#i love being a steelers fan we lose every year and cheer about it because the lower we place the better drafts we get

[has-chip-beaten-the-allegaytions]

2/11/24! latest riptide episode: 115

no, but HAPPY SUPERBOWL SUNDAYYY 🗣🗣🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[sumukhcomedy]

Arrogant and Inept: Your 2019 Cleveland Browns!

The 2019 Cleveland Browns had a lot of hype going into the season from their own fans, from the media, and from the nation. I was a little more hesitant because I’m a fan who has watched how this organization operates and, in order to be a winner, you first have to show you’re a winner. I still anticipated the Browns would have a more exciting offense, have the ability to make the playoffs, and my prediction was a 10-6 record but I saw the possibilities of that still falling apart.

Not surprisingly, as the Cleveland Browns are prone to do, it has fallen apart in unique and exciting ways that only this Browns organization could create.

People acted as if the schedule would be a piece of cake and prognosticated the Browns at 12-4 or even 13-3 and getting to the AFC Championship. But I was concerned even with the start of the schedule. If we could hold at 2-2, it would be a great start. Tennessee was one of those middle-of-the run teams that finds itself in the playoff hunt each year and the New York Jets seemed on the rise with Sam Darnold. I anticipated we’d split these games. We did, but not in the way I expected with a blowout loss to the Titans and then a fine enough win against a quarterback who is no longer in the NFL in Luke Falk. It was expected we’d lose to the NFC champion Rams, but the Browns did more so by suspect play calling of their own than by being outcoached or outclassed. The Browns then had their most impressive win of the season, dismissing the Baltimore Ravens and now holding possession of 1st place in the AFC North at 2-2.

It fit a positive start, but then all the cracks that showed in the first 4 games kept getting bigger against a talented, concerning part of the schedule. The lack of discipline showed and the penalties racked up. The play calling continued to be bizarre at times. The offensive line couldn’t protect. The coaching of Freddie Kitchens clearly was in disarray and not making adjustments. A blowout loss to the 49ers, blowing a lead against the Seahawks, a sloppy game against the Super Bowl champion Patriots, and an inept performance against a rookie quarterback in his first start against the Broncos and the Browns had landed at 2-6.

Now came a real test for the team. Down 16-12, the Browns and Baker Mayfield either engineer a drive to win against a now likely playoff-bound Buffalo Bills or their season basically ends. To both the team and Mayfield’s credit, they did it, and won an ugly game that saw them incapable of getting the ball into the end zone 7 times from the Bills’ 1-yard line. The cracks were still there but maybe it could turn around.

Then the Browns were capable of once again doing something unprecedented to alienate me. With a win against the rival Steelers firmly in their hands, Myles Garrett tried to hit Mason Rudolph with his own helmet. This is how the Browns are so unique. Even when they win, they manage to find a way to make you feel miserable. The Browns, already a team that didn’t need distractions with the number of characters on their roster, were going to have a week of the media primarily talking about this incident.

The flames were fueled once again when Kitchens, already suspect and inept in his duties as a football head coach, wore a T-shirt that said “Pittsburgh Started It” in public when he went to see a movie. Not only did he wear it, but he posed in a photo with it. He can say whatever he would like: that it was a gag, that it was his daughters who wanted him to wear it, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re a leader, you walk the walk and you talk the talk. He claimed the team needed to move on from the incident and yet he piled on to it just a couple days before the rematch. He looks even dumber now given his team lost to the Steelers. Once again, the Browns just look like a black sheep of the AFC North and the NFL. They are incapable of understanding how to win and how to be organized. They lose to a team stripped down to their 3rd string quarterback and backup running backs and wide receivers. They lose to a team far more skilled at focus and organization and to a coach getting the best out of what he has to deal with.

The expectations for the Browns season were high but, even at 5-7, they have catastrophically fallen apart. Kitchens is too pass-friendly even when he has two of the most capable and dangerous running backs in the league. There are major discipline questions given the penalties and the number of incidents the team has had that have led to suspensions or, you know, receivers having to change their shoes at halftime. One of my guilty pleasures is to watch Kitchens’s post-game press conferences on YouTube and he says the same things so often each week with no sign of improvement that I’m now at a point that I wonder how he aced the interview to get the job?

The Browns have one of two options at this point: General Manager John Dorsey needs to fire Kitchens and pay a boatload for a veteran NFL head coach with playoff experience or he needs to be patient with Kitchens in the hope that he somehow becomes better and different than his first 12 games. Kitchens is not the best public relations coach. He can’t possibly be when he wears that T-shirt and when you see how he conducts his press conferences. But you don’t have to be amazingly good at public relations to be a great football coach (see Bill Belichick, the greatest of all-time who started his greatness in Cleveland). The problem with Kitchens is whether the glimmers of any type of greatness can come through in the future. The pressure was on him with this year and, by all accounts, he hasn’t handled the pressure well. Can he for the future? It’s a decision the Browns upper management must make. It’s concerning for Browns fans because nothing in the past 20 years has shown that the decision won’t be an inept one.

