Assuming that the Chiefs/Ravens score will hold up here it's only apropos that the AFC come down to the Patriots/Steelers/Ravens/Jets because those have been the four best AFC teams all year (and a good case can be made for them being the four best NFL teams all year). I was stunned by the Seahawks beating the Saints and loved the Onion headline "Saints Lose First Round Bye". If Seattle were to somehow win the Super Bowl it would do more harm than good.
Remember a couple of years back when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series? They did so with a record of 83-78, the worst record ever for a World Series winner. Folks did not take kindly to an almost .500 team winning the World Series: most reacting with either apathy or disgust. So a 7-9 Seattle team winning a playoff game or two makes a great story but winning the Super Bowl would probably be considered sad by most.
Here's to a Patriots/Seahawks Super Bowl.
The 2006 Cardinals is the exact analogy I was thinking. I remember Boston didn't even make the playoffs that year winning only 86 games, having shit pitching and injuries up the wazoo (you know it's a bad year when your top pitching prospect is getting treated for cancer), yet a worse team ended up winning it all. Yeah, I was pissed.
Of course it would suck if Seattle won. The jerk in me would find it funny, but overall, I wouldn't feel it's justified. You'd think something like that would make the NFL re-think how they do things, but then again, with all these wild cards, you get more games, which equals more ratings, which equals more advertising, which equals more money, so I guess they won't.