Some Nice BS from NFL.com

In the dead part of the year, you get stupid, pointless, boring articles. This is me complaining about one of those stupid, pointless, boring articles.

Some guy named Elliot Harrison chose Ben's tackle as the 5th most memorable play of the 2000s.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap20...e-helmet-catch-rank-as-top-plays-of-the-2000s

Here are some quotes I take issue with:

"It has become common knowledge over the last few years that the hot team, not necessarily the best team, wins the Super Bowl. No ball club exemplified that Y2K axiom more than the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers."

Crap. I am so tired of this. Morons with influence placing more value on our 7-5 start than our 8-0 finish. I remember it all the way back when we first won - the "power rankings" from TV "experts" the night we won the Super Bowl had us behind Indy (and some had us lower). I never pay attention to power rankings, but I found those particularly shocking. The implication was we were not much better than the fringe #6 seed that we were when the playoffs began. Still not in Indy's league. Oh no no. The fact that we'd beaten the #3, #2, and #1 seeds in the superior AFC (all on the road and in convincing fashion) and the #1 seed in the NFC was chopped up to some kind of timing or luck. We went into that superior team's house and handled them, wire to wire, dragging the dead weight of confused refs behind us. What else did we need to do? That's us proving we were the best team.

"That's when the Manning-led Colts came roaring back, scoring 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter."

Critical omission here: the Colts score maybe half that - if any points at all - if not for one of the worst referee blunders in NFL history (taking away Troy's INT). The Steelers thumped the Colts in this game, with 21-3 being a fair score, or maybe 21-10. The Colts were allowed a second chance in that game after we iced it because the referees broke the rules in order to allow it.

"So they went to the hammer, Jerome Bettis, who proceeded to get hammered by linebacker Gary Brackett."

A nitpicky detail, perhaps, but Bettis was hardly touched by Brackett. Brackett's helmet nailed the ball, and he gets full credit from me for forcing the fumble, but he didn't hammer anybody. In fact, Bettis successfully scooted past Brackett; if he'd held onto the ball, he'd have scored a touchdown. I don't point this out to whine about our guys not getting enough credit or theirs getting too much. I just think if you're writing an article about a particular play (the "most memorable play"), then you should get the basics of it right. Is a minute of youtube research too much work?

"The ball bounced around, ultimately settling into the waiting arms of cornerback Nick Harper. This was it. The Colts were going to avoid the upset. Harper was home free, with a convoy in tow and only one man to beat -- Roethlisberger."

When the ball popped out, and Harper picked up the ball, we all felt sick. Colts fans felt the opposite, I'm sure. But neither side thought he was home free. He had over 90 yards to go, a young, athletic quarterback to get past, and a fresh stab wound in his knee. Nobody thought Harper was "home free." I thought he'd probably score, but I knew Ben was there to give us a chance. Everyone did. And "convoy in tow" is accurate, because his convoy was behind him. Not much use there, and pretty misleading here. He didn't have any blockers for Ben. If he'd slowed down for them, he'd have been tackled from behind by Simmons or Tuman or somebody.

"Harper cut to his left, forcing the tall Steelers quarterback to contort his body in an attempt to make a one-armed tackle with his right hand. ... The effort would be just enough, as Big Ben tripped up Harper at the last second."

Ben used both arms/hands to tackle Harper. Not just a little. He got both hands on the guy's leg and foot. Again, we're talking about one of the "most memorable plays" of the decade, and not only did you misremember the key element, but you didn't even bother to watch the youtube clip right there on the same screen as your article?

"Three weeks later, the Steelers won Super Bowl XL. This hot team not only won it all but proved to have the hot hand -- literally."

Glaring misuse of the word "literally," which is literally one of the worst words one can misuse, for reasons I don't want to get into. It makes me figuratively want to rip the author's throat out.



Missing from the list: any plays from SB 43. The author makes the keen observation that Holmes' game-winning catch and Harrison's game-winning/mind-exploding INT return could both be on the list, but didn't make it because they fought each other off, like two baseball players with a bunch of home runs that split the MVP votes so neither of them get it. Or two great actors in the same movie that spoil each other's chances for an Oscar. It's nice of him to point out what total bull**** that is for us, but it would have been nicer of him to actually CHANGE that since he's the one making the list. Oh, he's also sure to note the importance of backdrop when choosing plays. For example, he knocks the Holmes catch down a couple pegs because it only happened on 2nd down, and the Steelers were "only" down 3 points. Then he puts Antonio Freeman's regular season luck-fest at #3. I guess that's because, even though it didn't win the Super Bowl or affect the season of a team that didn't make the playoffs and his team wasn't behind at all, it happened on 3rd down... Anyway, as a result, Harrison's INT return (my #1 choice for the list) and Holmes' catch were both placed on the same level as Terrell Owens signing a football with a pen.

 

It's stuff like this and the article BF linked to about the Steelers being in neutral that make me avoid sports websites. A lot of times it is just guys phoning it in because their bosses say they need to fill space. Some of the guys they are giving space to even on NFL.com are getting down right horrible. I read a piece on the defense by Brooks on NFL.com a couple of weeks ago and usually he writes some passable stuff that isn't to biased or slanted against but in this case I wanted to scream hey check your stinking facts before you publish or at least type your name to something an intern wrote. He had Jason Worilds as being a bright spot as he step in to replace James Harrison. Sorry but lets be fair he lost his spot in replacing James Harrison to a rookie who was a bit out of his depth at the position and then Worilds gained the startign spot back but really didn't turn it on until he was once again in Woodley's spot playing in place of the injured Woodley which he has since parlayed into a very lucrative one year deal that has the team over a barrel.

My point here is that I try to avoid these things because it becomes like yelling at the rain. It gets your blood pressure up and allows you to vent some frustrations but doesn't stop it from raining on you.

PS. Very good analysis Snack and play by play.I give you thumbs up for not using colorful expletives to describe the author's more glaring gaffes.

 

Say what anyone wants, that Lombardi Trophy is in Pittsburgh.

 

The only possible play that could possibly be judged as superior to Holmes' catch or Harrison interception return (my #1) is the Tyree catch. The Tuck Rule should be voted as the most disgraceful call, albeit one that maybe catapaulted the Pats to becoming the team of the 00's.

The other thing that tackle play by Ben reminds me is that the Steelers gave us a lot of great memories in the 00's as well as numerous near heart attacks.

 

You'll all be glad to know that ESPN just posted a poll for greatest moments in each franchise's history. Two of the three come from SB XLIII. Not sure I agree with that, but...I have have started a different thread on the topic.

 

This is so true! Easy to look back on the end results and forget what a game like the Colts one did to my blood pressure.