It all comes back, to me, to questioning why we enjoy sports to begin with. We cheer for a certain team because they are part of the city that we live or grew up in. That team is part of the community. There is a civic connection and bond that comes with the fans, the players, and the team. This Browns team has, perhaps more than any other of the past 20 years, worked to alienate that connection more than bind it. The best player on the team is arguably Nick Chubb. He carries himself as Browns fans would want and in the mold of what our legends were like. Off the field, he seems a quiet and decent individual and on the field he has a strong work ethic and great results as he has already broken 1,000 yards rushing for the season.

The rest of the team has either taken a 180 from who we thought they were or whose outlandish character isn’t being backed up by their work on the field. Garrett seemed a hard worker who was quiet off the field and wrote poetry (why that was a news story anyway, I don’t know) and now he is suspended for the remainder of the season for one of the more violent acts in recent football history. Odell Beckham, Jr. has long been vocal but, for reasons that aren’t fully clear, can’t seem to have either Mayfield or Kitchens get the ball to him. Jarvis Landry has had his moments both in great play and in great tomfoolery. So has Baker Mayfield who is hopefully maturing after blaming others (including the fans and their noise) for team mistakes. Kareem Hunt is trying to rehabilitate his character after disturbing video of him hitting a woman. Antonio Callaway proved useless at both catching the ball and following rules. The coaching staff doesn’t even want to play Rashard Higgins. I could keep going down the list of the roster, but the main point is, other than Chubb and Joe Schobert, who am I supposed to actually like on this team? Who embodies Cleveland and the history of the Browns that we so love?

Like every organization, it all comes back to the people at the top. How do they carry themselves? What is the culture that they are bringing? You can make as many excuses as you’d like, but Kitchens wearing a “Pittsburgh Started It” shirt is the cherry on top of the problems of the 2019 Cleveland Browns season. It’s arrogance when you’ve proven nothing. It’s pettiness when a better leader would have moved on. It’s a new kind of Cleveland Browns that’s arguably even worse to stomach than the 0-16 one. I’m not sure what’s worse: Hue Jackson always blaming everyone other than himself or Freddie Kitchens taking the blame but not doing anything to improve the situation.

Either way, these last 4 games will prove interesting just as the rest of the season has. How does a team with no playoff hope react to finishing out the season? A well-organized, well-coached team would still finish strong. Of course, a well-organized, well-coached team with this much talent wouldn’t be in the position they are in right now.

[steveholley]

Seventeen Years and Counting

In February, 2002, the New England Patriots stunned the football world by defeating the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI in the Louisiana Superdome.

This past Sunday, the Patriots defeated the Rams in the Super Bowl again but things were a little different. The Rams are back in Los Angeles for one, and the game was certainly no stunner; if anything, it would have come more as a shock if New England hadn't won Super Bowl LIII.

In the 17 years since that 2002 Super Bowl, with quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick leading the Patriots and cementing themselves as arguably the greatest of all-time at their respective positions, the franchise has won an unimaginable six Lombardi Trophies, tied for the most in NFL history. And that's with New England having a full 10-year stretch without winning the big game. By contrast, only the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants have also won multiple Super Bowls in that span - each with two apiece.

But this story isn't really about who can yell "RINGS!" It's not even really about sports, though we'll cover that.

It's a reflective piece as I sit here writing my own Super Bowl LIII story.

Let's rewind. In the late summer and early fall of 2001 as the Patriots' dynasty first began to take shape, I was a 19-year-old college student plowing my way through school and driving around in my pride-and-joy at the time: a gorgeous 1992 Chevrolet Camaro that my father bought me the year I entered college. I was still living at home with my parents, working a job I hated and still struggling to escape the stench of high school and my hometown, with no purpose or direction for where my life was headed.

I was a loner struggling with severe depression and mental illness that wasn't diagnosed until much later. I weighed upward of 240 pounds, had very little social life or even social skills and never imagined all the many things God would bless me with as I grew older and moved away. My best friend since high school had already 'gotten out' after moving to Virginia Beach following graduation. We lost touch and didn't reconnect with one another until years later. There was no social media to stay in touch with back then. When I graduated high school, few of my classmates even had internet access and e-mail from their homes. Even fewer had cell phones. Texting was still a few years away from becoming mainstream; in fact, I didn't get my first real cell phone until I was almost 23. The point is that she got out. Had I not done the same a few years later, I would have been dead before I even turned 30. The older I've gotten, the more I'm convinced of that.

