Here We Go Again...

So I wake up today, as I do every day, and the first story I see when I turn on ESPN is this...

Not Again

Does anyone actually believe Brett Favre this time around? I was waiting for him to make an announcement the night of the Super Bowl to steal some thunder, but he actually waited until the week after to drop this decision. I don't believe it.

I compare this to the movie Fever Pitch with Jimmy Fallon being two different people basically in summer and winter/baseball offseason. We're hearing from winter time Brett, he's always ready to retire because the football season is over and it seems like the right thing to do. Winter time Brett should not be trusted. Just wait till July or August when football season Brett shows up and he's bored, training camp begins and Favre is chomping at the bit. Favre should not be allowed to make an announcement from January to June.

Big Ben

As far as I can remember growing up a Steeler fan, one of the most popular positions on the team was the backup quarterback. People were always criticizing Neil O'Donnell, Kordell Stewart (with good reason there) and yes, Ben Roethlisberger. I knew I had to do a post this week on Big Ben regarding his performance this season and especially in the Super Bowl. It's no secret that Pittsburgh fans have been hard on him, especially over the past two years after his horrible 2006 post-Super Bowl season. And sure, I've said some of the lines this year, "Put Leftwich in!", "Ben's been hit too many times, get him out of there." Well after that game-winning drive Sunday in Super Bowl XLIII, I'll never say a bad thing about Big Ben again.

Sure you can get on Ben about not playing that great all game and waiting for the last possibly chance to get the job done, but hey he has proven to be unbelievably clutch. It's the same reason why people love Brett Favre...you take the bad with the good because you've seen what he can do. I've come to the realization that's it's just Steelers football. Shut teams down with the defense and then score just enough points to get the win. It'd be a lot better on my blood pressure if they would take care of teams and put the game away somewhat early, but as it happened a lot this year, they just love taking it down to the final couple of minutes to decide the game's outcome.

What Roethlisberger did on that final drive was nothing short of amazing as he inserted his name into the great final drives talk of Elway, Montana and others. He did it all season with fourth quarter comebacks and he performed on sports biggest stage Sunday. And he did it with not much help from the O-line. They get him killed all season and he just bounces back with wins. The line had a holding call on the first play of the last drive Sunday that backed them up to the 12 and 1st and 20. And the very next play was key...Ben almost gets sacked, eludes the rush and hits the open man for a big pickup. He's had absolutely no time to throw all season and yes he holds onto the ball a little longer than usual, but he makes plays with his feet to find space more often than not.

He's 26 years old, has a ridiculous amount of wins already, engineered one of the greatest last-minute drives in Super Bowl history and has two Super Bowl rings. Say what you will about him, but you can't argue with all that. In the future if I ever hear people scrutinizing Ben again, I will defend him until I'm blue in the face.

A Super Parade

Who would of thought a cold, gray Tuesday afternoon in February could be so much fun? Only in SIX-BURGH! Only in Pittsburgh would everything totally shut down for four hours for a Super Bowl parade...school closings, offices closing, people lining up at 8 a.m. for a noon parade. If you didn't make it out to the Super Bowl parade today at noon than shame on you for six weeks. But if you didn't make it out, here's what you missed.

You missed out on driving around for 30 minutes wondering "how can all these parking lots be full?!" And then when you did find a parking spot, you missed at least a good two-mile walk in 20 degree weather to the parade route. Then you missed trying to fight your way through thousands of fans and trying to find your friends when they are wearing the same thing that everyone else is wearing. But once there, you missed shouting with random strangers at the Steelers players, you missed Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger, James Harrison, Hines Ward, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, STEELY MCBEAM and much much more. What a day, what a parade! I saw people hanging and standing places I didn't think were possible, rooftops, parking garages, vending machines, traffic lights, etc. The Post-Gazette says city officials estimate about 400,000 Steelers fans today...that's insane. Downtown Pittsburgh is not that big, but then again all of those fans were only on about two streets come parade time.

There have been two Steelers Super Bowl parades in my lifetime. Three years ago I missed the Steelers Super Bowl XL parade because I was living across the country in California (don't ask). I kicked myself for not being here for it, and there was no way I was going to miss this one. I'll leave you with a few pictures of mine from today's celebration...

