How DARE Jerramy Stevens Think His Team Is Going To Win!

Good thing for the Pittsburgh Steelers that their Super Bowl adversary's tight end nudged linebacker Joey Porter awake.

Seattle Seahawk Jerramy Stevens opened his mouth, said some things, and NOW Porter is ready to play. In the Super Bowl, no less.

Speaking of the love-in the city of Detroit and the media has had with Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, returning home for XL, Stevens said, "It's a heartwarming story and all that, but it will be a sad day when [Jerome Bettis] leaves without that trophy."

Sacre bleu! A football player exhibits confidence in his team's chances of winning a world's championship.

Porter then replied with words that caused me both to chuckle and furrow my brow in confusion.

"I've been asleep all week but now I got woke up. I'm going to make sure he owns up to those words."

I've always been one to look cross-eyed at athletes who need opponents' words to motivate them to play. And when it comes to the Super Bowl -- the biggest event in the history of mankind, as you know -- it perplexes me that Joey Porter was "asleep" until Stevens' remarks.

If you need the other team's players' words to get your juices flowing -- unless it was something ridiculously heinous -- then that's much more of an indictment on the juicee than the juicer.

But if there was one good thing that came from Stevens' words, it was that they were the first assemblance of a volley against the fusillade of affection Detroit and the ink-stained wretches have shown to Bettis specifically, and the Steelers in general. The portrayal of the Steelers as the home team here has been the one shameful thing, in my mind, the city of Detroit has propagated. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's awarding of the key to the city to Bettis was the ultimate "Seattle, we don't really like you" maneuver.

Wouldn't it be ironic of there was some player on the Steelers whose hometown was in or around Seattle? Funny how the hordes of media haven't researched that possibility and splashed it in India ink.

But returning to Porter, nobody on the Steelers will call him out. Nobody will say, "Gee whiz -- I thought there was all the motivation you needed built in here. It IS the championship, after all."

So there the Vince Lombardi Trophy sits, ripe for the taking, and only until Jerramy Stevens spoke about the ridiculous Jerome Bettis Bowl did Joey Porter say, in effect, "Okay -- NOW it's on!"

I'm not sure how much words affect performances on the field, anyway. Some players and coaches swear that pregame or halftime speeches can make all the difference in the world, if the right words are chosen and spoken in the proper cadence. Others pooh-pooh them. Former coach Bum Phillips once said, "That lockerroom speech is great -- until the first time that player gets the stuffing beat out of him. Then he doesn't care about any speech."

And, as Phillips went on, "I'd hate to think I have to give a player a pep talk to get him to play."

But that's the way it is during these Super Bowl weeks. Apparently nobody truly wants to win or give it their all until someone from the other side says something offensive like, "I think we're gonna win."

Then player from Team B says, "Oh yeah? NOW I'm mad! I can't wait to rumble with you, my friend!"

So thank you, Jerramy Stevens. Good thing you woke those guys up in Pittsburgh. I think they were being lulled to sleep by Detroit's soothing bosom.