I feel a little sentimental about the end of the 2011 regular season, mostly because I can't imagine football--no, Steelers Football--without Hines Ward. Over the last 14 years I've gradually become a woman and come of age as a sports thinker parallel to his incremental accrual of hall of fame accolades. So in a sense I feel I've grown up with him. And that's right, I just likened womanhood to hall-of-famedom.
2011 challenged me to watch him on the sidelines and in the press conferences with less swagger, less bling, and greater humility. Maybe that's what becoming a man is all about.
I cried when he got that 1000th catch cause I realized I had seen almost all of them, and it all sort of flashed before me, my life and his, spanning the 1st and 1000th catch. Its overwhelming if you really think about it. I realized that this sort of affiliation/identification of regular people with public figures is no longer a behavior that I observe with incredulity of my elders but something that has been slowly becoming part of me.
As soon as it was announced that the Steelers' Wild Card game this Sunday would be at Denver, all I could think about was how Ryan Clark would be ineligible for play, and how bummed that made me feel. GD sickle-cell! Imagine how strange it must feel for him to have to sit out because he might bleed! #25 has been at the top of his game and really coming into his own as the exact sort of safety to compliment the cosmic safety style of Troy P.. Hopefully we make it to Baltimore so Clark can shine!
What adds insult is that we have to haul it to Denver and play without Clark because they won the AFC West with a paltry 8-8 record.
Does anyone else out there object to the term 'Wild Card'? It implies that you only got with the luck of the draw and that you're the joker or jester to the court of the other teams that 'deserve' to be in the playoffs. Well sometimes the joker makes it all the way to the top!!!
GO STEELERS!!!! and please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you
Wow, had to get my durn dictionary out to truly understand this,(not really), well ok I should have got it out, excellent perspective most likely depending on all the actual definitions.
ReplyDeleteMs Pittsburgh can write as good as she does art or clothing / logo design
As far as wild card, we knew the deal, we did not earn the home game, only 1 thing to do, D-BOW and then Pick off some Raven meat out of our teeth next week....... Guess who