Super Bowl XL

Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2005 season. The Steelers defeated the Seahawks by the score of 21–10. The game was played on February 5, 2006, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It is currently the most recent Super Bowl broadcast on ABC (until Super Bowl LXI in 2027), and the first where all aspects of the game itself were aired in HD. This was the last of 10 straight Super Bowls to feature a team seeking its first win.

With the win, the Steelers tied the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys with the then-record five Super Bowl victories (a record the Steelers themselves would break three years later). The Steelers' victory was their first Super Bowl victory since Super Bowl XIV. Pittsburgh, who finished the regular season with an 11–5 record, also became the fourth wild card team, the third in nine years, and the first ever number 6 seed in the NFL playoffs, to win a Super Bowl. The Seahawks, on the other hand, in their 30th season, were making their first ever Super Bowl appearance after posting an NFC-best 13–3 regular season record.

Pittsburgh capitalized on two big plays that were converted into touchdowns. The Steelers jumped to a 14–3 lead early in the third quarter with running back Willie Parker's Super Bowl record 75-yard touchdown run. Seahawks defensive back Kelly Herndon's then-Super Bowl record 76-yard interception return set up a Seattle touchdown to cut the lead 14–10. But Pittsburgh responded with Antwaan Randle El's 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward, the first time a wide receiver threw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl, to clinch the game in the fourth quarter. Ward, who caught 5 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 18 yards, was named Super Bowl MVP.

The officiating in Super Bowl XL was met with criticism from members of the media soon after the game, leading NFL Films to rank it as one of the top ten controversial calls of all time.

Background

Ford Field was selected to host Super Bowl XL on November 1, 2000, at the owners meetings held in Atlanta, two years before the stadium opened in 2002; the only previous Super Bowl held in the Detroit area, Super Bowl XVI, had been played at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1982 (also between teams from the AFC North and NFC West divisions he Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers, respectively], though the AFC North was called the Central at that time).

The NFL promoted this Super Bowl under the slogan "The Road to Forty." The slogan not only honored the 40-year history of the game, but was a nod to Detroit's traditional role as the center of the U.S. automotive industry. In a related note, Roger Penske, owner of a car dealership, racing team, and other related companies, headed the Super Bowl XL host committee.

This was the first Super Bowl to be played on the newer FieldTurf surface; each of the previous Super Bowls had been played either on natural grass or on the first-generation AstroTurf.

The Seahawks became the first team to have their full team name painted in their end zone for a Super Bowl, as their geographic location name (Seattle) was painted above the team nickname (Seahawks). In Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals became the second team to have their full team name painted in their end zone, as their geographic location name (Arizona) was painted above the team nickname (Cardinals). For all other Super Bowl teams, end zones have featured only the team nickname.

Teams

Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks entered Super Bowl XL after finishing the regular season with an NFC-best 13–3 record. After a rocky 2–2 start, they won 11 consecutive games before losing to the Green Bay Packers to finish the season. The 13–3 record and 11-game winning streak set new team records.

This was Seattle's first Super Bowl appearance in the team's 30-year history. The Seahawks had been mediocre for much of the 1990s, recording eight consecutive non-winning seasons from 1991 through 1998. The team hit a low point in 1996, when then-owner Ken Behring announced his intention to move the team to the Los Angeles area. The team's fortunes began to turn in 1997, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bought the team and brokered a deal to build a new football stadium, Qwest Field (now Lumen Field), to replace the aging Kingdome. Mike Holmgren, who had led the Green Bay Packers to Super Bowls XXXI and XXXII, became head coach in 1999. He became the fifth coach to take two franchises to the Super Bowl. Joe Jurevicius became the sixth player to play in a Super Bowl with three teams.

