A Dozen of the Super Bowl's Greatest Hits

With Super Bowl XLV just about upon us, I started thinking about great moments in the Super Bowl. Sure, there were some stinker, blow out games, but there have been some stupendous moments in the sport's biggest game. While I'm sure that hundreds if not thousands of other writers and other bloggers have compiled their own lists, here are my twelve cents, my twelve plays or moments that stand out. I'm sure I've missed some and will put a burr under the saddle of Cowboys fans or Ravens fans or something, but these are moments that resonate for me.

12. SB XXXI: Desmond Howard's 99 yard touchdown return. New England had crept back into the game, cutting the Pack's lead to just six points. On the ensuing kickoff, Howard rambled 99 yards for the score that put the Pats away for good. Video here. (the return comes around 0:35).

11. SB XXII -- Doug Williams to Ricky Sanders. Based on my sheer fondness for Doug Williams, I could move this into the top five. I always had a soft spot for the guy. This Super Bowl just captivated me and I have no idea why. Also, I can remember it like it was yesterday. Strangely (and pathetically) enough, I remember that I skipped socializing that night and I was home folding laundry when Doug Williams starting raining touchdowns down on the Broncos defense in the single most dominant quarter in Super Bowl history (the Redskins scored 35 points. For reals). It all started with Williams lofting a nice, soft pass into Sanders around midfield. Video here.

10. SB XVI -- Dan Bunz and the Niners goal-line stand. The 49ers were up on the Bengals by the score of 20-7 late in third quarter when the Bengals drove to the San Fran 3, but the Niners defense denied them four times, highlighted by Bunz' fantastic tackle on a pass to Charles Alexander on third down. How many things in life are as satisfying as a great goal-line stand? Video here.

9. SB XXXVI -- Patriots Final Drive. Yeah, yeah, I know. I hate the Patriots, but ... this was a great, gutsy drive and if I'm being fair, I have to list it. The Rams had all the momentum. They scored two touchdowns in the 4th quarter, including one with just 90 seconds left in the game to tie it up. John Madden was blabbering on the TV feed about how and why the Patriots had to play for overtime. Not so quick there, bub. We didn't know it at the time, but Tom Brady was simply showing us who he would be for most of his career in the last 81 seconds of his first Super Bowl -- dumping the ball off to J.R. Redmond (J.R. Redmond?), hitting Troy Brown and calmly managing the clock to set up Adam Vinatieri's game winning kick. Video here.

8. SB X -- Lynn Swann's gravity-defying, floating catch. I know, the list is a little Steelers heavy, but you cannot deny the sheer artistry of this magnificent grab. If you have ever watched NFL films in your life, I'm sure you've seen this catch. It's like a magic trick and words don't do it justice. Video here.

7. Super Bowl XXIII -- Joe Montana's touchdown pass to John Taylor. Despite having the magnificent, chicken-legged Joe Montana at the helm, the Niners had scored just one touchdown all game and were trailing the Bengals by the score of 16-13. Then with about three minute left in the 4th quarter, Montana put together an amazing drive from the San Fran 9 yard line to the Bengals' 10. With 39 seconds on the clock, Jerry Rice goes in motion, Montana drops back, looks in one spot, and then hits Taylor streaking to the back of the endzone. Sorry, Boomer, you don't get to go to Disneyland. Video here.

6. SB XLIII -- Santonio Holmes TipToe Catch. It took 20 years for somebody to top the Montana-Taylor hook up above, but this is the most dramatic score I can think of -- given the time, the length of the drive, Ben's ability to shake free, the pass into a ridiculous spot, and Holmes ability to simultaneously control the ball and tap his toes at the edge of the endzone. It wows me. Every time. Video here.

5. SB I -- Max McGhee's one handed catch. Legend has it that McGee was miserably hungover for this game. And I'd like to believe that. In a game the Packers really had to win, McGee made a spectacular grab of Bart Starr's pass, then took it for a touchdown, the first in Super Bowl history. I'm pretty sure I've seen video of him surreptitiously smoking a cigarette on the sidelines after this catch, which, again, makes me like him more. Funny thing is that McGee caught four passes all season. It's not as lovely as Tone's catch above, but it's pretty darned nice and, given the historical impact of this game, I have to put it in the Top 5. Video here.