Steely!

Polamalu

Super Bowl XLIII

My hat is off to the Arizona Cardinals on a valiant effort and making it one of the most exciting games in Super Bowl history. But this game will be remembered for the Steelers sixth Super Bowl title, Ben's incredible game-winning drive and James Harrison's longest play in Super Bowl history. The game ended up not being how I expected it to turn out. It started out that way with the Steelers seemingly in hand leading 20-7, but then a ridiculous fourth quarter showed up to make for one exciting finish.

Could there have been any more ups and downs in this game? Starting with the Steelers looking like they were going to blow the Cards out early, only to have the Cards battle back. Then to have Harrison make an amazing effort to stop the Cardinals from taking the lead and giving the Steelers at 10-point lead at the same time. When the Steelers led 20-7, I didn't think I would be sitting there seeing the Cards have the lead at some point...and just as fast as Larry Fitzgerald streaking down the middle of the field, the lead was gone. The Steelers blew it. I thought their inability to finish teams off by settling for field goals had finally caught up to them on the biggest stage. You hold the lead the entire game and then with just under three minutes left, you're trailing. That's a sick feeling...and I'm just a fan. I can't imagine what the players were going through, and then just when you thought it was over...there was Big Ben and Santonio Holmes. Oh my, what a finish (more on that drive in another post).

Following the game, everyone always wants to compare games to the all-time greats and things like that. People love to get the lists going. The best one ever? How can anyone answer that? How about one of the most exciting ones ever. Look, it's hard to compare this game to last year's game or Super Bowl XXV or Super Bowl XXXIV. I didn't think it could get any better than last year's game with the Giants upset over the Pats, but this year I found myself on the edge of my seat once again. You can't compare all the games and say this one was better than this or that. Different time, different teams and different circumstances are factored in with each great game and what it means to everyone out there watching the game. What someone says is great might not mean a whole lot to the next person. I can't say that last night's game was the best Super Bowl of all-time, but you'd have to agree that it's in the top five of all-time exciting Super Bowls.

World Champs!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday is finally here. What a long two weeks. We were so busy worrying about the two-week layoff that we did zero posts in two weeks. Well this is the day where champions are remembered and losers are forgotten. It's been a nice run for two teams, but today only one will come away victorious. So who's going to win this game. You guessed it...I'm going with the Steelers, and it's not just because I'm from Pittsburgh. Anything can happen on any given Sunday, but looking at this game there's a huge advantage for the Steelers. It's not by accident that the Steelers are seven point favorites by Vegas today in Tampa. They have more overall talent than the Cardinals. They also have a better defense and what wins championships? Defense.

Another thing I always like to look at when it comes to the Super Bowl is the teams overall competition throughout the season and who they played during the regular season and playoffs. The Cardinals played in arguably the worst division in the NFL this year and went 6-0 against that competition. Outside of their division, the Cards went 3-7. Ouch. That's bad enough, but then you have to look at how they played some of their games. When they played the Jets, Patriots, Vikings and Eagles in the regular season...the Cardinals didn't just lose, they got beat down. And I don't hear about them mailing it in after they clinched the division toward the end of the year...they had their starters in and if they didn't come to play, well then that says something about what kind of team they are. The Steelers, on the other hand, played one of the toughest schedules in the NFL...having to play the Ravens twice, Chargers, Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Colts, Cowboys, Patriots, Jaguars and Titans. Come on, that's a brutal regular season schedule. Would the Cardinals have won nine games with that schedule? I don't think so.

I'm going to close with something I said (in another blog) before Super Bowl XL and it holds true this year. Pittsburgh is the toughest team that the Cardinals will face this season, but the Cardinals are not the toughest team the Steelers will face all year. That was true with the Steelers and Seahawks in 2005-06 and look what happened then. I expect much of the same today as the Steelers are more battled tested than the Cards and their defense is superior than Arizona's. I think Kurt Warner will be smothered by the Steelers D and Ben and the offense does enough to hoist the trophy.
Prediction: Steelers 31, Cardinals 17