For the next month, I will take you on an adventure through my brain during some of the most intense sporting events I have watched in my entire life. All these events have made me the fan I have become today.
This is the story of Super Bowl XL.
Since the day I was born the Pittsburgh Steelers have been good. They hired coach Bill Cowher the year I was born and while he was the coach it was odd to the see the Steelers with a losing record. We were always in the hunt for a championship. But "hunt" was always the keyword. We could put together a great regular season, but always choked it all away late in the playoffs. In 1994, 1997 and 2001 we lost in our conference championship and in 1995 we lost in Super Bowl XXX. It totally sucked because we could not really complain because we were always good, just never good enough.
2004 is when our hopes began to change. We drafted Ben Roethlisberger with the 11th pick and finally had found our franchise quarterback. After Tommy Maddox went down with an injury, Our rookie Big Ben started the next fifteen games- and won all of them. 15-1 was our record and we once again got into the AFC Championship game. But once again, we were defeated by the Patriots.
I was in seventh grade that year and I remember having a teacher named Mr. Munday. He was a huge Pats fan and all I did the week before the game was talk trash. My Aunt Tracey worked at the school at the time and we went in early one morning to decorate his door with black and gold. I was sure this was our year to win one for guys like Hines Ward, Joey Porter and of course, Jerome "The Bus" Bettis. But when the Pats whooped us on our own field, 41-27, it felt like my whole world had crashed. I wanted the Steelers to go the Super Bowl so bad, I would have given anything to see it happen.
The next season was here before I knew it, but it had a much different feel. Ben had settled in to his role as a starter, which gave the offense a different feel. Right as it seemed we were about to go on another big run to the playoffs, Ben goes down with a knee injury vs. the Chargers. I remember gasping in instant fear. Our leader, our football savior and our quarterback was gone for almost a month. It felt like Jerome Bettis would never get the championship he truly deserved.
The Steelers struggled against tough opponents and barely got into the playoffs as a sixth-seed. After shocking the world and winning three games on the road (which we will get to in a few days), the Steelers were heading to Bettis' hometown of Detroit for it all.
I have been through three Super Bowl Sundays and all of them have been the same way. I am exhausted from the lack of sleep I got Saturday night. I am always too excited/nervous to settle down and rest. I put on my clothes I was wearing to church that day. You bet my whole family wore Steelers gear to church. I even had a shirt on that said, "In Pittsburgh, Football Is A Religion". Everybody was cracking up because our pew was lined with Steelers colors. I loved it.
After church, I went home and started watching the pre-game. We were playing the Seattle Seahawks and Shaun Alexander (former Bama star) was in his prime. Nerves are beginning to heat up. Its time to leave to go to grandma's house to get the party started.
When we arrived, there is tons of food and my family is ready to watch the game. I wore my black Roethlisberger jersey over and let my mother borrow my white Heath Miller jersey. I am drinking so much liquid that I peed probably eight times before the game started. The entire time before the game all I said was, "We are gonna lose, we are gonna lose", which I still do to this day.
Minutes before the game and my heart is racing. I have never seen this before in my life, it is something that I cared about so much and something I wanted so bad.
Boom. Kickoff. It's on.
Both teams come out slow, Roethlisberger looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Seahawks win the first quarter but only had three points to show for it. That did not matter to fourteen year old Chad. I was in a full-fledged panic mode where my family continually had to tell me to "shut up". I never listened.
We get the ball in the second quarter. Ben hits Hines Ward for a huge first down on like 3rd and 28. We are at the goal line. Bettis carries it twice for no gain, then Ben took it in himself. Oh the relief of having a lead. It felt so good. Like getting splashed in the face with cool water after running a mile. We go into the half with a 7-3 lead.
HALFTIME. ROLLING STONES. Who gives a crap? All I remember is that Mick Jagger's face had more wrinkles then this story has sentences. Time for the second half.
3rd quarter and the offense comes out with a freaking purpose. Willie Parker (someone that I grew to hate while he played with the Steelers) ran 75 yards for the longest rushing TD in Super Bowl history. Grandma's house sounds like it is about to erupt. Up 14-3 in the Super Bowl was a dream at this point. I am finally starting to realize that this could really happen.
Then the Seahawks tried to crush my dreams. Jerramy Stevens (tight end for Seahawks, talked alot of trash, probably works at a Target now) caught a TD to cut our lead to 14-10. It was not even the fourth quarter yet.
Re-enter nerves.
The fourth quarter begins. I'm sweating like I just spent the last two and a half hours in the 10th layer of Hell. I force my mother to switch jerseys with me because I feel like it is bringing us bad luck. I wanted to wear my Heath Miller jersey, do not ask me why. We get the ball in the fourth and Cowher is trying to seal the deal. He wants this trophy bad and he is willing to gamble for it. He dials up a play called the "X Reverse Pass" as you will see below:
You wanna talk about Chad crying over sports? This is one of the few times. Completely emotionally drained and then Coach Cowher pulls out a gadget play on me! I cannot believe that just happened. We are going to do this. The impossible is about to come true.
We get the ball back late in the fourth and Jerome Bettis grinds out the first downs for a title. Watching Jerome hold that trophy was one of the greatest moments of Chad's sports life.
Next season, Chad got to get close to the Vince Lombardi trophy too:
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| A life long dream completed. I promise most of these will not be this epic. I figured I would start the series off with a bang. Go Steelers! |
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