Tim Benz: Steelers' postseason funk recreating an all-too-familiar Super Bowl rooting interest
If you’re a Steelers fan trying to figure out who to root for in Sunday’s Super Bowl, I can’t blame you if you are having a tough time reaching a conclusion.
On the one hand, you’ve got the dominating, three-peat-hungry Kansas City Chiefs with their perceived NFL “favorite child” status.
On the other, you’ve got the Eagles hailing from that other city in Pennsylvania at the wrong end of the Pa. Turnpike.
Not to mention, both clubs crushed the Steelers earlier this season and have combined to beat the Black and Gold six times in a row.
From a strictly historical and yinztastically provincial point of view, though, the choice is clear: bust out as much Philly green and white as you can find in your closet.
If the Chiefs win, that’ll be their fifth Super Bowl championship, pulling them within one win of tying the Steelers and New England Patriots for most victories all time. That’s a status the Steelers held by themselves from 1979 until 1989, when the San Francisco 49ers tied them at four each.
By the end of the 1995 season, the Niners and Dallas Cowboys had both surpassed the Steelers, boasting five Vince Lombardis apiece. That was, in part, by virtue of Dallas’ painful victory over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX when both teams took the field knowing the winner would dethrone and tie the defending champions from San Francisco, who had just gotten their fifth trophy in 1994.
Take it away, Dick Enberg.
Lombardi No. 5 for the @dallascowboys (1/28/1996):
✨ Classic @SuperBowl match-up against the Steelers
???? Former 12th-round pick CB Larry Brown (2 INTs) becomes first CB to win MVP
2⃣2⃣ @EmmittSmith22 turned picks into points with two TD runs pic.twitter.com/WblPJMWTl8— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) August 6, 2019
By the time Super Bowl XXXII was being played, everyone in Pittsburgh was a Denver Broncos fan, so the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t end up reaching four wins as well. Thankfully that happened, so it was just the Steelers on the heels of Dallas and San Francisco.
Well, until some guy named Tom Brady came along and soaked up three titles in a four-year stretch in New England between 2001 and 2004. At that point, it felt like the Steelers would be chasing the Pats shortly as well.
At least the natural order of the Super Bowl universe was corrected by Super Bowl XLIII when the Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals for their sixth crown (after winning No. 5 in Detroit to end the 2005 season) and stood alone.
On this day in 2009, Santonio Holmes made an all-time catch to win Super Bowl XLIII. (via @NFLThrowback)@ToneTime10 | @steelers pic.twitter.com/uP86Qbrt7M
— NFL (@NFL) February 1, 2022
Unfortunately, Brady and head coach Bill Belichick had a second act of dominance and won three more times in five tries between 2011 and 2018.
If the Chiefs win Sunday, that’d be four in the Mahomes era and five overall for the franchise.
Brady didn’t get his fourth ring until he was 37 years old. Mahomes is only 29. Granted, his coach, Andy Reid, is 66. Belichick was “only” 62 when he got ring No. 4 in 2014-15. But he stayed on the sideline until he was 71.
Since the Chiefs won their first crown in 1960-70, Reid and Mahomes would only need one more ring over the next five years to reach No. 6 if those two can stay together as a tandem before Reid reaches that age.
So, here we are with the Steelers’ now-familiar absence from the title game, recreating the same Super Bowl Sunday vibes that existed around Western Pa. for most of the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s. You’ve just got to root for the least historically accomplished team every year so we can wear those “Got 6?” T-shirts through every other American airport in an unapologetic, humble-brag manner.
Well, except Boston’s.
But if you are flying in or out of K.C. anytime soon, I’d suggest wearing that shirt proudly while you can. Because it feels like Mahomes will get this club to six rings eventually … and long before the Steelers ever finish climbing that “Stairway to Seven.”
It would be nice if the Steelers could add to their trophy case so their fans could simply go back to rooting for a Super Bowl participant they prefer. Or, perhaps better said, they could go back to rooting against a franchise or city they clearly hate instead of perpetually having to side against whatever club is most threatening to their own delicate sense of historical relevance.
Then again, if the Steelers are going to go much beyond their current 14-year Super Bowl appearance drought, that lack of relevance will take care of itself on its own.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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