February 5, 2006. A date that will live in Seattle sports infamy until the end of time. The Seattle Seahawks lost Super Bowl XL to the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10 at Ford Field in Detroit. To this day (until the Lions host a wild-card game this January), it is the only playoff game played at that venue.
Seattle’s hopes of their first Super Bowl win were dashed as the Steelers partied with their fifth Lombardi Trophy. Losing the Super Bowl is never fun under any circumstance. But this felt different. This wasn’t just the feeling of loss, but something stronger. More painful.
Robbery.
This was the prevailing emotion for 12s everywhere. The Seahawks weren’t just fighting the Steelers, they were apparently going against an officiating crew who gave every close call to Pittsburgh. In addition to the pain of knowing a long-awaited championship would once again elude the Seattle faithful, feelings of injustice also permeated the Emerald City.
If you ask older Seahawks fans, such as my father, they will tell you of two weeks of media coverage dedicated to beloved Steelers running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis. Was this his swan song? Did the league want him to go out on top? Obviously, impossible to ever say. But questions began to spread among the 12s.
I could go into excruciating detail of every botched call the Seahawks were on the losing end of, but this video from NFL Network’s Top 10 show sums it up nicely. In the episode ranking the most controversial calls in the history of the league, the entirety of Super Bowl XL is given a spot. Says a lot if you ask me.
Fast forward to Sunday, December 31, 2023. The Seahawks will host the Steelers in their first visit to Lumen Field since the 2015 season. No one taking the field or standing on the sideline for either team was in Detroit on Feb. 5, 2006. But that won’t matter. To the 12s, the pain of a stolen Super Bowl still lingers.
Seattle vs. Pittsburgh is not a typical rivalry. These teams rarely play each other under the current scheduling format. But the 12s have not forgotten. And I’d be willing to bet the crowd will let themselves be felt once more. The Pacific Northwest has a long memory.
In the words of Mike Holmgren himself, coach of the 2005 Seahawks, during his induction to the Ring of Honor ceremony two seasons ago:
“You can be very proud of that Super Bowl (XLVIII) flag in this stadium. But I want to emphasize and I want to repeat something I said a long time ago: There should be two.”
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