In 2001, I was still in college and the University of Alabama was in its first season under a then-promising outsider head coach named Dennis Franchione, who came to Tuscaloosa by way of Texas Christian University. Andrew Zow and Tyler Watts were Alabama's quarterbacks then, with Zow leading the Tide past Auburn, 31-7, in that year's Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium. As strange as it may seem to some of today's generation of 'Bama fans, beating Auburn in those days was our national championship game (theirs, too). To some fans, it always will be. Thinking of those Alabama teams now, it will always be surreal to me that I've watched my school win not just one national championship but five. When you watch as your school is reduced to living off its glory days while losing to teams like Northern Illinois, Central Florida (before they were the annoying hipsters of the college football world) and Louisiana Tech - twice - because of unprecedented NCAA probation, you don't expect to one day reach the college football mountain top five times in nine years.

At the time, my grandfather was going through the final stages of a terrible but courageous fight with colon cancer that took its toll on all of us as a family. No matter how I look back on it, I'll always call him that: courageous. Courageous for the way he managed to stay alert, awake and coherent even as the cancer kept spreading; for the way he still got out of bed every morning in spite of the pain he was in. On the last birthday I celebrated with him, he managed to get out of bed long enough to spend time with me because he knew what day it was. He was courageous for how he'd still find a way to put his pain aside and try to make me laugh in his darkest hours, usually by needling my grandmother over something or ranting about his love of old-school country music and, just as equally, his sheer hatred of the Republican Party. He was courageous for the way he always searched and found a way to cheer me up even when he didn't know he was doing it.

My grandfather didn't teach me anything about sports. In fact, he hated sports with a passion. He used to say that if he were ever elected president, his first executive order would be to eliminate all sports. I would always quip back, "And your next executive order will be to remove the bullet from the sniper's rifle after they shoot your ass for banning football…"

Regardless, my grandfather was never a weak man. My brother Paul and I used to joke that we were the only kids in our high school who'd have taken an ass-beating from our 70-year-old grandfather had push ever come to shove over anything (not that it ever would). He watched with Paul and I when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, though the significance of that feat couldn't have mattered less to him. We watched that game through the 841-foot outdoor antenna he had in his garden; you know, the kind that was big enough to serve as a communications portal to life on other planets.

My writing at the time, so far as it existed, consisted of daily Chicago Cubs game stories and general team news for a start-up company, more a hobby and a release and a habit from growing up a Cubs fan than an actual job. The Cubs had a good season that year. They won almost 90 games and stayed in the playoff race until September, Kerry Wood rebounded from Tommy John Surgery to win 12 games and post a good ERA, and Sammy Sosa was still… normal(ish) at the time. I had a front-row seat to it through WGN TV and the internet (hello, RealPlayer!), still relatively in its infancy at the time.

As I've written before, what started out as me merely writing about the Cubs beating the Reds or losing to the Cardinals or vice versa on any given day from April to September later turned into me becoming a de facto beat writer for the team and going on to branch out into covering other professional sports. One of my favorite stories is when I met the late Hall of Famer and San Diego Padres great Tony Gwynn at a Double-A All-Star game in Mobile where he was watching his son play. I said something to him about a father watching his son follow in his footsteps. I thought it was almost romantic in a way. Gwynn must have thought otherwise. "Thanks for making me feel old, dude," he said (grumbled is more like it).

Any of the tales I have and the things I've done in sportswriting have happened in cities hundreds of miles from where I grew up, of course. My hometown has never been known for anything overly noteworthy. It's the hometown of George "Goober" Lindsey, eerie unsolved murders and disappearances, some of the highest rates of spousel abuse in the nation, and numerous odds and ends mysteries. And drugs. Yes, lots of drugs and drug arrests.

Once, Bear Bryant came through town in his green Cadillac and another time Merle Haggard played a concert there when he was flat broke. I think my brother said it best about our home state: "It's a strange place. On the one hand, it's beautiful with many wonderful people and a fine, distinct southern culture. At the same time, it's terrifying and home to some of the downright worst human beings and atrocities the country has ever seen, all existing together in tension and constantly ripping itself apart from within." On that he's very much correct.

Anyway, to show how much time has passed, in the fall of 2001 when the Patriots dynasty began out of nowhere, New England was still playing its home games at the old and outdated Foxboro Stadium. The Yankees were still playing at the real Yankee Stadium in the weeks after the most horrific terrorist attack on American soil, and Wrigley Field and Fenway Park hadn't yet received long-overdue upgrades that have since brought them into the 21st century.