Behind running back Shaun Alexander, Seattle finished the 2005 season as the league's top offense, scoring 452 points. Meanwhile, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 3,455 yards and 24 touchdowns (against just nine interceptions) and added 124 yards and one touchdown on the ground. Alexander, who had scored at least 16 touchdowns in each of the previous four seasons, had the best campaign of his career, leading the league with 1,880 rushing yards and scoring an NFL-record 28 touchdowns, for which he was rewarded with the NFL Most Valuable Player Award. Although the Seahawks suffered injuries to starting wide receivers Darrell Jackson and Bobby Engram throughout the season, the passing game proved potent, as Engram managed 67 receptions for 778 yards. Joe Jurevicius, a backup when the season began, started eleven games and caught 55 passes for 694 yards and 10 touchdowns; tight end Jerramy Stevens also emerged as a Hasselbeck target, catching 45 passes for 554 yards and scoring five touchdowns. Hasselbeck was protected and Alexander was given time to run by a stout offensive line, led by Pro Bowl offensive tackle Walter Jones, guard Steve Hutchinson, and center Robbie Tobeck, and by bruising Pro Bowl fullback Mack Strong.

Though unheralded rookie middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu was the Seahawks' only defensive Pro Bowl selection, the Seahawks' defense recorded 50 quarterback sacks, leading the NFL in that category; defensive end Bryce Fisher led the Seahawks with nine sacks, while defensive tackle Rocky Bernard added 8.5 and veteran defensive end Grant Wistrom recorded four. Despite starting two rookies at linebacker for most of the year, the Seattle linebacking corps played well, led by Tatupu, who topped the team with 104 tackles and added four sacks, three interceptions, and one fumble recovery. From his strong safety position, Michael Boulware led the team with four interceptions and also tallied two sacks and one fumble recovery. The Seattle secondary suffered injuries throughout the year, notably to free safety Ken Hamlin; second-year cornerback Jordan Babineaux played well as he appeared in all sixteen games for Seattle, intercepting three passes and making 61 tackles. For the year, the defense surrendered just 271 points, 181 fewer than the Seahawks offense scored.

Pittsburgh Steelers

After stumbling to a 7–5 start, the Steelers rebounded and entered Super Bowl XL finishing the regular season with an 11–5 record. (Although the team finished tied with the Cincinnati Bengals for the division lead, the Bengals won the tiebreaker for the AFC North championship based on better divisional record.) They also became the first team ever to defeat the top three seeded teams on the road in the playoffs (#3 Cincinnati, #1 Indianapolis and #2 Denver). In addition, the team became the first sixth-seeded team to reach both a conference championship game and the Super Bowl since the NFL expanded to a 12-team playoff format in 1990.

Under Bill Cowher's reign as head coach since 1992, the Steelers had been one of the top teams in the NFL, making the playoffs in 10 out of his 14 seasons, advancing to the AFC Championship Game six times, and making an appearance in Super Bowl XXX, losing to the Dallas Cowboys 27–17. After having finished the 2003 season with a 6–10 record and after splitting its first two games to open 2004, Pittsburgh lost starting quarterback Tommy Maddox to injury. Maddox was replaced by rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was drafted with the 11th pick in the 2004 NFL Draft but was not expected to play during his rookie season. Nevertheless, Roethlisberger led the Steelers to victory in all of the team's 14 remaining regular season games, giving Pittsburgh a 15–1 record and making the Steelers the first AFC team ever to win 15 games. However, the Steelers lost to eventual Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.

Pittsburgh began the 2005 season by winning seven of its first nine games, but suffered a major setback when both Roethlisberger and his backup, Charlie Batch, went down with injuries. With Maddox back as the starter, the team was upset by Baltimore and dropped two more games after Roethlisberger's return, falling to then-undefeated Indianapolis, and division rival Cincinnati. The postseason hopes of the Steelers were in peril, but the team recovered to win its final four regular season games and to claim the sixth—and final—seed in the AFC playoffs.

