Wednesday Morning Links

Media Day at the Super Bowl was yesterday, and as expected, it was a circus like atmosphere. OL Floyd "Pork Chop" Womack was given an award by Entertainment Tonight for "Person Most Likely to Endorse the Other White Meat", and was asked by another reporter how loud he farts. Yep, that's the media for ya.

Mike Sando has a story on how Paul Allen hopes to extend Mike Holmgren's contract for a few more years. In 2006, Holmgren will be entering his 8th and final season of his contract, and is set to earn $10M.

This link (audio link) is of the "Jimmy Jam Network" (Seahawk DBs Etric Pruitt and Jimmy Williams) joining reserve CB Michael Harden, who was being interviewed by the sultry Melyssa Ford of the BET. How good is life for Michael Harden these days? I'm sure none of you know his story, but he was with the Seahawks in training camp, was cut and bounced around the NFL all season. He was released from the New England Patriots practice squad in early December, but when the Seahawks lost Andre Dyson to an ankle injury, they quickly signed him to their own practice squad, promoting him to their active roster a few days later. He won't be active for the Super Bowl, but have his arm around Melyssa Ford is a pretty consolation prize.

The Jimmy Jam Network also had some fun with defensive coordinator Jim Marshall, and even "comedian" Gilbert Gottfried.

Clearly Etric Pruitt and Jimmy Williams, who play primarily on special teams, had a lot of fun on Media Day. Big thanks to Mike Sando (whose blog is linked to at the right) for having the presence of mind to make these available on the web. They are quite hilarious.

You need a subscription to Sports Illustrated to know why Rick Reilly thinks Seattle sucks at sports. Funny he mentions this, because I'm usually of the opinion that Reilly sucks at life.

(Ironically, Reilly mentions that the last Seattle professional sports team to win a championship was the 1979 SuperSonics. That's true, for the most part. The 1991 Washington Huskies did win half the National Championship, and who could forget the WNBA's Seattle Storm winning the 2004 title?

Oh, and the last time a Pittburgh team won a sports championship? The 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup, which is at least equivalent to the Huskies co-national championship or the Storm winning the WNBA crown. They don't have an NBA team, the Pirates haven't won anything since...1979.

As for the Steelers, the last time they won a Super Bowl was in 1978. Seattle joined the NFL in 1976, so why is it that Pittsburgh needs the Lombardi trophy more than Seattle? Well, have you even been to Pittsburgh??)

Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times spent his Media Day profiling the best French-Canadian long-snapper in history of the NFL, J.P. Darche.

If you're planning on watching the Super Bowl with me, be sure to bone up on your Seahawks-themed cocktails. I'll take a 12th Man Margarita, but don't tell Texas A&M, ok?

And finally, we've got the perfect undershirt for the 20 or so members of the Jerome Bettis Fanclub (ok, the Pittsburgh Steelers) who wore throwback Notre Dame Jerome Bettis jerseys when they arrived in Detroit on Monday. As you know, the sign "Play Like a Champion Today" graces the locker room walls in South Bend, Indiana, but Ben Roethlisberger prefers to honor Notre Dame (not his alma mater) in a slightly different way.

This is an undated photo of Big Ben, so there's no telling when this may have been taken other than late at night, and after Roethlisberger downed several cocktails. His t-shirt reads "Drink Like A Champion Today", which he no doubt purchased at Spencer Gifts when he was at the mall pretending to be Brian St. Pierre.

You can view several other photos (some rather blurry) of the Steelers QB in action at this part here, including a nice shot of him pouring the bottle of booze directly into one of the mouths of one of the Sunday School teachers he was partying with.