east.
“It was nice to see that,” defensive end Bryce Fisher said Sunday night. “Our fans have been with us the whole time. When we were playing Dallas and New York and all the media people were saying we were going to lose, the fans stuck by us and believed in us.”
Still, the Seahawks’ greeting party was far smaller than the number of people wearing Steelers jerseys on the streets of downtown Detroit on Sunday – a full week before the Super Bowl.
That doesn’t bother league MVP Shaun Alexander, whose best friend doesn’t root for the Seahawks. He roots for, you guessed it, the Steelers.
“He is definitely coming,” Alexander said. “He’ll be there, probably wearing a Pittsburgh jersey, but that’s OK.
“He asked me for 10 tickets. I said, ‘Why do I want to give you 10 tickets and you’ll bring all Steelers fans?’ “
Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who guided the Packers to a 1997 Super Bowl win, lost the next year to Denver and also won two championships as an assistant with San Francisco, doesn’t sense any nervousness among his players.
“The mood was kind of like the mood of this team all year,” he said of the plane ride on the jet Allen has provided for the team. Holmgren certainly must have been relaxed, admitting he slept through most of the flight while many of the players watched Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America.”
“I make it a point to go down the aisle once or twice to the coaches and players, and the guys were watching TV or sleeping or whatever. They know our season is not over yet.”