Roethlisberger was efficient in his 12 regular season games, throwing for 2,385 yards and seventeen touchdowns with nine interceptions, while adding three rushing touchdowns. The Steelers' main receiving threat was wide receiver Hines Ward, who led the team with 69 receptions for 975 yards and eleven touchdowns. His 69 catches gave him a career total of 574, surpassing a franchise record for receptions previously held by Hall of Famer John Stallworth. On the other side of the field, speedy wide receiver Antwaan Randle El was a constant breakaway threat, catching 35 passes for 558 yards, while gaining 448 yards and two touchdowns on punt returns. Rookie tight end Heath Miller also recorded 39 receptions for 459 yards and six touchdowns.

Pittsburgh's main strength on offense, however, was its running game. Running back Willie Parker was the team's leading rusher with 1,202 yards, while also recording 18 catches for 218 yards and scoring five touchdowns. In short-yardage situations, the team relied on 255-pound running back Jerome Bettis, who rushed for 368 yards and scored nine touchdowns. The 33-year-old Bettis finished his 13th NFL season as the league's fifth all-time leading rusher (13,662 yards and 91 touchdowns), but until this point he had never played in a Super Bowl. The Steelers rushing attack was powered by an offensive line led by Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca and Pro Bowl reserve center Jeff Hartings.

The Steelers defense ranked fourth in the NFL, giving up 284.0 total yards per game. The Pittsburgh defense was led by its linebacking corps: Joey Porter, James Farrior, Clark Haggans, and Larry Foote. Porter led all NFL linebackers with 10.5 quarterback sacks and also recorded two interceptions and a fumble recovery. Haggans tallied nine sacks and 40 tackles, while Farrior added a team-high 119 tackles to go with his two sacks and one fumble recovery. In the secondary, free safety Chris Hope led the team with three interceptions, while Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu, the team's top threat in the defensive backfield, notched 91 tackles, three sacks, two fumble recoveries, and two interceptions.

The Steelers became just the third team to win the Super Bowl despite not playing a single home game in the playoffs. The Green Bay Packers, who won Super Bowl I (against the Kansas City Chiefs), and the Kansas City Chiefs, who won Super Bowl IV (against the Minnesota Vikings), also accomplished the feat. The Steelers, however, had to win four games to accomplish the feat, while the Chiefs won three and Packers won only two games.

Of a "bridging the eras" moment, Steelers cornerback Willie Williams was the last remaining player to have been on the Steelers last Super Bowl team, their Super Bowl XXX loss to the Dallas Cowboys following the 1995 season. (Defensive backs coach Darren Perry was also a player on the Super Bowl XXX team. Both were starters in that game.) Ironically, Williams, who was in his second stint with the Steelers at the time, played with Seattle from 1997 to 2003. He was inactive for Super Bowl XL, which, like Bettis, turned out to be his final NFL game before retiring that offseason.

Statistical comparison

The chart below provides a comparison of regular season statistics in key categories (overall rank amongst 32 teams in parentheses).

Playoffs

The Seahawks became the first team to advance to the Super Bowl without playing a division champion in the playoffs (later matched by the Colts in 2009, Steelers in 2010, and the Seahawks again in 2013, with the 2013 Seahawks being the only one of the four to win the Super Bowl). Off a first-round bye, Seattle defeated the sixth-seeded Washington Redskins, 20–10, before eliminating the fifth-seeded Carolina Panthers, 34–14, in the NFC Championship Game. These were Seattle's first playoff victories since the 1984 season when they defeated the Los Angeles Raiders 13–7, when the team was still in the AFC (the Seahawks were in that conference from 1977 to 2001).

The Steelers became the second team after the 1985 New England Patriots to win three road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh defeated the third-seeded Cincinnati Bengals, 31–17; the top-seeded Indianapolis Colts, 21–18 in the '' Immaculate Redemption/Tackle II'' game; and the second-seeded Denver Broncos, 34–17, in the AFC Championship Game. The Steelers also became the eighth wild-card team to go to the Super Bowl and the fourth in nine seasons. The Steelers' catchphrase for the playoffs was "One for the Thumb", a phrase originally made popular by Joe Greene as an allusion to a fifth Super Bowl ring.

