Wednesday, February 08, 2006

#86 — Hines Ward



Today's blog, is a simple one:

What are you gonna do next?"

I've watched this clip roughly 35 times in the past two days. I think we can all agree that this is the best Disney ad of all time.

Hines Ward, my second-favourite Steeler behind Jerome Bettis — soon, of course to become No.1. How can you not like the guy? Looking forward to having six more seasons with No.86.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK. That's about enough. I never thought that you would become the blubbery, over-the-top, goading-us-on-after-your-team-won fan that we used to deride just a few years back, but sadly, that's what I've had to endure with the Steeler's victory. Not even I went off the deep end when my beloved Yankees won their first title after a 15 year hiatus in '96. Asserting that this is the "best Disney ad of all time"??? PLEASE! It's the same over-sentimental Disney schlock that's put out every year and this ad is no less ridiculous and painful to watch. The best Disney ad was the one aired pre-game of players practising their "I'm going to Disneyland" lines. Joey Porter and Ben Roethlesberger stole that one.

And let's be clear: the Steelers won a horrible game on some very opportune calls. For all those people out there who all of a sudden have turned themselves into by the book, letter-of-the-law types and say "a push off is a push off" or "there's holding on every play", a little perspective is in order. During the regular season these same hypocrites would castigate officials about ruining the flow of a game for not using discretion in their call making. And yet, in order to sound like the defenders of football integrity, they conveniently call for rigid interpretations of what constitutes penalties to counter what a not-insignificant number of watchers, professionals and non- alike, have questioned as the veracity with which the officials made their calls. Surely, in the biggest game of the year, you can't have the officials start to crack down and call games down to the last comma of the rule book? It's a disservice to both teams and the league.

Would Seattle have won the game anyway? Tough to say. Would Pittsburgh have gone for it on 4th and goal seeing that they failed on the three previous chances (and no, Ben didn't make it in)? Would Seattle have scored from the one if there was no holding call (and no, there was no holding)? Then again, who cares? Pittsburgh won despite playing their worst game in a month. If they had played with the cohesion and focus of the Indianapolis game, the score would have been in the neighbourhood of 41-10 ... by halftime! Clearly, they are the better squad. Too bad they didn't necessarily play like champions so that there wouldn't be the need for any debate.

WheatCitysFinest said...

First off, Garasa, please remember who you're dealing with here and understand my proclamation of said ad as being "the greatest ever" was nothing more than fanatical hyperbole and meant as such. It was meant to be comical, but I should know better than to thing a government worker wouldn't catch on to a sense of humour. :)

Ben DID make it in and there WAS holding on that play, let's get that straight first.

Secondly, you're apparently attempting to speak for me when you suggest perhaps I was one of the "people out there who all of a sudden have turned themselves into by the book, letter-of-the-law types." Not so. But I do believe if you're going to complain about officiating then we should give all those who do complain a refresher on what rules are. I simply picked those two instances because they were the most contentious, specifically with Seattle fans who weren't able to come to grips with their team's shoddy effort.

In those two instances, I was pointing out the fact that I believed both of those to be penalties and to argue in the vain of "it cost Seattle the game" was amateurish and wholly incorrect. As for being "by-the-book", then I guess yes I am. When I see a penalty I wish it to be called. Is this to say you're one of the hockey fans who believe the ref's whistle should be put away in the third period of playoff games? People say refs shouldn't decide games, but by missing calls or not making shoulda-been calls, they are deciding the game. In those instances the right calls were made.

I didn't think Pittsburgh played well at all, but the feeling of winning it all washed over any insecurities I felt over my team's play.

To answer one of your "what ifs," coach Cowher —the greatest head football coach in the modern era of football who is simply waiting for a trophy to be named after him — said they were going for it no matter what if Ben hadn't gotten the TD. Which he did, of course.

Go Steelers.

See you for the Grey Cup, Julio and you'd better pray the Bombers aren't in it, because, well, that could get ugly.