Super Bowl And My Weekend In Sports
The only thing I knew going into last weekend was this...I knew where I wouldn't be watching the Super Bowl.
As obnoxious as the Steeler Mob in Blondies have gotten over the last couple of years, I can't imagine what they would be like during the game.
I mean think about it...what have they had to brag about for the last 25 years? 23 if you want to get technical since that's when Bradshaw retired. Mark Malone? Bam Morris? Natrone Means and Stan Humphries bitchslapping them in the 1995 AFC Championship game? Neil O'Donnell playing catch with Larry Brown? Bubby Brister? Tommy Maddox? Slash?
As competitive as the Steelers have been in the Cowher Era, they still only have one Super Bowl appearance to show for it. And four home losses in AFC title games.
That had to burn in the crawl of every fan of the Black and Gold. In my humble opinion, as great as a World Series, NBA title or any other championship might be....the sweetest moment is when your team finally wins the Super Bowl.
When the Giants won in 1987, I must have watched that game on tape everyday for about a month. The fact that my two best friends (Cowboys and Redskins fans) were there watching the game with me, made the moment even sweeter.
Say what you want about Steeler fans, they're a proud, loyal group. So it had to kill them to watch Dallas, The Niners and more recently the Patriots take their places as the IT team for the moment. I know it drove me nuts.
But you knew that all it would take was for them to get back to the big game, for the hype machine to start to fire up again. Like it or not, the Steelers are one of the league's glamour frachises (Never thought I'd use glamour and Pittsburgh in the same sentence...) and the NFL, the league that markets their history better than any other, was foaming at the mouth at the possibility of getting two weeks of Steeler spin. Two weeks of Terrible Towels, Swann acrobatics and Jerome Bettis. Two weeks of Chuck Noll and Super Chin Cowher. Two weeks of Terry Bradshaw and Big Ben. With the history Pittsburgh's had since 1969, you'd be crazy not to spin this like a top.
And the pundits didn't disappoint, I stopped reading most of the stuff after the first couple of days. The writers ceased being interesting. I don't mind spin, but too much makes me dizzy.
If the best you can come up with is Jerome Bettis, Jerramy Stevens and Joey Porter...then you no longer deserve my attention.
But apparently the spin worked, because this is what happened....
NEW YORK (AP) An estimated 90.7 million people watched the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks for their fifth Super Bowl championship Sunday, the largest Super Bowl audience since 1996.
This must drive Pats fans nuts. They win three out of four titles but they can't begin to create the national buzz that teams like the Steelers, Cowboys or Raiders can. That's the difference between having a nice regional following and having a national fan base for over 30 years. Even if you're playing a blah team like Seattle, people will still watch. Can imagine if they played the Giants? (Ugh..it hurts just to write that) It would have topped 100 million easy.
That's why when the NFL talks about parity, they're talking out of both sides of their mouth. Yeah, it's important that you have a system in place where everyone has a chance to compete. But do you really think they or their television partners wanted to see a Carolina-Denver final? Without John Elway? It might have been a great game, but you would have been walking into a ratings abyss.
As much as the league likes to promote this "League/Team" first atttitude, they understand that stars and glamour put asses in the seats. And that's what you get when you have teams like Dallas, Oakland and Pittsburgh in the game. A built-in fanbase that doesn't have to be manufactured.
As for the game itself....I keep hearing about the horrible officiating. And they're correct, it was awful. But what did you expect? The officiating has been awful all year!!! Seattle needs to pipe down about the calls, because they were beneficiaries of bad calls all year. The Giants game as well as several others.
Should the five Seahawks fans in the country be pissed off about losing a game where they clearly outplayed the competition? Absolutely. But the Steelers made the plays when they had to while the Seahawks dropped pass after perfect Hasselbeck pass. They had plenty of opportunities and squandered most of them. Holmgren can call out the refs as much as he wants, it wasn't the line-judge's fault that Stevens hands couldn't match his mouth.