4. SB XVII -- John Riggins' rips 4th and 1 run for 43 yard touchdown. I can picture exactly where I was sitting for this. It's strange, but this particular run just burned itself into my brain. Washingon trails the Fins 17-13 with 10:10 remaining. They are faced with 4th down and 1 yard to go at the Miami 43 yard line. Out of the I formation, the handoff goes to Riggins, who bounces outside behind one of the Hogs (don't remember which one), sheds a tackler and then runs the length of the field for the TD. Even without the video, I can picture Riggo just chugging down the sidelines. It was beautiful. Fortune favors the bold, indeed. Video here. (The Riggins run comes up around 1:35.)

3. SB XVIII -- Marcus Allen's 74 yard touchdown run. God, this seems like a long time ago, and I know for pure yardage, it has been surpassed by Willie Parker's 75 yard dash in XL. But for drama, for artistry, there's nothing like Allen's reversal of direction and run up the gut. Video here.(Just ignore Todd Christensen's blubbering.)

2. SB XLII -- David Tyree's helmet catch. Is there a bigger catch in Super Bowl history? Sure, Santonio Holmes' catch is more elegant, but none was more clutch, than Tyree clutching the ball to his helmet. While I'm no huge Eli Manning fan, his ability to pull away, with a Patriot hanging on his jersey, moving around in the pocket, ducking tacklers, and all of this against the unbeaten, unbeatable New England Patriots? This could easily be number one on the list. Video here.

1. SB XLIII -- James Harrison's 100 yard interception touchdown return. Talk about high drama. I am not alone in ranking this first and it's not because Harrison is a Steeler. It's because, holy hell, a pass rushing linebacker intercepted a pass, and ran 100 yards for a touchdown, with no time left in the half and his teammates blocking out 10 would be Arizona tacklers. Take that play away, and the Cardinals have one Lombardi trophy on display. It just doesn't get any better than this. Video here.

BONUS MOMENT: SB IX -- Dwight White's Safety Dance. Okay, this is a special, childhood favorite, on for sentimental reasons here because I'm a Steelers fan and Dwight White was the first player I recall thinking, "that's my guy." On a team of superstars, I just loved me some Mad Dog. It's personal and, I'm sure if I were a Broncos fan, John Elway's 'helicopter run' in XXXII would be in this spot. Point is, your mileage may vary. In SB IX, the whole backstory of White battling the flu and a raging fever spilled into the confluence of the Steelers defensive domination and the franchise's history of futility. Plus, I love safeties. For a person who loves defense, as I do, they are so very satisfying. The tall guy on the right is White celebrating and, if I close my eyes, I can see him making the safety signal in my head. This one play summed up the complete and total dominance of the Steelers D in their very first trip to the Super Bowl.

Parsing the NFL MVP Debate

Last night, I was running at the gym (way too cold outside for that stuff) and SportsNation was on the telly in front of me. They were debating the NFL MVP and their top five candidates were: Tom Brady, Michael Vick, Phillip Rivers, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers. Then I took a quick look at Peter King this morning and his MVP watch list is: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, and Maurice Jones-Drew.

As much as I really, really like Aaron Rodgers, if the playoffs started now, his team would be out of it, so I have to ding him. Same goes for Phillip Rivers and I don't care about his mad numbers. The best player on a fair to middling team hardly qualifies as league MVP by my reckoning.

As to the rest, I love that King included MJD on his list because if the Jax Jags hang on to win the AFC South, it will largely be because little big man carried them there.

Michael Vick likewise. No way the Eagles are sitting atop the NFC East at 9-4 with Donovan McNabb or Kevin Kolb in there.

And a strong case can be made for Matt Ryan, too. The guy is so reliable in big moments and he is remarkably consistent.

Right now, Brady's hair has morphed from 'Justin Bieber' to 'roadie for a Grateful Dead Tribute Band' (they're never billed as 'cover bands' are they? They always call themselves 'tribute' bands. Anyway.) Regardless of how his Ubermodel wife is instructing him to keep his coiffure, Brady is playing quarterback better than I've ever seen the position played. Whereas Peyton Manning because always looks for the big score, big throw, dagger pass, Brady just takes what the defense gives them and will kill teams by any means possible, frequently through attrition. He's happy to have yards after the catch stats. He gets the ball out so quick, in such perfect spots for his receivers that he throws them open and, even if he's throwing to a guy who is just four yards past the line of scrimmage, he puts them in terrific positions to make plays. I thought the Patriots would be good again this year, but I didn't think they'd be this good but they are the best team in the NFL largely due to Tom Brady.

But let me make a case for Troy Polamalu. (You had to see that coming, yes?)

