Thoughts On Super Steelers; Is a Football Game a Miniature Nanny State?

Very excited to have the Black and Gold return to the big game.

Despite my current moniker, I grew up in Pittsburgh and between grades 7-12, the Steelers (said "Stillers") won the Super Bowl four times, which has made everything since seem sort of a letdown. Those teams I remember as just completely dominant and that the other side didn't have a chance. (I'm still bothered that they didn't put away the Cowboys in more convincing fashion back in Super Bowls X and XIII) The Steeler Super Bowl in in 2005-06 was nice but not the same- that team was the gritty determined underdog not the dominant uber-victor of my youth. At least on the defensive side of the ball (though the offense isn't bad), the 2008-09 Steelers seem the same way as the 70s teams. The AFC Championship Game was great last night though as I was watching Willis McGahee and Ryan Clark seemingly lying dead a, I kept thinking of a line from "Rollerball" when a computer spitting out statistical records for the sport- "Most deaths, 9. Pittsburgh vs. Rome "But hey- the film came out during the early heyday of the Steeler dynasty.

Anyway, despite the fact that the hit was apparently "legal," I was thinking of the fact that every other facet of this game is heavily regulated- uniform, safety equipment, how you stand, where you line up, which players can use their hands at what times, formations, behavior (no celebrating, no taunting, no criticizing the officials) and the replay rules emphasize that the powers that be just need to see and decide everything. Maybe I'm thinking this is because of penalties, challenges and injuries, the game took so long and all the authoritarian namby-pambyism was getting on my nerves. Don't know that I have much more of a point than that but I don't think those coaches and commentators who say "Football Is Like Life" are thinking of it like this.