It's already starting though with the obnoxious Steelers fans. I go to Blondies after game. I congratulate the fans that I know. Fans who deserve to feel the joy of a Super Bowl win. But as I'm doing that, there's a couple of midgets who are sizing me up like they want to do something because I'm wearing a jersey they can't identify (Auburn Bo Jackson jersey in case you were wondering). It never ends. I just found out the other day that Blondies is listed as a Steelers bar on some of the national fan websites. Oh joy. Looks like I'll have to find a new bar for next season.
Big Ben played like a 23 year old playing in the biggest game in his life. But he made enough plays to win. And that's all that matters. Gaudy stats are nice. But what would you rather have? Dan Marino's 60,000 passing yards and 400 TDs? Or Troy Aikman's three rings?
Everyone's been writing that this is going to put more pressure on Eli. Really? You mean other than the fact that he's the son of a college legend and the brother of this generation's Marino? Or the fact that he's the QB for the New York Friggin Giants?
This kid has been handling pressure and came out smelling like a rose. Despite Big Ben's coming out party, I don't think it's going affect Eli one bit. The Steelers have been a championship caliber team for the last several years. Solid defense, skill players on offense, good offensive line and a battle-tested coach. All they needed was a competent QB who wouldn't lose games for them. They finally have that. Will Ben become Elway or Montana? A QB with the gaudy stats and the rings? Or Troy Aikman and Bob Griese? A QB with modest stats, great running game and W's. Only time will tell. But I'll tell you this, whatever Eli does, Pittsburgh's success or failure in the coming years will have nothing to do with it.
Staying on football, I like the writers choices this year for the Hall of Fame. White and Aikman were no-brainers, but I like the choices of Moon, Carson and Madden. Carson and Madden were long overdue choices. Harry Carson along with Mike Singletary was the dominant middle linebacker of his era. What took the writers so long one can only speculate. I've heard rumors about Carson burning the wrong bridges during his career. But that's another blog for another time. I can't understand why it took so long for Madden to get the call. He won over 100 games in 10 years and a Super Bowl. Is it the shadow of Al Davis and the fact that Tom Flores won two titles after Madden retired? Is it that he only coached 10 years and isn't know for any new innovations in the game like Landry, Walsh and Brown? Who knows.
I was actually surprised Moon got in on the first ballot. I was sure they'd make him wait a couple of years. Despite his gaudy NFL stats and the fact that he's the most prolific QB in the history of professional football, I thought his lack of playoff success would be held against him. Mike and MadDog said yesterday that if you wanted to put him in as a pioneer for the modern Black QB, fine, you can't put him in on just performance because he falls short.
Garbage. If you hold that against him, then you have to hold it against Sonny Jurgensen, Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Fran Tarkenton, YA Title and others. I don't know what what world nine pro bowls, five years with 4,000 yards or more passing, 290 TDs and nearly 50,000 yards passing doesn't get you a trip to Canton. I guess Peyton's gonna be SOL huh?
It's silly comments like that that drive former players like Emmitt Smith crazy. He went on a rant this week that writers shouldn't be the only ones who judge who gets in the Hall. He's angry that his teammate Michael Irvin hasn't gotten call and that it took Rayfield Wright over 20 years to get his. He thinks Hall members along with fans should have a voice along with the writers.
It will never happen but Smith does have a point. There are way too many agendas where the sports writers are concerned. Old beefs that comes into play when the votes are tabulated. I don't know if getting the fans would accomplish, because it then becomes a popularity contest. But I think giving members of the Hall a vote could be a good idea. They might not have liked a guy, but if they respected him, they'll probably vote for him. More on that in another blog...
I went to another Nets game on Saturday. I watched Vince Carter break Dwayne Wade down like Will Hunting and calculus. The Nets won pretty easily. I've said this before and I'll say it again. If the Nets played in the city, they'd sell out every night. They need some frontcourt scoring and defense, but this team is very entertaining and figures to be competitive for a couple of years. I'm a Knicks fan who bleeds blue and orange. But I will have tickets in Brooklyn once Ratner and company move east. It's sort of sad that this team can't sell out a Saturday matinee against one of the best teams in the East.
