One Great Game

Pinheads or Patriots?

(Originally posted February 5, 2009)

Super Bowl XLIII was best explained not by the commentators, the post-game interviews, or Monday Morning Quarterbacks around the country. Football as a whole was summed up by a great modern mind where we least expected one to emerge. We saw his philosophy when Kurt Warner, stumbling all over himself, somehow tossed up a perfect touchdown pass to Ben Patrick. We saw it when James Harrison stepped in front of a pass before anyone could even see where the ball was going. This principle was well seen when Larry Fitzgerald leapt into the air and pulled down what would be an impossible touchdown catch for just about anyone else, or when everyone knew he was going in the end zone when he caught ball with 63 more yards to run. And Santonio Holmes summed it up when he won the game with what will (hopefully, to Patriots fans) be the best remembered catch in Super Bowl history.

Yes, the ultimate statement explaining football was made last night by the Miller High Life man: All you need is just one second.

That's all it takes to turn a game around, defensively, offensively, or specially. And Super Bowl XLIII was played for every second it was worth. With the lone exception of probably Hines Ward, every player in that game lived up to what was hyped about them. And in the case of Santonio Holmes stepping up, it was the un-hyped factor that caught the game by surprise to win it all. Warner, Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Edgerrin James, and Darnell Dockett certainly lived up to hype. But the Steeler defense showed up for the game changing 100 yard interception return, as defensive MVP's sometimes can do. This was a game of memorable moments, without a doubt. Easily the best Patriots-Free Super Bowl in over a decade.

We can go through every play that went the Steeler's way to say why they won, and vice versa as to why the Cardinals lost, but football won this year. The Cardinals played a game worth watching when many wrote them off as the joke they so often have been. The Steelers put on a performance that could keep that headset on Mike Tomlin's head for a great long time to come. Hats off to both teams, but moreso, thanks. Thanks for a great game, and especially thanks for getting people to already begin to stop talking about that nightmare last year. It only takes one second to make history, but it takes a great deal of Miller High Life to forget history.

Tampa Bound

Blog X

(Originally posted January 20, 2009)

The Super Bowl XLIII matchup is a bit of a surprise. The Arizona Cardinals are resembling Michael Myers, they just keep getting back up even when they should die. Many counted them out of the playoffs from the start, since, well, they're the Arizona Cardinals. This is a franchise famous for only two things: being featured in "Jerry Maguire," and blowing a 20-point lead in 2006 to the Chicago Bears (who, apparently, were who the Cardinals thought they were.) Yet, many people forget that they were in "Jerry Maguire." That is a true testament to the fame of the Arizona Cardinals.

The Steelers are not so surprising, but they did fly low on the radar under the Titans and the Colts. They have the best defense in the league, and that can apparently win you a game or two. Ben Roethlisberger is an impressive athlete, who I will always remember as being the only person with broad enough shoulders to actually fit a name like "Roethlisberger" on the back of his jersey (Houshmandzadeh does not fit nearly as suavely, no offense T.J.) But the thing that truly makes the Steelers not so surprising is their overall record as a historical franchise. They're currently tied with the 49ers and Cowboys for most Super Bowl wins at 5 apiece. The Cardinals have never even reached an NFC Championship game before this season. But sports have evolved in the last 43 years since the Super Bowl got going, underdogs can now be something to be feared.

We live in a world where Appalachian State beat Michigan, Boise State beat Oklahoma, 14-point underdog New England beat the St. Louis Rams, the Red Sox came back from a 3 game deficit to beat the New York Yankees and go to the World Series, George Mason made the NCAA Final Four over some of the greatest college basketball programs in the country, and Jesse "The Body" Ventura won a contest that did not have a fixed outcome to become a legitimate United States Governor. Things are different. Underdog wins may still be few and far between, but are not a total rarity.

Almost more importantly to mention than underdogs, terrible franchises can win. To date, only 18 of the 32 NFL franchises have Super Bowl Trophies. In the last 11 Super Bowls, 5 teams won their franchises' first Super Bowl : Denver Broncos, St. Louis Rams, Baltimore Ravens, New England Patriots, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6 have won, if you count the Indianapolis Colts, as I'm sure few Indy fans really care that the Baltimore Colts won Super Bowl V, 13 years before coming to their city). The old school favorites are struggling. Of those three teams tied for most Super Bowl victories, only Pittsburgh has a trophy (let alone an APPEARANCE) out of the last dozen Super Bowls. Consider the number of franchises that are considered jokes at the beginning of a season. Then consider the franchises that are perennially considered jokes at the beginning of each season. The Arizona Cardinals are certainly among those. While the Patriots are now considered one of the best teams, we were a joke before 2001. The Buccaneers were the joke of countless seasons.

The Buccaneers are an interesting franchise to bring up in this same breath as the Cardinals. Their lone Super Bowl victory came when Jon Gruden swashbuckled his coaching allegiances from the Raiders to the Buccaneers, and the two teams met in the Super Bowl in his first season as Tampa Bay's head coach. He picked apart Raiders quarterback Rich Ganon, as the Buccaneers pillaged and plundered Oakland for all it was worth, while Al Davis started listing the various ways he could sink his franchise down to Davy Jones' Locker without anyone's help. Simply, they did not stand a chance with Gruden on the other side of the field, as he knew the Oakland offense inside and out, as some members of that Raiders squad have since stated.

The coach of the Cardinals, Ken Whisenhunt, was a pretty successful offensive coordinator for three years before taking his current job. In his first season, he helped lead a rookie quarterback to winning all 13 of the games he started, and being the first AFC team to win 15 games in a season. In his second season as offensive coordinator, he won the Super Bowl. Not too shabby. He was coordinator for some team named the Pittsburgh Steelers. Maybe you've heard somebody mention them recently? Whisenhunt will break out every single old note he has on Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Hines Ward, and the entire offensive line to win this game.

No win is certain after last year's Super Bowl. People who are acting like the Steelers winning is guaranteed are delusional. I thought I could guarantee the Cardinals wouldn't get through the first, second, and third games of the playoffs. Apparently, I was delusional. Ken Whisenhunt helped mold Big Ben into the quarterback he is today, and he's not so far removed from the system that we can rule out him pulling a Jon Gruden. The one thing that is certain: The Cardinals are NOT who we thought they were. The only uncertainty: Will the Steelers let them off the hook?