Steelers 56, Seahawks 3

That's my prediction for Super Bowl XL. The Steelers will pace themselves and score two touchdowns per quarter before finally extending an act of grace and allowing the Seahawks a field goal - out of pity.

Before you Seahawk fans choke on your Starbucks, let me explain why an uppity woman from Michigan has the audacity to make such an outlandish prediction. First of all, I lived in Pittsburgh for nearly 15 years and grew to love the city, my husband is from Pittsburgh, and my children were all born there. Secondly, two hometown Detroit men play for the Steelers, so that just makes it even sweeter.

Actually, the score probably won't be as lopsided as I predicted. A local sportswriter is predicting the final score will be Steelers 24, Seahawks 14. That would be acceptable. The Steelers get the win and you guys walk away with your dignity.

To get back to the hometown connection, our local papers have some great feature articles on Jerome Bettis and Larry Foote in case you'd like to read a little background about the men who haunt the Seahawks' dreams.

There is also another reason why the Steelers can't lose - its hard to find more loyal fans than Pittsburghers, and the Steelers will be playing to a Pittsburgh friendly crowd. (The Detroit area is home to thousands of transplants from southwestern Pennsylvania.)

Um, Pittsburgh fans, let me just add this one tiny bit of criticism. You might consider tempering your enthusiasm just a bit and keeping your supersitions in check. I caught this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

When Joshua Vannoy decided to wear a Denver Broncos jersey Friday, he knew there would be some joking from diehard Steelers fans at Big Beaver Falls Area Senior High School. But he never expected to feel humiliated by his teacher during a mid-term examination and become so shaken up that he could not finish his test...

He's made a complaint to the principal against John Kelly, who teaches an honors class on ethnic relations, saying the teacher made him sit on the floor to take his test and instructed other classmates to pelt him with balled up sheets of notebook paper...

Mr. Kelly had little to say on the subject yesterday. "We won the game [Sunday] night, didn't we?" he said. "That's all I was worried about."...

Joshua said his feelings were hurt, his nerves shattered and Mr. Kelly's reaction to his John Elway No. 7 jersey was anything but humorous.

"He had a dead serious face," said Joshua. "He never laughed at all."

He said when he went to sit down at his regular desk on Friday, Mr. Kelly ordered him to "take those books off my desk. I own that desk." He placed his textbooks on the floor and then sat down at the desk.

Joshua said his teacher told him to "get out of my desk. You're sitting in my desk."

He said Mr. Kelly began sliding the desks into a circle. Then he told Joshua to sit on the floor in the center of the circle.

While Mr. Kelly passed out the tests, he dropped Joshua's test papers, scattering them on the floor so that he had to crawl around and pick them up, Joshua said.

"As I started to write my name on the papers and number them, I noticed he went to the cupboard and grabbed a handful of notebook paper and handed it to all the kids and said, 'This is part two of your test. You'll get points for this. Take the paper and ball it up with two hands and throw it at the Denver fan,' " Joshua said.

Joshua said there were "papers flying everywhere towards me. At one point, a girl refused to do it and he [Mr. Kelly] took the paper off her desk and threw it into the back of my head."

That teacher was wrong and set a bad example for his students. Win or lose, the Steelers will still be champions, and they deserve fans who act like winners instead of losers. Do you hear me, Mr. Kelly?