OK, that was quite a game. Ups and downs, back and forth, lead changes in the fourth quarter, guys coming through when they should. You feel for Arizona, but Pittsburgh came through when it mattered.
For the Cardinals, it was Kurt Warner showing the touch, accuracy and ability that had people talking he deserves Hall of Fame consideration (sorry, but he doesn't) on top of the fact he won the NFL Man of the Year Award for community service. The guy is a marvel. Hope he doesn't retire.
As for the Steelers, hate them all you want. But every game Pittsburgh won this season was because at key times key guys have come through. In the AFC Championship Game it was Troy Polamalu. In the Super Bowl it was Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes. Roethlisberger played behind a mediocre offensive line (at best), yet continued to escape the pass rush and come up with throw after throw. He drove his team 88 yards, and overcame a holding penalty, to win the game. In my mind, the guy is the most underrated quarterback in the league. Holmes simply was huge on the last drive, catching four passes for 73 yards — including that amazing catch to win the game.
This followed the great Warner-to-Larry-Fitzgerald touchdown. James Harrison's unbelievable 100-yard return. A kind of what-is-going-on-look in the eyes of the Steelers defenders in the fourth quarter. Great game. Best ever? I don't know. Every time there's a close Super Bowl people go to that well. Last year was the best ever too, remember? Sunday's was just a whale of a game.
As always, it's easy to point out Browns follies when it comes to other teams' successes. But the guy calling offensive plays for Pittsburgh is Bruce Arians, fired by the Browns. The quarterback who won the game for Pittsburgh was a guy the Browns braintrust did not like the year he came out of college. And when the Steelers traded up to acquire Holmes, the entire media room cringed at the thought he'd be leaving Ohio State for the Steelers. That was back in the day when the Browns didn't really look at Ohio State guys a lot.
Say whatever you want about Pittsburgh, but Dan Rooney has built a culture that should be the envy of the Browns — and a lot of other teams as well. They do things right.
As Troy Polamalu told Peter King of SI.com: " "We're a team that's been built on tradition, on many people before us being close and forming tight bonds, all the way up to people like Jerome Bettis. Guys just love playing here. We have Mr. Rooney's cell number. We practice hard, we play hard, and we have a lot of fun doing it."
Couple other quick thoughts;
–Sure seemed like a repeat of the Seattle Super Bowl the way the calls were going Pittsburgh's way early. By game's end, though, things seemed to have evened out.
–Not good on Harrison's part to take those cheap shots on a punt return. John Madden called for his ejection.
–I agreed with Madden that it would have been wrong for replay not to give Harrison a touchdown on that return. First, he scored. Second, taking it away would have involved way too minute an analysis. The NFL needs to do something to streamline the replay process.
–Holmes mimicked LeBron James after the game-winning touchdown, pretending to pour powder on his hands and fling it into the air a la LeBron.
–You get the feeling if Warner retires he'll be leaving some good football on the field.
–The Boss rocked the house. I don't want to hear any criticism or carping, Alan. I can now go to my resting place: Springsteen did the Super Bowl.
Hey Pat – I always look forward to reading your blog. Can't question the success of the Steeler way. However, there appears to be a negative side to it. According to an article posted last year, former Steelers have died at an alarming rate (http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/10585478) that is much higher than any other team. 34 former Steeler players have died since 2000, with 16 of them age 59 or younger. In 2006, a Los Angeles Times survey found that nearly one-fifth of the NFL players from the 1970s and 1980s who had died since 2000 were former Steelers.
Pat,
You really need to come out of the closet and admit that your ambition is to write for the Post Gazette.
Oh, come on, Pat, graciously allow me the latitude of a "little" carping.
For instance, what was the deal (figuratively and literally) with Springsteen's, "I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!" I am looking forward to Mr. Seger's … uh, I mean Mr. Springsteen's commercial. How much was he paid for that shout? Shilling for Disney. Boy, that's just great, Bruce.
Also, what's the deal with Clemons and Van Zandt? First, those two guys have an aggregate total of six hairs between the two of their heads. Why can't they be like that bald horn playing guy with his ponytail, and finally just show it? Then there's Clemons, who, based upon that black circus tent he was wearing, is trying to cover up more blubber than 10 Ann Wilsons from Heart combined. Have some pride, Big Man.
Also, two 55ish chicks in one band? I'm sorry, too much. And don't call me a chauvinist pig, Clemons himself pretty much said the same thing after Springsteen fired everybody in the band in 1990.
