Packers or Steelers?
I’m a Giants fan. If you know what that means then you’ll also know exactly why I like the Steelers and the Packers so much more than other teams in the NFL. It’s a small fraternity. They share many things in common, including a stubborn refusal to employ cheerleaders. Since the Super Bowl is being held in Dallas, the mecca of sports cheerleaders, everyone is all upset that there won’t be titties at the Super Bowl. That’s what happens when two classy teams meet in the championship.
The problem is that the Steelers’ quarterback is a rapist. He’s also incredibly good at playing football. I like everything else about the Steelers. But I hope that they rid themselves of their quarterback.
The Packers have no running game, and I find that annoying. I’m glad these two teams are meeting, but it’s hard to decide who to root for.
I really, really hate to say it, but I think the rapist is going to win. Again. He’s on the better and more experienced team. Just hope he doesn’t decide to do beer commercials.
Is this a great country or what?
Packers. Two reasons:
1.) The community owns the football team, and profits go to the Green Bay Foundation, which makes donations to many charities and institutions throughout Wisconsin.
2.) Roethlisberger is a misogynist.
As Polar Bear Squares points out below, the Steelers appear to have no advantage over the Packers in the misogyny category—unless you want to weight quarterbacks more heavily than any other position like announcers (many of them ex-quarterbacks) do.
Equal points to both teams for not having cheerleaders/dancers/strippers. (My favorite story about cheerleaders and professional sports is Red Auerbach saying the Celtics would have dancers “over my dead body”…and they do. He died just shortly before the team hired a dance squad.)
I’m somewhat partial to Tom Joyner’s stance: rooting for the team that has a black (in order of importance) owner, GM, coach, quarterback—in this case Mike Tomlin and the Steelers.
Finally, not to rain on anyone else’s parade, I find it increasingly difficult to watch and enjoy football knowing what we increasingly know about brain injuries.
I hope it’s a good game and nobody gets hurt badly. (As the “Hill Street Blues” captain used to say, “Let’s be careful out there!”)
In the mid-90s I wrote an article that compiled over 500 cases of sports figures being accused of sexual misconduct, usually sexual assault. That was before the Internet, which made searching for examples of such cases that don’t make the local news (e.g., at smaller colleges) so much easier. It’s endemic to sports, and the more violent sports like football and hockey have no monopoly on it. The real eye-opener, in fact, was how often coaches at the high school and youth levels, were accused of misconduct with players, male or female. Though that could have been skewed by the limited access to media coverage in those days, meaning the more sensational stories were more likely to get beyond local press.
That said, there is a logic to putting an emphasis on Roethlisberger. For one, he’s been credibly accused twice. Makes you wonder how many other cases of dubious consent there’ve been with him where the victim never went public or filed a report. Multiple public accusations aren’t as rare as you’d think (Mike Tyson must have had a half-dozen before his famous conviction) but they’re still notable.
More generally, when a very high profile player (like a quarterback whose team has won two Super Bowls) incurs such publicity, and faces no legal sanctions for his behavior, it’s not just “bad publicity” for the player, team, and league; it also reinforces to every drunk misogynist in a bar or at a party that there’s nothing really wrong with what he wants to do anyway. An offensive tackle’s misdeeds don’t have that additional impact.
It’s also hard to root for a team and root against their quarterback at the same time. On the other hand, I was planning on rooting for the Ravens when they played Pittsburgh, but it just didn’t happen. Once I say the black and gold on the field, I rooted for them just like I always have (unless they were playing the Giants). I like their owners, their fan base, their city, their stadium, and most of their players. I can’t say the same for the Ravens.
The Pack? I’ve never rooted for them, but I love their history, their franchise, the public ownership, the stadium, their fans, their philosophy. So, it’s a closer call.
I used to religiously stress the importance of the running game in the playoffs. But the last decade has changed my mind on that. From the Packers to the Saints, Patriots, Cardinals, and Colts… running doesn’t matter anymore. It’s really all about who’s defense is on the hottest streak and who’s QB isn’t turning the ball over.
Saying the Giants are in the same class as the Steelers and the Packers is like saying this; http://www.coloradomagazineonline.com/Art/Junk%20Yard%20Art/Junk%20Yard%20Art_Vaughn.htm
Is like this;
http://www.pbase.com/orangecones/image/15987374
Sorry, but the Giants ARE NOT in the same class.
