Super Bowl Morning Thoughts

This morning I'm loving the Seattle Seahawks and I'm hating the fact that I can't get a Tom Clancy scenario out of my head.

First the Seahawks.

Seattle had the best rusher in football this year yet it is Jerome Bettis and the Steelers getting all the attention. Seattle led the NFL in sacks this year but it s the Pittsburgh defense getting all the attention. Before the playoffs started the bookies had the line of AFC -5.5 points and NFC plus 5.5. At that time people thought either Indy or New England would be the AFC team. Instead the match-up is the #6 AFC seed vs the #1 NFC team. It's a #6 vs. a #1 and yet the line still has the Steelers favored by 4.5 points. It doesn't make sense.

Look I'm not complaining - I'll take the 4.5 points and laugh because the better team is the underdog. That's fine with me. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that Seattle had trouble with the two teams that played the 3-4 defense this year (Houston and Dallas) but that worry is offset by the fact that they won both those games and by the fact that Seattle has had two weeks to prepare for Pittsburgh's defense.

I'm also buoyed by the fact that Ben Roethlisberger got lucky against Denver. He should have been intercepted 3-4 times (go back and look at the tape). I doubt if the Seahawk defense drops those gifts the way the Bronco's did.

Here are my picks for the day:

Seattle +4.5 points
Seattle Moneyline +155 (bet $100 to win $155)
Hasselbeck over 222.5 yards passing
Roethlisberger over 225 yards passing
Heads on coin flip

Now I'll explain why I can't get Tom Clancy out of my head.

I recently re-read Sum of All Fears which is a story of radical Islamic terrorists planting a nuclear bomb at the Super Bowl. There are many similarities:

- The game was being held at a cold weather location that has a dome stadium (Denver in the book and Detroit in real-life)
- There was a good bit of snow before the game (true in both cases)
- In the book the Secretary of Defense attends the game - in real-life the Secretary of State will be at the game.

With all the trouble in the Muslim world over the cartoons of Mohammad, with the game being held in one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in the US and the fact that the game is right over one of the most ridiculously easy to beat borders in the world make me nervous. I'm sorry to share my worry. I hope I'm wrong but as much as I have a good feeling about the Seahawks winning the game - I have an equally bad feeling that there will some sort of incident at the game (and yes I'm sure the security for the game will be extremely tight).