Who will win Superbowl XL

SULLIVAN: This Sunday the Steelers Cinderella-like ride will come crashing down in Motor City. I know I am in the minority here and all the pundits are picking the Steelers, but I've got to tell you, I know it will be the Seahawks all the way.

On first look, you want to pick the Steelers because the franchise is loaded with history and mystique. You look at Seattle and wonder: "Who the hell are these guys?" Precisely.

Their QB, Matt Hasselback, had a great year-he was the NFL's top quarterback stat wise-and the guy is rarely mentioned as an elite NFL tosser. Now, Shaun Alexander-the MVP-may struggle against the solid Pittsburgh D, but they are not going to shut him down the whole game. Seattle has solid players at all offensive positions, and Pittsburgh will not know where to begin to defend them.

The big surprise is Seattle's defense. They shut Carolina down. This shouldn't have come as a surprise: They have a great no-name defense that led the league with 50 sacks. Big Ben will get his bell rung by these tough and agile defenders.

You can run the story about the Bus going home to Detroit, but that big back is lucky his fumble didn't cost the Steelers the game against the Colts. The Seahawks are going to be on the Steeler O like white on rice.

I'll take the Seahawks and their 3 1/2 points any day. Easy pickings.

HOLLANDER: You, my onanistic friend, are an "elite tosser" of the first order. Listening to you pulling on it over Hasselbeck makes you sound like one of those sickening, pansy Seattle geeks who comprise that lamest football cheering device ever, the "12th Man." Wipe yourself down with a Terrible Towel, big boy. The Seahawks will turn to bird shit once they hit the Steel Curtain. As they've done in each of their playoffs games, Pittsburgh will control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. No one gets near Ben Roethlisberger, who, as an NFL sophomore, continues to demonstrate the mistake-free poise of a crusty veteran. Defensively, Pittsburgh will blitz the hell out of Hasselbeck and he won't be able to take it. It will be just like Peyton Manning when he turned into a backstabbing piece of jelly, and also like Jake Plummer when he reverted back into an interception machine. Hasselbeck and the entire Seahawk offense will shrink toward embarrassment. In fact I'll tell you right now, that Steeler linebackers James Farrior and Joey Porter will be Super Bowl XL co-MVPs. Shaun Alexander is getting another concussion just thinking about it.

From a sentimental point of view, there are two guys on the Steelers who are due for a Super Bowl victory. After 13 years, Jerome Bettis' bus is on a crash course toward winning the Lombardi Trophy. A career like his ends with a Super Bowl. If only John Facenda were here to call it for -: "In the Motor City, the bus is one automobile that runs on a football field." And Bill Cowher is a consistently great coach. How he gets what he does from his players is a study in tactical and motivational genius. It's time he got his due.

Plus, if I have to see that nerdy, overgrown adolescent Paul Allen raising his fist in the air one more time, I'm gonna ask one of the Rooney boys to punch him in the face.

Deal with it, C.J. At every level my Palamalu can beat up your Tatupu. Pittsburgh, 29-Seattle, 25.

SULLIVAN: I have no problems with you mocking me, but to take out your lame fury on the dedicated football fans of Seattle is just unconscionable. After 30 years this team finally makes it to the big dance, and all those years the Seahawk fans stuck with that floundering franchise. They should be honored for hanging in there. May the ghost of Kurt Cobain haunt your dreams, cynic boy. Tatupu will go Poly on Big Ben, and Palamalu will run around like a road runner but will be easily avoided. Hassleback can run-you forgot about that. Peyton Manning is a great QB as long as he can stay in the pocket. Hasselback is use to getting pursued and hit, and the Steelers will offer nothing new there.

I knew you would bite at that Bettis cliche of his fat ass coming home to Detroit for his last game. Big Boy goes home a loser. There ain't gonna be any John Elway cowboy shit in this Super Bowl.

The Steelers have been on a tear-I'll give you that. But they are now up against a team of destiny that everyone discounts. The Seahawks find ways to win, and the Steelers are not all that. They are lucky they even got to the playoffs in the first place.

The clock strikes 12 on Feb. 5th, Hollander. Ask not for whom the bell tolls-it tolls for you and all the other suckers that gave 3 1/2 points.

Seahawks, 27-Steelers, 24.

HOLLANDER: I would expect a working man like you to side with the identity of the Steelers and the tough, blue-collar town they come from. Instead you champion the snotty, depressive, book-worming types from Seattle. Like it or not, this Super Bowl will be in Detroit. The miserable have-nots of the Motor City have much more in common with the disgruntled mine and factory workers who root for the Steelers. This gives Pittsburgh a veritable home field and all the advantages that come with it. Hey, I loved fish-packing as well as the Puget Sound Seattle Seahawks of Jim Zorn and the whacky Kingdome. The fact that Zorn is Seattle's QB coach gives me some respect for them. But to cook up some false sympathy for that obnoxious city is bit much and a bit revisionist.

Seattle gave us the great Steve Largent who, though perhaps having the best set of hands in NFL history, went on to become one of the most virulently right-wing congressmen in the history of the Pacific Northwest. Alternatively, Pittsburgh gave us the multicultural Franco Harris and a true American hero, Rocky Blier, who won the Purple Heart in Vietnam after maiming his foot while defending our country. I will not sit here, Sullivan, and countenance your swift-boating of the Pittsburgh Steelers! Have you no decency?

Troy Palamalu will say a prayer for you. And, after the Steelers win on Sunday, I predict that Palamalu donates his hair to Locks for Love.

That's three Super Bowl predictions from me in this column. That's real sports writing.