Am I the only one who watched yesterday’s Conference championships and spent much of it wondering what could have been for the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Watching the Denver Broncos advance to the Super Bowl over the hated New England Patriots assuredly was a consolation prize for dejected Steelers fans, but it couldn’t possibly ease the pain of a season lost to injuries and misfortune.
Sure, the idea of Peyton Manning, days short of his 40th birthday, going out a winner makes for a perfect storyline heading in the madness that is the two weeks of wall-to-wall Super Bowl coverage, but it does not take the sting of a opportunity lost for Steelers Nation.
It certainly didn’t for me.
That’s because I’ll go to my grave convinced that the best team in the AFC, heck, maybe the NFL, won’t be playing in the 50th edition of the biggest championship game in all of professional sports.
I know. Sour grapes, right?
Maybe, but considering all that the Steelers had to overcome this season yet still come agonizingly close to a trip to the Bay Area to play for their seventh Lombardi Trophy, I don’t think it is at all.
It’s just the truth.
Yes, we all get the best teams overcome injuries and the Steelers should be credited, not penalized for how they dealt with more than their fair share in 2015. However, it was who was injured that would alter the course of a team that could very well be facing off with Carolina Panthers in two weeks.
Credit players like Alejandro Villanueva and Cody Wallace for the jobs they did this season. Praise the remarkable efforts of DeAngelo Williams to stabilize a position of critical importance. Give props to Martavis Bryant for coming up big in a playoff game.
Just don’t tell me that Kelvin Beachum, Maurkice Pouncey, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown would not have made all the difference last week against the Broncos, or yesterday against the Patriots.
Their losses, not to mention losing Ben Roethlisberger for a quarter of the season, not only helped shape the playoff landscape in the AFC, it ultimately kept the football fans, not just the lovers of the Black and Gold, from getting one heck of a matchup for Super Bowl 50.
I’ll be pulling for Manning to ride off into the sunset with a championship, but not without wondering what could have been for the Steelers.
Photo credit: NJ.com
