Will Skip Bayless please shut up?

I have gone on too long, hearing about Skip Bayless, whether it's on some TV shows on ESPN (I think he's on them, I know I haven't watched any), or reading his article about how USC was just going to dominate Texas (whoops!). It's gone on too long. How he's been able to masquerade this long as a so-called sports reporter is beyond me, but he put out out yet another awful article on ESPN.

Wake Me Up When It's Over

Let's go over it here (Bayless quotes in italics):

The problem here is that, for the first time, the Super Bowl features two underdogs, two Cinderellas, two teams that came from nowhere on destiny-kissed rolls.

My bad. Here I thought Seattle was actually 13-3 and the #1 seed in the playoffs, and they were coming off a dominating performance. Regardless, apparently they were an underdog. Let's go on.

The Steelers, the first sixth seed to make it to the Super Bowl, barely made the playoffs thanks to a fairly easy closing schedule. They beat Kyle Orton's Bears in a snowstorm in Pittsburgh, then took care of Minnesota, Cleveland and Detroit.

But would they have won their first playoff game, in Cincinnati, if Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer hadn't been hurt on his second play? Doubtful.

Good to see that Skippy knows what would have happened, even though Carson got hurt almost right away in the game. Would the Bengals have had a better chance with Palmer rather than Kitna? Almost certainly. Would they have won the game? It's impossible to tell. Unless you're Skip Bayless.

Would they have finished off the season's most shocking upset, in Indianapolis, if Colts cornerback Nick Harper hadn't weaved back into a sprawling ankle tackle by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger? No.

Ok. But he did. Would New England have won the Super Bowl against Carolina if John Kasay had not kicked it out-of-bounds? Does it matter? Harper wasn't able to get by Roethlisberger, and Pittsburgh won. End of story.

No. Would the Steelers have been able to win in Foxborough if the Broncos hadn't upset the Patriots the week before in Denver? Highly doubtful.

From bad to worse. Can we get any more hypothetical? How about this? Would the Steelers have won if Ben Roethlisberger had never been born? Doubtful. That might be reason enough for Skip. And even if New England had won, Pittsburgh was coming off a road win over the team that was considered the best in the NFL. So why is it highly doutful they could beat New England?

Would the Steelers have won in Denver if an early poor pass by Roethlisberger had been picked off in the flat by Champ Bailey and returned for a stadium-rocking touchdown? Probably not.

Blah blah blah. All hypothetical junk.

Would the Seahawks have risen from 2-2 to home-field playoff advantage if Terrell Owens hadn't torn apart the Eagles? If Michael Vick hadn't regressed? If the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys hadn't been forced to do battle twice in the East and the Panthers, Bucs and Falcons hadn't beaten each other up in the South?

More hypothetical junk that has nothing to do with Seattle. The Eagles weren't doing so great even before TO got suspended. What does Michael Vick have to do with this? The Seahawks only made the Super Bowl because they were in an easier division.

Things just kept breaking right for the Seahawks. Without bye weeks, the Redskins and Panthers were banged up before playoff games in Seattle -- where the Seahawks' 12th Man gives them the NFL's loudest and strongest home-field advantage.

And here I thought these were the advantages of having home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. And now I learn that it was luck for Seattle, to be able to secure the best record in the NFC so they're playing at home! Maybe they should have gone on the road just to prove themselves!

You can't wait for Sunday, can you.

No I can't. Should be a heck of a game.

Wake me up when Skip stops writing for ESPN.