More later...
As obnoxious as the Steeler Mob in Blondies have gotten over the last couple of years, I can't imagine what they would be like during the game.
I mean think about it...what have they had to brag about for the last 25 years? 23 if you want to get technical since that's when Bradshaw retired. Mark Malone? Bam Morris? Natrone Means and Stan Humphries bitchslapping them in the 1995 AFC Championship game? Neil O'Donnell playing catch with Larry Brown? Bubby Brister? Tommy Maddox? Slash?
As competitive as the Steelers have been in the Cowher Era, they still only have one Super Bowl appearance to show for it. And four home losses in AFC title games.
That had to burn in the crawl of every fan of the Black and Gold. In my humble opinion, as great as a World Series, NBA title or any other championship might be....the sweetest moment is when your team finally wins the Super Bowl.
When the Giants won in 1987, I must have watched that game on tape everyday for about a month. The fact that my two best friends (Cowboys and Redskins fans) were there watching the game with me, made the moment even sweeter.
Say what you want about Steeler fans, they're a proud, loyal group. So it had to kill them to watch Dallas, The Niners and more recently the Patriots take their places as the IT team for the moment. I know it drove me nuts.
But you knew that all it would take was for them to get back to the big game, for the hype machine to start to fire up again. Like it or not, the Steelers are one of the league's glamour frachises (Never thought I'd use glamour and Pittsburgh in the same sentence...) and the NFL, the league that markets their history better than any other, was foaming at the mouth at the possibility of getting two weeks of Steeler spin. Two weeks of Terrible Towels, Swann acrobatics and Jerome Bettis. Two weeks of Chuck Noll and Super Chin Cowher. Two weeks of Terry Bradshaw and Big Ben. With the history Pittsburgh's had since 1969, you'd be crazy not to spin this like a top.
And the pundits didn't disappoint, I stopped reading most of the stuff after the first couple of days. The writers ceased being interesting. I don't mind spin, but too much makes me dizzy.
If the best you can come up with is Jerome Bettis, Jerramy Stevens and Joey Porter...then you no longer deserve my attention.
But apparently the spin worked, because this is what happened....
NEW YORK (AP) An estimated 90.7 million people watched the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks for their fifth Super Bowl championship Sunday, the largest Super Bowl audience since 1996.
This must drive Pats fans nuts. They win three out of four titles but they can't begin to create the national buzz that teams like the Steelers, Cowboys or Raiders can. That's the difference between having a nice regional following and having a national fan base for over 30 years. Even if you're playing a blah team like Seattle, people will still watch. Can imagine if they played the Giants? (Ugh..it hurts just to write that) It would have topped 100 million easy.
That's why when the NFL talks about parity, they're talking out of both sides of their mouth. Yeah, it's important that you have a system in place where everyone has a chance to compete. But do you really think they or their television partners wanted to see a Carolina-Denver final? Without John Elway? It might have been a great game, but you would have been walking into a ratings abyss.
As much as the league likes to promote this "League/Team" first atttitude, they understand that stars and glamour put asses in the seats. And that's what you get when you have teams like Dallas, Oakland and Pittsburgh in the game. A built-in fanbase that doesn't have to be manufactured.
As for the game itself....I keep hearing about the horrible officiating. And they're correct, it was awful. But what did you expect? The officiating has been awful all year!!! Seattle needs to pipe down about the calls, because they were beneficiaries of bad calls all year. The Giants game as well as several others.
Should the five Seahawks fans in the country be pissed off about losing a game where they clearly outplayed the competition? Absolutely. But the Steelers made the plays when they had to while the Seahawks dropped pass after perfect Hasselbeck pass. They had plenty of opportunities and squandered most of them. Holmgren can call out the refs as much as he wants, it wasn't the line-judge's fault that Stevens hands couldn't match his mouth.
