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Seahawks in Super Bowl XL: Previously unpublished photos

Seattle vs. Pittsburgh, Feb. 5, 2006

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

|Updated
This is one of thousands of previously unpublished P-I photographs from Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5, 2006. It was the Seahawks' first -- thus far, only -- Super Bowl, and they lost 21-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Here, cornerback Kelly Herndon gets ready for the game.
This is one of thousands of previously unpublished P-I photographs from Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5, 2006. It was the Seahawks' first -- thus far, only -- Super Bowl, and they lost 21-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Here, cornerback Kelly Herndon gets ready for the game.
Mike Urban/seattlepi.com/MOHAI

While many Seahawks fans are looking forward to a continued playoff run this year, we're also taking a look back this week at some previously unpublished photos from the Hawks' trip to Super Bowl XL in 2006.

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The team's only trip to the Super Bowl, on Feb. 5, 2006, brought media from around the world, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, still in print through March 17, 2009, sent five photographers to the game in Detroit.

Photographers Dan DeLong, Scott Eklund and Mike Urban were on the field. Joshua Trujillo and Grant Haller were also at Ford Field, where the Seahawks played the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL.

After the game, the P-I and seattlepi.com published dozens of the images in the paper and in online photo galleries. But there were thousands of additional images that have gone unseen – until now.

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We went through those digital image discs, now preserved with other P-I images at the Museum of History and Industry, and picked out some of the best images to share in the gallery above.

In the 2005 season which led to that Super Bowl, Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander broke the previous NFL rushing touchdown record. Led by quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and such big names as Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson, Mack Strong and Lofa Tatupu, the Hawks went 13-3 and easily won the NFC West.

After a first-round bye, they beat the Washington Redskins 20-10 in their divisional playoff and knocked off the Carolina Panthers 34-14 to win Seattle's first NFL conference championship and first appearance in the Super Bowl.

Years after the Seahawks' 21-10 loss to the Steelers, NFL referee Bill Leavy acknowledged he "kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game."

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Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or at caseymcnerthney@seattlepi.com. Follow Casey on Twitter at twitter.com/mcnerthney.

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY