Super Bowl 45

It's over. It's all done. At least for one more season. Pittsburgh Steelers 25 @ Green Bay Packers 31: Normally I'd do a game recap, but frankly if you're reading this then there is a 95% chance you watched the game and thus a recap would be redundant. So I'll just share my thoughts for the game: -- Why did Ben Roethlisberger throw 40 passes when it was obvious to almost everyone watching (except Bruce Arians for example) that the Packers defense was struggling to stop the Steelers rushing attack? Rashard Mendenhall had 14 carries for 63 yards. Issac Redman carried twice for 19 yards. Mewelde Moore (who will hopefully find a team that values him in free agency. Good player) picked up 13 yards on 3 carries. The Packers were getting creamed on the ground. -- Credit to MVP Aaron Rodgers. I thought WR Jordi Nelson might give him a run for his money on that score, but 24/39 for 304 yards and 3 TD's is nothing to be sniffed at. Having cruised in the first half, he struggled in the third but recovered very well for the endgame. -- Antwaan Randle El made a case for his elderly ass receiving more targets next year. -- The Packers controlled field position well, helped by the Steelers bizarre 52 yard field goal attempt. -- Troy who? I'm a real advocate of getting your best players involved in the game somehow. And while I understand that sometimes the Steelers lean on Polamalu too much (and even made mention of that the other day) I'm absolutely astounded with just how little a part Polamalu played in the gameplan. Bad decision. -- Ben Roethlisberger came out after the game (no, not like that) and said that he feels he should shoulder a lot of the blame for Pittsburgh. If he was hoping that everyone would come to his defense and rub his ego (the jokes are just too easy, so I wont), then I think he's in for a long wait. -- When was the last time that a team with a minus 3 turnover ratio actually won a game? Any game? Honestly I don't know. It can't have happened that often. -- I'm pleased for rookie LB Frank Zombo, who had a pretty solid impact for that Packers defense. -- And credit to the Packers D in general, who played well despite the loss of Charles Woodson and Sam Shields. I honestly thought the second half might have swung massively in the Steelers favour. It didn't it because the Pack held it together. -- In fact, just all out respect to the Green Bay Packers. A ton of people had them tipped for Super Bowl glory at the beginning of the year and they were right. This team drafted well, came together well as a team, fought a season long battle with injuries and is truly a very worthy champion. Now enough of blowing smoke up the Packers butts (I'm sure the players, with their salaries, can find plenty of places that offer that service). Time for a bit of general news: -- For those who hadn't already seen the list, the Pro Football Hall of Fame has chosen it's seven inductees for 2011; Richard Dent. Defensive End for the Bears, including the famous team of '85 which resulted in his MVP award in Super Bowl 20. Marshall Faulk. Running Back for the Rams "greatest show on turf". Enough said. Chris Hanburger. Linebacker for the Redskins from 1965 to 1978. Elected to 9 Pro Bowls and a 4 time All-Pro selection. Les Richter. Linebacker, Guard and Kicker for the Rams from 1954 to 1962. 8 Pro Bowls and 2 time All-Pro. Ed Sabol. Founder of the company that eventually became NFL Films. Seen as a controversial choice by some, but the work of NFL Films has probably done more to promote the NFL into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today than any other form of advertising or promotion. It also makes kick ass montages. Deion Sanders. 8 Pro Bowls, 6 All-Pro selections and 2 Super Bowl rings. Plus a bunch of off field issues and the "kiss of drama" anytime he decides to mentor a young player. Also pretty famous for publicly criticising players toughness etc, despite being notorious for shirking away from tackles. Shannon Sharpe. 8 Pro Bowls. 4 time Associated Press All-Pro. 3 Super Bowl rings. Finally in. Thumbs up. Those who missed out were; Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Dermontti Dawson, Chris Doleman, Charles Haley, Cortez Kennedy, Curtis Martin, Andre Reed and Willie Roaf. Of those I'm disappointed in particular that Bettis didn't get in ahead of Faulk and that somehow Deion Sanders is considered better than Charles Haley. Ronnie Lott was particularly pissed off about Haley not making it, again, voicing his complaints to the press that a five time Super Bowl winner like Haley can't get in possibly because of off field comments/actions he has made in the past. Didn't hurt Sanders. -- The Labor situation still isn't under control. And given that I mercilessly bash the NFLPA every time it spouts some bullshit line such as the possibility of a lock out still being very high, despite the fact that they themselves can prevent such an action in a heartbeat, I feel it's only fair that I bash the owners or indeed their mouth piece Roger Goodell anytime he/they too spouts a line of pure bollocks. So it is that I draw your attention to this article on ProFootballTalk.com. Written prior to the Super Bowl and basically just reporting that Roger Goodell has once again re-iterated that he would like to see an 18-game regular season and that it's what the fans want. But PFT.com cited a study by the Associated Press that contradicts that view. What is even more telling is the first comment that simply says "No".... and has been given the thumbs up (last time I checked) by 1229 people compared to just 117 thumbs down. This is a story repeated everywhere an article about this subject props up. The majority of fans seem to hate this idea (me included). Now if the league wants to push it, they are more than welcome to say that but they have to stop trying to bullshit that the fans are in full support of the idea. So what now? Well, with no football till August (hear, have a tissue) the next big date on the calender is early March, when we'll either be waiting to see how Free Agency pans out or we'll be looking at the start of a protracted and ugly labor dispute. Then we have the draft (regardless of the CBA) in April. Until then I'll be churning out articles looking at how each team fared in 2010 and how they might go about handling free agency and the draft. I'll also hopefully be around for the 2011 combine starting February 23 - March 1st, but that's subject to me being able to loaf off at the appropriate times. Fingers crossed.