GLENDALE, AZ. -- Many of the players and coaches were showered, dressed and on the buses. Equipment had been loaded. Shirtless and wordless on their stools, Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas still had on game pants and the thousand-mile stares of defeated men. Seconds passed. No words or movements.

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PHOENIX -- Yes, it was a small sample size, but I stood for about 10 minutes Sunday afternoon pre-game near a beer stand in the upper concourse of University of Phoenix Stadium and counted 88 people in Seahawks gear to three in Patriots gear. It was weird. It was the Clink with a tan.

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PHOENIX -- Super Bowl Sunday dawned with a report that the Seahawks are negotiating with the agent for Marshawn Lynch, Doug Hendrickson, to extend the contract of the Seahawks star, which may include a big $10 million salary for 2015.

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PHOENIX -- For a guy claiming to shun attention, Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch has won Super Bowl week with Elvis-style hysteria for his words, deeds and general bad-ass deportment. It's his world, and we're just renting a room in the back. He's thrown shade over the Patriots, Seahawks, Roger Goodell and even the fabled weather, which has been itself mostly shade.

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PHOENIX -- You may have heard or read that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had his annual Dancing with the Questions event Friday at the Super Bowl media center downtown. In keeping with tradition, he dodged, dissembled and prevaricated regarding the various controversies over the past season.

Never surprising, always disappointing.

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PHOENIX -- The coaches who meet Sunday in Glendale in a much-anticipated Super Bowl matchup are easy to clown up as opposites, as in Emperor Palpatine vs. Yoda.  But the Patriots' Bill Belichick and the Seahawks' Pete Carroll couldn't be more alike than if they started out in the same zygote.

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PHOENIX -- Amid talk of purported advantage gained by using deflated footballs, the New England Patriots have a starter who has been twice suspended by the NFL for drug rules violations, including the first four games of the 2014 regular season.

But in all the chatter regarding the sports ethics of the Pats, no one has offered a scolding for their hire of CB Brandon Browner.

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PHOENIX -- Two podiums down from Marshawn Lynch, teammate Cliff Avril had a different view of Super Bowl Media Day at U.S. Airways Arena Tuesday.

"This is one of the most fun parts of the situation," he said. This is cool.”

As it should be for players. Say what you will about the absurdity of the event -- as I and thousands of other journalists have for nearly the entirety of its 49-year existence -- the staggering attention garnered for feats at the pinnacle of American sports should be fun for the players. At the least.

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CHANDLER, AZ. -- If Seahawks fans and others around the country weren't taking Deflate-gate seriously, they will now.

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PHOENIX -- Less than a month ago, one of the key participants in the Seahawks' crucial goal-line stands in the NFC Championship against Green Bay was in Spartanburg, S.C., working his valet parking business.

"Guys get out of their cars, they don’t have their suit jacket on yet, so I take it off the hanger and put it on them," Landon Cohen said last week in the Seahawks locker room. "Then they find out, 'Oh my gosh, this guy plays football too.'

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PHOENIX -- The theme of this year's Super Bowl, now including the Seahawks' uproarious departure as well as their blunt-spoken arrival, is plain: Outlaw balls. And that isn't just the Patriots' equipment malfunction.

As thousands of 12s swarmed the route of the Seahawks buses through the city of SeaTac on the way to the airport Sunday morning -- "Instead of having the game in the stadium, it was in the street today," said DT Michael Bennett -- one curbside family stood out: Mom, Dad and two little ones holding their crotches.

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RENTON -- Earlier in the season came reports that Seahawks management, regarding a holdout and fines, had grown tired of Marshawn Lynch's act. Apparently, that is no longer the case, if it ever was, according to general manager John Schneider.

"He's a warrior -- goes out every weekend and lays it on the line," said Schneider in a rare, spontaneous meeting with writers Friday afternoon at team headquarters. "You'd be hard-pressed to find a better running back in football."

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Rather than discussion of a dreadnought battle between the NFL's best, the Super Bowl run-up, filled with talk of crotch grabs and soft balls, apparently is stuck in a middle-school boys bathroom.

Then again, the Patriots and Seahawks were already engaged in a how-low-can-you-go competition to see who can manufacture enough perceived disdain to cast themselves as the disrespected, denigrated and demeaned underdog.

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Lost in the civic orgasm that followed the Seahawks' latest hailing of Mary against the Green Bay Packers -- we'll never get cheese from Wisconsin in this state again -- was an episode that escaped the attention of officials:

What would have happened if RB Marshawn Lynch had been penalized for touching his personal self after his late-game touchdown gambol that put the Seahawks ahead?

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In a game more unpredictable than a toddler nursery, Russell Wilson found a quiet moment in the bedlam of overtime Sunday afternoon and offered up a prediction. It was the only correct prediction in a game that will win by acclamation the Oscar for Most Preposterous Outcome.

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Marshawn Lynch's plan was to come out in gold cleats, as forecasted by TMZ Sports Saturday. Custom shoemaker Solesbysir claimed to have used 24K gold flake paint with a gold chrome plate soles, with a claimed value of $1,100.

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Much has been written about the differences between the Packers and Seahawks since Seattle's 36-16 win over Green Bay in the season opener. How about the difference in mood among the 12s from the previous NFC Championship to the one Sunday?

Talk about all in. Seahawks fans have gone from trepadacious to bodacious.

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A major story line for the NFC Championship Sunday is how much the Green Bay Packers have improved since the 36-16 loss to the Seahawks at the Clink in the season opener Sept. 4. Better offensive line. Blossoming rookie receiver. Tougher defense against the run. Etc.

All seem plausible. What about the Seahawks?

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Making the social media rounds this week is a blog post in the Los Angeles Times from 2010 about the rumor that Pete Carroll was about to leave USC to fill the Seattle Seahawks' coaching vacancy. Written by longtime sportswriter Ted Green, the post conveys incredulity that Carroll could be such a pinhead.

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He hasn't seen action all season, but he might in the NFL Championship Sunday against Green Bay. Third-string QB B.J. Daniels will fill the roster spot of injured WR Paul Richardson and may play on special teams -- or play a little wide receiver or running back, Pete Carroll said Monday.

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