In case you hadn’t heard, the Steelers are the NFL’s latest and current great team. In some ways it is hard to argue that, given that they have won two Super Bowls since the Patriots won their last one. There are going to be plenty of articles written this offseason about the greatness of the Steelers, and as the the Champs, that is their due right.
Ron Borges has the Steelers already repeating next season and becoming the true team of the decade. Many are now also going to start comparing Ben Roethlisberger to Tom Brady, Christopher L. Gasper doesn’t make that exact comparison, but he does call him an “elite quarterback” because of this postseason success.
Mike Reiss says that the ending of the Super Bowl and the season was simply spectacular. Jonathan Comey isn’t quite ready to call this one the “greatest Super Bowl ever” though. Jim Donaldson says that once upon a time, defense won championships, he doesn’t think that is the case any longer.
Bill Doyle says that viewers and advertisers got their money’s worth from this Super Bowl. Chris Baldwin has some more on the highs and lows of the telecast.
Celtics
After bouncing around the league for a few seasons, Julian Benbow says that Eddie House seems to have found a home in Boston. Steve Bulpett notes that confidence is the key to Glen Davis’ game. Mike Fine says that the Celtics need Leon Powe to step up his game right now. Robert Lee has the Celtics playing better now than during their 19 game winning streak earlier in the season.
Find other Celtics news and blog entries over at CelticsLinks.com.
Benbow’s notebook says that Kevin Garnett will again sit out tonight’s game against Philadelphia with the flu. Bulpett’s notebook says that he Celtics are not going to rush Garnett back into action.
Bruins/Red Sox
Coming off a great performance from Tuukka Rask last week, Fluto Shinzawa talks to Manny Fernandez about being a young goaltender. Fernandez says that when he was 21, he wasn’t ready to be an everyday player in the NHL. Stephen Harris wonders if the Bruins will make any moves before the trade deadline.
Sean McAdam has the Yankees huge spending this offseason prompting talk of a salary cap for baseball. Garry Brown notes that we’ve only got 10 days until pitchers and catchers report. Rob Bradford wonders if we could have another Jason Varitek signing drama next offseason as well.
No Beanpot links this morning, sorry.
Popularity: 8% [?]
As someone that railed against the media – national and local – when they didnt give proper credit to the Patriots, I HAVE to give the Steelers all the credit in the world. While the Pats are still team of the decade, its not arguable that the Steelers are currently the team to beat and been the best team over the last 4 years. To argue otherwise leaves you with the credibility of Pete Sheppard.
Can these media guys ease up a little on glorifying the Steelers until they at least beat the Patriots in a game that counts?
Also, here are their three 2008 post-season opponents: San Diego (8-8); Baltimore (11-5, rookie QB); Arizona (9-7).
Can we hold off on the “greatest franchise” and “repeat” talk for just a second?
I mean, it took the Pats THREE Super Bowl wins in four years before some people in the national media, and even the local media, began to give them their due (then almost all of them tried to take it all back after Spygate broke–no word on how any of them feel about the Steelers’ reputed and habitual use of performance-enhancers, both now and back in the 70s, when they practically invented Steroid use for professional athletes).
“Can these media guys ease up a little on glorifying the Steelers until they at least beat the Patriots in a game that counts?”
Tony,
The Steelers dominated the Patriots at Gilette during the regular season. If the Patriots had won this “meaningless because it was a regular season game”, they would have made the playoffs. I’m pretty sure this was a game that counted pretty big this year.
OK. Cool. Aside from that, Tony’s right. You got him, though. The Steelers beat the Pats once in a game that counted. I’m still waiting for you to disassemble the rest of his argument.
I understand that, but they’ve lost both playoff games to the Pats this decade. That’s what I meant by games that really meant something. I should have clarified that earlier.
I’d also bring up the loser’s lament that the Pats/Steelers game at Foxboro this season was very close in the first half (tied 10-10 at the half, I believe), and that the Pats dropped 2 or 3 passes that could have led to at least another 7, if not 10 points for them by halftime. True, the game got out of hand during the second half, but it largely turned into a rout after Slater dropped that kickoff at the Pats’ 1-yard line and it turned into a Pittsburgh TD two plays later.
Pittsburgh pretty much “dominated” only the second half in that game, and the Pats gave them a lot of help along the way.
They’ve earned their championship this year and I’m not trying to deny them anything, but for the media to suddenly anoint them as the next big thing (especially given the weak post-season schedule they faced this year) is a bit premature IMO…..remember, the Giants, Philly, Indy and Tennessee all beat Pittsburgh this year, and somehow the Steelers managed to avoid facing any of them a second time around.
In my last post, I think I got sidetracked from my larger point in all this, which is: it took a heck of a lot more success (3 Super Bowl in 4 seasons) by the Patriots before the media–even the local media–would give them the kind of credit and praise they’re currently lavishing on this Pittsburgh team, which has won 2 in the last 4 years, not 3 out of 4, and has lost the only two post-season games they’ve played against New England in this decade.
That was my main point, that the media seems to be jumping the gun on Pittsburgh, whereas with the Pats, they were going out of their way to be cautious about labeling them a dynasty, or whatever. It took that 3rd Super Bowl win, which made them only the 2nd team in history to win 3 out of 4, before the media committed to the notion that the Pats were a special team.
Yet another reason to ignore the NFL media this off-season. They’re all falling over themselves (and whipping out the thesaurus) in trying to out-superlative the next guy.
Hey, it was a fun game to watch. Nothing else.
Cannot wait for the Brett Favre watch.
I’m still waiting for the Colts Dynasty the media kept predicting
I think the media was simply cautious with the Pats because they had such a quick turnaround and after their 1st SB win, they missed the playoffs. The Steelers had a lot of previous success and have always been regarded among the elite franchises in the NFL. Of course I agree that the media anoints teams too early, but what do you expect? They do it all the time. As for the Patriot hate, that’s entirely on the media’s hatred for BB. Spygate wouldn’t have been a big deal if Tony Dungy was the coach.
The Manning brothers and The Steelers have won the last 4 Super Bowls…now that is a tough pill to swallow.
You pretty much nailed it.
The presence of the “evil” Belichick is probably reason #1 why many media types were reluctant to give the Pats enough credit after their first two Super Bowl wins, and because it was Belichick, and not Tony Dungy or any other coach the media likes, Spygate became a hugely overblown issue, and also provided a crutch for Belichick (and Patriots) haters in the media and elsewhere to discredit everything they had accomplished prior to that.
Funny how, like I said before, none of these articles praising the Steelers from head to toe after Sunday’s game mentions their Steroid abuse in the 70s (before it was that common across the league) or the PED-supplying allegations against their ex-team doctor, who just left the team recently. Heck, there are Steelers’ fans trolling Patriots boards this very minute saying that all of the Steelers’ titles are “legitimate” while calling all of the Pats’ titles fake or unearned because of Spygate. It’s truly amazing how provincial loyalty can cause such tunnel vision.
So Ron Borges has the Steelers winning it again next year?….typical sportswriter CRAPOLA…goes like this, Sports hack makes a “bold prediction” A YEAR IN ADVANCE knowing full well a year from now NOBODY will remember what he wrote…
And given that it’s Borges, if anyone brings it up to him, he’ll deny he was wrong about it and come up with some reason why he was actually right (still waiting for him to admit that he was wrong about the Richard Seymour pick in the 2001 draft).