At least the game was good. Although, as usual, Warner had too many of his post-concussion syndrome moments. And how 'bout his wife's major makeover? She used to resemble a graying butch dominatrix. Now, with the help of some plastic surgery, blond Clairol and letting her hair grow long, she actually looks a little bit like an older babe. Not bad at all. Maybe you should start posting some photos of her instead of Faith Hill.
nice crotch cam on the boss.
"And don't call me a chauvinist pig, Clemons himself pretty much said the same thing after Springsteen fired everybody in the band in 1990."
clarence clemons the woman beater said that?
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n21_v92/ai_19852020
that's right alan! and don't you call john denver a wife beater again!
I take a lot of heat for this, but I can't hate the Steelers. They and the Bills were the two teams that stood up for us when Modell tried to move the team, and for that reason, I will never hate them. Also, no matter what, you can't argue with what they've done. I long for the day when it's us partying in the streets, for any of the sports I don't even care if it's the Browns, Indians, or Cavs… But can you imagine what a riot that will be when it finally happens?
I did however lose a lot of respect for James Harrison. That cheap shot should've gotten him tossed.
Larry Fitzgerald may be the next Jerry Rice. He's amazing.
A lot of Pittsburgh fans don't even hate us anymore, they pity us. That's a sad state in a rivalry. I hope Mangini can do something about that. 11 losses in a row is pathetic, no matter how good the team. The Steelers have won six Super Bowls, the Browns haven't won a title since '64, and the series is two wins apart, and it took all the wins against the new Browns to even it up. That should say something about the respect the rivalry did hold, and how it should be restored. The Steelers should be number one on George and Mangini's to-do list.
I don't even understand that supposed Steelers-Browns "rivalry," because there isn't one and never has been one. It's been a total local area media fabrication.
The Steelers lost to everybody year in and year out from the time they got into the NFL until the AFL merged with the NFL. They absolutely stunk both before and after the Browns got into the NFL. Then when the NFL and the AFL merged, the Steelers regularly toyed with the Browns, whether it's the Ravens/Browns or the new Browns of which we all pretend that guys like Marion Motley, Gene Hickerson, Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly and all the rest had any relation. Mangini sucks at PR, but he has a point.
Just because the Steelers and the Ravens/Browns moved to the AFC together with the Baltimore Colts doesn't make the Steelers and Browns rivals. Never has. I think when Joe Jones picked up Terry Bradshaw in 1976 and pile-drived Bradshaw's head into the ground like a Scud missile, that served to perpetuate the local sportswriters' myth that there is a rivalry.
The myth all sounds good though, it makes for entertaining sportswriting, and over the course of the past 40 years or so, whether it's the Ravens/Browns or the expansion faux Browns, the Northeast Ohio area media has given folks at the two downtown stadiums an excuse to get drunk and slash a tire on any car with Pennsylvania plates. I think some of these nimrods are so hypnotized to believe there has actually been some kind of a rivalry, they'd slash the hoof on some poor horse dragging an Amish buggy.
What's this about the Steelers & the Bills standing up for us, during the Time-of-Evil-Doings? I wasn't aware of that, though there was so much blind rage coursing through my brain that I might have missed it. Details? And it's important because my official stance is to hate the ground that the Steelers walk on, so anything positive might qualify as anger management. The other point about the "rivalry" being over-blown is definitely true. But then that has more to do with trying to make a dull game more interesting. I live south of Boston and last year when the Yankees had been eliminated from the playoffs and they still had games with the Red Sox, it was comical to hear the local cable station fuming about the "hated" Yankees coming to town. If the Red Sox management looked in the mirror, they would see "Yankees" emblazoned on their chest. If you can't beat them, become them!
A large part of the Browns-Steelers rivalry was based on the 2 teams playing one Saturday night game each year in revolving cities in the 1950's.
Yes, at the time the Steelers with John Henry Johnson and Buddy Dial and 'past their prime's' Bobby Layne and Buddy Parker, was actually enjoyable to watch. The Steelers always played hard, and the games televised from Pittsburgh showed the fans couldn't care less what each teams record was once the game started.
But yes, while Cleveland fans continued to call it a rivalry for decades, I don't really recognize it as such anymore. The Steelers have moved onto the Ravens as their rivals, and rightfully so – the Ravens are a quality organization and team. Let's remember that for a time the Browns had a big rivalry with the Bengals due to Paul Brown going there. That too has passed – you don't see Browns fans talking about that all the time.
