The way the Packers won the Super Bowl XLV is how you draw it up, right? Pretty much every important player on the Packers except Charles Woodson and Ryan Pickett was drafted or acquired as an undrafted free agent. You really need to give Ted Thompson credit for shrewd drafting both in terms of starters and backups. Not since the 2003-2004 Patriots has there been such a deep team that is so good at filling in for injured starters. Oh yeah, and he saw that he hit the goldmine in Aaron Rodgers (the same guy who completed 23 consecutive passes at one point in 2004 and yet was drafted 24th overall in 2005) and stood up to Mr. Wrangler.
In addition to being happy for a good team that stuck to their guns in the face of what’s-his-name, hopefully the Super Bowl gave me some perspective to some Patriots fans who were devastated by the Jets loss. I’m painfully aware that the Pats blew a golden chance to win a fourth Super Bowl with home field, but the playoffs are a crap shoot. All you can do is put yourself in the best position possible to win. In a quarterback league, the Pats had the MVP who had 36 touchdown passes and a defense that was playing better by the week in the second half of the season. It all meant nothing because the Jets were better than the Pats that day. Same thing goes for the Steelers, who were supposedly built for the playoffs and a championship.
It is REALLY hard to win Super Bowls in this era and after watching the events of last night, I appreciate the Pats winning three of four to an even greater degree. The year-to-year differences between teams so stark that winning consecutive titles seems less possible by the day.
This Packers defense, which held together despite losing its leader, isn’t much difference personnel-wise than the unit that gave up 51 points to the Cardinals in last year’s playoff game. Many fans compared these Steelers to the 2008 version that won the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion but are leaving out the fact that they went 9-7 last year. My point? While it’s a natural reaction to be disappointed when your team doesn’t win the big one, it’s damn-near impossible to cruise to a Super Bowl title anymore. So much luck is involved that you need to appreciate when your team succeeds and understand that parity is what drives the NFL. As I said yesterday, even when you’re NFL royalty like the Steelers, nothing is guaranteed.
A few other things:
* I would like to talk to those analysts who tried to make the point that if Ben Roethlisberger won, his 3-0 Super Bowl record would be more impressive than Tom Brady’s 3-1 mark. Just as I questioned why Joe Montana’s 4-0 record is so hallowed, I don’t understand this logic at all. Are they trying to say it’s better to lose in conference championship game than the Super Bowl? Isn’t the point to give your team a chance at the title? Someone please help me here.
* Does anyone else find it disturbing that there is such a disparity between the respective NFL and MLB Halls of Fame? How is it that Cooperstown has become the Hall of Very Good by allowing Phil Rizzuto and Bert Blyleven into its doors while Chris Carter and Curtis Martin can’t make it to Canton? Look, I understand that baseball has been around much longer and there’s a different voting system because of different value placed on players. But there is still something wrong with both voting processes. Let’s use Bill Simmons’ pantheon levels for all sports and be done with it.
* You proved me right in one sense, Rashard Mendenhall. Your fumble helped seal the game for the Packers and made it clear that he can’t be counted on as an elite running back consistently in the playoffs.
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