By now, everyone's
heard that the Steelers want to avoid a repeat of 2006, when they entered the season as Super Bowl champions, thought they
could just show up and win, and fell flat on their face. They started
the season 2-6 and finished 8-8.
This will be the third
time I witness the Steelers trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions. In 1980 they slumped to 9-7 and missed the playoffs
after winning their fourth Super Bowl in 1979.
Winner Wonderland
What a great Christmas it was in 1979. Santa Claus brought me a Steelers coat, a Steelers sweatshirt, a Steelers winter
hat with the pom-pom on top, Steelers notebooks (I don't mean laptops,
remember this was 1979), Steelers pencils, a Steelers wastebasket and a Steelers shot glass. OK, just kidding on that last one. Maybe.
I was 8.
I had just discovered the NFL. And the Steelers were Super Bowl champions. Life was good (Yes, these are pictures of me when
I was that age. Sorry about the cheesy wallpaper.).
Then
I learned an important lesson: Athletes get old. Steve Sabol said it best on NFL Films. I don't know the exact quote, but
he likened the departure of the Steelers' stars of the 70s to leaves
falling off a tree in autumn.
Bah,
humbug!
Christmas in 1980 just wasn't the same. I don't know what was worse, finding out the Steelers
weren't going to win the Super Bowl every year or finding out there
was no Santa Claus.
The Steelers still had a chance to
make the playoffs going into the final weekend of the regular season. But the Saints had to beat the Patriots on Sunday, and the Steelers had to win in San Diego on Monday night. This was the
year, mind you, that the Saints came within two points of being the
first 0-16 team. They started the season 0-14 and beat the Jets 21-20 in Week 15.
I remember a sign at the Superdome with a picture of a Steeler kneeling down praying to the Saints for help. That's
what it had come to for the mighty Steelers. Four days before Christmas,
the Patriots beat the Saints 38-27. No playoffs for the Steelers. And no Santa Claus. Yuck.
Growing up
Over the next 26 years, I'd dealt with asthma attacks,
failing tests, not making the high school baseball team, breakups, job losses and having my fake ID confiscated at a strip club (I mean, it's one thing to be denied alcohol, but to be turned away at a place
where there's naked women? C'mon!).
So I figured if the
Steelers didn't defend their Super Bowl title in 2006, I'd been through worse things in my life. I could take it in stride,
right?
Oh,
boy.
The Steelers failed in such a stupefying way in 2006,
it was just as befuddling to me as a 35-year-old as it was when I was a wide-eyed 9-year-old.
There are so many muffed punts and interceptions and fumbles you can point to, but the one that sticks in my mind
happened in Week 9 at Heinz Field against the Broncos.
The Steelers, 2-5 at the time, trailed 31-20 with two minutes left when Hines Ward
caught a pass from Ben Roethlisberger and was about to go in for a
touchdown. He was right at the goal line. I figured if they scored the TD, got the two-point conversion and recovered the
onsides kick, all they needed to do was kick a field goal to force
overtime, then if they won they could go into the second half of the season with a little momentum.
All those thoughts went through my head in about 1.7 seconds, then they left my
head just as fast when the ball popped into the air after John Lynch
knocked it loose. The Broncos recovered Ward's fumble and went on to win. There were so many plays like that during the first
half of the 2006 season. Sanity was restored in the second half of
the season, but it was too late. The Steelers never recovered from their 2-6 start.
Let's be careful out there
So we can hope for another championship
this season, or at least an honorable title defense. But we should be prepared for the worst. Let's not forget that the Steelers needed a couple of extraordinary plays to win Super Bowl XLIII. The Cardinals provided a
blueprint on how to solve the Steelers defense. Don't think that the
teams on the Steelers' 2009 schedule aren't studying film of that game.
Speaking of the Steelers' schedule, on the surface, it appears easier this season. The Steelers had the toughest
schedule since the 1976 Giants last season. But in my next post, I'll
show you why the schedule might not be as easy as it looks.
They say sports bloggers are 40-year-olds who live in their parents' basement.
Well I'm not 40. Not yet, anyway. I turn 38 today. And I live
in a basement, just not my parents' basement. So there!
There
were no sports bloggers in 1971. There was no ESPN, either. There was no SportsCenter Fact or Fiction: Chuck Noll on the Hot
Seat or Around the Horn: Buy or Sell Chuck Noll Must Make Playoffs
This Season to Save Job.
While I was checking into the
world on August 2, 1971, Noll was entering his third season as Steelers coach. The Steelers went 1-13 in his first season and 5-9 in his second season. Then they went 6-8 in 1971. But the Rooneys
stood by him, and I think it's worked out pretty well for the organization,
which has had just three head coaches in the last 40 years, and each of them has won a Super Bowl.
That 1971 training camp was the Steelers' fifth at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe,
Pa. Having grown up in Rhode Island, I just wanted to mention that
before that, the Steelers trained at the University of Rhode Island from 1964-66. Right in your backyard, Patriots. Take that!
Six degrees of Steelers separation
There wasn't a whole lot going on in the world the day I was
born. But there are a lot of almosts surrounding my birthday, such as the fact that I was born the day after the Concert for Bangladesh. Speaking of music, MTV debuted Aug. 1, 1981, the day before my
10th birthday.
And here are some interesting parallels
or near-parallels that ultimately bring us back to the Steelers, if you're willing to work with me just a little:
n I am two days older
than Jeff Gordon (his birthday is Aug. 4, 1971). But I don't think I've ever driven faster than 80 mph, which means that if
I decide to drive out to Steelers training camp from New York, it
will be Week 3 of the regular season by the time I get there.
n I am 10 days older than Pete Sampras (Aug. 12, 1971) and almost exactly 10 years
older than Roger Federer (Aug. 8, 1981). But I suck at tennis, although
I have taken lessons on both hard and clay courts. And it should be noted that Federer lost the Australian Open final the
day the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII. That was a rock-bottom moment
for Federer from which he has risen from the ashes to win his first French Open and his sixth Wimbledon to surpass Sampras with 15 Grand Slam titles.
n
I am almost exactly 10 years younger than noted Steelers fan Barack
Obama (Aug. 4, 1961). Obama graduated with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude
from Harvard Law School in 1991. During that time, I was across the Charles River at Emerson College in Boston (Class of '93)
taking classes that involved watching TV. The closest I got to Harvard
was hanging out at a Harvard dorm one Saturday night. The best idea these scholars came up with was to phone a place called "Wing It," which delivered chicken wings. When they answered and said "Wing
It," these Ivy Leaguers answered "Fuck It," hung up
and laughed hysterically. Those guys are all probably making a million dollars a year now.
n I am exactly one month older than Tommy Maddox
and exactly 275 months younger than Terry Bradshaw. Both former Steelers quarterbacks celebrate their birthday on September
2 and both were born in Shreveport, La. For that matter, Ben Roethlisberger
has a birthday on the second of the month (March 2, 1982).
n Perhaps the most prominent athlete I actually share a birthday with is Tim Wakefield,
who turns 43 today. The Red Sox knuckleballer is a connection
to the glory days of the Steelers' neighbors at The Confluence.