I was out of the area for almost 30 years, and what I've seen after coming back 2 years ago is:
1. For some reason the Browns own the hearts of sports fans in NE Ohio. They have not earned it whatsoever – the Cavs and Indians have.
2. There is little grasp of reality here as to how NFL organizations work. There is a feeling that one guy comes on board and the team starts drafting well and coaching well. Along the same lines there is this feeling that the Browns are a player or two away from "surprising a lot of people" and "sneaking into the playoffs" and maybe getting into the Super Bowl "with a little luck". What I see is that the Browns have 3 players – Rogers, Steinbech and Joe Thomas, that can play with the Ravens/Steelers starting 44. That's all.
This whole "Steeler/Brown" rivalry reminds me of a couple that went together in high school and wound up marrying different people. 30 years later they run into one another, and the one that hasn't done much with their life want's to date the one that's been extremely successful and is running with a different group of people.
Someone has to explain to Browns fans that the Bengals are a very poorly regarded franchise and team viewed nationwide by both NFL people and fans. Yet in the last 6 years the Browns have finished behind the Bengals 5 out of 6 times. The significant other you had growing up is no longer interested in you. You're fat, you don't know much, you dress poorly, you have bad manners and probably bad breath as well. This isn't high school. It isn't 25-35 years ago. It's 2009, and long been time to clean yourself up, lose weight, and earn back at least some respect before you can do much interacting with anyone of quality again.
It is very interesting to see the alarming death rate of Steelers. 1 in 5 deaths of players from the 70's and 80's being Steelers does not surprise me. I ready Steve Courson's book, "False Glory" in which he exposed the Steelers for promoting Steroid use in the 70's. They were way ahead of the times in Steroid abuse. So their Superbowls in the 70's were artificial and not legitimate. I hope all those rings are worth the lives of Steve Courson and Mike Webster. Way to go Steelers!
Matthews: Pittsburgh's and Buffalo's franchise owners were the sole NFL owners to vote against Modell (and Lerner, his partner in crime) from hijacking the real Browns to Baltimore.
I take issue with that Steve Courson thing, because he only kicked the bucket after a tree fell on him and his dog. I wonder what kind of dog he had, because that animal survived a freakin' tree falling on it. That is one tough dog. Perhaps the dog pumped iron and took Dianabol, Winstrol, Deca-Durabolin and the cream and the clear. I can't wait to read his book.
Steve;
About the Steeler death rate – I've had a big problem remaining an NFL fan since the early 70's. There was always something wrong with all the players putting on weight. Even John Madden bemoaned in the mid-80's that players were carrying too much weight for their bone structure. I also stopped watching for years when I saw linemen going into a crouch with their bellies sticking out one way and their rear ends the other. The Browns I watched winning in the 50's and early 60's were athletes, Lou Groza was about as chunky as they got.
Over the years I've gravitated to the NBA, partly from living in LA and seeing the showtime Lakers, and the recent rebuilding under Phil Jackson. It's nice that Cleveland fans can begin to see what a contending NBA team that is firing on all cylinders looks like. Boy, are they fun to watch.
MLB loses me not so much because of the lack of a salary cap, but because they will not even discuss full revenue sharing of cable TV receipts. This makes no sense to me. When Branch Rickey tried to start the Continental League in the late 1950's as MLB initially refused to expand and recognize the new major markets that were developing throughout America, he knew that TV would play a large part in the revenues teams generated. I believe he came up with a 60-40 formula to sell to potential team owners to assure they would all be competitive. When Lamar Hunt was starting the AFL in 1959, he went to see Rickey (by then baseball had expanded with 2 teams – the Angels and Mets, and more to follow – so the Continental League idea died), and came out of it so impressed with how important TV revenue would be, that he agreed that all TV rights would be put into a kitty and shared equally by all teams. This assured his owners in smaller markets like Denver and Buffalo that they could compete with NY and LA, and he credits that for getting the league off to a solid start. When the AFL and NFL merged in 1966, the NFL adapted Hunt's formula. The end result is that America can love to see a Cowboy/Packer matchup in football…..while look how little interest a Texas Ranger/Milwaukee matchup would attract in MLB.
No matter how hard MLB tries, it can't kill baseball. I love to watch my relatives kids play high-school and summer baseball, and can honestly say that I far more enjoy going to an Aero game at Canel Park then I do going up to see the Indians play. Canal Park is FUN. I don't care if the team loses. I don't care that the better players may be gone before I see the next game. It's FUN! The fans (of all ages) seem a lot more relaxed at the game, in Cleveland they HAVE to win….or else.