First of all, so quarterback-centric is the league that quarterbacks are almost teeing off from the ladies tee as it were, putting guys like Troy or Terrell Suggs or Justin Tuck or Clay Matthews at a serious disadvantage. For a defensive player to have the kind of impact that Troy is having speaks volumes about his ability to impose his will on a game while playing a position that isn't built for to do so.

He is the best defensive player in the game and I believe he might be the best overall player in the league. At the very least, he should be in that conversation. It's not just that he makes tackles, it's when he makes tackles. It's not just the forced fumbles, it's when he forces them. The interception always seem to come at moments where the game could turn against the Steelers for good.

Since he was out for most of last year, it's easy to point to what the Steelers are with him and what they are without him.

Without Troy, the Steelers finished 9-7, just out of the playoffs and nobody who witnessed it will ever forget that five game stretch of stench they left on the field. The Steelers defense had just a dozen interceptions last year (terrible) and allowed a little over 20 points per game (right in the middle of the pack). Sure, the special teams suck didn't help them any, but the defense didn't come up big in any situations when they needed it either. With him, after only 13 games, they have 17 interceptions (six of those are Troy's), they allow just over 15 points per game. The defense is not just keeping them in games, its actually winning games. And they continue to do that without the best run stopping lineman in the league because of Troy's ability to come up big when the moment demands it.

The numbers are startling, but if I look hard at the Steelers wins and losses, I can point to at least three games they would have lost without him, probably four. I realize it's hard to project what would have happened in the abstract. Football is complicated, tons of plays are run and 22 guys are on the field for each one, so I cannot say with complete and total certainty that the Steelers would have lost these games. Still ... I'm pretty sure they would have lost.

-- the season opener to Atlanta. I know Matt Ryan is still shaking his head wondering where the hell Troy came from to in the 4th quarter of that game. Simply put, he just appeared at the sideline, like a freaking apparition. The interception gave the ball back to the Steelers offense in field goal range. That game wouldn't have even gone to OT had Jeff Reed done his job (don't get me started), but I think there's a very good chance they lose that one without Troy.

-- at Buffalo. Troy's ridiculous at the goal-line interception saved the Steelers asses. Again.

-- at Baltimore. With an anemic Steelers offense, on the road, and in need of a big play, it was Troy, because it's always Troy, causing the fumble that may have won game and might have won the division.
-- versus Cincinnati. With the whole team suffering a Ravens hangover, and with the offense playing even worse than they had the week before in Baltimore, the team needed something. Anything. A loss to the Bungles would have undone almost all of the good work from this season. Bengals 7, Troy 23.

Without Troy, they could easily be 8-5 and battling for a spot; they could be 7-6 on the outside looking in; and they could be worse 6-7, much like they were last year. Instead, the Steelers are 10-3, atop the AFC North and in position to secure the #2 seed in the playoffs.

Largely due to just one man. Just what about that doesn't say MVP?

The Balls & Whistles MVP tracker:
Troy, Brady/Bieber/Burnout, MJD, Vick, Matty Ice.

Patriots Thump Steelers. Some Things Never Change

It's a crazy NFL season. Everybody says so. There are no 2006 Colts, no 2007 Patriots and no 2009 Saints. This seems to bother the talking heads quite a bit. I suspect it's because they can't just jump on a bandwagon and stay there. One week the Jets look dominant and the next they look like chumps. One week the Giants look like they've rounded back into 2007 form, and then next week they lay a stinker against the Cowboys (of all teams.)

Every one of the teams that look like contenders have laid at least one huge turd this year. Even the best teams are flawed. It's a crazy, upside-down NFL season, up for grabs for any of a dozen or so teams, but some things never seem to change.

Like the Tom Brady ass-whipping the Steelers. That never seems to change. The Steelers can, when they are on their game, beat 30 other teams in the NFL, but not the Patriots. At least not the Patriots when Brady is under center.

Patriots 39, Steelers 26.

I've seen this movie before. And I hated it the first half-dozen times I suffered through it. Two thumbs down. Way, Way down.

January 27, 2002: Patriots 24, Steelers 17.

September 9, 2002: Patriots 30, Steelers 14. In a game that looked eerily like last night's.

October 31, 2004: Steelers 34, Patriots 20. Yeah, I liked that one. I was hoping we'd see more like that.

January 23, 2005: Patriots 41, Steelers 27. Worse than the 2001 loss? Maybe it's a toss-up. They both sucked.

December 9, 2007: Patriots 34, Steelers 13.

