Ah. The Big Game. The two “best” teams meeting in a showdown for all the marbles. While historically this game never lived up to the hype, the last three SBs have been pretty darn exciting. Just think about it. Last year, Tracy Porter pick six’s Peyton Manning with three minutes left to seal the Saints’ first title. In 2009, Santonio Holmes makes a miraculous catch against the Cardinals with :35 seconds left. In 2008, Eli Manning (of all people) leads an 83 yard drive (featuring one of the most amazing catches ever) with 2:40 left to beat the previously undefeated Pats. If the game this Sunday can match any of these thrillers, I think everyone, regardless of who they are rooting for, will be sitting pretty. So on to the pick. I have been thinking about the game for a few weeks (as everyone has considering the Pro Bowl is not a thing to be acknowledged or watched) and have done some serious back and forth waffling on this game. It has been difficult divorcing my feelings Ben Roethelisberger as a person and the Steelers chances of winning. Part of me thinks that if I pick the Stillers to win, I am unconsciously making some sort of implicit pardon of his past actions. I actually started writing a post Wednesday about redemption and ‘winning curing all’ and how I would not be rooting for the Steelers because I truly think Roethelisberger is a scumbag that didn’t really deserve a second chance but today I decided to scrap it because, looking at it again this morning, the tone was a little more holier-than-thou than I would have liked and was not really in character for my blog posts so far. Maybe some day I will break off something serious but today is not that day.
So I will get to the pick now. I thought about really breaking things down position-by-position but then I heard something on the radio that solidified my pick. Green Bay is the smallest city in the United States to have a Big 4 professional team. When I first heard this, I was a little shocked. My entire life up to this morning, I had always assumed that Green Bay was basically a suburb of Milwaukee. 15 to 20 miles away from downtown. Tops. I mean, was I so wrong in this thinking? They don’t give NFL franchises to tiny little cities. They are given to metropolitan areas. Little did I know that GB is 112 miles NORTH of Milwaukee and only has a population of around 100,000. That just blows my mind. A tiny city in the middle of nowhere that is always cold has some of the most rapid fans in the League. Lambeau Field holds 73,128 people. Nuts. Look at this list from Wikipedia of cities bigger than GB. Have you even heard of some of these:
Gresham, OR
Daly City, CA
Frisco, TX
Rochester, MN
Erie, PA
West Jordan, UT
Elgin, IL
Could you imagine an NFL team in any of these cities? Overall GB is the 268th largest city in the country. Right above Davenport, IA and Wichita Falls, TX. Blows my mind. Put another way, the next smallest city is #70 Buffalo which has about 270,000. I hear you saying the Jets/Giants don’t play in New York City and the Pats play in Foxboro but those stadiums in the metropolitan area and are much closer than 112 miles away. Thus, as you can probably tell, I am going with the little guys (even though they are favored). With the Steelers getting anywhere from 1.5 to 3 points, I am still taking the Pack and the points. Rodgers has too many weapons and that patchwork Steelers line is going to get exposed.
The Pick: Pack 27 – Steelers 20
MVP – Aaron Rodgers
Better Half Pick: Green Bay in the game. Glee after the game.
I asked the BH if she wanted to write a little something justifying her pick but she politely declined. It seems the young lady enjoys being mysterious in the eyes of LRW’s 2.5 readers.
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