It's that time of year when I get jittery and nervous and pensive. Not because my team is anywhere near Dallas or because I genuinely care about the individuals taking the field, but because I understand the gravity of today's situation for pretty much everyone involved. Today defines a certain sort of history that dreamers and followers never forget. So I contemplate the possibilities...
There are two things that I can't seem to shake about one particular person in the limelight of Super Bowl XLV. Ben Roethlisberger has done some pretty dumb things over the last 3 or 4 years-- none of which are generally prevalent among Hall-of-Famers, or Super Bowl champions for that matter. Yes, Brady got a chick pregnant and dumped her. (And perhaps he paid the ultimate price for a man in his career: the devastation of being Goliath when the unlikely David somehow toppled him in Super Bowl XLII). But Big Ben has been a criminal sort of sexual aggressor at least twice that we know about, all of this after being reckless and stupid enough to drive his bike like an idiot without a helmet. On top of this, rumors abound that at the core he's simply an A-hole of great proportions. To anyone with a spiritual bone in their body, we all can objectively agree that he's tempted fate-- over and over and over again.
In the meantime, he has won two Super Bowls without pocketing an MVP, a dubious feat that no quarterback will ever be able to repeat. Life isn't fair. But I suspect that today the karma police will show up, possibly sometime during the fourth quarter, and take back their fugitive. Simply put, Roethlisberger has made too many mistakes on and off the field to not have suffered a single crushing defeat. Today, that changes.
Kurt Warner finished a miracle season with a storybook ending back in February of 2000, but he went on to be humbled not once, but twice. And it wasn't for lack of performance either. The guy has thrown 5 fourth-quarter touchdowns in the Super Bowl, and he's only been crowned champion once. Peyton Manning finally finished off an awesome playoff run in 2007 to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy, but three years later got knocked off by the underdogged Saints. And then there's Brady. Seemingly invincible. One miracle title back in 2002 (while only throwing 2 touchdown passes the entire playoffs), then two dominant runs yielding Super Bowl rings a couple years later, and finally a chance to scale the Mount Olympus of all of sport with his shot at perfection against the fateful New York Giants. And we all know what happened there. The three Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks to grace this league since John Elway have all been humbled-- and humbled on the biggest stage in dramatic fashion. Does Big Ben deserve to be mentioned with this Hall-of-Fame group? Probably not, but if he wins Super Bowl XLV and secures the MVP, it would be hard to deny him. That can't happen. The football Gods won't allow it.
That's why I'm giving this one to the Pack (besides the fact that I think both their offense and defense are much more well-rounded). Karma and history can't let this Ben Roethlisberger injustice continue. It is time to pay the piper. Green Bay/Karma 20, Pittsburgh 16.