No one watches the Super Bowl on huge outdoor antennas anymore but rather on ridiculously priced cable "bundles" or in many cases their phones, computers and other gadgets. I often wonder what my grandfather would have thought of the idea that 17 years after watching my last Super Bowl with him that we'd have the means and technology to watch the game or the NBC Nightly News (his daily, can't-miss half-hour of television) on our telephones.

My brother called me after the Super Bowl last Sunday on his way back to his apartment in Brooklyn, another occurrence neither of us foresaw growing up. We were talking about the game when he said something that really got me thinking.

"It's hard for me to believe but this Patriots run started back when I was a senior in high school," he said. "They've won six Super Bowls since I was 18 years old. I'm 35 now. Their dynasty has literally lasted half of my life."

And that's what got me started down this rabbit hole.

Thinking back on the places I've gone, all the people I've since met, my grandfather, the New England Patriots (who incidentally once played a regular-season home game at Birmingham's Legion Field vs. the New York Jets), Andrew Zow and Tyler Watts, making Tony Gwynn feel old, getting married and finding my soul mate and the love of my life and the family I have now; all the things and fears and nightmares I escaped that are both real and imagined. And of course my own health battles I've fought despite being a full 100 pounds lighter now than I was 17 years ago.

There will be other sports dynasties in the years ahead. The beauty of dynasties is that no one can predict which team it will be or even when the current ones will end. Or better still, when and where life will take us, who we might meet next, and other things and history we'll experience and bear witness to.

All of which is to say in conclusion, enjoy it. Whatever it is and whoever it is that make history, just enjoy it.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride," Hunter S. Thompson famously said. Completely separate of football dynasties and any Super Bowl, may we all keep buying the ticket, wherever it takes us.

[flauntpage]

I Won’t be Cheering for Mexico in the World Cup

The World Cup starts in ten days, and no, the United States won’t be participating.

I explained the pathetic qualification failure back in October. 

Without the “rah rah USA!” routine for the non-soccer fan to follow this summer, there’s another half-narrative going around, the idea that you should pick a different team to cheer for. And maybe that team should be Mexico.

Before I even get into it, I don’t understand this obsession with requiring someone to have a rooting interest. There’s this overwhelming idea that Americans need to pick a Premier League team to follow, like Everton, or Liverpool, or Fulham. I’ve always found that to be corny, especially in Philadelphia, where we totally rag on natives who go on to become Cowboy or Yankee fans. If you’ve never been to Dallas, can you really be a Cowboy fan? By the same token, how much of a Chelsea supporter can you really be if you live in Marlton and have never been to London? I don’t know, it just feels fake to me.

I always just found it appealing to watch the games and enjoy them as a neutral. You wake up at 8 on Saturday morning, make breakfast for the kids, flip on Arsenal and Tottenham, and see a high-level derby. The best part is that you don’t get angry, since you don’t have that natural rooting interest. You aren’t in a pissy mood for the rest of the day if your team loses. ACC basketball, for instance, is a lot more exciting if you’re not a Pitt fan. You just watch quality college basketball without the emotional attachment and the 18 straight conference losses.

So with the United States not being in the World Cup, some people are applying this “who are you going to cheer for?” thing to the upcoming tournament. If you’re half-German or married a Croatian woman or have a Senegalese sister-in-law, I can understand getting behind those countries. Maybe your local team, like Seattle, has a guy like Gustav Svensson, who was called up by Sweden, so you, the Sounders supporter, wanna see your player do well on the world’s biggest stage.

I can support that.

Major League Soccer has a bunch of players representing Costa Rica and Panama, one for Egypt and a pair of Peruvians. So if you’re a Philadelphia Union fan and you care about the growth of the league and the international perception of MLS, you should want to see Omar Gaber and Yoshi Yotun and Anibal Godoy perform well.

That’s different from wanting to see CONCACAF teams do well. Whereas Costa Rica beating Italy in 2014 probably gave the confederation a boost, it didn’t do anything to specifically help the U.S. national team. For example, you’ll see Arkansas fans cheer for Georgia against Michigan because they want the SEC to beat the Big 10 as part of some territorial pissing contest, but nothing tangible changes in the Razorback program. Same thing with Auburn and Alabama. Do Tide fans really care if their arch rival beats Illinois in the Capital One bowl? No, I think most Bama fans want War Eagle to get slapped around and embarrassed on national television.

