I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers' fan. I wasn't born in the 'burgh, but I grew up in Allegheny County along the Allegheny River, some 20 miles from Three Rivers Stadium. My Father-In-Law was an eyewitness to the Immaculate Reception. Ernie Holmes once knocked the wind out of me with a well placed backhand, back in the day. For whatever it's worth, I was thinking about my allegiance to the team, and these couple of things immediately came to mind. Yeah, I guess in today' Twitter vernacular, you could say I'm *'Burgh Verified*.
In any event, I'm having a bit of a problem deciding who I'm rooting for on Super Bowl Sunday. Years ago there was never really much debate, it was pretty simple. You rooted for the AFC representative, at least I did. Not sure if this is because the following week I'd be rooting for the AFC All Pros in the Pro Bowl, but I'm sure that had something to do with it.
No, for the last several years, maybe the last decade (or so), my Super Bowl rooting rationale has been different. Instead of an allegiance to the American Football Conference, I find myself rooting against teams like the New England Patriots. In my mind, the Pat's in particular have infringed on the Steelers singular claim on an entire decade, i.e., "The Team of the Seventies", have been nearly perfect, and annoyingly smug.
So, with the loyalty to the AFC out of the window, who will it be? Ravens or 49ers? This Sunday the San Francisco 49ers are positioned to share a place in history with the Steelers as the only other franchise to win a sixth Lombardi trophy. Naturally, with that kind of history looming on the horizon, you would naturally think that I would get onboard with the Baltimore Ravens. But really, the Ravens? Never. Would ANY self respecting Steelers fan EVER root for the Ratbirds? They are not threatening the coveted holy grail record of most Super Bowl wins by a franchise, but a win by them would be unbearably nauseating.
I think I'm going to root for San Francisco because I'd rather see the rookie Kaepernick hoist the Lombardi, than to see Ray-Ray Lewis praising the football Gods for a fairy book ending to his career.
