It's (not) just a game
It's playoff time again. I always have mixed feelings about playoff time. I'm caught between "It's just a game" and being married to a man whose very feelings of joy are totally connected with 53 men in black and gold and the fact that I really truly am quite a Steelers fan and I want them to play well. But to me, a Super Bowl ring for the black and gold means about as much as, well about as much as ... knowing who won a high school swim meet back in my home town of Wichita, KS. In fact, 3 years ago, knowing who won that high school swim meet was significantly more important. In my new found football fandom, which is really quite genuine (I can name you the starting line-up for the Steelers on both sides of the ball and about 95% of the backups, plus special teams, both names and probably numbers if you'd like), I still have a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm it takes to be a "true" sports fan. After all, part of me wants Jerome Bettis to make the Super Bowl in Detroit, but most of me figures hey ... he makes close to 100 times more money than I do and no doubt he is chock full of talent, spirit, and is just an all around good guy, but if he doesn't make Super Bowl XL, life goes on. My life does not change in the least based on whether the Steelers win or lose in the playoffs and really with all the hype surrounding everything to be totally honest ... I'm getting a little bored with it all. However, if I ever said that out loud, it'd be off with me head, and "Here-we-go-Steelers-here-we-go." Plus, I'm one of those people on whom excess enthusiasm is simply wasted. More than that, it bugs the daylights out of me. But I understand that to most of the football fan world that all yesterday, all last night, all this morning it was football, football, football. I love football, too, but at some point you have to figure that you can only watch the commentary, analysis, and game footage so many times. You can only say so much about one game before it's all said. Besides, I must have seen Von Oelhoffen slam into Palmer's knee about 30 different times from at least 3 different angles over and over and over again. He tore his ACL ... we hope he'll be back for training camp. It sucks, but it was a fair, even unintentional, hit. We get it. But before 9:30 this morning, yesterday's playoff game against the Bengals was converted and stored onto our video iPod for JJ to take to work with him today. To be watched or listened to in the background while working is what I'm going to assume it was for. I don't doubt that there are people all across the U.S. who hold out for this kind of playoff season. I don't doubt that there are people whose very happiness hangs on who goes to Super Bowl XL and who doesn't. There are the hopeful Patriots fans who are hoping that their boys can prove once and for all that they're the best team ever in the NFL. No team has ever won the Super Bowl three times consecutively. There's the Seahawks, who have the number 1 rusher in the NFL. Can Shaun Alexander and his offensive line carry Seattle to Detroit? And of course the once-invincible-now-a-question-mark-but-not-really Colts with the magic of Peyton Manning's arm, Marvin Harrison's hands, and Edgerrin James' feet. Can Tony Dungy, one of the "good guys" of NFL coaching lead the Colts to a championship? The Steelers sneak into the bottom of the ranks here, but they're one of the most consistent good teams in the NFL. With Big Ben Roethlisberger about as healthy as he's been all year, "Fast" Willie Parker developing into a solid NFL back, safety Troy "My hair is bigger than your hair" Polumalu pulling tricks out of his hat and offensive coordinator Ken "I'm a stud because the flea flicker play I called worked" Wisenhunt's seemingly ingenious calls I guess we can't really even count the Steelers out. 2 more weeks of playoff games, a week of rest, and then Super Bowl XL. Of course, once that's over then we're talking the combine, the NFL draft (otherwise known as "Who gets Reggie Bush/Matt Leinart/Vince Young?"), training camp and then we're back at the preseason. Where is that fat lady already? **edit** I'm not actually this sour about football. I was in a terrible mood when I wrote this. For real. Go Steelers!