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It was supposed to be about impossibility.
It became about everything but.
It was about a team, a sixth-seeded team, a team that never had a home game throughout the playoffs, but damn near had one in Detr ... excuse me, Bettisville, Mich.
It was all about Aretha ... in the beginning. Yes, Stevie was there, and he was treated like royalty. But the Queen is royalty. Beyond diva respect. She gets Goddess respect.
It was about this being the last game Michaels and Madden would call together. The end of one of the best tandems in sports history. And neither one of them made it about himself.
It was about Joey Porter's suggestion that Jerome Bettis should be the first Steeler to enter the field ... alone.
It was about those towels. Those damned yellow towels. And the 200-to-1 ratio of Steelers fans to Seahawks lovers.
It was about Vince Young and Rip Hamilton being in the building.
It was about the Steelers' tentativeness at the start. Their acting like they could afford not to win this game. If this was boxing, they were imitating Roy Jones Jr. in his last fight. Not looking anything like the team that was supposed to have the Seahawks' shook.
It was about D-Jack in the first half looking like Steve Smith against the Bears. If you give him the TD catches they took away and the ruled-out-of-bounds catch, he's got eight catches for 120 yards and two touchdowns instead of five for 50 and zero scores.
It was about Hines Ward -- for a moment -- looking like he was the only Steeler ready to ball. It was about that third-and-28 pass reception.
It was about back judge Bob Waggoner and head linesman Mark Hittner, and their two blown touchdown calls that stole the game from the Seahawks in the first half.
It was about Bryant McFadden and Ike Taylor's celebration after the Seahawks' second missed field goal.
It was about the Rolling Stones not doing "Miss You" or "Jumping Jack Flash," but instead doing "Rough Justice." And the NFL -- not ABC, as the AP reported -- editing part of the performance to protect itself from any lyrical malfunctions.
It was about Jerome Bettis instructing Willie Parker on the sidelines. It was about what Parker did after that talk. About 75 yards.
It was about Jerramy Stevens' two dropped passes. It was about his touchdown that cut the lead to 14-10. It was about Matt Hasselbeck not giving up on him. It was about his dropping another ball after that.
It was about the Seahawks keeping Troy Polamalu quiet. All game long. It was about Matt Hasselbeck killing the Steelers for three quarters. Never getting touched, never coming close to getting sacked. It was about the offensive line having one bad play with 6:10 left, possibly succumbing to the inevitable defeat.
It was about the Steelers shutting D-Jack down in the second half.
It was about Zero X Stack Fake 38 Toss X Reverse Pass.
It was about the FedEx commercial, the Escalade commercial, the Bud Light "Magic Fridge" commercial and the best "Grey's Anatomy" ever.
It was about three plays early in the fourth quarter: The phantom holding call on Jerramy Stevens, followed by the non-horse collar call on Joey Porter, followed by the illegal block call on Hasselbeck that gave Pittsburgh 15 extra yards after the interception. It was about those three blown calls in one series. Calls that Mike Lupica warned everybody about on "Sports Reporters" earlier in the day.
If Mike Holmgren wanted to make the same comments and assumptions after this game that Joey Porter made after the Steelers' win against the Colts, he'd be justified.
It was about umpire Garth DeFelice getting in the mix after Antwaan Randle El's first-down run to secure the game. It was about Bill Cowher leading 21-10 and making sure he didn't have a Mike Ditka moment, and attempting to get Bettis a touchdown. And not being able to do anything about it.
It was about seeing more Terrible Towels than you've ever seen before, about 60,000 people screaming in harmony when Stevens dropped that pass with three seconds left, about the Steelers winning a home game for the fifth Super Bowl win in franchise history.
It was about Bart Starr carrying out the Lombardi trophy, and all of the Steelers players reaching out to touch it as it passed them. It was about Bill Cowher giving the trophy to Dan Rooney. Then Joey Porter and Clark Haggans on the field, looking for a photo op with the trophy, only to find Chris Hoke taking pictures of it with his daughter.
It was about Hines Ward re-signing after holding out before the season. It was about him at the podium after the game, wearing a gray championship cap and shirt, MVP in check, Esco keys in hand. Saying: "Throughout Steelers history, they talk about wide receivers. Swann and Stallworth. Those are the guys who made spectacular catches in the Super Bowl. For me to be compared to those guys, I never felt like I belonged in the league with them. You know, they had Super Bowl rings and they made big plays in the Super Bowl ... I feel comfortable now when they mention Hines Ward with Stallworth and Swan. It's a great honor for me, there's no question about it."
It was about the Bus holding up that trophy. It's been about Jerome Bettis holding up that trophy all along.
Scoop Jackson is an award-winning journalist who has covered sports and culture for more than 15 years. He is a former editor of Slam, XXL, Hoop and Inside Stuff magazines and the author of "Battlegrounds: America's Street Poets Called Ballers" and "LeBron James: the Chambers of Fear." He resides in Chicago with his wife and two kids. You can e-mail Scoop here. Sound off to Page 2 here.
