For 30 seasons, the Seattle Seahawks have found themselves mired in obscurity.

But a trip to the Super Bowl has a way of making people pay attention to you.

No matter how the Seahawks perform in Detroit against Pittsburgh Sunday, 2005 already has been Seattle's most successful campaign in team history.

While the Steelers will be looking for that elusive "one for the thumb," the Seahawks are making their first appearance in the big game.

Ask the average NFL fan to name 10 Seahawks of the past and you'll be lucky to get five in response.

Except for head coach Mike Holmgren and the recent emergence of NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Largent remains the most recognizable face of the franchise, even though his playing career ended following the 1989 season.

Other players like Kenny Easley, Sherman Smith, Joe Nash and Brian Blades — all of whom attained All-Pro or All-AFC status during their playing days — have slipped through the cracks for many football fans.

It doesn't help that Seattle is the most isolated of the NFL's 32 teams. The Seahawks' closest NFL neighbor is Oakland, more than 800 miles away.

Then there's the game of musical chairs that Seattle has had to play.

When the Seahawks entered the league in 1976, they were placed in the NFC West along with the Rams, 49ers, Falcons and Saints.

Then in 1977, the team was moved to the AFC West. Twenty-five years in that division allowed the Seahawks to form decent rivalries with the Raiders, Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs.

But as part of the NFL's realignment in 2002, Seattle was put in the NFC West, its original home.

With the league's perfect symmetry of eight divisions with four teams each, it looks as though that's where the Seahawks will remain — they hope.

Seattle's inaugural season of 1976 ended with the team posting a 2-12 record.

The other expansion team that year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, garnered more attention for going a winless 0-14.

Under the leadership of head coach Jack Patera, the Seahawks managed back-to-back 9-7 seasons in 1978-79.

In those first few years of existence, Seattle needed star power — players who could make NFL fans across the country take notice.

One of those players was Largent, who was lifted off the scrap heap after the Houston Oilers drafted him, but deemed him too slow to play wide receiver in the NFL.

The other half of the Seahawks' aerial connection was quarterback Jim Zorn, whom the team selected in the 1976 NFL Draft out of tiny Cal-Poly Pomona College.

With Zorn throwing bomb after bomb, Largent managed four straight 1,000-yard receiving campaigns (1978-81), a streak halted only by the 1982 players' strike.

Seattle had earned respect, but it wasn't until coach Chuck Knox arrived in 1983 that the club earned a trip to the playoffs.

Knox, a Sewickley native who had previously led the Rams and Bills to postseason play, took the Seahawks all the way to the 1983 AFC Championship Game before losing to the Raiders, 30-14.

Seattle returned to the playoffs in 1984 and 1987-88, but the team failed to get past the divisional round each time.

Knox left following the 1991 season and coaches Tom Flores (1992-94) and Dennis Erickson (1995-98) followed. But neither ever attained a record better than 8-8.

Holmgren arrived in 1999 and immediately led Seattle to the playoffs, a feat also accomplished in 2003 and 2004.

But in none of those seasons was Seattle considered a threat to make the Super Bowl.

Now the Seahawks find themselves one win from the summit of pro football.

It seems as though everybody is picking Pittsburgh to win, without giving Seattle so much as a second look.

Didn't the Steelers' upset win over Indianapolis two weeks ago teach NFL fans anything?

Being the favored team in this league means absolutely nothing.

Seattle, like the Steelers, earned its spot in Super Bowl XL. It has arrived from the farthest corner of the NFL's domain and it plans to return with more than pride.