Fort Worth Star-Telegram
http://www.star-telegram.com/superbowl/
January 24, 2011
Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (left), AP Photo/Gene J/ Puskar (right)Aaron Rodgers (left) and the Green Bay Packers will meet Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Arlington for Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6.
PITTSBURGH -- Look for Bradshaw jerseys, terrible towels and a lot of Jackie Smith trash talk to begin descending on Fort Worth almost immediately, with the always dangerous Ben R to follow shortly.
As always, I like to focus on how sporting matters land locally.
And Pittsburgh's 24-19 victory against the New York Jets in Sunday's AFC Championship Game basically means an already painful experience for locals -- The Great Foil of Roger and Cliff Harris and Tony D vying for a league-leading Lombardi No. 7-- goes down at JerryWorld. And against Green Bay, of all nightmares.
Wasn't enough pain inflicted at that locale this season?
Please try to smile and wave and be polite, anyway. It is not really the Steelers' fault they have a football organization actually engaged in the business of winning football games.
"I have been here 13 years and every year I know I have a chance to play in the playoffs and go to a Super Bowl," Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward said when I asked what he loved about playing for this organization.
Ouch. Now that hurts.
Can any Cowboy legitimately say that nowadays? Without smirking?
Maybe Pittsburgh has a chance to be locally helpful in this regard. Introspection tends to follow when your frenemy shows up at your hip new digs and reminds you what a joke you have become.
Just in case Owner Jones finds himself asking these questions, a simple answer exists. The Steelers do talent evaluation right, and proof was running up and down the field in the form of running back Rashard Mendenhall.
Is this a bad time to mention he could have been a Cowboy?
Flash back to Draft Day 2008 when football gods dropped a projected mid-teen player, the second-best running back in the draft into their laps at No. 22. And they passed on Mendenhall because, and I am not making this up, Owner Jones and Coach Wade believed he was not as good of a backup as Felix Jones.
They were right, of course. Mendenhall is a franchise back.
All he did Sunday was strip away the NYJ bravado and will as he pounded them for 95 yards in a soul-crushing first half. He finished with 121 yards and a touchdown. And he did so behind a makeshift Steelers offensive line that included another Cowboys discard, Flozell Adams, at right tackle.
More on him and that idiocy in a second.
Unlike Randy Moss and Shawne Merriman, Mendenhall does not hold being bypassed by the Cowboys against them. He actually sounds relieved.
"No," he said, when I tried gently baiting him. "Pittsburgh picked me. And I'm going to my second Super Bowl in three years, so I'm glad they did."
Ouch. Now that really hurts.
Having the Steelers stationed at The Omni in lovely downtown F-Dub might be more painful than even anticipated, a constant reminder of what is missing with the local NFL team. Because instead of Mendenhall, the Cowboys have an injury-prone slasher from Owner Jones' alma mater (Pig Sooey, Jerry) backing up an injury-prone, insubordinate malcontent in what has become a mess of a backfield still in need of fixing.
Owner Jones actually launched into a long explainer of his logic way back when that made me crazy then and still does now. It was something along the lines of Felix is a better complement to Marion Barber and has experience being a No. 2 and, unfortunately for Mendenhall, his potential to be an every-down back also hurt him.
"The reason there was a distinction is because one could be a full-time, 25-carry back, if you wanted him to," Owner Jones said. "We don't see Felix that way." This, I think, was meant as a compliment.
And if we want to leave Mendenhall vs. Felix for just a second, why not delve into LaMarr Woodley-Anthony Spencer? Once again, Dallas had first choice and chose wrong.
Woodley was a beast Sunday; Spencer a ghost for most of 2010.
Blame Coach Wade for this. He loved Spencer. And maybe the problem is not the players but rather the team.
Steelers players were whipped into shape by Mike Tomlin. Cowboys players were coddled by Coach Wade.
Steelers had training camp. Cowboys had a circus.
Steelers routinely draft the best player available. Cowboys draft so as not to hurt feelings.
Which brings us back to Flo. He was drafted by the Cowboys in 1998, just in time to see the burning embers of the dynasty fade to black. He figured it might take a while, but he always believed he would reach the Super Bowl with the Cowboys. They were one of the best organizations in the NFL. But it never quite happened. He never really even got close. And then this off-season, the Cowboys cut him. They decided they were better off with Alex Barron as a backup rather than Flo.
We know how that ended, in a hot mess of yellow flags in Week 1 that basically destroyed this Cowboys season.
And now we have an ending for Flo as well.
He is going to the Super Bowl because the team everybody expected to be there cut him before crashing and burning.
"[Bleep], I expected them to be in the Super Bowl, too," Flo said of his former team. "But things happen."
And now we get Green Bay and Pittsburgh.
For The Lombardi.
In our back yard.
Landry would be mortified. And Jerry should be.
Jennifer Floyd Engel
817-390-7697
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/01/23/2790893/unlike-cowboys-steelers-know-what.html#ixzz1BxO9HYkq
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