A little of this, and a lot of that ...
- Just six days from a showdown with Aaron Rodgers in Dallas, the Ben Roethlisberger redemption tour marches on, as the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback gains new fans and admirers with each passing day.
This is the same treatment Michael Vick received after a few MVP-like performances for the Eagles in the regular season, and it’s enough to ask sports fans if there’s any disease at all that winning won’t cure.
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When the Green Bay Packers take the field next Sunday for Super Bowl XLV, they will be the 10th different NFC team to play in the last 10 Super Bowls. The 49ers are not on that list.
In fact, for the franchise that owned football’s biggest game for a decade and a half a generation ago, it’s been 16 seasons since the 49ers last played on football’s grandest stage.
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Spring training is still two months away, but there was much talk of the playoffs as the A’s held a media day Thursday.
“After four years in Florida and two in Washington, where there was never any serious thought about contending, it’s nice to come to a team that has a chance to win something,” said outfielder Josh Willingham, who signed as a free agent in the offseason.
New reliever Grant Belfour pointed to the pitching depth, both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen.
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It was one-fifth contrition, four-fifths intention. Tiger Woods was on a seat in the press room, and if it wasn’t particularly hot, there was a mention of “feeling heat again.”
Presumably he meant from being in competition and not in the line of journalistic fire.
Woods comes back to golf today, to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, his tournament — he’s won it a half-dozen times — at his course. That U.S. Open title of 2008 made it seven victories at Torrey.
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It’s one of the most iconic photos in sports history: a bloodied, helmetless Y.A. Tittle kneeling dejectedly on the field at old Pitt Stadium after throwing an interception in a September, 1964 New York Giants loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tittle, who suffered a concussion and a cracked sternum on the play but didn’t miss a game in what would be his last season, was so moved by the picture he put it on the back cover of his 2009 autobiography. True grit. You don’t quit.
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The best thing about the NFL championship games Sunday: Rex Ryan was silenced. Even Mr. Motor Mouth admitted he was speechless after the New York Jets’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.Ryan embodies two traits that I hate about the NFL: trash talking and a coach taking the spotlight.There should be no room for trash talking in sports, period. The NFL should put in a rule that any player caught trash talking gets a 15-yard penalty. That would shut them up in a hurry.
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It was a tale of five quarterbacks, and when the final storyline of Championship Sunday was written, three of them came out winners, one a tough-luck loser, and one with what could be a career-defining “incomplete.”
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The Beatles broke up.
Muhammad Ali fought once too often.
The Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky.
Michael Jordan played baseball.
Tiger Woods slept around.
Sometimes those in the brightest spotlight manage to do something that rattles even their most loyal fans. Some overcome it, some don’t.
So, with this being the best Sunday of professional football on the calendar — two conference championship games for the right to play in the Super Bowl — I just wanted to point out the rumblings off in football’s distance.
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Is Aaron Rodgers now the best quarterback in football? With Tom Brady and Peyton Manning both out of the playoffs, his only competition would seem to be Ben Roethlisberger.
Rodgers has never been considered in that category because he hasn’t won a Super Bowl and, in fact, has never been to one. Roethlisberger has won two.
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Buster Posey on the cover of ESPN The Magazine? A special issue of Sports Illustrated dedicated to the Giants? A decision by Showtime to turn the club into a reality show?
This ain’t Hollywood, baby. If we wanted TV stars, we’d live in Beverly Hills, not the Oakland Hills or on Nob Hill.
A little publicity is fine. We get sick of all the air time devoted to the Yankees, Red Sox and the Lakers. But we don’t need cameras poking everywhere, don’t need to be dissected on Entertainment Tonight.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17571/17571?page=47
