It is time for me to say it. There is a new prince in the royal family of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Welcome to your place in the Steelers Kingdom, Benjamin Roethlisberger. In light of my past and acrimonious criticism of the play and persona of “Big” Ben, most of the people who have read my past assessment of Roethlisberger will more than likely think I have taken absence of my senses after they review the body of this communique.
Also before I conclude this article, I am also going to hopefully assist you in defining just plain greatness and/or greatness with and asterisk beside it. Ben Roethlisberger has achieved his victories and suffered his defeats in an atmosphere of fairness in regards to competing. The opposing teams that come into Heinz Field to compete against the Black and Gold, only have to be concerned with their coaching strategy and the performance of their athletes, not having to be worried about their locker room being bugged or any other cheating mechanisms that the Steelers may employ to gain a leg up on the competition.
The same applies to Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, where Pittsburgh defeated the Cincy Bengals on Sunday 33-20. There were no pre-game electronic “bug” sweeps necessary. Although there were many words written about the bad blood and the overzealous competitive nature of both teams, there was not one syllable written about any cheating or skirting of the rules by the Bengals or their ownership.
In light of the Bengals failure in regards to winning an NFL Championship, you would maybe expect them to have a little “cheat sheet” to give them an advantage at snagging a Lombardi Trophy, ya know a few hidden microphones laying around and couple dozen of underinflated footballs strewn here and there. However, that scenario is highly unlikely just like his counterpart Art Rooney II, Bengals owner Mike Brown comes from NFL royalty, being the son of the legendary football coach and Bengals founder Paul Brown who believed more in coaching and teaching his players the right way to win as opposed to keeping them well versed in the dark art of skullduggery and deceit.
Could that be the reason that the Bengals haven’t won a championship? Bill Belichick is no more a “mad football “scientist, drawing up new and innovative games plans and schematics to defeat the competition than a than a corrupt “cold war” government stealing a rival government’s top secret info. That being said; The majority of Patriots QB Tom Brady victories were achieved with ill-gotten info.
Brady is no more a genius than a student taking an open book exam the answers provided and highlighted for him.
Ian O’Connor, ESPN Senior Writer recently wrote this; “Even in a time of legitimate doubt, if not desperation, Tom Brady did not ask for too much. He needed only a couple of his playmakers on the field Sunday night, not all of them, to kill a two-game losing streak and remind people he remains the most dangerous player in a sport that temporarily belongs to a quarterback on the other side of the postseason draw.”
As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia might say; “that’s just pure applesauce.”
Both Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady are “sons” of the NFL, Brady being the older “son” and Roethlisberger being his younger “sibling.” However, just as Holy Bible points out; “Cain was the oldest son Abel was the second born of Adam and Eve.
Cain was unhappy when God accepted the offering and sacrifice of his younger brother. Instead of coming offering a better sacrifice, Cain sacrificed the life of his only brother thinking that if he eliminated the competition, the outcome would be automatically decided.
My Uncle Will used to say; “it’s only a fair fight if you win.” See folks, for the sake of winning, the New England Patriots from top to bottom have repeatedly sacrificed the integrity of the past, present and possibly the future of fair competition not affecting the NFL but sports as a whole.
If the Bengals or the Steelers advance to compete in Super Bowl 50, rest assured that unlike the New England Patriots, the “blood stains” of cheating will not be on their hands. Both the Steelers and the Bengals will have gotten there fair and square.
Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412.583.6741
Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe
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