Do I really have to go on? The 2008 game doesn't count because there was no Brady.

There is no NFL team I hate more than Evil Hoodie and his Patriots. This is well documented. Ironically, there is no team that the Steelers lose to like they do the Patriots. Oh, sure, sure, they drop a game to the Colts here and there. And split games with divisional rivals. It's gonna happen. Especially in division.

In hacker speak, Brady just owns them. When he comes to Pittsburgh, he should wear a t-shirt that reads "Because I'm the Daddy. That's why."

QB ratings are really not exact, and require complex logarithms calculate, but while they are not perfect, they do give you some idea of how effective a quarterback has been in a game, in a season, or against a certain team. Brady's played the Steelers six times in his career. The average of all of those six ratings gives him a lifetime QB rating against the Steelers of 106.7. That's really good, people.

A couple of years ago, the Patriots played in a little game against the Giants. No big deal or anything, it was just Super Bowl XLII, so maybe you saw it or heard about it. The Giants toppled the behemoth Patriots and they did it by hitting Brady. Then hitting him some more. They collapsed the pocket and took away a comfortable place for him to plant and throw. And then they hit him some more. It was an veritable instruction manual for beating Tom Brady.

The Steelers didn't hit him last night hardly at all. He could probably wear that game jersey again next week without even laundering it. Brady in a comfortable pocket = death. It's that simple. I don't care who your DB's or linebackers are, but if you give he of the Justin Beiber hair (formerly of the tiny hipster hat) time, he will carve you up like a Thanksgiving turkey. And so he did.

As to last night's mess on the offensive side for the Steelers, there are plenty of reasons for the dysfunction. Heck, most of the starting offensive line has no business starting an NFL game. I'm not sure I've seen a guard have a worse game than Trai Essex did, and except for Hotel Flozell and the magnificent rookie Maurkice Pouncey, they were all taken to the woodshed most of the night. The Steelers never did establish any kind of offensive rhythm and without Hines Ward in there, Pig Ben had no safety blanket in the redzone. (Has there ever been a worse redzone offense than this iteration of the Steelers? Maybe like the Rich Kotite Jets or something, but this is an historically inept team when they get the ball inside the 10.)

So, what does this Patriots mastery over the Steelers mean for right now, today? Is it a blip, just more of the same? The Steelers can beat everybody but Brady, so they can right the ship and hope to not see the Pats in the playoffs? It's possible, right? Right?!

Or, is this loss the tipping point, just the beginning of the another second half swoon like the one we saw last year?

Tom Brady and Me

Every year at during the first week of practice our team talks about our goals for the upcoming season. I sit down with each of the players individually to discuss what they hope to accomplish, personally and as a team, during the year, and then at the end of that week we set our goals as a team for the season.

I don't like to reveal what our goals are to the outside, mostly because each of the last two season we've set some pretty lofty standards for ourselves that would either make us appear overconfident or provide bulletin-board material for other teams. Sometimes a player will reveal one or more of the goals during an interview (Rachel!) but I don't think it sounds as presumptuous coming from the players as it would from me.

About two years into my "career" as head coach, I set a goal for myself, which I never revealed to anyone until last week -- win 100 games as a head coach. At the time, I figured it would take at least seven years to reach the mark -- an average of 15 wins a season. My first two seasons we had won 14 and 15 games, and so that seemed a reasonable length of time.

Then we won 17 in 2007, and, with the advent of the AA-A playoffs, 19 in 2008.  Suddenly it seemed possible that I might reach the goal in six seasons -- except for the fact that I was toughening our schedule every year as fewer of the AA-A teams we had traditionally played wanted any part of us and I sought more skilled competition to improve and test our team.

After we won 20 games last season, which put my career total at 85, I thought my chances of getting to 100 this season were pretty good. Still, we were scheduled to play all four of last season's AAA semi-finalists in West Virginia, plus last year's Ohio small school champ, plus 10 other West Virginia AAA schools.

Once we went 14-0-1 through our first 15 games, I knew that 100 would be reached, I just wasn't sure when. Our first chance came last Monday night against Parkersburg High School, one of the biggest schools in the state as far as student population goes, and also a successful girls' soccer program, which won the state AAA championship in 2006 and was runner-up in 2007. On paper, we looked to be the better team, but as the cliche goes, they don't play the game on paper.

Fortunately, we scored two goals in the first ten minutes and cruised to a 5-0 win. I enjoyed the achievement, and enjoyed even more my players' genuine excitement in their helping me reach that milestone. For good measure, a Parkersburg television station was there to capture our first two goals, both on lovely passes (one with feet, one with a head) that set them up.