Practice venues

Seahawks

The Seahawks practiced at the Detroit Lions' practice facility in Allen Park.

Steelers

The Steelers practiced at the Silverdome in Pontiac (site of Super Bowl XVI). Since the Silverdome featured Astroturf, a FieldTurf surface was temporarily installed at the venue specifically for these practices. After the Super Bowl the playing surface used for these practices was donated by the manufacturers of FieldTurf for use at Wisner Stadium, a public sports stadium in Pontiac.

Broadcasting

Television

ABC Sports

With the expiration of the television contracts among ABC, CBS, ESPN, and Fox following the 2005 season, Super Bowl XL ended up being ABC's final NFL broadcast as a regular NFL broadcaster. Following the game, ''Monday Night Football'' moved to corporate sibling ESPN under the new deal, which also saw ESPN/ABC being removed from the Super Bowl rotation. ABC would later simulcast all future ESPN-produced playoff games starting in January 2016, and select Monday Night games starting in 2020. ABC would be reinstated to the Super Bowl rotation in 2021, where they gained rights to two Super Bowls in 2027 and 2031.

Although the Super Bowl had largely been presented in high definition since Super Bowl XXXIV, Super Bowl XL was the first Super Bowl where all aspects of the game itself were aired in HD.

The telecast featured play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, color commentator John Madden, who was named the day before to the Class of 2006 by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and sideline reporters Michele Tafoya (Steelers sideline) and Suzy Kolber (Seahawks sideline). This was the sixth Super Bowl telecast for Michaels, and the tenth for Madden (whose first was Super Bowl XVI, also played in Michigan). The opening theme was sung by Hank Williams Jr., who was later spotted in the stands wearing Steelers regalia.

This game was the second Super Bowl broadcast for the Michaels-Madden pairing after they had called Super Bowl XXXVII for ABC three years earlier. Madden had already signed with NBC to broadcast games for them beginning in the 2006 season; several days later Michaels, who was still under contract to ABC and ESPN, joined him in exchange for ESPN gaining partial coverage of the Ryder Cup golf tournament and The Walt Disney Company, ABC's parent, gaining all intellectual property rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character that Walt Disney had created for Universal Pictures (NBC's corporate sibling) in the 1920s. Michaels and Madden would go on to call one more Super Bowl together, Super Bowl XLIII, after which Madden retired from broadcasting altogether.

With the Steelers win, they became the fourth team to win Super Bowls on three networks (NBC- IX and XIII, CBS– X and XIV, and ABC) joining the Green Bay Packers (NBC- I, CBS- II, Fox- XXXI and XLV), San Francisco 49ers (NBC- XXIII, CBS- XVI, and XXIV, ABC- XIX and XXIX), and Washington Redskins (NBC- XVII, ABC- XXII, CBS- XXVI). These teams have since been joined by the New York Giants, who also surpassed them by winning a Super Bowl on each of the networks that carried the game; their win in Super Bowl XXI was carried by CBS, their win in Super Bowl XXV was carried by ABC, their win in Super Bowl XLII was carried by Fox, and their win in Super Bowl XLVI was carried by NBC, and later by the New England Patriots, who had two Super Bowl wins on Fox (XXXVI and XXXIX), one Super Bowl win on CBS ( XXXVIII), and a Super Bowl win on NBC ( XLIX).

Before this game, the NFC was 6–0 in Super Bowls broadcast on ABC.

Studio show

Chris Berman, from Disney-owned corporate sibling ESPN, returned to host ABC's pregame show, as he had done for the network's coverage of Super Bowls XXXIV and XXXVII. Berman was joined by his fellow analysts from ESPN's ''Sunday NFL Countdown'' pregame show: Michael Irvin, Tom Jackson, and Steve Young, along with co-host Mike Tirico and New England Patriots head coach (and three-time Super Bowl winner) Bill Belichick. Also contributing to the pre-game show were Tafoya, Kolber, Sam Ryan, Andrea Kremer, Kenny Mayne and Chris Mortensen.