Well, sorry to have carried on. With this Depression starting – something I've been expecting for over 5 years – I think that Americans are finally going to begin to put professional sports in their proper perspective. I saw that Donald Fehr of the MLB players union is "concerned" about collusion because so many free agents are unsigned at the salaries they expect. Funny, he wasn't "concerned" when Manny Rameriz was making $20M last year with the Red Sox and jaked it on the field (I'll never forget how he said he couldn't run because his left knee was hurting so, then he walked out on the field to talk to his teammates dragging in right leg…..when the reporters mentioned it to him he then then started dragging his left leg) so he could get out of his contract….and then, like CC, he made a classic contract run the rest of the season.
Nah, when LeBron hangs 'em up, that will be it for me with professional sports.
Interesting that they would vote against Modell, and not go with what would definitely be a destabilizing event for a division, and conference opponent, respectively. And since it had only been about 5 years since the "Happy Days" of the Browns, in the 1980's, there was every reason to participate in a TKO of the franchise and its connection to a rabid fan base. Well, thanks for the info. Now, I will have to despise the Steelers for their plaoff success, their current dominance of the Browns, and twice a season on Game Day, but otherwise, let up on the hatred. I feel better, already…
nice posts ben.
i'm pretty down on the nfl after the super bowl. i don't like how the last play was handled. sure, the call was probably correct but to not even go through the motions of a replay at the end of the most important game of the year was shoddy. a great game was ruined by the nfl failing to take a little time and make sure the call was correct. how many times have we had to sit through a 5 minute delay over a review of an obvious play? the replay refs were in such a hurry to go home and give the steelers ring number 6 they screwed up one of the best super bowls of all time.
vince mcmahon coined the term "sports entertainment". the nfl has mastered the concept. it seems to be about rewarding the team who can sell the most merch. who was going to buy a cardinals super bowl shirt? much better to end the game quickly and start cranking out the commemorative steelers championship dvd. combined with the manufactured home court advantage in the nba and as ben mentioned, the lack of revenue sharing in mlb it sure is a drag when "sports entertainment" is shoved in my face.
Let's see…would the Steelers have drafted someone like Braylon Edwards? Don't think so! Would they have drafted Kellen Winslow? Don't think so! Instead, the Steelers bring people to their organization who think team first. Talent is important, but a me-first attitude will kill the team. If the Steelers do take a chance on someone with a history or character issues, (see Santonio Holmes), the strength of their organization and their no nonsense approach to a team-first attitude will usually provide the proper perform and behave or get out attitude needed to succeed.
I sure hope the Browns stop talking about the Steelers model for success and start doing something about it.
Pat, I'm really surprised with you. You basically drag the Browns through the mud because they lay off 15 people while paying athletes millions of dollars a year. Yet you don't say a thing about the 3 million per 30 second spot for advertising, from these companies that are laying off thousands. That doesn't include how much it cost to make it.
I don't expect you to respond to this because I don't see how you could justify it. If you truly did care about the well being of the people being let go, and what the Browns did wasn't personal, I would think that every commercial would have you spitting up your wings and beer.
Huh, Rob B? Your analogy is absolutely ridiculous. What don't you understand about the differences between the business of the National Football League and the business of manufacturing crackers? For one, show me a TV network dedicated to crackers.
I for one HATED to see the browns leave. I believe the steeler browns rivalry stemmed from the closeness of the cities and the fact it is so damn easy for a steeler fan to get to a browns game and vice versa. I could never afford to go to a steeler home game but I'm hoping this year to make to the away game in cleveland because it's much easier to get those tickets. There is a reason the steelers, browns, ravems, and bengals are in the same division, it's easier to fill the stadiums when opposing teams are within driving distance.
There was a good 90 seconds between warners fumble (it was a fumble) and the next play. plenty of time for the booth to review the call without making an already long game longer. I will agree there were questionable calls for both sides but I think they evened out and had the cards won I will still believe that, though they didn't so you can believe I am blowing smoke if you want.
As for hoping ill on the browns (and the bengals for that matter) I personally don't. You think it's embarassing being a basement team? Imagine getting in the playoffs and everyone saying your team is fake because they play 2 different basement teams twice a year each. I would rather post wins against prospering teams (or losses for that matter) than teams with poor management and me first players.
And about Holmes, I view him as a clone of Burress. In 2 years he will be playing for the cowboys, bengals, or even philly and a year or 2 after be in jail. He won't be in Pittsburgh much longer I'm sure.