Steelers, but it won’t be easy.
Nalbar
Don’t know about that whole “two classy teams” thing because they don’t have cheerleaders.
I’ll take a vacation in Cabo and Jessica Simpson over this ….
http://jezebel.com/5742679/sexual-assault-and-the-super-bowl
(Full disclosure. I’m a Cowboys fan. I hate both the Steelers and the Giants. Shoot. I’ll throw the Packers in there too. But I wish those teams nothing but good vibes on Sunday. Same to the Giants … until we play them again.)
And there will be titties at the Super Bowl. Lots and lots of titties. There will be performers and bands and they will employ lots and lots of scantily clad women. Count on it.
Anyways, thanks for wishing both teams well. I’ve tried to do the same since my team’s season was over in like Week 3. A good game is really all I’m looking for. I think we’ll get it.
Thanks for also discussing football as well. Sometimes the political discourse is so poisonous I get caught up and forget about stuff like this. It’s a breath of fresh air. Preciate it.
At our house, the spouse and sons will root for The Steelers, but I am still not a fan of Big Ben the Rapist. So I will provide a challenging voice for the Packers, just because.
As much as I hate to do it, Packers, because Roethes-how-do-you-spell-it is such a jerk.
The Pack wins because Rodgers is a Cal Bear.
Then again, he’s a Cal Bear.
OK. Steelers win the game when Rogers gets the Pack one yard shy of the win.
I really think people are underestimating the Pack and despite the recent media hagiography of Rodgers. I also think the Steelers are about 10 points the better team if Polamalu has healed up.
The great thing is that on any given Sunday, anyone can win.
Too bad I’ll have to miss the game.. BOOOOOO.
My wife is from Wauwautosa, WI, she was born in Beaver Dam, WI (in the shadow of the Pyramid Supper Club), and we own a house in Brandon, WI.
The Packers are the people’s team.
Packers have been my team since I was a tyke. Hope they can pull it off.
Nothing quite like a detailed comparative Tale of the Police Blotter for the two teams’ players to whet one’s appetite for the Big Game tomorrow.
My how things have changed. Back in the day, usually the worst you heard about an athlete was his drinking or gambling proclivities. Paul Hornung, Alex Karras, Pete Rose all made major headlines and were given huge suspensions. But apart maybe from one retired famous NFLer from the 60s who had numerous serious physical assault charges made against him, usually the brutality was confined to the gridiron.
Or at least that was all of what got charged and reported. In recent years of course it’s become a little easier for women to report certain things, compared to prior decades when police attitudes were rather unenlightened at best, and things like groping and even date rape probably weren’t even on the legal radar screen.
Under the circumstances, and with the far more important situation in Egypt ongoing, it’s hard even for this gridiron fan to work up much enthusiasm for SB ExElVee.
Obviously, BooMan has been spending too much time being a political scientist and not enough time paying attention to NFL football. Had he done so, he would know that Packers GM Ted Thompson pulled another rabbit out of his hat in the form of Buffalo RB Johnny Starks. Check it out. Starks ran up more than 120 yds in at least one play-off game. He is a real threat and, perhaps, even better than starter Ryan Grant who went down for the season early on. The Packers running game did struggle. Those six losses by 20 points came in spite of no running game. Now they have a threat. The Packers will prevail on a neutral field.
Steelers because of Tomlin
Root for the Pack.
Steelers better running game and secondary will probably tip the scale in their favor though.
Packers.
Because (1) I’ve lived in Green Bay. (2) I say so. (3) I’m a confirmed cheesehead who will sit with my sixpack of Leinie’s and watch. (4) This game is like the old days.
I am a Steelers fan for reasons that have nothing to do with politics.
On the political side, I agree with much that has been said here, but would note one thing that no one has mentioned. The Rooney family that owns the Steelers is quite progressive, especially on the issue of providing equal employment opportunity for African Americans in coaching. In fact the rule that requires that African Americans be interviewed for head coaching and senior operations positions is called the “Rooney Rule.”
Also, here is an interesting run down of the competing political calculuses between the two teams.
http://www.laprogressive.com/the-media/packerssteelers-super-bowl-politics/