International

Since the game was being played close to the U.S.-Canada border, Canadian television rights holders Global broadcast portions of an NFL-sponsored "Passport To The Super Bowl" event in nearby Windsor, Ontario, featuring a performance by the newly revived 1980s rock group INXS with Canadian native lead singer J.D. Fortune, though the network limited coverage of the Windsor event to short segments immediately prior to commercial breaks.

The game was also televised in Australia ( SBS), Austria (ORF and TW1), Brazil (ESPN International), Denmark ( TV 2), Finland ( MTV3), France (France 2), Germany ( ARD), Hungary ( Sport 1), Iceland ( SÝN), Ireland (Sky Sports), Italy (Sky Sports 3 and Italia 1), Japan ( NHK BS-1, NTV), Mexico (TV Azteca), Netherlands ( SBS6), New Zealand (ESPN International/ SKY TV), Portugal (SportTV), Slovenia ( Prva TV), Spain ( Canal +), Sweden ( ZTV), and UK and Ireland ( ITV/Sky Sports). According to the NFL, the game was available worldwide in 32 languages.

The main NFL international feed of the game featured FOX broadcasters Dick Stockton and Daryl Johnston providing commentary tailored to those largely unfamiliar with the rules of American football.

Radio

Westwood One/CBS Radio provided radio coverage in the United States, with the broadcasting team of Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason.

Sirius Satellite Radio and NFL.com carried international local-language broadcasts from the United Kingdom ( BBC Radio Five Live), Spain ( Canal Plus Spain), Russia ( NTV), Belgium ( BeTV, in French), China ( SMG), and Japan ( NTV), in addition to the press box intercom and the public address announcer feeds.

Entertainment

Pre-game ceremonies

During the pre-game ceremonies, Stevie Wonder, along with Joss Stone, India.Arie, and John Legend, performed a medley of Wonder's hits. The Four Tops also performed during the pregame ceremonies, though the performance was not televised.

In honor of the fortieth Super Bowl, the pre-game ceremony featured the on-field introduction of 30 of the previous 34 Super Bowl Most Valuable Players (with the exception of Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Jake Scott, and the late Harvey Martin). The absences of Montana and Bradshaw were originally reported to have been due to disagreements over appearance funds to be paid by the NFL, but each later rebutted such reports, suggesting that they had prior family commitments; Scott was reported to have been traveling through Australia. This ceremony continued a ten-year tradition (starting with Super Bowl XX and then repeated in Super Bowl XXX) in which past Super Bowl MVPs were honored before the game.

A moment of silence was observed in memory of the two civil rights activists who had died during the months prior to the game: Coretta Scott King (six days earlier) and Rosa Parks (on October 24, 2005), the latter a long-time Detroit resident.

The Steelers became the first AFC club, and only the third franchise overall, to wear white jerseys despite being the "home" team. The first two clubs, the Cowboys ( Super Bowls XIII and XXVII) and the Redskins ( Super Bowl XVII), traditionally wore white at home. The Denver Broncos later became the second AFC team and fourth club overall to wear white jerseys in a Super Bowl despite being the home team in Super Bowl 50. Bill Cowher stated that the Steelers were playing in Detroit, not Pittsburgh, and therefore it was not a "home" game (although 10 years earlier Cowher's Steelers did wear their black home jerseys as the designated "home" team in Super Bowl XXX at Tempe, Arizona away from Pittsburgh, where they had won both their playoff games to reach that Super Bowl). Having been the Cowboys' opponent in Super Bowl XIII, Pittsburgh also became the first team to have worn white jerseys for a "home" Super Bowl and colored jerseys for an "away" one.

The teams took the field while flanked on either side by flags bearing the names of all previous Super Bowl MVPs. Although the participating teams each entered as a team for their introduction, the Steelers insisted on sending Jerome Bettis out ahead of the rest of the team in front of his hometown crowd.

Singers Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville, along with pianist Dr. John and a 150-member choir, performed the national anthem as part of a pre-game tribute to New Orleans