It's already starting though with the obnoxious Steelers fans. I go to Blondies after game. I congratulate the fans that I know. Fans who deserve to feel the joy of a Super Bowl win. But as I'm doing that, there's a couple of midgets who are sizing me up like they want to do something because I'm wearing a jersey they can't identify (Auburn Bo Jackson jersey in case you were wondering). It never ends. I just found out the other day that Blondies is listed as a Steelers bar on some of the national fan websites. Oh joy. Looks like I'll have to find a new bar for next season.
Big Ben played like a 23 year old playing in the biggest game in his life. But he made enough plays to win. And that's all that matters. Gaudy stats are nice. But what would you rather have? Dan Marino's 60,000 passing yards and 400 TDs? Or Troy Aikman's three rings?
Everyone's been writing that this is going to put more pressure on Eli. Really? You mean other than the fact that he's the son of a college legend and the brother of this generation's Marino? Or the fact that he's the QB for the New York Friggin Giants?
This kid has been handling pressure and came out smelling like a rose. Despite Big Ben's coming out party, I don't think it's going affect Eli one bit. The Steelers have been a championship caliber team for the last several years. Solid defense, skill players on offense, good offensive line and a battle-tested coach. All they needed was a competent QB who wouldn't lose games for them. They finally have that. Will Ben become Elway or Montana? A QB with the gaudy stats and the rings? Or Troy Aikman and Bob Griese? A QB with modest stats, great running game and W's. Only time will tell. But I'll tell you this, whatever Eli does, Pittsburgh's success or failure in the coming years will have nothing to do with it.
Staying on football, I like the writers choices this year for the Hall of Fame. White and Aikman were no-brainers, but I like the choices of Moon, Carson and Madden. Carson and Madden were long overdue choices. Harry Carson along with Mike Singletary was the dominant middle linebacker of his era. What took the writers so long one can only speculate. I've heard rumors about Carson burning the wrong bridges during his career. But that's another blog for another time. I can't understand why it took so long for Madden to get the call. He won over 100 games in 10 years and a Super Bowl. Is it the shadow of Al Davis and the fact that Tom Flores won two titles after Madden retired? Is it that he only coached 10 years and isn't know for any new innovations in the game like Landry, Walsh and Brown? Who knows.
I was actually surprised Moon got in on the first ballot. I was sure they'd make him wait a couple of years. Despite his gaudy NFL stats and the fact that he's the most prolific QB in the history of professional football, I thought his lack of playoff success would be held against him. Mike and MadDog said yesterday that if you wanted to put him in as a pioneer for the modern Black QB, fine, you can't put him in on just performance because he falls short.
Garbage. If you hold that against him, then you have to hold it against Sonny Jurgensen, Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Fran Tarkenton, YA Title and others. I don't know what what world nine pro bowls, five years with 4,000 yards or more passing, 290 TDs and nearly 50,000 yards passing doesn't get you a trip to Canton. I guess Peyton's gonna be SOL huh?
It's silly comments like that that drive former players like Emmitt Smith crazy. He went on a rant this week that writers shouldn't be the only ones who judge who gets in the Hall. He's angry that his teammate Michael Irvin hasn't gotten call and that it took Rayfield Wright over 20 years to get his. He thinks Hall members along with fans should have a voice along with the writers.
It will never happen but Smith does have a point. There are way too many agendas where the sports writers are concerned. Old beefs that comes into play when the votes are tabulated. I don't know if getting the fans would accomplish, because it then becomes a popularity contest. But I think giving members of the Hall a vote could be a good idea. They might not have liked a guy, but if they respected him, they'll probably vote for him. More on that in another blog...
I went to another Nets game on Saturday. I watched Vince Carter break Dwayne Wade down like Will Hunting and calculus. The Nets won pretty easily. I've said this before and I'll say it again. If the Nets played in the city, they'd sell out every night. They need some frontcourt scoring and defense, but this team is very entertaining and figures to be competitive for a couple of years. I'm a Knicks fan who bleeds blue and orange. But I will have tickets in Brooklyn once Ratner and company move east. It's sort of sad that this team can't sell out a Saturday matinee against one of the best teams in the East.
More later...
posted by Darth Marc at 7:30 PM
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