DETROIT – Jerramy Stevens’ eventful week came to an end Sunday.
He won’t particularly miss it.
Stevens, the Seattle Seahawks’ starting tight end, didn’t want to put himself in the spotlight last week, but found a troubled home there anyway. With the help of mouthy Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter, much of his week was spent answering questions he didn’t want to answer.
Whether that had anything to do with his dismal performance Sunday in Seattle’s 21-10 loss to the Steelers in Super Bowl XL is debatable.
“I can’t remember the last time I played this badly,” Stevens said.
Stevens did score Seattle’s only touchdown, a 16-yard TD pass from Matt Hasselbeck in the third quarter. But he also dropped two catchable passes, had three balls blasted out of his hands by fierce Steeler hits and dropped another pass that replays revealed could easily have been ruled a fumble.
Another play involving Stevens – a pass to him that gave the Seahawks the ball on the Steelers’ 1-yard line in the fourth quarter – was wiped out by a Seattle penalty.
Did Porter get into Stevens’ head?
“No, I just didn’t make plays I usually make,” he said.
Porter caused a verbal windstorm in taking a statement Stevens made during Media Day and riding it for all it was worth.
On Tuesday, Stevens said the story surrounding Jerome Bettis’ homecoming on what likely was his final NFL game was heartwarming, but that it would be a sad day for Bettis when the Seahawks walked away with a victory and the Lombardi Trophy.
Porter wasted no time in pouncing. He called Stevens “soft,” a “first-round bust” and “a liability.” He tore into Stevens and wondered aloud why he, in Porter’s eyes an average player, believed he had the credentials to even mention Bettis’ name.
Desperate to find anything juicy in what otherwise was a snoozer of a week, the newspapers picked it up. Radio. Television. The Internet. Pygmy drummers. Everyone. And they wouldn’t let it go because Porter wouldn’t let them. He cheerfully filled reporters’ notebooks until Thursday, the last day the media had access to players.
Meanwhile, Stevens was busy fending off non-stop questions. No, he didn’t consider his remarks insulting toward Bettis. No, he wasn’t bothered by whatever Porter had to say. No, he really doesn’t love talking to the media. No, it won’t have anything to do with what happens Sunday.
He repeated that Sunday.
“Last week didn’t have anything to do with what happened here today,” he said. “I know that’s the way it’s going to be portrayed, but the bottom line was that I didn’t make plays. That’s something I just have to deal with.”
Certainly, the Steelers feasted on Stevens all night. They held back in neither their physical nor verbal abuse of the fourth-year tight end. Porter took multiple verbal slaps at Stevens. Linebackers Larry Foote and Clark Haggans also filled Stevens’ earhole with helpful suggestions.
“We backed it up,” Porter said. “That’s something you have to have in football. I feel like they came out and played great, but like I said all week, there can be only one champion.”
That was but a small fraction of what Porter said all week.
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