Filed under: New England Patriots
I gave a thorough rationale regarding what teams to root for in the NFL Conference Championship games a couple weeks ago(“Now Who” January 18th), however I feel I should finally hop on the overcrowded SuperBowl media wagon and make some sort of pick or something.
As a hardcore Boston sports fan, I find it hard to root for the Steelers. It just feels icky. I have spent too much energy rooting against them and can’t really find any reason to passionately root for them. Obviously when they were playing Peyton it just came naturally. My hatred for Jake Plummer grew enough so I rooted for Roethlisberger and the Steelers in “The Battle of the Beards” as well(can you bet whether or not Plummer will be panhandling outside the stadium before the game? I haven’t checked). But now it just doesn’t seem right. I just can’t get myself pysched up about rooting for the Steelers. The only problem is, its tough to root against them as well. Jerome Bettis’s homecoming is a decent story(albeit a grossly over-covered one). Bill Cowher is the hardworking coach that the franchise has stayed loyal to. Big Ben seems like the cool guy you would want to have a beer with. The city passionately cares about its sports franchises no matter how terrible them may be(*ahem…the Pirates). In a SuperBowl that your team is not involved in, that might be enough. However as a hardcore New England fan, I have a few reasons not to root for the Steel City in SuperBowl XL.
Firstly, Ben Roethlisberger is young and good and is an emerging star. And I know I am going to sound like a psycho-possessive ex-girlfriend when I say this but, I don’t want him to steal Tom Brady’s thunder. Tom Brady is suppose to be the young, attractive, and talented QB stud that wins SuperBowls. I am sorry but I can’t root for anyone to take that crown from him. Peyton will enter his 30s and soon become a grizzled veteran that could never win the big one. That’s fine. But I DO NOT want some 23 year old bearded snot-nosed punk coming in and being the next biggest thing under 25 years old. I know that last paragraph sounded immature and potentially like I have two X chromosomes. But I can’t help how I feel. I love Tom Brady.
Secondly, as hard as it is to root against this Steeler team, it may be even harder to root against the Seattle Seahawks. If there ever were a town that needed a Championship team, it’s Seattle. I really can’t think of a sports town that has been as plagued with mediocrity as badly as Seattle has. The SuperSonics, the Mariners, AND the Seahawks? I know that Seattle isn’t known for being an intensely passionate sports town, but the history of those three franchises has to have you feel for their fans. And with the Seahawks’ home crowd emerging as one of the loudest transforming the stadium into arguably the most hostile environment in the NFL(unless you’re Santa Claus, in which Philly wins hands down), you have to think the Seattle fans deserve a Lombardi Trophy.
Thirdly, Seattle has a couple local boys on their team as well. And not only are they on the roster, but they are two of the Seahawks’ top 5 players. Wrentham native and defensive extraordinaire Lofa Tatupu, and QB Matt Hasselbeck who grew up in Westwood and went to Boston College. If the scales were balanced between rooting for these two teams, I think this may have tipped them.
Ordinarily, in these kind of match-ups where I can’t decide who to root for, I just root for funny commercials and chicken wings and cold beer and stuff. Unfortunately the halftime show is starting to resemble an old school country club ever since the NFL and TV networks practically banned women. Normally I would be rooting for boobies(can’t you always root for boobies?) but since the Rolling Stones will be headlining the halftime festivities, I think I am going to pass on rooting for some T&A.
The good thing about this SuperBowl is I am not going to be upset over watching one of the teams win at the end(like XXXVII with Tampa and Oakland). I will still be rooting for commercials and beer. Woohoo! Yay beer! Goooo beer!
My pick: Pittsburg 34, Seattle 30
theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>