Super Bowl Hangover

The Super Bowl hangover is now in full effect. We now have no football until at least August and quite possibly longer than that with looming NFL labor strife with the players union and the owners. What is a die-hard fan to do in the lulls of winter boredom? If you’re like most fans including myself, you will just turn your attention to the other major sports but the only thing in full swing is basketball. I am an avid basketball fan as well but regular season basketball just doesn’t tickle my fancy as much as a regular season football game. Of course, you are going to have your deep 3-pointers and high-flying dunks with animated commentators such as Marv Albert with his signature “Yes!” .Also in college basketball with Dickie V’s over the top bragging about any player he sees fit for his praise but it not enough for to fill football void. Basketball is my yang and football and is my ying. I’ve always followed both with die-hard status but it always hard to just change my viewing pleasure to mid-season basketball.




It makes it even harder when one person is dominating the headlines of the NBA as much as Carmelo Anthony is right now. So after countless trade rumors about Melo going to the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks, am I suppose to believe that the Los Angeles Lakers have joined the discussion? So I guess now the NBA is in line for its version of super-teams that was ushered in by Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. I just wish he would land somewhere so every time I watch sportscenter I don’t have to hear about it anymore.



College basketball isn’t good until March although The Jimmer is making a case for me to watch a BYU game. I want to catch the latest outfit of one and done players Coach Cal has put together at Kentucky before its too late. North Carolina and Duke games are always good and are about the closest thing to hard hitting you will see in college basketball. But again, I can wait until March in most cases before I tune in for college basketball.



What about baseball you ask? Spring training is right around the corner. The Boston Red Sox have reloaded by adding two of the best young hitters in the game in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. Philadelphia added ace Cliff Lee after he spurned offers from the Yanks and Texas. And speaking of the Yankees, now what are they going to do without Andy Pettitte? Baseball peaks my interest but again not enough for my football fix. For the life of me I cannot watch an entire nine inning game of baseball. I have tried and tried but I always end up doing one of the following: A.) Falling asleep B.) Hopping on the computer or C.) Flipping the channel after watching a guy foul off 10 pitches. It’s just not the same as seeing Troy Polamalu come off the edge for a blitz or Peyton Manning pump faking the defense for a bomb to Reggie Wayne.



As far as all the other so-called spring and summer sports (Tennis, Race-car driving, Golf etc.), none can come close to the action on the gridiron. For those of us who are die-hard football fans, nothing else can touch the pigskin. The worst Sportcenters are in the summer, tune in to one if you don’t believe me. I call this period of non-football the drought. I find myself sometime watching old college football games with players who are either in the league or doing something entirely different with their lives. I watch the NFL network games just to get a taste of what I’m missing even though I know who is going to win. The only good thing that comes from this is that it makes you tune back in to your regular life. You know like work, your family and the outdoors. One person who never complains when football season is over is my girlfriend, she says this is the only time she can get my attention and maybe she is right.



So in summarizing the only thing for us football fans can do is the things we did before football like enjoying the nice spring weather and our family and friends. That is until football returns.

A Super Bowl Like No Other

The stage is finally set for an epic Super Bowl, featuring two tradition dripping franchises seeking to add to their already stacked trophy case. These are two flagship franchises entrenched in the NFL’s history. You could argue that no two cities in the league live through their football teams more than Pittsburgh and Green Bay. The first thing I think about when I hear either or these cities names is football. The history of these teams reads like a timeline of the NFL itself. So before we get into the media hype machine that is the Super Bowl, lets take a quick look at both of these storied franchises and what make them so great in the first place.

Green Bay, AKA Titletown, USA produced the first two Super Bowl champions. The legendary Vince Lomardi built a juggernaut in the 1960’s with his quarterback Bart Starr, the ‘Golden Boy” Paul Hornung at running back and one of my all-time favorite football names Ray Nitschke on defense. If you counted NFL championships as they were referred to before the league merged with the AFL, Green Bay would have accounted for three more championships in the 60’s. They are the first and only professional American sports team to be publicly owned. The Super Bowl trophy for god sakes is named the Lombardi trophy after the iconic coach.



Pittsburgh didn’t pick up any hardware until the 1970’s as they dominated that decade with a menacing defense known as the “Steel Curtain” that featured some of the hardest hitting players the league has ever seen. The names speak for themselves in Mean Joe Green, Mel Blount, and Jack Ham. The offense wasn’t too shabby as well featuring multiple hall of famers in Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swan, and John Stallworth. The Steelers had a legendary coach of their own in Chuck Noll and he would lead them to three titles in the 70’s and the 1980 title as well. The Steelers developed there hard nose image by pounding teams into submission in that era and that tradition still proudly lives on today.



Neither team would win another Super Bowl until the late 90’s as Brett Favre led the Pack back to the title in 1997. The Steelers began a new reign of terror as they won titles in 2006, 2008 and look to add another in this year’s Super Bowl.



Another similarity of these two franchises is the two founding fathers of their teams, Curly Lambeau and Art Rooney. You are not a real football fan if you do not know these names. Lambeau built the Packers from the ground up and even coached the team. The Packers stadium bears his namesake. Art Rooney Sr. and the Rooney family have owned the Steelers since 1946 and probably the most famous owners in the entire league. The Rooney rule was established by the NFL just because of Dan Rooney insistence on interviewing minority coaches. The stability of both franchises is amazing as both have been in business since the 1930’s.



All things considered, this should stack up as the most mythical Super Bowl by tradition standards. The two teams have combined to win 9 of the 45 Super Bowls ever. That’s 1 of 5 Super Bowls. They have some of the most memorable moments in football, from the Immaculate Reception to the Lambeau leap. They have a loyal following rather it’s the cheeseheads as they are affectionately known or Steeler nation waving their terrible towels. There hasn’t been a Super Bowl steeped in so much NFL tradition as this one will be.