The Super Bowl is one of the craziest events in professional sports, from two-week media frenzy, to a celebrity entourage that can only make the players even more nervous than they already are. Being on that field means that you have millions of people watching every move. An embarrassing play becomes devastating for a player’s emotion, and an electrifying play can only make that player feel like a hero. The stage has been set for another spectacular game with two of the National Football League’s most historic franchises fighting to be on top once again.
A group of Green Bay Packer players hang around the field at the Super Bowl XLV Media Day at Cowboys Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are competing to win their seventh Super Bowl in eight appearances, while Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers look to win their first Super Bowl since the “Brett Favre” era and to solidify his spot as one of the games most elite quarterbacks. Led by legendary Defensive Coordinator Dick Lebeau, the Steelers display a vintage “Steel Curtain” defense. Offenses can barely figure their coverage schemes out, and they hide their runners so well, quarterbacks can only guess where the blitz is coming from.
Steelers safety and hair icon Troy Polamalu was voted the Defensive Player of the Year, beating out fellow hair competitor, Green Bay Packer’s linebacker, Clay Matthews by two inches (votes). The Packers have a solid defense of their own, and can easily take advantage of a Roethlisberger mistake. Their well-played defense is met by an offense of equivalent ability, similar to when the teams switch sides of the ball. The Packers offense is great, matching up against that Steeler defense. Rodgers will have to exploit any weakness he can find to help his team win. It’s a good thing Green Bay doesn’t have a running game. Teams averaged only three yards a carry against them in the regular season.
Experience is certainly going to play a huge factor as well. As all alumni of a Super Bowl game will say: ‘enjoy it while it lasts’. The Packers are surely soaking in all the glory, the positive energy, the hype, it must have been a really fun two weeks. The Steelers have been around the block a few times already, 13 of their players have been around since the team that won the Super Bowl in 2005 and 25 total with Super Bowl experience, most of these core players. Trying to scare the Steelers this week is like asking Bill Belichick to smile, it’s not going to happen. The biggest obstacle that the Green Bay Packers will have to overcome in this game are their nerves. Otherwise, these teams stack up almost perfectly.
Jerry’s World (the 1.2 billion dollar Cowboys Stadium) is going to be packed with Cheese Heads and Terrible Towels from all around. The fans are passionate about their teams, and they are passionate about claiming themselves as the best in the league. If the Packers win the Super Bowl they will be two wins away from the Steelers for most Super Bowl championships all time as well as solidifying themselves as having the third most of every team. If the Steelers win, they will have an eye dropping seven Super Bowl rings, which would put them two ahead of Jerry Jones’ Cowboys and the undefeated San Francisco 49ers (in the Super Bowl).
These players have earned the enjoyment they’re receiving this week, and the champions deserve to bask in the glory for the entire offseason. Because it’s so difficult to reach the Super Bowl, most players won’t return for another chance. The hunger and desire to claim the ring and win this game is greater than any other game they will have played before. Sixty minutes of blitzkrieg, warlike, physical game play will make the reward the victorious players a birth in history, and allow one lucky player to start their victory honeymoon in Disney World.
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