Every sports market deserves one. None of them will do it like Seattle did Wednesday.

So cold that seals shivered. So warm that cops cried. So compelling that Pete Carroll, king of the run-on sentence, was nearly at a loss.

"There's not enough words to describe the emotion, the exchange," he said. But true to his mantra, "always compete," he tried.

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Two dozen of the ubiquitious Ducks -- the amphibious, summer-tourist-toting vehicles that are no relation to some of the passes Peyton Manning threw Sunday -- will carry the Seahawks, coaches and political leaders Wednesday through a downtown throng estimated at 300,000 to celebrate the Super Bowl triumph.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. --Seattle 1, World 0.

For the Northwest sports fan, aggrieved after more than a third of of century of mediocrity, team departures and close-but-zippo shots at championships, the drama Sunday unfolded in an unexpected way: Quick, savage and relentless. That never happens in Seattle sports, which for so long has greeted the threat of success with something like, "You go ahead. We'll be fine."

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Thanks to social media, the reach of the 12th Man is officially, photographically and inarguably global.

The first photo is from Barrow AK., the most northerly city in North America. On the edge of the Arctic Ocean, Barrow started receiving sunlight about two weeks ago, for the first time in six weeks.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Sunday morning arrived a little cloudy, a little cool, no precip, no wind -- a benign, Seattle-like start to what will be the longest day in the sports lives of the Seahawks and Denver Broncos. The wait before kickoff is agonizing, said a man who should know -- Mike Holmgren.

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NEW YORK CITY -- Sure, there is plenty of excitement among the Seahawks. But from the time they won the NFC Championship, a current of calmness runs beneath the surface among players and coaches. It's as if they know something. Since no one dares speak of it directly, we are left to guess until Sunday night.

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NEW YORK CITY -- As the threat of bad weather abates -- the forecast Sunday is for a daytime high of 49 degrees, a low of 29, with little wind, and precip unlikely -- the notion of future outdoor Super Bowls in cold climates flared anew Friday.

In his annual state-of-the-empire press conference at a midtown theater, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had himself a little joke: Fake snow floated down on stage for 30 seconds as he went meteorological.

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Seattleite and longtime friend Dave Horsey, cartoonist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer now at the Los Angeles Times, marvels that the only two states in the union to legalize pot can also be the only two states with teams remaining in "the amped-up aggression of professional football.

"Are there two activities more different than football and the laid-back mellowness of smoking a joint?"

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When an NFL team starts 4-0, finishes 13-3,  then wins two playoff games, it’s a little hard to make a case for seasonal turning points. The Seahawks started well, stayed good and now are on the verge of greatness.

The highway to New Jersey had curves, but no turns or exits.

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NEW YORK CITY -- Competitively, the Seahawks were nearly dead. Coach Mike Holmgren's final year of 2008 was a 4-12 dud. General manager Tim Ruskell was fired after a 4-7 start to the 2009 season, which ended 5-11 after losses in the final four games by a combined score of 123-37. Hometown favorite Jim Mora was fired after a single season as head coach.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The team-interview sessions are done, Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch is relieved of hard duty, and the Super Bowl world will have to seek drama elsewhere.

Lynch, along with his hoss-whisperer friend and teammate, Michael Robinson, had an uneventful final session Thursday with the media after Lynch agreed to a 15-minute limit than ended in less than eight. He was characteristically subdued, but answered every question. When he was told time was up, he hopped out of the chair and was on his way.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Marshawn Lynch has thrilled the NFL with his breakaway runs. But the NFL won't be thrilled with the figurative tackles he broke Wednesday. At another mandatory session with the media, this one at a poorly planned site in a cramped hallway of the team hotel, Lynch bolted after seven minutes, walking across empty chairs to find a way past the knot of journalists.

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NEWARK, N.J. -- The awkward comedy of the Super Bowl's annual clown-car event -- how many media types can you cram into America's consciousness? -- was in full Beast Mode Tuesday afternoon when Marshawn Lynch showed up and made it into Least Mode.

The Seahawks running back, elusive professionally and personally, ambled into and out of the American sports spotlight in about six minutes. Unharmed. 

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- After four neck surgeries two years ago that left him temporarily unable to throw a football, Denver quarterback Peyton Manning's appreciation for possibly winning his second Super Bowl will be close to unchallenged. But depth of feeling will be no greater than that of Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson, should he win his first.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Sunday morning, they waved and honked from Seattle freeways. Entering the Sea-Tac airport area, they clogged the road and pounded on the team buses. By evening, after crossing the country, the Seahawks were cheered at Newark Liberty airport. Arrival at their Jersey City hotel inspired several dozen to show up with 12th Man flags and scream.

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Packing the usual Super Bowl accessories -- expedition parka, ice ax, gaiters and personal locator beacon -- I depart Sunday for the ragged frontier of human existence: New Jersey (perhaps you thought the ice ax was for ice). Presuming Gov. Chris Christie decides not to play politics with the freeways and airport, I will join the Seahawks and Baja Seattle for a little ballgame Feb. 2 that annually determines the fate of civilization.

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The Seahawks own one Super Bowl record, although it's recognized only in Seattle: Most times bludgeoned by erroneous interpretation of rules, single game. While the return to practice of WR Percy Harvin this week cannot influence that eight-year-old mark, believers in karma might think the Seahawks are finally getting paid back for the debacle in Detroit.

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Premium athletes well-coached, in a ferocious third seasonal match of rivals in one of the world's great sports venues, rich with spectacle, controversy, ghastliness and jubilation, sledge-hammered away until the sprawling epic was decided in the final moments by a spectacular defensive play.

If the word majestic is fair to use to describe a game, the NFC Championship Sunday was it.

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The Seahawks will add an almost-new weapon for the Super Bowl: Percy Harvin.

"He'll be ready -- he's fine," said coach Pete Carroll Monday morning on his weekly ESPN 710 radio show. Harvin missed Sunday's game against the 49ers after a concussion a week earlier against New Orleans. He didn't pass the NFL's concussion protocol and was held out.

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Just after the nadir moment Sunday in the NFC Championship, when Russell Wilson fumbled away the ball on the game's first scrimmage play, FB Michael Robinson looked over at the Seahawks quarterback on the sidelines.

"He was laughing a little," Robinson. "I'm thinking, 'Y'all right?'"

Yes. Yes, he was. He was wrapped in the serenity he generates when everyone else is going street-rat crazy.

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