Okay, time for a serious note... Sorta...
So the Superbowl was last Sunday and alas, we didn't win. It was a sloppy game, for both teams, but more so I think for the Steelers. Those three turnovers and that fumble by Mendenhall were crippling. But, even so, I can't hold a grudge against the Packers. They played a good game, and came out on top. They did nothing to cause me to be angry at them. But the Superbowl isn't the point of this note. This is more about my football past and present, and the friends who've made it so.
When I first started liking football, I had little wisdom when it came to the word "loyalty". At first, I liked the Broncos. John Elway had taken them to the Superbowl, and I hopped on the bandwagon of "I like this team because they won the Big Game". But when they started losing again, I lost interest in them and moved on to another team: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Why would I pick such a team? Because of their logo. Coupled with my lack of wisdom for loyalty was also my stupidity as a child for things that were "cool". The Buccaneers had a pirate ship with a skull on it for a logo, and I thought that was just awesome. Skulls, pirates... Yeah, awesome. Then they went to the Superbowl. Huzzah! Then they won. HUZZAH! Then they got rid of all their good players, ensuring that they would never make it to the Superbowl again. Umm... WUT!?
After this, I gave up on football. Sure, I'd watch the Superbowl, if only for the fact that, "I'm a guy, that's what guys do." I ceased to care who made it. As long as the commercials were great, I was happy. But then I moved back to my childhood home, and got back into things with some of my childhood friends. These are the people who would reintroduce football to me as the wondrous sport of awesomeness that it is.
It was the Superbowl, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. One of these friends invited me over to watch the Big Game on the Big Screen. I was like, "Sure, why not." When I got there I noticed that this would be more than just a game. They talked about how if we won this it would be our sixth, and nobody else has six. When the game started there was little one could do to break them away from it. Hooping and hollering at every completed pass, jeering and screaming at every bad flag thrown, they were die-hard to the core. I wondered at this, thinking, "Boy, I'd love to be a part of something like this." When they won the house was filled with joyous applause and merriment. My friends were ecstatic.
But then I ran into a problem: If I decide to like the Steelers now, they may label me as just "jumping on the bandwagon". I liked the Steelers, but I didn't want that label. So I kept quiet for a while. The next season, we failed to make it to the Superbowl. We still watched it sure, but the excitement was fairly dull. It was then that I remember them starting to say, "You know you want to be a Steelers fan," and boy did I ever.
I started watching a few games, but eventually I had to work on many of the nights the Steelers played. Without Tivo, I had no way of watching the games, and I suffered from acute laziness and never searched the Interwebs to see how the latest game had gone. Finally in the playoffs I decided it was time. I bought me a Terrible Towel. I was hesitant to call myself a Steelers fan until I had one of these at least. I started paying attention during games. The Baltimore game I watched at this friends house before the Jets game, and then later we watched the Steelers pwn the Jets.
What was this? As I was watching the Baltimore game I could feel my heart pumping, the adrenaline flowing. Was I going to have a heart attack? Did I drink too much Dew? No. This was me being interested in football again. I was excited, and every good play got a cheer, every bad one a grimace. Even though I knew we'd already won, it didn't make the suspense any easier. They said, "You need to watch this play." Whoo, that was a close one. And that fumble... Ugh. I'll remember that one for a long time. The Jets game was even more exciting. It was rough and sloppy, but we pulled through. Then the Superbowl. Lets not talk about that yet, it still hurts.
Even in defeat, we showed a sense of honor. I mean both the Steelers and my friends. In the Jets game, I recall the last few moments of the game: Big Ben trying to take a knee, and the Jets furiously trying get to him. They knew he was trying to end the game peacefully, and yet they continued to fight it. I remember my friend saying, "Can you lose with a little class?" He was right, the Jets had no class there at the end. Sure, they had just lost the Finals, but even so, they could lose with a little more dignity. Our Steelers though have sense, and left the field tonight with honor. There at the end they could have pulled a Jets moment and tried to wrest control of the ball from Aaron Rodgers, but they didn't. This was the Big One, and yet they had dignity, some didn't even get into position. Some would say that is worse than trying, that just standing around refusing to play is worse than fighting it. But I say that shows some respect, that they saw the play that was coming and accepted defeat.
On the more personal side, when the ball was turned over at the end, and the game was "lost", my friends didn't stand and yell at the television. They didn't throw things across the room, screaming at the top of their lungs. We showed some dignity, some honor. We kept our seats and accepted the outcome. After, we complemented the Packers on a good win, and remarked at how we had done it to ourselves. We held no grudge against the Packers, and still don't. Sure, there will be tears, but that's alright. The point I've learned is: lose with dignity, but also win with dignity. Don't celebrate in excess, and don't be enraged by something you can do nothing about. Keep a cool head even when there is no hope, and when there is hope, don't expect that you will win. A glimmer of hope is still just a glimmer, something that can be quickly wiped away. Some of these points may make no sense, and may not flow at all with the rest of the note, but they're what I've learned this season.
And there's always next year (but maybe not the next if the Mayans are correct). HUZZAH! GO STEELERS!
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