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i remember bringing my camera to work February 2006 to grab this photo of the Steelers Super Bowl XL Victory parade. My thought then was, "Whoa. This won't happen again anytime soon." How good it feels to be wrong and it felt so good to see the big XLIII win. What a Farvegnugen Rabbit game! There are a handful of embarrassing photos of me loosing my mind uptown at a Steelers-friendly Super Bowl Party (they were all untagged - not lol).
There are "rumors on internets" that riots broke out and people got arrested after the big game in Pittsburgh. i believe it. In 2006, every barrier known to man came down and people of every color, every religion, and every sexual orientation were dancing with jubiliation all over the city. It was inspiring. i hear and read that things were a little different in my hometown this year. i'm not going to pass judgement on anyone who decided to burn and flip things vs. hug a stranger. What i will do is take a brief cursory look at what is the underpinning of sports fanatacism and it's many manifestations.
i think the heart of sports fanaticism is the story - the story behind the touchdowns, interceptions, the players, and the teams. i think it's story that motivates the players and reciprocally - the fans. The Steelers were chasing the 5th Super Bowl win for a minute. In 2006, we (yes i said we) had a rough season that turned into an unlikely amazing post-season on the road, which got us to the XL Bowl. For those in tune, it seemed to all boil down to not only getting one for the thumb, but one for Jerome Bettis who was retiring that year. It was only more fitting considering that the Bowl was being held in Detroit, where The Bus was born.
Living in New York now - i saw the narrative unfolding for the Giants in 2007. The Big Blue were underdogs, The Patriots were unbeatable, and the Manning Brothers were having a public pissing contest. That was another great Super Bowl where the underdogs won as well the more compelling narrative. Giants beat the Patriots. Hate on it. (i'm going to resist making fun of Plax who was booted out of Pittsburgh and after winning a ring popped himself in a club and the Giants watched the game on TV this year)
Why didn't the underdog narrative work for The Cardinals? i think the story wasn't on their side. They had the game in their hands within the final minute of the game. Awesome play by Warner to Blitzgerald. The attention loomed more on the Steelers. The story of the Steelers franchise has always been defense. Our defense wins our games and won the fifth Super Bowl. There was more anticipation for Polamalo to make a big play than Big Ben, who threw like...0 touchdowns in Super Bowl XL.
There we were in the 4th quarter where the underdog story was in it's final chapter - The Steelers get upset by little red bird. When Big Ben began to play like an official Super Bowl franchise quarterback, the greater story took hold. Big Ben to Holmes, again and again, then an amazing catch that looked like the 1970s Steelers. The offense finally came alive when the defense surprisingly failed. What a story. The Steelers are now the winningest franchise and let me not forget to mention the sub-narrative... On the first day of February, Coach Tomlin is the youngest coach to do it and in record time - two years...and he's Black, and the story is golden. Don't hate on it.
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