That’s USA and Mexico – arch rivals. I don’t know why you would cheer for your arch rival to win anything. I’m not rolling into the World Cup pulling for El Tri. I’d like to see them lose every game 7-2, with their MLS-based players scoring the goals and their Liga MX players failing miserably. I want to see Juan Carlos Osorio get fired and the entire team disbanded and thrown into chaos ahead of the next Gold Cup and qualifying cycle. I want every Mexican-American who is eligible to play for both countries choose the United States because El Tri is a hot mess. We don’t want another Jonathan Gonzalez situation:

It’s that simple. A weaker Mexico benefits the U.S. national team rebuild. You’re competing for players and pride and continental dominance, not golf-clapping a rival program.

It’s got nothing do with xenophobia or politics or Donald Trump or brown people or the border wall or anything like that, it’s just identifying a sporting rival as such. Plus, it’s not like the USMNT is comprised solely of pasty white guys from Ohio; there are German-Americans and Mexican-Americans and the son of the Liberian president currently playing on the squad. It’s always been an amalgam of different backgrounds and cultures, which reflects a country of immigrants. Think of the contributions made by guys like Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa and Earnie Stewart.

But you see a lot stuff floating around out there suggesting that Americans should maybe rally for Mexico since they’re popular in the United States and they’re our neighbors or whatever. FOX and their media partners are spending a lot of time talking about El Tri. They play most of their games here and draw crazy crowds. That’s nice, I guess, but who cares? We want home field advantage in our own country, not 80,000 Mexicans booing us in Houston. We should be actively trying to change that for the good of the program, not saying, “hey wow that’s a cool story, they love their soccer.”

It’s like this; does USF cheer for FSU because of Florida pride? No. You want to be the state’s best college football team, not some passive cheerleader for a geographic opponent. You fight for recruits and bragging rights and trophies. Flyers fans don’t cheer for the Penguins because both teams play in Pennsylvania, they want the Pens to get obliterated by the Capitals, and vice versa. If you went to Penn State, you probably befriended Steeler fans but only pulled for Ben Roethlisberger when he played against Tom Brady.

FOX obviously would benefit from the “pay attention to Mexico” angle for ratings purposes. They paid $400 million for the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and were dealt a shitty hand when the U.S. bombed out of qualifying, so they’re hoping the country’s huge Mexican/American population will bolster numbers. I don’t blame them at all for pumping up Mexico in a battle with Telemundo for bilingual viewers. When the U.S. flubbed it, FOX had to change course from a business approach, so here we are. You can’t promote team USA, so you look for alternatives, and El Tri makes the most sense.

That’s not to say that FOX or Sports Illustrated is forcing you to cheer for Mexico, because I don’t think they are. It’s more of a, “we’re going to inundate you with Mexico stories and angles,” which is a natural turn off to the loyal USMNT fan. That’s why you’re seeing pushback with the SI cover and plethora of El Tri-focused articles. 

For what it’s worth, 2014 ratings were off the chart for the United States games, which pulled the following: 

vs. Belgium (July 1, 2014): 16.5 million

vs. Germany (June 26, 2014): 10.8 million

vs. Portugal (June 22, 2014): 18.2 million

vs. Ghana (June 17, 2014): 11.1 million

Those are monstrous numbers that can’t be replicated this year. You’re not getting that for Russia vs. Saudi Arabia next Thursday. The most realistic/best case scenario is that Mexico scrapes a draw against Germany in their opener and positions themselves to get out of the group in second place, setting up a knockout round clash against Brazil. That gets you a ton of eyeballs.

And of course you should want the FOX broadcasts to be successful. Anytime anybody puts money into soccer, you want solid returns, returns that make them invest more in the product in the future. You don’t want this to fail. Strong TV deals are the backbone of any sports competition and one of the biggest hurdles facing MLS specifically. It’s all about $$$, so at the very least just turn on the TV and walk away.

At the end of the day we should certainly respect Mexico as a historic rival. We should acknowledge the common threads between our countries. And we should hope they get their asses kicked.

The post I Won’t be Cheering for Mexico in the World Cup appeared first on Crossing Broad.

I Won’t be Cheering for Mexico in the World Cup published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[velocitysportsmedia-blog]

American Icon Dan Rooney Dead At 84

By Matt Simon

At 84 years old, Dan Rooney, Chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and national treasure, has died. Details on his death aren’t immediately available. But we do know a few things about how he lived.

Compared to owners like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Mr. Rooney was an introvert. But when he spoke people listened. He wasn’t a boastful man, and didn’t seek the limelight, so we don’t know his every tweetable thought. Through the efforts on and off the football field, Mr. Rooney leaves behind an amazing legacy, not just an owner of an NFL franchise, but as a human being. He was a leader of athletes, owners, a city and much more.

Under Mr. Rooney’s time leading the Steelers, the organization won an NFL best. six championships. In a small market nestled between three rivers in a blue collar community two stadiums were erected and a family dynasty solidified.

