Although Russell Wilson is short on stature he demonstrated that he is long on brains and humility as he led the Seattle Seahawks to their first Super Bowl title - (Larry Maurer - photo)

Richard Sherman is a boy from the hood of Compton, California who was ridiculed by the media for his trash talking with some depicting him as a thug - (Jeffrey Beall - photo)   The Seahawks Marshawn Lynch a boy from the hood who is not a talkie kind of guy said he would do his talking on the field. - (Stephanie Rush, Pacific Regional Medical Command Public Affairs r - photo)

SPORTS NOTES EXTRA - THE BOYS FROM THE HOOD = SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

Who-da thunk it meaning the thrashing that the Seattle Seahawks gave the Denver Broncos in a 43-8 Super Bowl result? The question is where the Broncos intimidated by the antics of the BOYS FROM THE HOOD who played head games and trash to no talking. The result was like a strong armed young street gangster stealing an old lady's pocketbook

Friday, February 07, 2014

BRONCOS??? DAY WAS MUGGED

Yes, yes using the word (day) is a play on words but when the Hawks from Seattle flew into the MetLife Stadium MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey Sunday they did a job on the Denver Broncos that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud enough to rise from the ashes and make a Birds sequel featuring the Hawks from Seattle with some from the HOOD. The result was a Seahawks 43-8 win in what turned out to be the third biggest margin of defeat in Super Bowl history.

Prior to the contest there was a major focus by the media on Richard Sherman who went wild with a rant on San Francisco 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree in Seattle's 23 - 17 victory in the Western Conference final after Sherman intercepted a pass directed at Crabtree. The two combatants previously had a history of expressing themselves with ghetto speak and behavior thus for Sherman it was payback time. The social media geeks went wild calling Sherman a thug and worse. Basically some comments had racial overtones. Sherman admitted that his behavior was from his hometown background living in the hood (neighborhood) of Compton, California.

Sherman was depicted as a bad boy but it laws later revealed that even though he come from the hood of Compton, California he was intelligent enough to get out and receive a scholarships to Stanford University which is considered the Harvard of the West. Sherman graduated in 2010 from Stanford with a degree in communication and returned for his final year of eligibility in order to begin a Masters degree. The super athlete achieved in academics when he attended Dominguez High School in Compton. He was a scholar-athlete earning the honor of Salutatorian (ranked second) in his high school class.

For those that don't know Harvard is considered by many as the best University in the USA and Compton is a town that has homes with bars on windows and doors to keep people out and not in as we pointed out 16 years ago in a story we published about the tennis Williams sisters.

The other media beat down target darling was Marshawn Lynch who also comes from the mean streets of Oakland, California. For those that are not in the know Oakland has a street gang reputation like Compton. Lynch got out of it due to his football skills and escaped his way to the Super Bowl title. Given that he's not the best at the Kings English he preferred to do his talking on the field and he did just that.

Lynch's non verbal actions brings to mind William "Refrigerator" Perry who was a member of the Chicago Bears Super Bowl champions in game (XX)January 26, 1986 and a 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots. Perry earned his nickname name In reference to his large size, height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) weight: 335 lb (152 kg) he was popularly known as "The Refrigerator" or, abbreviated, "The Fridge". He was a special player who was also used as a running back on goal-line situations. Though like Lynch he was loved and popular he avoided talking to the press.

Lynch was fined $50,000 by the NFL for refusing to talk to the media throughout the 2013 NFL season, It made the fans of Seattle Seahawks to fundraise that amount. However the fine was subsequently pulled back in an agreement that he will be fined another $50,000 if he breaks the same rule and donates the amount funds raised by Seahawks fans originally used to pay his fine for charity. Lynch is known for being reluctant to talk to the media.

Basically these two young men Lynch and Sherman exemplify how their tough street life background transcended into the Seahawks tough style of play which this past Sunday was about grab-em and mug-em and take the ball away. It was a mugging job all the way as Seattle seldom went for a tackle they focused in mugging and stripping the ball from the Broncos. From the start they rattled the Denver squad so badly beginning with a safety on their first offensive series due to a wayward center snap out of the end-zone that set the scene of a rattled Broncos team that never recovered and resulted in four turnovers and a deflated moral.

In our previous issue we boldly stated, "Now the table is set for what can be one of the greatest Super Bowls ever and the game within the game.... Manning vs. Manning. Stay tuned..." Ohhhh yep we bit the dust on that one but hey life goes on right? What did happen was it was the most-watched television event in U.S. history, drawing 111.5 million viewers. The Seattle victory eclipsed the 111.3 million viewers who watched the 2012 Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, according to the Nielsen company. Until last year's game dipped slightly to 108.7 million, the Super Bowl had set ratings records for the previous three years in a row. Gamblers wagered a record $119.4 million at Nevada casinos. It was a sad game to watch since the games great expectations never materialized.

Peyton Manning failed to equal his younger brother's record of having won two Super Bowls but he is ahead on appearances 3-2. Eli is 2 for 2 while Peyton is 1 for 3. In this game Peyton experienced what his father Archie went through during his entire career in receiving poor protection. The Seahawks came too play and their leagues best defense devoured the leagues best offense proving the old adage that a good defense will beat a good offense.

The weather was a big story prior to the game but Mother Nature put some sand in the Vaseline as temperatures were reported to be mostly in the 40 degree Fahrenheit. That pre game concern brought back old memories of my covering the Super Bowl in XXVI on January 26, 1992 pitting the Hogs AKA Washington Redskins against the Buffalo Bills resulting in a 37-24 Redskin win. The weather was so cold that there was frost inside my hotel window. One of the media activities was ice fishing which I passed on to keep in a warm place as much as possible.

There were ice statues outside that never melted given the cold. Then CNN dropped the bomb after this Super Bowl was the fear was this game was in jeopardy and could have been moved to another location as the fears of climate problems could be the worst of all time in Super Bowl history since it was in a NON COVERED CLIMATE CONTROLLED stadium. The Minneapolis game was indoors at the Minneapolis Metrodome.

The most interesting experience from that game was running into an entertainment sports reporter colleague Larry Fitzgerald with his son. That son grew up to be the Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals. Fitzgerald recently signed a restructured contract with the Cardinals, apparently relieving them of his $18 million cap hit the team was scheduled to take in 2014. Go figure!

The following year we covered the Super Bowl in Los Angeles pitting the Dallas Cowboys against those Buffalo Bills again, The result was a boring 52-17 Cowboys win which ironically ties this Super Bowl the third worst defeat spread of 35 points. The Bills went on to set a record of appearing in four straight Super Bowls and LOSING them all. In 1994 they lost to the Cowboys again 30-13. They started their skid prior to their Minneapolis experience in 1991 by losing to the New York Giants 20-19.

With the Seahawks proving that muggary/thuggery style of play works it could set a trend that players in the future will focus on stealing the ball since Seattle proved that it worked for them. With the bad boy image that was initiated from the lips of Richard Sherman following his interception in the Western Conference finals against the 49ers.

But the bottom line in although Manning experienced one of his worst days of his career and you can't take away what he did during his record braking season. Given his work ethic and determination he will come back again to the Super Bowl but at the moment the Hawks from Seattle are flying high with their well deserved championship title.

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