Seahawks aren't just winging it

DEARBORN, Mich. -- The way the Seahawks talk, you might think Seattle is foreign to the rest of the country.

So maybe Matt Hasselbeck's movie choice on the team's flight to the Midwest was appropriate: ''Coming to America."

The Seahawks arrived in Detroit yesterday for Super Bowl XL hoping to impress a country of football fans that in many ways has overlooked one of the best teams in the NFL throughout the season.

Of course, their opportunity to show how good a team they are will not come until Sunday, when they face the Pittsburgh Steelers, a 4-point favorite as the No. 6 seed out of the AFC. Seattle finished 13-3 and was the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

''Because of where we are, where Seattle's located, and the television exposure teams get and we get, I think not a lot of people know what kind of a football team we have," Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said. ''I told the team that's OK, because ultimately you'll be judged by what happens and where you are at the end of the season.

''I understand why we're underdogs. There's really only one way to handle that, and it's not by talking about it. It's by playing the game and seeing what happens."

Before the team boarded its luxurious jet for the four-hour flight, Hasselbeck spoke at a pep rally. Later, across the country at a news conference at the team hotel, he said victory in the Super Bowl could make Seattle more like Boston.

''What I was trying to say at our send-off is we got a great city, we really do," said Hasselbeck, who grew up in Norfolk, Mass., and played at Boston College. ''There aren't many places that are better to live than Seattle, there really aren't. But if you were an outsider looking at Seattle and evaluating it, you might say, 'Well they don't have a Lombardi Trophy.'

''When Boston got all their Lombardi Trophies, it became a little bit cooler of a place to be, I thought."

While Pittsburgh arrives today, the Seahawks had no problem with taking to their team jet.

''We enjoy traveling," he said. ''It's almost unfair, it really is. Some people sleep, I tend not to sleep because I'm so enamored by all the stuff on the plane.

''The bathroom right in front of my seat is nicer than the bathroom in my first house that I owned. It's incredible. It's got windows, mouthwash, and perfumes -- those are for the flight attendants, not us -- so we enjoy ourselves."

Like the Steelers, the Seahawks have to balance a week of hype following a week of hype. Holmgren, who led two Green Bay teams to Super Bowls, told his team last week that they would prepare on a regular work week, as if the game were yesterday, so that when they hit Detroit, the hard part would be behind them.

''We kind of put in all the work. We're ready to go," Hasselbeck said. ''If this game was [today], we've got the game plan. The fact that we have another week is really nice because of all the other stuff that goes on this week, but it was very businesslike last week.

''It was tough mentally and physically. We got after it in practice. So for that reason we're really focused on the task at hand more so than [thinking], 'Oh my gosh, we're in the Super Bowl.' "

The game plan may have been implemented, but the preparation continues through the week.

Holmgren said his squad will have a light workout today, as it normally does Mondays. In 1998, Holmgren worked his Packers hard Tuesday, the traditional Media Day, and he regretted that decision after they lost to Denver. So he'll give the Seahawks the day off tomorrow, and return to a normal practice schedule for Wednesday through Friday.

''We can't just sit around and do nothing all week," fullback Mack Strong said. ''We still have to prepare and make sure that physically we're ready to go. By the time we play the game it'll be two weeks since our last game, so that'll be a little bit different.

''We just want to make sure that we're as prepared for the game as we can possibly be so that when we go out there Sunday, everything we do is second nature and we're just letting our ability and our talent be displayed out there on the football field."

Having been scolded by Texas A&M for unauthorized use of the term 12th Man, the Seahawks could find themselves short on fans in the early part of this week. Not only does Pittsburgh have a more national and longtime following -- the Steelers won Super Bowls before the Seahawks ever played a game -- but the Steel City is about 300 miles from Detroit.

Already, if measured by jerseys being worn downtown Sunday, Steelers fans are out in droves, while Seahawks fans are hard to find.

''I think we'll have enough of our fans come out that we can feel it," Strong said. ''People are very excited. They're going nuts. Seattle's never experienced a Super Bowl, so it's new for all of us, fans as well as players."