A Statesman

Of Mr. Rooney President Obama shared, “Dan Rooney was a great friend of mine, but more importantly, he was a great friend to the people of Pittsburgh, a model citizen, and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage. I knew he’d do a wonderful job when I named him as our United States Ambassador to Ireland, but naturally, he surpassed my high expectations, and I know the people of Ireland think fondly of him today.’’

In 2009 President Obama appointed Mr. Rooney U.S. ambassador to Ireland, a position he served with pride until his resignation in 2012.

Mr. Rooney was born July 21, 1932 in Pittsburgh, a year before his father Art Rooney Sr. founded the Steelers. He played high school football for North Catholic High School where he earned all-Catholic league second team honors, losing his first team placement to a guy named Johnny Unitas.

He graduated from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University with a degree in accounting, soon after which he joined the Steelers. He served as president of the club from 1975–2003. Under Mr. Rooney’s tenure as President, the Steelers won four championships in six years — Super Bowls IX, X, XIII and XIV. And a fifth under Bill Cowher.

Mr. Rooney directly influenced the team in both the draft and through unprecedented consistency at head coach; with only three in nearly half a century. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000.

If stability was his approach in the front office, his beliefs evolved in other areas of his life. Mr. Rooney, traditionally a republican, surprised many when he stumped for and vociferously supported Barack Obama’s run for President in 2008.

Some suggest that Mr. Rooney was a man who saw no color, just talent. But he did see color, and saw that he could have a hand in righting some inequities associated with darker skin, especially in a city with a blemished racial history.

When introducing Mr. Rooney before his Hall of Fame induction, famous Steelers defender Joe Greene shared “Dan has always lead with humility. When things go as planned, Dan is in the background. When things don’t go as planned, he’s in the forefront.”

The Rooney Rule

During the Paul Tagliabue-era of the NFL, Mr. Rooney presented his fellow owners with a measure he thought was a chance to fix the problem of under representation of minorities in high-profile jobs within the league. A notion more glaring, given the disproportionate amount of African Americans working as players.

Through his leadership the eponymous Mr. Rooney helped give the NFL the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl, in African American coach Mike Tomlin. Far from perfect Mr. Tomlin boasts one of the most impressive draft resumes in the history of the league and a cluster of other honors.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, “Few men have contributed as much to the National Football League as Dan Rooney. A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he was one of the finest men in the history of our game and it was a privilege to work alongside him for so many years. Dan’s dedication to the game, to the players and coaches, to his beloved Pittsburgh, and to Steelers fans everywhere was unparalleled. He was a role model and trusted colleague to commissioners since Bert Bell, countless NFL owners, and so many others in and out of the NFL.

Goodell continued that Rooney was “A voice of reason on a wide range of topics, including diversity and labor relations, Dan always had the league’s best interests at heart. For my part, Dan’s friendship and counsel were both inspiring and irreplaceable. My heart goes out to Patricia, Art, and the entire Rooney family on the loss of this extraordinary man.”

Mr. Rooney was a man who regularly walked to home games. Unlike many owners who enjoy the rarified air of their luxury boxes, rarely interacting with the workers, Mr. Rooney could be seen regularly in the locker room after practices and games.

In a press release Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones shared “This is a sad day for anyone who has had an association with the NFL,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a news release. “Whether it be fans, players, coaches, broadcast personnel, media, team owners or club employees, Dan Rooney’s influence touched us all — and made all of our lives better.”

“The Rooney’s are a royal family in the National Football League, and Dan more than capably followed in the footsteps of his father, Art, a league founder,” Jones said. “He shaped the league with instincts, wisdom and a soft-spoken velvet touch. He was a steward and a guardian for the growth and popularity of the NFL, because he loved the game so much.”

“My job is to do what’s best for the organization and to make that decision regardless of what the consequences are to me personally,” Mr Rooney once shared. “I take my position very seriously. What I want is an organization that can be together, one where everybody in the place has the same goal, and that is to win.”

No team more exemplifies it’s city’s disposition and demographics than the Steelers. A win for the Black and Gold is a win for the city in a way few cities can even come close to understanding. Mr. Rooney’s steadfast mentality of “team first” was key in transforming a down-on-their-luck club that had never played in a title game, to one that is now peerless; even in a league that possesses football dynasties like the Patriots and 49ers.

During the Monday Night Football “black out” game in rickety old Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 2011, I found myself in. the Steelers luxury box. As Mr. Rooney sat five feet from me chatting with a guest, I noticed two things. One, that he was showing his age, noticeably hunched and frail. The other, as my focus pulled from him out the window overlooking the sea of black and gold Steelers fans who’d come from all over the country to cheer on their team, was that this man, with his desire to put his team first exemplified many of the best parts of what it is to be American. Strong vision. Leadership. And a kind of paradoxical strength and humility that inspired men, women and boys and girls around him.

