OT: Super-ish Bowl

Sports, like life, can be very dramatic. It's just that it sometimes doesn't tell the story you want it to.

The Super Bowl yesterday was very dramatic, in a Keystone Cops kind of way. Although penalties every which way and bumbles, fumbles, and interceptions charted the course of the game, it was very entertaining most of the way through and genuinely dramatic in the last five minutes. Trouble was, the narrative I really liked was the one that ended with 2:37 to go.

The Cardinals were a scruffy, ragtag crew that had never been to the big show before, with a fifth as many post-season appearances as their rival. Lots of people felt they didn't even belong in the playoffs, when several teams with better records weren't. But they put together a scrappy, never-say-die playoff run. They got stellar performances throughout the postseason by many different no-name players in turn (Darnell Dockett this time), who stepped up when needed. They have a breakout receiving star (Larry Fitzgerald set NFL records for catches, yards, and touchdowns in a postseason) who was shut down in the first half by a defense that mostly kept him double-teamed, but who came through for his team with spectacular play when it counted. And they got a high-rated performance from an old journeyman quarterback who, even more than most, has truly earned his way into the Hall of Fame. Great stuff. Great story. Larry Fitzgerald's wide-eyed final touchdown sprint should have been the stuff of lore and legend. If the game had ended at the two-minute mark.

It's just that the game wasn't over by then.

The Steelers earned their win. The Cardinal defense had manned up all day despite being basically outmatched, but it couldn't hold. Warner played better than Roethlisberger, statistically, but Roethlisberger came through time after time when he had to. Santonio Holmes's final touchdown was a spectacular catch, even if he had just let the ball go right through his hands the play before on the other side. Steeler fans, go wild. You've got good reason.

Nice for them. Nice for their fans. Nice job. So why do I feel like "my" team lost? It's not like I follow either of those teams. It's not like I automatically root for the NFC (with the Cowboys in the Super Bowl, I'd root for any AFC team that exists).

And we really can't complain about any Super Bowl that's as entertaining as this one was. I think I stopped being such a big football fan when I finally realized—long after the evidence was in—that only about one out of every five NFL games is really any good. Fifteen hours of TV for three good ones flunks the time-efficiency test. The ratio has been even worse with Super Bowls, which were so bad so consistently for so long that it became a standard joke.

And then there's the fact that by temperament, I'm definitely a root-for-the-underdog type. I don't like dynasties. I can't be a real baseball fan because of the simple fact that the Yankees win one out of every four World Series by fiat; the way I see it, they buy their way to a certain percentage of titles. It's as good as a fix to me. I hated the whole "America's Team" mantra around the Cowboys. I'd much rather a lesser team win its first title than a dynasty win its sixth—especially since a lot of the same guys were around for number five.

Of course, that's not an argument. The best team should win, never mind what the win means. There's no such thing as "deserving" a win beyond putting the most points on the board before time runs out. The upstarts certainly don't deserve to win just because a comeback makes a better story.

It's not even that I don't like the Steelers. How could I? I grew up in the '70s. Mean Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris—I can still name half the guys on those teams.

But even though it was a great game, it still wasn't a great win. I'll remember James Harrison's record-setting interception return, but also his shameful mugging of an opponent late in the game, which ought to get him suspended. (Somebody should take that man's steroids away from him before he hurts somebody.) I'll remember the touchback, of course, but also that it was the result of yet another penalty. The Steeler's defense, statistically top-rated, was nowhere near as good as the defense last year's Giants played in the final few months. (Brett Favre couldn't do a thing against those guys. Neither could Tom Brady. Kurt Warner wouldn't have either, I don't think.) More than anything, I'll remember Super Bowl XLIII as being a game of rules, infractions of rules, inches, and seconds—and a lesson that stories, in sports as in life, don't always end neatly tied up with a ribbon and a bow.

Mike

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Comments

[Tom]

"Somebody should take that man's steroids away from him before he hurts somebody."

Might be harder for him to get his HGH these days...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=3832996

[Ken Tanaka]

Due to a social commitment made unwittingly on my behalf by some halfwit (me) I was unable to watch the game live last night. I really had no strong feelings, although I did want to see the Cards finally get a big trophy. (I'd not given them much thought since they left St. Louis for lizard country.)

But unbeknownst to me my wonderful wife recorded the game and I was able to watch it later last night (in original suspense by avoiding any news). A terrific way to watch the normally 4 hour long ad slog in less than 90 minutes. I snacked less, didn't doze, and didn't lose interest due to silly yak and ads. I might just do this every year!

