Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler <!---##CCI#[Text Tag=bylinecredit Group=All]---><!---##CCI#[/Text]--->
<!---##CCI#[Text Tag=body Group=All]--->Even if you're downriver, down here, looking perpetually up at them, you gotta hand it to the Steelers. They beat your brains out, year after year, they slather your home stadium with that annoying mustard color, and you still can't hate 'em.
How do you dislike a team with Big Ben Roethlisberger, Jumbo Jerome Bettis, and that Southern gentleman (actually, he's from Ohio, but he sure seems Southern), the esteemed coordinator and Civil War aficionado, General Dick LeBeauregard?
The Steelers are more resourceful than rich, more good than lucky, more blue-collar than starched, more old-school than private, more Mean Joe than Broadway, and more perpetually real than most football franchises. They are Middle America's team, steel-belted and rolling.
Therefore, as your partisan guide to Sunday evening, we hereby offer 10 good reasons to root for them to beat the socks off of New England for the AFC championship.
1. Ben. We might not champion his cause quite so readily had he been drafted as high out of Miami as he should have been, as he would have been if the authorities had properly appreciated the little conference that recently produced Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich, not to mention (and maybe, by the light of the moon, we shouldn't) Randy Moss. Roethlisberger isn't just from Findlay, he is Findlay; and the northwest Ohio town, in turn, has dutifully cast aside its Browns bias, making every local merchant a Steeler dealer. (Ben's jersey, in fact, has been the NFL's biggest seller this season, nationwide.) Because he was once our secret -- and because, because of him, the Steelers are actually 3-point underdogs at home -- we wish for the Rookie of the Year to forget last week's misadventures and take a 16-0 starting record into the Super Bowl.
2. LeBeau. Smart and probably too kind to succeed as the Bengals' head coach, Marvin Lewis's predecessor deserved better than the 12-33 record he left behind here. At age 67, in his 46th season of employment in the NFL, in the first year of his second tour as Bill Cowher's other-team-stopper, LeBeau has presided over the best defense in the league. Our compliments, sir.
3. Corey Dillon. The bitter ex-Bengal has said and done all the right things in New England, and he has run the ball better than ever, and bully for him. But it just wouldn't be right for a man to grouse and grumble his way out of town -- and make no mistake, Dillon did that -- and be rewarded for it with a Super Bowl. Besides that, you don't mess with Willie Anderson.
4. The Bus. Bettis is sort of the Steelers' Jon Kitna, only a lot harder to tackle. A thorough professional, he handled it beautifully when his job was turned over to Duce Staley, and responded (13 touchdowns) even better when he got it back. We know less about other Steelers, but love their games and their names: Polamalu, Randle El, Plaxico Burress, Kimo von Oelhoffen . . .
5. Cowher's lower face. What a waste of bone structure it would be if that jaw never led a team to a Super Bowl victory.
6. The AFC North. This game marks the final showdown between the league's two best divisions in 2004; winner take all. After so many years on the fringe of the NFL, it would be rather nice, right here in Klingler Country, to think that we've become privy to football at its highest level.
7. The Patriots. Nothing against them. Nice team, nice colors, nice quarterback. But if they win their third Super Bowl in four years, people will start talking crazy. Some of them will be calling New England the best team ever. Hey, what about the Packers? What about the Cowboys? What about the Steelers? Where's the love for everything old and toothless?
8. The Red Sox. I think we'd all agree that New England has had its delirium for the year. For the millennium. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has the Pirates.
9. Justice. The Steelers already beat the Patriots once this season. They've been the best team in the league. Consider, also, that this is their fifth AFC championship game in 11 years, during which time they've gone on to just one (unsuccessful) Super Bowl. Since 1980, believe it or not, the Bengals have been in more. 10. Carson Palmer. The Patriots hurt him. Not on purpose, of course, even though he was carving them up. But still.
<!---##CCI#[Text Tag=body Group=All]--->Even if you're downriver, down here, looking perpetually up at them, you gotta hand it to the Steelers. They beat your brains out, year after year, they slather your home stadium with that annoying mustard color, and you still can't hate 'em.
How do you dislike a team with Big Ben Roethlisberger, Jumbo Jerome Bettis, and that Southern gentleman (actually, he's from Ohio, but he sure seems Southern), the esteemed coordinator and Civil War aficionado, General Dick LeBeauregard?
The Steelers are more resourceful than rich, more good than lucky, more blue-collar than starched, more old-school than private, more Mean Joe than Broadway, and more perpetually real than most football franchises. They are Middle America's team, steel-belted and rolling.
Therefore, as your partisan guide to Sunday evening, we hereby offer 10 good reasons to root for them to beat the socks off of New England for the AFC championship.
1. Ben. We might not champion his cause quite so readily had he been drafted as high out of Miami as he should have been, as he would have been if the authorities had properly appreciated the little conference that recently produced Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich, not to mention (and maybe, by the light of the moon, we shouldn't) Randy Moss. Roethlisberger isn't just from Findlay, he is Findlay; and the northwest Ohio town, in turn, has dutifully cast aside its Browns bias, making every local merchant a Steeler dealer. (Ben's jersey, in fact, has been the NFL's biggest seller this season, nationwide.) Because he was once our secret -- and because, because of him, the Steelers are actually 3-point underdogs at home -- we wish for the Rookie of the Year to forget last week's misadventures and take a 16-0 starting record into the Super Bowl.
2. LeBeau. Smart and probably too kind to succeed as the Bengals' head coach, Marvin Lewis's predecessor deserved better than the 12-33 record he left behind here. At age 67, in his 46th season of employment in the NFL, in the first year of his second tour as Bill Cowher's other-team-stopper, LeBeau has presided over the best defense in the league. Our compliments, sir.
3. Corey Dillon. The bitter ex-Bengal has said and done all the right things in New England, and he has run the ball better than ever, and bully for him. But it just wouldn't be right for a man to grouse and grumble his way out of town -- and make no mistake, Dillon did that -- and be rewarded for it with a Super Bowl. Besides that, you don't mess with Willie Anderson.
4. The Bus. Bettis is sort of the Steelers' Jon Kitna, only a lot harder to tackle. A thorough professional, he handled it beautifully when his job was turned over to Duce Staley, and responded (13 touchdowns) even better when he got it back. We know less about other Steelers, but love their games and their names: Polamalu, Randle El, Plaxico Burress, Kimo von Oelhoffen . . .
5. Cowher's lower face. What a waste of bone structure it would be if that jaw never led a team to a Super Bowl victory.
6. The AFC North. This game marks the final showdown between the league's two best divisions in 2004; winner take all. After so many years on the fringe of the NFL, it would be rather nice, right here in Klingler Country, to think that we've become privy to football at its highest level.
7. The Patriots. Nothing against them. Nice team, nice colors, nice quarterback. But if they win their third Super Bowl in four years, people will start talking crazy. Some of them will be calling New England the best team ever. Hey, what about the Packers? What about the Cowboys? What about the Steelers? Where's the love for everything old and toothless?
8. The Red Sox. I think we'd all agree that New England has had its delirium for the year. For the millennium. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has the Pirates.
9. Justice. The Steelers already beat the Patriots once this season. They've been the best team in the league. Consider, also, that this is their fifth AFC championship game in 11 years, during which time they've gone on to just one (unsuccessful) Super Bowl. Since 1980, believe it or not, the Bengals have been in more. 10. Carson Palmer. The Patriots hurt him. Not on purpose, of course, even though he was carving them up. But still.