I have to believe that Dan Rooney left this world in, and for a better place.

[chrisbowler]

Sustained Excellence

I don’t talk much about sports around here. Truth is, I don’t watch much any more. My boys and I will catch some hockey and basketball highlights in the spring. And we play and/or coach basketball in the winter months. But apart from that, I do not play or watch sports at all. With one exception.

NFL football and my Patriots.

Like most Canadians, I grew up watching hockey and cheering on my local team. I’d spend evenings shooting a tennis ball against the wall in our basement while listening to the Canucks game on the radio. This was long before season subscriptions and every game of every major sport being televised. I’d stay up until the 11:40 Late News hoping for a couple of clips from the latest west coast game.

But that all changed in 1994.

I had been running a hockey pool (that’s like fantasy football, but calling it “fantasy” would get you a raised eyebrow or two) with my pals for 3–4 years when a new friend convinced us to try the same thing with the NFL. He’d grown up in Windsor, Ontario and spent his youth watching the Detroit Lions. Our crew had spent our younger years watching the occasional CFL game, but had no exposure to the NFL.

And so I headed into our first fantasy football draft with no clue that sports in my life would change forever.

I spent most of a 7 hour road trip reading a fantasy football magazine. I didn’t know any players, and barely knew the team names. But I ended up drafting Drew Bledsoe and Ben Coates from the New England Patriots. I came in first or second in the league, I can’t quite recall. But I knew one thing for sure: the Patriots were my team!

Three years later, they played in the franchise’s second Super Bowl appearance, losing to the Brett Favre led Green Bay Packers. But other than that, it wasn’t easy being a Patriots fan. There were some so-so seasons, and some terrible seasons (especially the Pete Carrol years, long before his time with USC and the Seahawks). But that too changed, thanks to the fateful Mo Lewis hit on Bledsoe that put Tom Brady into the role of our starting QB.

And, as the saying goes, the rest was history.

I tell you all that for one reason: although I don’t watch a lot of sports anymore, I can appreciate excellency. And we have the privilege of witnessing the greatest stretch of sustained excellence the world of professional sports has ever known. Sound superfluous? Perhaps, but I believe it to be true.

There have been other dynasties (the Yankees, the Bulls, the Oilers, plus the 49ers, Browns, Steelers, and Cowboys in the NFL), but none have been as consistent as the Patriots. Their run over the last 16 years is unprecedented. 12 division titles, 7 Super Bowl appearances (5 of them wins), 6 straight trips to the AFC championship, and a win/loss record that exceeds all dynasties before them.

That excellence is of course due in large part to two men: Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. If you follow the NFL at all, you’re familiar with all of this. And I can understand that many people do not like them. Despise them even. But you cannot deny their excellence.

But don’t take my word for it. Here are some other people’s thoughts on this topic.

The Patriots’ Place in History

Michael Silver waxing poetic on the excellence of Brady mid-season

Brady’s comeback vs. the Seahawks in Super Bowler 49 … as exciting as the comeback against the Falcons was because of the historical precedence, I took more satisfaction from the previous victory over the Seahawks. Brady’s numbers against the best defence in football 3 years running were as good as it gets (13 of 15 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns. After his final throw of the night, a three-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman with 2:06 remaining, Brady’s passer rating for the quarter was 140.7)!

Not to take anything away from his performance against the Falcons in Super Bowler 51 … I did not realize this while watching, but after 8:31 in the 3rd quarter, Brady was 26 of 33 for 284 yards, 2 TDs, 15 yards rushing, and a 122.7 QB rating. He has Dan Quinn’s number!

Why Tom Brady was the NFL’s best player this season

Debate over: Tom Brady is the best ever

I don’t even watch a lot of actual games any more. This year I took in one full regular season Pats game, as well as the playoffs. But the love for my team hasn’t diminished at all. It’s easy to hate on sports … there’s a lot that’s wrong with them, especially at the professional level.

But there’s also a lot that’s right. As I’ve been coaching my son’s grade 4/5 boys basketball team, I’ve been reminded of the good. It’s been a privilege to get to know 10 young guys just getting comfortable with their bodies and what they can do. Their different personalities and how they come to work together. We’ve got a really solid group with natural ability, but it’s their sportsmanship and willingness to dish out the pass as often as drive to the hoop that has impressed me most.

And that’s part of what has impressed me about the Patriots over the years. Their culture starts at the top and everyone buys in. The group works together, even when it means less for themselves (the Patriots are well known for not paying the mega dollars to players, to the point where players from other franchises who desire to win will take a smaller salary to play in New England).

