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It's become a tradition for me to write one of these postseason articles, where I let my desires be known about which non-Steelers teams I'd like to see win the Super Bowl and which I certainly would not.
The past couple of years, there were a lot more teams on this list, but Pittsburgh made the playoffs for a change this season, so that threw a wrench into the process. After all, just two weeks ago, I thought the Steelers were going to win the Super Bowl. And a week ago, I was still in mourning after the wild card exit.
But I'm fully recovered now, and there are still four teams remaining who are trying to capture the latest Lombardi trophy. Therefore, as the remaining teams prepare to play in their respective conference championship games on Sunday, here is my list of franchises I'd like to see win the Super Bowl, starting with the ones I don't want to see win it and ending with the ones I'd like to see win it.
Do I really need to explain why the Patriots are the team I'd like to see win Super Bowl XLIX the least? They already have three trophies, and a fourth (post Spygate) may just be enough to validate Tom Brady and Bill Belichick as the quarterback and genius coach everyone has always said they are. And do we really want Belichick to join Chuck Noll as the only head coaches with four Super Bowl rings, even if the genius needed six Lamar Hunt trophies in order to achieve the feat?
And those New England-area fans, with their inferiority complex about New York and its sports teams, this despite all the success their franchises have had in the past decade alone--Red Sox (three World Series titles), Patriots (three AFC Championships and a Super Bowl), Bruins (two Eastern Conference crowns and a Stanley Cup), and Celtics (two Eastern Conference titles and an NBA championship)--I mean, please.
It would be like Gisele Bundchen looking in the mirror and thinking she's fat. It would like Steelers fans thinking the NFL is out to get their team despite the great ratings and world-wide popularity.........it's a good thing we don't think that.
I don't really have much of a problem with the Packers. Yes it's true they beat Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV, but they're still pretty cool in my eyes. OK, then why do I place them right below New England in my Super Bowl rankings?
Its simple: That would give them five, which, when you really think about it, is only one win away from six. For Steelers fans, our current "Got six?" mantra is to the 2010s what those four Super Bowls represented to us for the majority of the 1980s. It's our thing. And as long as we have that, we can win any argument.
At least I think we can. As hard as it is to believe, there actually were NFL championships prior to Super Bowl I, and the Packers claimed nine of them, giving Green Bay a total of 13 and counting. You mix in five Super Bowls to go along with those nine previous NFL titles, and I don't know how much weight "Got Six?" would carry. And if they somehow capture a sixth Lombardi before Pittsburgh goes to Seventh Heaven? Forget it.
The Packers already have a lot of championships, the same national-following and they hail from an even smaller city. This can't happen.
No! You Packers! No!
I know this seems weird. Why would I rank the Colts as my second-most desired champion? They only have two Super Bowls, and it would take a massive Hall of Fame run by Andrew Luck to even threaten the Steelers six titles. So why not just put them number one? Who could possibly hate Indianapolis?
Nobody, really, but there are just so many conspiracy theorists out there who like to claim sports are rigged. I mean, Jerome Bettis winning a Super Bowl in Detroit? Jim Harbaugh vs. John Harbaugh?
What would people think if Luck, the soon-to-be Next Great Quarterback, ascends to his throne by defeating Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers/the mighty Seahawks along the way to winning his first Super Bowl?
They're going to say it was pre-determined. "The Next Great Quarterback vanquishes the Once Great Quarterbacks and is now the Current Great Quarterback."
It would be huge. It would garner ratings, cause, you know, the NFL obviously needs ratings.
This cannot happen. The people can't suspect that the NFL is rigged. They can't think Andrew Luck rising to the tops of the NFL is on-par with what Hulk Hogan did when he defeated the Iron Sheik in 1984 to capture his first WWF title and unleash Hulkamania, brother.
Luck cannot drop his big leg on the NFL this year.
And as much as it pains me, this is why..........
Seattle Seahawks
Yes, that's right. The defending Super Bowl XLVIII champions and all-time Super Bowl whiners, the Seattle Seahawks. You might think I'm crazy, what with the whole Super Bowl XL fall-out, Pete Carroll and Richard Sherman, but I believe Seattle winning another Super Bowl would be the best thing to happen for the NFL's credibility.
No script-writer who wanted to keep working would create a scenario in-which the Seahawks were back-to-back world champions. Who in the heck would want that? Where would the ratings come from? I mean, Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, Tom Brady.......and Russell Wilson as back-to-back Super Bowl -winning quarterbacks?
Besides that, with Wilson and his 3,500 passing yards and the Seahawks with their NFL-leading rushing offense and top-ranked defense, it would be like a team from the 1970s winning back-to-back Super Bowls. And I think you know what team I'm talking about.
After decades of the NFL creating rules to help the offense, the Seahawks, with their efficient quarterback, great running back and awesome defense, winning a second-straight Super Bowl would prove there is no grand conspiracy.
Also, it's been a decade since the NFL has had a repeat champion, and I think every league needs a dominant team from time-to-time. It gives the rest of the teams and their fans a villain to hate. And again, with Carroll, Sherman and Marshawn Lynch, the eventual fall would be pretty swift. And once that happens, the people of Seattle can go back to saying, "How do we get to CenturyLink Field?"
This concludes my fourth annual non-Steelers Super Bowl list. I hope you enjoyed it.
Here's to the Steelers making it to at least the AFC Championship game next year so I'll be too pre-occupied to write another such list in 2016.