Steelers vs. Pack: A hair-raisin' game in Big D
PITTSBURGH, PA
No barbers necessary, that's for sure, when the Steelers face
the Packers.
Troy Polamalu and the Steel Curtain led Pittsburgh into the big
game for the third time in six years, holding off Rex Ryan and
those big-talkin' Jets 24-19 in the AFC championship game Sunday.
The black-and-gold already have won six Super Bowl rings, more
than any franchise, but they'll be going against a team that can
hold its own in the history department.
Green Bay was the Monster of the Midway in the NFC, winning its
third straight road playoff game 21-14 over the rival Chicago
Bears. The Packers can also hold their own in the hair department,
too, with the grungy locks of Clay Matthews matched against
Polamalu's thick mass of curls.
A pair of over-the-top 'dos for America's most outsized sporting
event, a de facto national holiday that brings all of America
together in front of their high-def, big-screen TVs for a blitz of
salsa and wings, unabashed capitalism and glitzy halftime shows --
and, for most of the past decade, some dang good football.
And let's not forget our other national pastime: gambling.
The Packers opened as 2 1/2-point favorites for the game Feb. 6 at
Cowboys Stadium, the spaceship of a stadium that Jerry Jones built
to showcase a game as big as all of Texas.
That spread sounds about right, based on the classic finishes
that have become the norm in a game that used to be anything but
Super on the field.
Beginning in 2000, when the Rams stopped the Titans a yard short
of the tying score as time ran out, six Super Bowls have been
decided by a touchdown or less, many of them going right down to
the final seconds.
The storylines abound in this one, from Ben Roethlisberger
turning an offseason of discontent into a year of triumph to Aaron
Rodgers leading the sixth-seeded Packers to one big win after
another, much like the guy whose shadow he's left in the dust,
Brett Favre.
Roethlisberger is going for his third title in six years. Green
Bay is known as Titletown USA, but the Packers haven't won it all
since 1997.
The people who wear cartoon-looking blocks of cheese on their
heads figure that's long enough, considering the boys of the frozen
tundra have won more titles than any other franchise when taking
into account what happened before there was a game with Super in
the title.
The Packers count a dozen NFL titles in all, including the first
two Super Bowls in 1967 and '68 with Vince Lombardi stalking the
sideline. That '97 title, a 14-point romp past the New England
Patriots, is the only time Green Bay has hoisted the Vince Lombardi
Trophy since then, though.