When the Red Wings were gunning for the Stanley Cup in 1995, just before they geared up to face the New Jersey Devils in the Finals, I thought, "Oh, this is perfect -- you couldn't have written a better script."
The Red Wings, at the time, had hit year number 40 of their Stanley Cup drought. A nice, round figure. Defenseman Mark Howe was 40 years old. A nice, round number, and he was the son of Mr. Hockey to boot. And he had never won a Cup. Game One was on Father's Day -- a fitting time to start a Finals series for the Howes. Everything seemed in place.
The Devils swept the Red Wings -- broomed them in four straight. The drought would last two more years. And Mark Howe never would win a Stanley Cup -- as a player.
The same kind of script is being played out right now in the NFL playoffs.
Jerome Bettis has never won a Super Bowl. He is from Detroit. He is considering, very heavily, retiring after this season. The Super Bowl is being played in Detroit.
Get where I'm going here?
I want to think -- Lord, do I want to think -- that this script is being played out for a reason. I want to think that it is all designed so The Bus can make its final stop at Ford Field, festooned with confetti and covered in champagne. I want to think it is because we will see Jerome Bettis holding aloft the Vince Lombardi Trophy, surrounded by teammates, friends and more importantly, family.
So it is, damning the torpoedoes of what happened to the Red Wings in the '95 Cup Finals, that I semi-boldly predict a Steelers win Sunday in Denver, in the AFC Championship Game.
Nothing else, frankly, spurs my prediction. Nothing that is truly football savvy is whispering into my ear. I've not broken down the film, delved into matchups, checked out tendencies, or rounded up a panel of ex-jocks to tell me what they think -- as if they know any better than I do anyway.
No, all I'm going on is this gut feeling, this inner hope, that Jerome Bettis will be playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Detroit for his first pro football championship.
But if you absolutely have to talk football here, I will tell you that the Steelers are a damn good team with a damn good defense who have already won two road playoff games. I will tell you that Ben Roethlisberger makes me feel safer at quarterback than Jake Plummer. I will tell you that the Steelers' receivers and kick returners excite me more than what the Broncos are offering up. I will tell you that they are coached by Bill Cowher, another one who I think the football gods just might be smiling upon. Cowher is in his 14th season replacing the legendary Chuck Noll, and he, too, is looking for his first mother of all Gatorade showers.
I'm not a predictions type. I don't use this blog to tell you what teams I think will win each week, because frankly, you could use any random method of selecting that you wish and it would probably be pretty close to my rate of success anyway. The supposedly esteemed Paul Zimmerman -- Doctor Z. -- of Sports Illustrated incorrectly picked three of the four divisional games last weekend. And he is SI's hotshot prognosticator. I'm thinking I could have gone 25%, too.
So there you have it. The Steelers will upset the Broncos and land in Detroit for Super Bowl XL.
Just don't ask me for a score. You're lucky you got the prediction itself out of me.
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