[Stephen Scharf]

Super bowl schmooper bowl...the Australian Open final was on yesterday...another classic Nadal-Federer match!

[Jamin]

But so many players had _big_ _strong_ hands and were so _strong_ and _big_ themselves. How could you not just revel in that commentary.
also,
Go Cowboys!

[John]

I have a hard time rooting for a Cardinals team when they're the holders of a stolen title:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/columns/story?columnist=fleming_david&id=3222796

They're a cursed franchise, and deservedly so.

[jchristian]

Great summary, Mike. That Fitzgerald touchdown in the 4th was one of the most exciting I've ever seen:
the word "YES" exploding from my mouth after he caught it and took those first couple of steps.
I love those runs where a guy sees the daylight and just turns on the jets, pursuers behind him all the way to the end. Makes one feel like you're running with him...
I missed the Harrison interception-runback earlier, (!) but I did see that dirty hit- should have been booted at that point.

[Miserere]

I'm with you on pretty much everything, Mike (except the bit about remembering the Steelers from the 70s, what with me being unborn and such). I *really* wanted the Cardinals to win, and got way too excited cheering for a team that's not mine...and way too sad when they lost, too.

As for Jamin's comment, you are SO right. My wife and I we're in constant giggle fits and there were quite a few "that's what SHE said!" shouted out. We also came up with a new drinking game: Each time John Madden says "penetration", you drink. Don't play this game with tequila shots or you won't make it past the 2nd quarter.

[Kurt]

I loved that last Cardinal touchdown but remember looking at the clock and thinking they left too much time on the clock. Sadly that was what happened.
Can some one please tell me how a defense can shut an offense down for most of the game and then completely fall apart when there are 2 minutes left in the game and 70 yards to go... (Don't answer...)

[crispulo]

Star Sports was showing the game here live. And I caught that interception and hundred yard touchdown run just before the half. It was spectacular. And immediately turned me against the Steelers. (how's that for being for the underdog, I don't even know these teams)

I had to leave for an errand. And came back home, surprised to see the game still on, AND the Cardinals in the lead.

I'm sad to say, I came home just in time to see that touch down pass to Holmes. PHew! Great play (still think Fitzgerald is better) but sad, sad, sad that Cardinals lost.

[JohnL]

Yep, the ending to this particular story was very sad - especially as it was the Steelers!
From a UK American Football fan.

[Nature Lover]

Always find it amusing that the citizens of the world's overdog find the underdog so appealing.

And the game was a tossup if one looks at the sports pundits picks at SI. As a matchup it was a game between one of the dominant teams of the season and the hot team of the post season. I never felt that there was a definite underdog. A hot Warner and Fitzgerald match up very well against the Steelers. A football fan, not team partisan, would have been hopeful for shifting fortunes, spectacular plays and a gut wrenching ending (+less errors), unless you were a fan of the loser. Besides, Steelers fans, although the usual level of partisan, do not have quite the air of entitlement, Noblesse Oblige as some partisans, in the humble opinion of a native 'burgher. ;-)

Nature lover

[Mike Johnston]

Nature lover,
So your theories are that a) all Americans are overdogs because that's the position of the country in the world, and b) all Americans must therefore root for whichever team is favored in any athletic contest.

Hmmm.

Mike J.

[mwg]

Oddly, I was rooting for the Steelers but thought the Cards would win. They might have, too, if the Cards had managed to tackle Harrison (the half would likely have ended), or if the Steelers had managed to tackle Fitzgerald (the Cards could have eaten up most of the remaining clock before they scored a touchdown).

Although it makes me wonder if the David Fleming column John linked to isn't on to something.

[Nature Lover]

Nope, I just wonder who Americans are rooting for on the world stage given their affinity for sports underdogs unless some other association arises, nothing more, nothing less. Anybody root for Argentina against the Brits for example? That dates me.

As to the first theory- yep in some sense this is true, not likely that the country will be overrun with invading hordes and have to defend itself on any but the smallest scale, asymetric issues notwithstanding. b does not necessarily follow at all from a. This in no way implies that our society is, was, can be or should be completely equal-I am not going there now.
Not that any blog comment section is repesentative of anything at all but funny how all the underdog champions appeared here.

By the way I am a fair weather football fan (or any sports- just have little interest as I age), not having consumed a game in years, even when football loving son-in-laws visit. I'd rather be on the 'puter
Nature Lover