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| STEELERS | PIRATES | FORUM | PENGUINS | POLLS |
| Denver Dilemma By The Wise Guy The problem with this week’s game is that it’s really hard to dislike the Denver Broncos. Last week, it was so simple to despise the Indianapolis Colts. First of all, they’d beaten us, no, make that embarrassed us on national television during the regular season on Monday Night Football, no less. Odds-makers from Vegas to North Versailles (my cousin Buster) had made us a huge underdog, and it seemed as if the whole country had hitched their wagons to the Colts for an easy gallop to the Superbowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers were supposed to be nothing but the warm-up act for the Peyton Manning Show. Even their players pretended they weren’t looking past Pittsburgh. Yeah, right. If you were one of them, wouldn’t you have been? Too bad the Broncos beat last year’s champs, the New England Patriots. It would have been so easy to hate the Patriots, what with whiny Tom Brady, Bill “No Comment” Belichick, and the fact that they’ve owned us in the playoffs year after year. No, those sassy Broncos just had to win. (Or the Patriots just had to bumble it away, take your pick.) What is there to hate about the Broncos? In a lot of ways, they’re just like us. They run more than they pass. We run more than we pass. They are very good at stopping the run. We are very good at stopping the run. Their quarterback has a beard. Our quarterback has a beard. Champ Bailey was a star at the University of Georgia. Hines Ward was, too. Their most famous beers (Coors and Coors Light) can take rust off a fender. Our most famous beers (Iron City and I.C. Light) not only can take rust off a fender, they can be used as primer. You have to look long and hard for something to dislike about their city, too. For example, Denver has over 300 days of sunshine a year. It’s the most educated city in America, with more high school and college graduates than any other area. It has the nation’s largest city park system. It’s also the thinnest city in America, with the nation’s smallest percentage of overweight adults. Maybe that’s because the food sucks. Then again, maybe not. Watching this game will be more difficult than last week’s. Since no one gave us a chance to win, our expectations were lower. We were loose. We had nothing to lose, really. A good game, a valiant effort, that was a reasonable expectation, but can you honestly say you thought we would upset them? This week it’s different. The so-called experts from Sports Illustrated to ESPN to our own Pittsburgh Post Gazette have hopped off the Indy bandwagon and piled on the Steel Rail. We’re on the cover of Sports Illustrated. That makes me even more nervous. On the other hand, we are the underdogs, albeit by a small margin. There’s some consolation in that. Get the points. Take the Steelers. |