Seahawks Trying to Earn Some Recognition

The Seattle Seahawks are not only the underdog in today’s Super Bowl, they are, practically, the unknown team.

“Would you know a Seattle Seahawk if you saw one?” Mike Downey asked in the Chicago Tribune.

“I mean it. Is there a man on this team from the North by Northwest whose face you would recognize if he came toward you in a shopping mall?”

Lost in America: Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on the Seahawks: “How can you root for them if you don’t know who they are? They’re tucked up there in the far northwest corner of the country. They’re so far north and west of the Mississippi, Lewis and Clark didn’t even get there.”

Trivia time: Detroit’s Ford Field is the sixth covered stadium to have a Super Bowl. What are the others?

Unknown worldwide: Lesley Visser, on loan from CBS, will work for NBC as a reporter on speedskating during the Winter Olympics. She is already in Turin, Italy, preparing for the Games. Her husband, Dick Stockton, is doing the international English broadcast of today’s Super Bowl.

“It goes to 183 countries, including Sky Italia, which is in our hotel,” Visser e-mailed. “Do you think the people here know what a Seahawk is?”

Seedy issue: Said ABC’s Al Michaels: “I didn’t think I would live long enough to see a No. 6 seed go to the Super Bowl and be favored over a No. 1 seed. I find that astonishing.”

For what it’s worth: In the previous 39 Super Bowls, the favorite has gone 18-18-3 against the spread. And since 1982, when oddsmakers started taking bets on the total score, the Super Bowl has hit the “over” 65% of the time (15-8), including six times in the last nine years.

Sorry, Dad: Joe Montana, a national spokesman for a high-blood-pressure medication, was in Los Angeles recently and talked about his son Nathaniel, who plays on the high school basketball team in Calistoga, Calif.

It might be presumed he wears No. 16, Montana’s old football number. But Montana said Nathaniel chose to wear No. 23, Michael Jordan’s number.

“The kid didn’t even twitch,” Montana said.

Priorities in order: Montana was in Detroit most of last week, and presumably will be there for today’s Super Bowl coin toss. Some 30 Super Bowl most valuable players will participate. But while he was in L.A., Montana said that he planned to make a quick trip home Friday because Nathaniel had a game.

“Family comes first,” he said.

Trivia answer: Louisiana Superdome, Pontiac (Mich.) Silverdome, Metrodome in Minneapolis, Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and Reliant Stadium in Houston.

And finally: The Miami Herald’s Greg Cote, under a column titled “Super Bowl With a Smirk,” wrote: “Security officials issued a list of items prohibited from stadium entry, including beach balls, Frisbees and shoulder-held missile launchers.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.