Super Bowl LIV Q&A: Seahawks beat writer Gregg Bell gives his thoughts on the 49ers-Chiefs matchup
With the eyes of the NFL focused on Miami this week and Super Bowl LIV, I became curious. What does a beat writer whose team is NOT in the Super Bowl think about this week’s game and what does News Tribune Seahawks beat writer Gregg Bell do during Super Bowl week, aside from hitting the gym with DK Metcalf.
I had a chance to ask him about the game, some past Super Bowls and gave us a peek at his end-of season, start of-off season routine.
Q: What are your overall thoughts on the Super Bowl LIV matchup
A: It’s the you-can’t-do-that-in-2020 running game of the 49ers against Russell Wilson 2.0, the improvisational Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
The defense that is able to most slow down what the opposing offense does best is usually the team that wins. (See: Seahawks over Denver and Manning in Super Bowl XLVIII, and New England, in just about every one of their Super Bowl wins including 13-3 last year over the Rams).
San Francisco’s defense can get after Mahomes unlike anyone else, with Nick Bosa, DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead and just its front four.
But Mahomes is such a singular talent. He is capable of winning this title game all by himself.
Q: What position (or coaching) matchup will determine the game’s outcome?
A: Can Kansas City’s offensive line keep Bosa, Buckner, Armstead and San Francisco’s front-four pass rush from making Mahomes uncomfortable, like it has almost every other quarterback this season?
Chiefs offensive tackles Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher are good. But they are the guys most on the spot in this one.
Fisher was the double-fisted beer celebration guy in the AFC title game.
He deserves a keg if he blocks this 49ers front Sunday.
Q: For Super Bowl week, what is it like for a beat writer covering one of the teams in the game? How are things for you right now as Seattle is NOT in the Super Bowl? Is it basically a head-start on the NFL Draft for you?
A: I’ve covered four Super Bowls. Three have been as a beat writer for a team in the game (Raiders-Buccaneers Super Bowl XXXVII, Seahawks-Steelers Super Bowl XL and Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl XLIX. Another was the Rams-Patriots Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans,Tom Brady’s coming-out party.)
For the beat writer of a team in the game, it’s a grind. At least in the six days and nights until the game, especially in the Eastern Time Zone for a West Coast paper. But it’s a huge reward on game day. I’ve gotten sick at the end of each of those three Super Bowl weeks, from just being overtired. You re-write all the key players and angles you’ve been writing all year. It’s just now EVERYONE--editors, readers, bosses--is asking about/wanting more about each of those angles. You have a cool cache among the thousands of media members there, because you are among the select handful that truly know the team’s players, coaches and staff, and that is a big asset to get unique stories and news others can’t. I never forget how fortunate I am to be there, how so many football fans around the world would trade places with me. I absolutely love and appreciate my job. I hope the writing and reporting shows some of that.
When you are at a Super Bowl and your team isn’t in it, it’s a blast. Shorter days, longer nights(!), and the freedom to find and write any stories that interest you.
Right now, with the Seahawks not there, it’s time for me to catch up on seven months of lost family time. A LOT of cooking dinners, going to my kids’ sporting and school events, trying to give back my wife of 25 years at least some of what I haven’t been around to do since July. I wouldn’t be married for 25 years if not for these times, trust me.
The draft? I’ll wait as long as I can before diving into writing about that. I’ll be at the NFL combine again in Indianapolis at the end of February and will get more into the draft and prospects for Seattle at and after that.
For now it’s primers on what to expect when free agency begins in mid March. Whom the Seahawks are likely to re-sign and let go, stories such as those.
Q: OK, Cool. What’s the Best Super Bowl you ever covered
But the rest of that 20-17 game was a boring dud
That was the first Super Bowl you couldn’t drive near the stadium and park in the surrounding lots. The stadium was a fortress that day: armored vehicles with armed shooters atop them and snipers on rooftops all around the secured perimeter of the Superdome. Every Super Bowl since has had that level of security. Everyone busses into controlled access points leading to the stadium
The best one I’ve covered, by far: Super Bowl 49 in Glendale. The Seahawks take a 21-10 lead on Brady in the second half. Cliff Avril goes out with a concussion. Seattle’s pass rush stops. Brady rallies New England into the lead late. Jermaine Kearse makes the greatest Super Bowl catch everyone has forgotten--because of Russell Wilson throwing the interception to Malcolm Butler at the goal line in the final seconds. I gasped out loud in the press box as Wilson dropped to throw. Our great retired colleague and columnist John McGrath turned to me as soon as Butler picked off that pass and said: “We just saw the worst play call in Super Bowl history.” And that’s what we wrote
By the way: forget that garbage conspiracy theory Pete Carroll didn’t want Marshawn Lynch to win the Super Bowl MVP and that’s why he didn’t hand the ball off to him at the 1. The NFL came down the press box rows midway through the fourth quarter to collect hand-written MVP votes that night, so they could be counted in time for immediate announcement of the winner after the game.
The leading vote-getter for Seahawks Super Bowl XLIX MVP, based anecdotally on the people I talked to seated around me that night, before that unforgettable ending.
Now THAT would make a great trivia question.
Q: If you had to watch 2-3 Super Bowls for the rest of your life, what would they be? I know mine are Super Bowl III, XIII, and Super Bowl XLII.
A: Super Bowl XIII. Grew up 45 minutes west of Three Rivers Stadium. Had all my Steelers stuff and Terrible Towels laid out in front of the TV watching that game. Bradshaw, Stallworth, Swann, Harris, Staubach, Hill, Dorsett, Too Tall Jones, Hollywood Henderson. Jackie Smith, “He’s got to be the sickest man in America,” dropping a touchdown pass in the second half. Epic.
Super Bowl XLIII, Steelers over Cardinals. James Harrison going 100 yards with a pick six. Santonio Holmes with the original Toe Drag Swag in the final seconds to win it all.
Super Bowl XLIX, Seahawks-Patriots.
And DEFINITELY NOT last year’s.
Q: Final question, who raises the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday Night
A: The Chiefs. Mahomes wins it almost by himself with a magical night.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
