Super Bowl 45 (XLV)
This is the biggest game of the year. The reason that team's draft in the previous April, workout year-round, and start hitting in August. If you can't enjoy this game, then you shouldn't be watching football at all. When you add in the families and friends at parties, great food and commercials, and the overall feeling of a football league championship ... this is the big one. Months of celebration or months of defeat and second guessing are in store for these teams, so let's see what happens.
First things first, how did the Packers become a favorite in this game? The Steelers are more experienced in post season play as well as overall, they have the more veteran team and are starting absolutely no rookies and only a few second or third year players. They were built for any single game. The Packers have youth and speed on their roster, but that doesn't mean they are the favorites. If anything this should be a close game for the ages.
Without giving away who we are rooting for (or at least most of us on one side and one on the other), it makes sense to say they both win. It makes sense from a Vegas point of view, but also because both teams have such compelling stories.
On one hand, you have the Pittsburgh Steelers who were the embarrassment of the league for almost 40 years. In fact, for their first 37 seasons (which includes the first 3 years of the Chuck Noll era), they only had 4 seasons where they won more than half of their games. Yet when the 1970's came around they seemingly sprung up as a dynasty out of nowhere and became a real franchise. The great Bill Cowher kept them respectable, but couldn't win the big one until he got the big one (quarterback that is), and now Ben Roethlisberger is trying to prove that no matter what you think of him as a person, he is going for a 3rd league championship and trying to prove that he is a winner.
On the other hand, if you have paid any attention to the media in the last 5 years, you might know about a guy named Brett Favre who has more or less dominated the headlines. The kid that didn't quit became the old man that didn't quit, and that meant he would do anything to stay in the spotlight, even if it meant delaying the gratification of the next step of the franchise in Aaron Rodgers. The Packers lost 6 games this year, and we have been on the Packers bandwagon at least since this website went up (look it up on this site). They lost 4 games by a field goal, two of the four in overtime. The other two losses came by 4 points, and two of those six losses they didn't even have Aaron Rodgers finish the game. The Packers will fight to get back to the trophy that is named after their great coach and history, and to prove that their quarterback is for real.
At the end of the day, your head says the Steelers (who are 6-1) will find a way to pull another close one out like they always seem to do (whether by the "missed" calls in the Superbowl versus the Seahawks, the nail biter in the Superbowl versus the Cardinals, the luck where Stevie Johnson dropped the winning TD in the Bills game, TJ Houshmandzadeh dropped the ball in the Ravens-Steelers part 3 game, or even the Troy Polamolu strip of Joe Flacco in Ravens-Steelers part 3 ... and we won't even get into the call about the goal line fumble at Miami ...). That being said, your heart has to go to Aaron Rodgers and the packers. The smallest market of almost all of the teams, your heart goes out to all of the injuries that they have suffered (look at the IR on the year) and how this one could be the chance for Aaron Rodgers to prove his worth. He has said and done everything right, and despite some incorrect stories from the media about the cancer patients (he really does give back more than people know), this is his chance to start his legacy.
On one hand, you have the Pittsburgh Steelers who were the embarrassment of the league for almost 40 years. In fact, for their first 37 seasons (which includes the first 3 years of the Chuck Noll era), they only had 4 seasons where they won more than half of their games. Yet when the 1970's came around they seemingly sprung up as a dynasty out of nowhere and became a real franchise. The great Bill Cowher kept them respectable, but couldn't win the big one until he got the big one (quarterback that is), and now Ben Roethlisberger is trying to prove that no matter what you think of him as a person, he is going for a 3rd league championship and trying to prove that he is a winner.
On the other hand, if you have paid any attention to the media in the last 5 years, you might know about a guy named Brett Favre who has more or less dominated the headlines. The kid that didn't quit became the old man that didn't quit, and that meant he would do anything to stay in the spotlight, even if it meant delaying the gratification of the next step of the franchise in Aaron Rodgers. The Packers lost 6 games this year, and we have been on the Packers bandwagon at least since this website went up (look it up on this site). They lost 4 games by a field goal, two of the four in overtime. The other two losses came by 4 points, and two of those six losses they didn't even have Aaron Rodgers finish the game. The Packers will fight to get back to the trophy that is named after their great coach and history, and to prove that their quarterback is for real.
At the end of the day, your head says the Steelers (who are 6-1) will find a way to pull another close one out like they always seem to do (whether by the "missed" calls in the Superbowl versus the Seahawks, the nail biter in the Superbowl versus the Cardinals, the luck where Stevie Johnson dropped the winning TD in the Bills game, TJ Houshmandzadeh dropped the ball in the Ravens-Steelers part 3 game, or even the Troy Polamolu strip of Joe Flacco in Ravens-Steelers part 3 ... and we won't even get into the call about the goal line fumble at Miami ...). That being said, your heart has to go to Aaron Rodgers and the packers. The smallest market of almost all of the teams, your heart goes out to all of the injuries that they have suffered (look at the IR on the year) and how this one could be the chance for Aaron Rodgers to prove his worth. He has said and done everything right, and despite some incorrect stories from the media about the cancer patients (he really does give back more than people know), this is his chance to start his legacy.
