I was going to write one of those diaries of how I spent Super Sunday. Bad idea. I was too much of a lot of things – mostly anxious and excited – to keep track of anything. So I’m dumping the diary idea in favor of some good ole stream of consciousness about the Steelers.

Here goes:

*Super Bowl XL had the highest Nielsen ratings of any Super Bowl in the last ten years (aka the last time the Steelers played in the Super Bowl). It was also the second most watched program in the history of television, trailing only the MASH finale. The only explanation is that Steelers fans are completely awesome, and a little bit crazy. For as much as guys like Skip Bayless tried to convince everyone that the Steelers-Seahawks match up wasn’t exciting, nobody was listening. (We were listening to the ‘Pol-la-ma-lu’ song, naturally.)

*An estimated 250,000 people attended the victory parade. The city of Pittsburgh is home to about 300,000; the Pittsburgh MSA has about 2.3 million people. That means about 10% of the local population showed up for the parade. Awesome.

*Mike Holmgren made some complaints about the refs at the pity party Seattle held for the Seahawks. Way to man up, Mike. Maybe next you can explain how the refs made you absolutely butcher the clock at the end of each half, or how you decided that, with 6 minutes remaining and trailing by 11, punting from midfield made any sense at all. Thanks for that punt, by the way. It signified to everyone watching that you weren’t interested in trying for a real comeback, and that everyone in Steelers nation could relax and coast into the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy.

*I know you! You’re Jerramy Stevens! Stevens posted an excellent game, if you ignore the three dropped passes. Certainly the Steelers safeties know who he is – both Troy Polamalu and Chris Hope laid Stevens out while he bobbled away easy catches. The silver lining for Jerramy is that his touchdown catch – which was set up by a pick (hmmm, I thought those were illegal) – was a thing of beauty. Then again, my grandmother could have caught that pass.

*Maybe we should go easy on Stevens. He has spent his whole life in the Pacific Northwest; he grew up in Boise, played college ball at Washington, and has only played for the Seahawks as a pro. Accordingly, he doesn’t know what tough means. To Stevens, a tough guy is someone who drinks his half-calf soy latte even though it was served at a sub-optimal 125 degrees.

*Face it: Darrel Jackson pushed off. I don’t care if offensive pass interference is rarely called, and I certainly don’t care that members of the national media disagree with the call. The Back Judge was in perfect position, about five feet away from Jackson and Hope, when ‘D-Jack’ pushed off. And don’t tell me that the play looks ok in slow-motion – the ref had to make the call in real time, and in real time it was an offensive penalty.

*Don’t buy into the hype surrounding the ‘phantom’ holding call, either. I am going to side with the ten people in my living room that all yelled, “Haggans is getting held!” during that play. It was a hold.

*And please don’t try to convince me that the holding call was the only reason that Hasselback made a rookie mistake and threw an interception two plays later. All of the talk before the game was about his skill as a game manager. Game managers don’t throw Peyton-esque interceptions.

*The Steelers were so bad on Sunday that they would have lost, and lost convincingly, to at least eight AFC teams. The disparity between the two conferences is at an all-time high, and I don’t expect things to change very quickly. Seattle would have been the 10th place team in the AFC this season.

*Seattle was doomed from the start. The Post-Gazette ran a story comparing the kinds of food that could be expected at Pittsburgh and Seattle Super Bowl parties. The Seattle fare included mussels and oysters.

The Pittsburgh menu, which was organized by this grandmotherly-looking woman, included sausage, Primanti-style sammiches, and, of course, beer. The menu adhered to three basic tenets:

1. More is better

2. Frying makes everything better

3. French fries should go on top of everything

Mussels and oysters? Good for some times, but certainly not the Super Bowl.

*For the record, the Dr. ‘Burgher Super Bowl extravaganza included 5 pounds of sausage, 3-dozen pierogies, and 200 wings . . .for ten people.

*If anyone is interested in some of the food listed above (plus some more), please email me and we can set up some sort of exchange. I don’t have any room in my fridge for anything but football food, and I don’t think that I can eat hot sausage for lunch again.

*I have a pretty strong feeling that we have seen the last of Antwaan Randle El in the black and gold. I think that the Steelers will make him a good-faith offer, but someone is going to make an offer he can’t refuse. (I hope it’s not the Patriots, who are rumored to have an interest in him.) I will be sad to see Randle El – or any player from this team – leave town, but try to keep in mind that as recently as the end of the regular season he was considered expendable by a lot of fans. If Cedrick Wilson learns how to hold on to the ball and the Steelers give Quincy Morgan a legitimate shot (assuming he gets healthy), the receiving corps should be fine.

*I absolutely loved it when the Steelers fans at Ford Field booed Tom Brady, Deion Branch, and Roger Staubach.

*How awesome is it that there were enough Steelers fans at the Super Bowl that it looked like a home game? When your fans can pull that off, they have the right to boo Tom Brady all they want.

*Did anyone else notice that Tom Brady was wearing a velvet coat during the pregame? He looked ridiculous.

*One last Brady note: Everyone at my house thought that the coin toss was rigged.

*I had absolutely nothing to do with the game, but I feel a sense of personal relief now that the Steelers have won another championship. I was born two months before the 1979 World Series, and five months before Super Bowl XIV. While I was technically alive for both events, I never really got to experience a Pittsburgh championship (as several people reminded me, the Pens don’t really count). I honestly believed that I was somehow personally cursed, and that I would never get to see something as awesome as the Steelers winning the Super Bowl. I am so glad to be wrong.

*The whole town went absolutely batshit insane after the game. My neighbors set off fireworks, and people were driving through my neighborhood honking and celebrating until at least midnight. The South Side got so crazy that you couldn’t even get within 20 blocks of the action. (Have I mentioned that Steelers fans are the best?)

*Vegas odds makers made the Colts, at 4-1, the favorites to win Super Bowl XLI. They will still have Peyton next season, right? And Tony Dungy? And be in the same conference as the Steelers and Patriots? Honestly, the Colts have a 0.2% chance of winning the Super Bowl next season (or the season after that, or after that . . .), and that will only happen if all of the other 31 teams disband.

*Bill Cowher, the Pittsburgh media has promised not to call you an idiot until at least week three of next season. Enjoy the respite.

*When I turn the Steelers on next September, there will be no Jerome Bettis, and that’s kind of sad. I have seen Jerome play since I was in high school, and I think that it was a real privilege. He’s one of those once in a generation players, and it might be a long, long time before someone comes along who is more beloved than him. Enjoy retirement Jerome; I hope that whatever you do next is as good for you as it was for me to watch you all of these years.