When I got home late that evening, I turned on Monday Night Football only to be told that I was sharing my accomplishment with Tom Brady, who won his 100th game as a starting quarterback that same night against the Dolphins. While admittedly there were a few more cameras around to record Brady's feat than there were mine, given my devotion to Michigan football (which was sorely tested last Saturday I might add) I thought maybe there was a little kismet at work that evening.

Just as Brady owes much of his achievement to the dozens if not hundreds of teammates he's had over his career that helped him reach his goal, so too I was and am mindful of the players, parents, assistant coaches, school administration, and coaching mentors who helped me reach mine. While athletes often say (whether just lip service or not) that they owe their accomplishments to their teammates, there is no doubt that a coach only wins when he is fortunate enough to have players at his or her disposal who are willing to "buy in" to whatever it is you're trying to sell.

And on that count, I have been greatly blessed. It is a milestone that I share with and owe to every one of the young women I have been fortunate enough to coach, something which I will never forget.

Five Drool Covered NFL Players

Ah, welcome back NFL. Welcome back to all the training camp inanity signifying that the folks at the NFL Network can show something other than Super Bowl XXXIX (that's 39 for normal people) over and over and over again and get back to that hard, investigative journalism we've come to expect from them. I enjoy the silliness of the requisite camp phenoms, camp busts, overweight veterans, and maybe notable holdouts.

As much fun as all that it, the nationally televised pre-season games take it to a whole new level. You betcha. It's not the action on the field that's so great, but the action in the booth, the party of overwrought hyperbole, this festival of drool, lavished by announcers on a select few annointed players. It'll only get worse from here, so watching the pre-season helps me to inure myself to the gushing that will ramp itself up into the stratosphere during the regular season, as rapt announcers, man-crushes audibly tumescent, say things like, "This guy right here, this guy is a football player."

[Um, yes, yes he is a football player. You can tell because he's in a uniform on a football field during an officially sanctioned NFL game.]

The following are the most fawned over players in the NFL:


1. Ray Lewis. Never in the history of the NFL has there been a more inspirational player than Ray Lewis. Yea verily, for decades, NFL players apathetically muddled through games, looking like helmet and cleat clad zombies sleep-walking toward the endzone. Enter one Ray Anthony Lewis. More graceful than Michael Jackson, more inspirational than George Washington, braver than Sully Sullenberger, more eloquent than Martin Luther King, Jr., he saved the league from indifference and lassitude. The NFL, formerly a league with as much personality as instant mashed potatoes, has been transformed by Lewis' extraordinary love of the game. Thank you. Thank you, Ray Lewis.


2. Tom Brady. You want to see a quarterback who competes, take a look at this guy. Nobody has a hotter fire burning inside than Tom Terrific. Nobody has ever lead so many come from behind to tie drives in the history of the universe. He's like having a coach on the field. No, he's better than that, because he's like a coach, only he's dreamy. And he sleeps with super models. Why? Because he himself is a model -- a model of NFL Quarterback perfection.


3. Peyton Manning. Work ethic, thy name is Peyton Manning. Manning can breakdown NFL game film like Stephen Hawking parsing gravitational singularity theorems. He has thrown approximately 4,785,243,298,161,547 out-pattern passes. And that's just in practices, not in live action. He has an encyclopedic memory of every offensive schemes ever deployed from 1919 to three years in the present. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the moment he was conceived. And rightly so.


4. Brett Favre. Why, he's just a big kid. Just a big, overgrown, graybearded, can't-get-out-of-bed-without-a-walker-but-you-can't-keep-him-out-of-the-game, kid. Despite all the hits along the way, he plays with a simple joy. He's like that labrador retriever who keeps running into the lake after a stick (a stick!), no matter how many times you toss it in there. He lets it all hang out, does Brett Favre. He plays the game the right way. The only guy who wants Favre to come back more than Brad Childress does is Phil Simms.


5. Brian Urlacher. See, the thing about Urlacher is that he is a whole defense unto himself. Without him on the field, the Bears D is tough as tapioca pudding. With him on the field, why, they are eerily reminiscent of the spartans in "300." He can do so much. He causes fumbles and returns fumbles, creates havoc in the backfield and goes out in coverage. Why, he'd even punt if Lovie Smith would let him. Nobody wants to win more than this guy. Nobody.


Honorable Mention: Hines Ward. Tony Romo.