If you’re a Steelers fan, you may often feel compelled to root against a particular team in an upcoming Super Bowl that doesn’t involve the Black and Gold.
As it pertains to this Sunday’s Super Bowl LV clash between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium, who to root against?
- Which outcome will help to ease your Steelers’ sensibilities?
While there are a lot of folks with Steelers ties to root for or against, I honestly can’t think of a single reason to do anything but hope for a fun and spirited contest this Sunday evening
Le’Veon Bell celebrates Antonio Brown’s touchdown against the Buccaneers. Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller, Getty Images via Zimbo.com
Sure, Tom Brady will quarterback the Buccaneers, and if he wins this game…..well, what difference would that make to his legacy? Win or lose, Brady will still be considered the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time).
I realize this won’t prevent many Steelers fans from rooting against Brady, but for me, personally, the starch was taken out of my Brady hate the moment he left the Patriots last spring and signed a deal with Tampa. All Brady can do, is continue to build his own Super Bowl dynasty.
- As for the Buccaneers, a win would still leave them four Lombardi trophies shy of Pittsburgh.
There’s also the matter of Bruce Arians, the Steelers’ offensive coordinator from 2007-2011, going for his first Lombardi as head coach almost a decade after the Steelers’ and their fans told him he sucked at game-planning and such.
- Honestly, I never understood the animosity toward Arians both then and now.
As for then, Arians was the offensive coordinator of a team that won a Super Bowl and went to another. As for now, well, you might be in the throes of some scary ex-lover territory if you’re still carrying around hatred for B.A.
But what about A.B.? That’s right, I’m talking about Antonio Brown, arguably the greatest receiver in Steelers history who left town two years ago in arguably the ugliest way any player has done so in the history of the franchise. Or the City of Pittsburgh, for that matter.
- There’s no question that Brown is an incredibly hard character to root for.
He burned every bridge possible on the way out of Pittsburgh (and that’s a lot of bridges). Brown also hurt his share of people in his inner and outer circle both during and after his time with the Steelers. However, if you’re going to root against Brown, you would have to root for Le’Veon Bell, the former Steelers running back who, after a forgettable stint with the Jets, somehow found his way to Kansas City during the 2020 regular season.
Le’Veon Bell departing the grid iron at Heinz Field. Photo Credit: EPA, via the New York Post
- I don’t want to try and draw an exact character parallel between Brown and Bell.
Brown may actually be a bad person–it depends on who you talk to. When it comes to Bell, however, his biggest transgressions during his time in Pittsburgh involved drug suspensions and holding out for more money. By most accounts, Bell wasn’t a bad teammate. In fact, most of his Steelers teammates and coaches seemed to love him. Heck, even most in the Pittsburgh media have had good things to say about Bell, the person, since he left town following the 2018 campaign.
- Having said all that, there’s no question that Bell is now a heel to Steelers fans.
But no matter how you slice it, either Brown or Bell will go home on Sunday night with the sticky Lombardi in hand. Who knows? Maybe one of them will be the difference in the game. Would that hurt you? I sure hope not. After all, I still haven’t received my check in the mail for all that work I put in cheering very hard for the Giants to knock off that undefeated Patriots team in Super Bowl XLII.
Larry Foote hones in on Anthony Wright in 2005. Photo Credit: Ravens.com
I think it’s kind of neat how many Steelers ties there are heading into Super Bowl LV. In addition to the folks I just mentioned, Byron Leftwich, who had a couple of stints as the Steelers’ backup quarterback, is the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. Larry Foote, who played on all three of the Steelers’ most recent Super Bowl teams, is Tampa’s outside linebackers coach.
But I don’t care about any of that. I don’t have any animosity toward anyone in this Super Bowl. Again, I am rooting very hard for a good game. I love the Super Bowl. I cherish the Super Bowl. I love everything about it, from the hype to the festivities to the legendary moments that most of these games help to create.
I kind of feel sorry for both teams. The hype for Super Bowl LV has clearly felt a bit tempered amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Speaking of which, while the Buccaneers will be the first team from a host city to ever play in a Super Bowl, is the jinx actually broken? Thanks to the pandemic, only 22,000 fans, many of whom will be neutral observers (as is the case with a lot of Super Bowls), will be allowed to attend the game.
As for the Chiefs, due to an abundance of caution, they didn’t even fly to Tampa until the weekend of the game. How much does that suck? If you were a Chiefs player, wouldn’t you feel a bit cheated that you couldn’t enjoy the full Super Bowl experience?
Oh well, at the end of the day, it’s still the Super Bowl, so it’s hard to feel too sorry for any of the LV participants. To quote Jonathan Scott, a Dallas native and former Steelers’ offensive lineman who got to play Super Bowl XLV in his hometown: “Even if it’s in Siberia, the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl.”
I’m going to enjoy Super Bowl LV, and I hope you do, too.
