Maybe when I get some free time I can put the EarthLink story together in a more cohesive form. That didn't end until November, when I had to spend another 35 minutes on the phone - recording the call for protection - until I got EarthLink to close out the account and stop harassing me for the payments they wanted for the time after I cancelled it.

When they kept saying that they had no record of me canceling, I mentioned the date, time, and telephone number from which EarthLink did call, and that it would easily be available via subpoena as part of the Attorney General's complaint I would file. I also reminded them that New York's Attorney General recently squeezed $1.25 million from AOL for refusing to cancel accounts when customers called to do exactly that.

Between the two of them, it got their attention, but it took enough hours of my time that we won't be doing anything with EarthLink, at least voluntarily, for the foreseeable future.

Two down, so take note, inconsiderate merchants: I can type.

The world revolves around them, and no one else. Holmgren and his Kool-Aid-drinking players believe they never get beat - they only lose games, sometimes because of conspiracies. The world revolves around them, and the other team is merely the counterpoint to their soaring melody.

Even when they fall flat on their asses:

After flying home, they went directly to a rally of a few thousand fans at Qwest Field. They came to celebrate a franchise-best 15-4 season, a team-record 11-game winning streak and their first playoff win since 1984 as best they could.

The civic pick-me-up was intended to move the team and its city past Seattle's Super Bowl implosion. But because the Seahawks feel they squandered the NFL championship, the future isn't foremost in their minds.

"It's hard, man," defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said.

And he didn't mean the pulled right hamstring he sustained late in the Super Bowl.

"I mean, if a team just goes out and overpowers you, then you're like, 'Hey, we got beat.' But I think we beat ourselves," Bernard said.

So did most of his teammates %u2014 and even the perspective-filled Holmgren.

"I know they're not OK with it," the coach said of his players. "I wanted them to keep their heads up. There's no need to apologize for anything. We lost the football game and we lost it because of the reasons you lose most games ... mistakes."

The best team in Seahawks history was in no mood to revel in its accomplishments.

"Nah, man," linebacker D.D. Lewis said. "I thought about that last week.

"I'll spend the next weeks thinking about getting back here."

And the Seahawks were still stinging from a few officials' calls that went against them, such as Darrell Jackson's touchdown catch that was taken away by a penalty and a disputed TD run by Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger.

"We knew it was going to be tough going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers," Holmgren told the fans at Qwest Field. "I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well."

Barry Switzer escapism at its best. On the first play in question, not even Seattle is questioning that Jackson pushed off against the Pittsburgh defender, a clear rules violation. They're merely arguing that they shouldn't have been called for it, because it was an important play, or because they are The Seahawks, or who knows what reason. The argument is that they shouldn't be penalized for flagrant rules violations directly in front of the referee if they don't think it made any difference. Sadly for them, the rule does not say pushing off is a foul "if it makes a difference." It's a foul if it happens.

As for the Pittsburgh touchdown, it's only "disputed" now because they continue to dispute it. This wasn't Texas Tech - replay shows the ball breaking the plane of the goal line before Rothlisberger was pushed backward, but at that point it didn't matter. Once the penetration was made, it was a touchdown, and the play was over. Not only was there nowhere near enough evidence to overturn it, the call was actually correct. The Seahawks are mysteriously quiet about Matt Hasselbeck's second-half "fumble" that was correctly overturned on replay, you'll notice.

But accepting that would mean that the Seahawks also accept that they got beaten in an ugly game, and that there was another team on the field. That's really not in Holmgren's worldview.