Anyway, as I’ve savored the latest Super Bowl victory, it caused me to ponder how I’ve enjoyed something most sports fans can only imagine. Year after year after year of consistent excellence.

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Is cheering for a NFL Divisional rival ever appropriate?

All the signs were there. Puffy red cheeks, quivering lip, the unmistakably obvious watery eyes; my coworker was about to cry. My forty-something-year-old coworker was about to cry, right in front of me at work. I instantly began to wonder. Did someone in his family die? Did he make an irreversible mistake at work? Did he commit a crime so unspeakable, that only tears would show his remorse? While my mind began to jump from one terrible scenario to the next, my coworker confided in me.

“I just can’t handle to see them get to the Super Bowl again,” Dave said. He continued to elaborate, “If they get there, I will have to hear all my cousins and friends that worship that team rub it in my face once again. I just can’t bear the thought of them having yet another chance to win another Super Bowl, I can’t do it.”

This all took me for a loop as all I asked him was a simple, “How’s it going Dave?”

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This was Thursday night, before the NFL’s Conference Championship weekend and not one sign gave away that this was really the conversation we were about to have.

How was I supposed to respond? Do I laugh it off? Do I criticize and say, “It’s just a game buddy.” After a few moments, I calmly responded with the ever so popular, “Yeah, it’s a tough one. Hopefully they lose.”

The comment seemingly was the correct response as Dave went back to his work, consoled and relieved, as I did the same. This is what I have always loved about Dave. He is the kind of super fan that always tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. What may seem trivial to some, is vitally important to Dave and shows through in his daily life.

The conversation must have touched a nerve as it really stuck with me and got me thinking. This is something I do from time to time as I perform my mundane and rudimentary tasks and occasionally find myself lost in thought.

Later that night, I brought the conversation up to my loving wife. She knows Dave quite well and her only response was, “Wouldn’t you guys want to see them win because it makes your division look better?”

I know, mind explosion, right? How dare she say such a thing? This is the NFL Conference Championships; you can’t root for your bitter rival to win. Such a notion is unacceptable — or is it?

This is an age-old conversation that has been had across the globe at one time or another in any given capacity. All four of the remaining teams, all have bitter rivals and since there is only one Vince Lombardi Trophy, technically every team in a sworn enemy.

What makes it acceptable and at what point is it considered tactful to root for a divisional foe? If the Dolphins, Texans or Lions had stunned the world and been in the conference finals this weekend, would the fan bases of any of the remaining teams been cheering for them? My guess is there has to be a few Packers’ fans out there that would allow a smile to cross their face if this had actually been the Lions’ year. Then again, maybe I am way off base and everyone in Green Bay only cheers for Green Bay.

I assume this is exceedingly rare for Patriots’ fans, but had the Dolphins defeated the Steelers, then gone on to win in Foxboro, would they be cheering for the Dolphins this weekend? I’m under the impression many would not because they honestly can say, “We’ll get there next year,” and truly mean it, since their team is on the cusp season after season.

Being a fan of a team that has yet to get to the Super Bowl during my tenure on this planet (I have a backup that has, but they also lost), it is excruciatingly painful and dull to see the same teams win over and over and over again. However, just like the Bulls of the 1990’s, I have come to respect the Patriots for what they have done and wouldn’t mind witnessing Tom Brady shove it down everyone’s throat and finally end the who is the greatest of all-time conversation.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a certain amount of disdain for all four teams remaining, due to certain times they capitalized upon my favorite team(s) in a moment of weakness. Does that mean I just have zero rooting interests? Absolutely not. The Falcons have never won a Super Bowl; making them the equivalent of the only guy/girl at a party that is single, qualifying them as hot by default.

Back to Dave and my wife’s contention, “Is it justifiable to root for a life-long rival?” Some would attest that it is never justifiable to be a Vikings’ fan and root for the Packers this weekend or visa versa. If a fan is cheering against the Packers just because they do not want to see a rival win, they probably remember the Falcons defeating their beloved purple on this same weekend in 1998. Others will attest that it is borderline apprehensible to be a human being and root for the Patriots. The point is, fans only have to justify it to themselves (and their wives).

Every fan has their reasons to cheer. Maybe they like the Steelers’ colors, or want anyone other than the Patriots to win. Perhaps the fans want to see a new champion crowned and therefore are cheering for the Falcons. Whatever the reason, the only major offense would not to be cheering at all. If players and coaches can come together in camaraderie on and off the field, shouldn’t we as fans be able to find similar ground?

— Justin Ekstrom can be followed on Twitter @thesportscrib21. Be sure to follow and comment about vikings32 on Facebook and Twitter. 

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