THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601280084
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
This is for Sally in Virginia Beach, who writes: ``Could you please reach way down inside your heart and root for the Steelers? One for the thumb. Let's finish off the hand, Bob, and be done with it.''
And for my friend Patty in Pittsburgh, who says, ``For the sake of our country's self-image, the Steelers have to be the ones who go to Disney World.''
And for the people who are betting on the Steelers to beat the spread or, incredibly, to defeat the Cowboys outright.
The numbing hype isn't all that fertilizes interest in the Super Bowl.
After more than a decade of domination by the NFC, if this game still has any credibility at all it is because of the hope so many people pour into it.
Without the optimistic expectations of the heavy underdogs, this last Super Bowl Week would have been nothing more than a corporate convention for rich sponsors and wealthy athletes and a forum for the megalomaniacal ramblings of Jerry Jones. Come to think of it, that's pretty much what it was.
``I am particularly gratified,'' the Cowboys' owner humbly said following the NFC title game, ``because this is a victory for my day-to-day involvement in the franchise. If the other owners spent as much time with their teams as I do with mine, they could be as successful.''
Not that he's smug or anything, but it was Jones who loudly complained that Arizona's 1 a.m. curfew on public drinking would interfere with the Cowboys' victory party.
The smirking, swaggering, self-satisfied Cowboys reflect current American culture more than their critics want to admit. Cross-over, celebrity, megastar athletes - like those who appear in their own video games - aspire to be seen through the prism of MTV, not ESPN.
Whatever you think about them or their owner, though, the Cowboys deserve to be nearly two touchdown favorites.
That the reality of this doesn't faze long-time Steelers fans and newcomers to the Pittsburgh cause is a testament to the power of hope.
Like Thornton Wilder, these fans understand that, ``Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.''
Is it ridiculous to wonder why the Pittsburgh defense can't coax Troy Aikman into throwing a couple of damaging interceptions?
Then the Steeler hopefuls are ridiculous.
What if the Steelers catch a break or two - a funny bounce of the ball, a strange call, a surprising play - so that going into the fourth quarter, it's still a game?
The Cowboys' Barry Switzer is to coaching what airline food is to cuisine. What if Pittsburgh forces Switzer to make some dicey decisions?
Grasping at straws is what this is. Before there was a Super Bowl, Damon Runyon said it best: ``The race is not always to the swift. The battle is not always to the strong. But that's the way to bet.''
Since the Raiders romped over the Redskins in 1984, NFC teams have outscored AFC teams in the Super Bowl by an average of 38.9 to 16.5.
But while we're grasping, note that in a Super Bowl two years ago against the Buffalo Bills, the mighty Cowboys trailed at the half. Then, in a bizarre third quarter, the Bills quickly unraveled and gave away the ball and the game.
Does a no-nonsense Bill Cowher team seem like the kind of outfit that believes in charity?
I'm not attempting any off-hand prediction here. But as another Super Bowl closes in, I want to say something to Sally, Patty and the other Steeler hopefuls: Thumb up. by CNB