Super, rain in Detroit

DETROIT – The American Airlines pilot turned on the intercom and broke the news to an anxious jet full of folks headed for Detroit on Sunday afternoon.

“Weather in the Motor City is 52 degrees with some cloud cover,” he said. “The rain has stopped.”

Seahawks vs. Steelers

Countdown to Super Bowl XL: Six days

* Detroit weather: 52 degrees and cloudy Sunday. Today’s forecast is a high of 41 degrees and cloudy.

* Fact for the day: There are lots of French names in Detroit, but not quite as much French pronunciation. Gratiot Street is pronounced “Grasshitt.”

* Celebrity sighting: Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young. (Hey, it’s early in the week.) Young was wrapping up a telecast of ESPN’s “NFL Live” in the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, where media had checked in for credentials.

Read daily updates on Victor Balta’s Super Bowl blog at www.heraldnet.com/ blogsuperbowl.

Fifty-two degrees and cloud cover?

What happened to the frigid north?

Why did I make three trips to REI to stock up on base layers for this trip?

Did I even leave the Pacific Northwest?

The weather in Detroit wasn’t much to write home about – although, technically, that’s my job.

But after weeks, of anticipation, of waiting and dreading the climatic torture that awaited, there was little payoff.

It’s a little warmer here, in fact, than it is back home, if online weather reports are to be believed.

Of course, it was about 75 degrees today in Miami – the city that has hosted eight Super Bowls, second only to New Orleans’ nine.

But Detroit probably doesn’t deserve the knocks it has received, or the ones it will continue to take in the coming week.

Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck agrees.

“People were saying all these things about Detroit and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It’s the Super Bowl,” Hasselbeck said during a press conference Sunday evening. “I’ve been to Detroit a few times and I kinda like it here. It’s a football town.”

I’ve got nothing to compare it to, having never actually covered a Super Bowl before, but this city is gearing up for America’s biggest sporting event with gusto.

And if the “wet paint” signs in the restrooms at Detroit Metropolitan Airport are any indication, the place is going to be even more gleaming for the thousands of fans and partygoers who are expected to come into town as we roll toward Super Sunday.

The city’s skyline is beaming with big-game pride, with the GM worldwide headquarters sporting a massive Super Bowl XL that was visible from Canada – which, admittedly, is just across the Detroit River.

Super Bowl merchandise is everywhere, and almost nowhere as much as at the Seahawks team hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich.

Outside the hotel, a “12th Man” flag flies next to one bearing the Seahawk logo, the lobby is decked out with Seahawks posters, including one declaring the team the 2005 NFC Conference championships.

A cluster of autograph seekers that likely will grow throughout the week sits just inside the hotel doors waiting for the chance to get some strategically scripted ink from a favorite player or two.

And everywhere you look, the Super Bowl logo on posters, T-shirts and banners say it all.

Two teams, two helmets, two conference champions.

It’s the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks.

This is real, folks.

It’s all over this town.

One team is bringing home a Super Bowl title.

Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.

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