Sweet Six-Team
With less than three minutes to play and 88 yards to get to the end zone, Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes stepped up and delivered the only sixth Super Bowl win. Sportswriter Bill Modoono analyzes the most memorable games in Super Bowl history - and one of the best franchises in sports.
Above Photo: Getty Images
Indulge me here. Your team has won yet another Super Bowl - and in remarkably dramatic fashion, no less. So please allow me a quick story about the last time the Pittsburgh Steelers won one, way back in 2006. You might remember the city's rallying cry at the time: "One for the Thumb!" In Pittsburgh, everyone knew what that meant. Well, almost everyone. My wife didn't. Not being a native Pittsburgher and not having the least bit of interest in the accomplishments of Chuck Noll's Steelers, she was puzzled by the expression. She knew the team included someone called the "Bus." So, who's the "Thumb"? she wondered.
OK, funny. But her logic was sound. My wife figured that the team was rallying 'round a beloved teammate. Aren't those the people who usually motivate players to win big games?
There was a time, of course, when winning "one for the thumb" could have been true. A number of Steelers in the 1970s had won four Super Bowl rings; the fifth was to go on the thumb, right? But long after all those winning Steelers had left the scene, the slogan lived on. Whose thumb was it now? The city's, of course.
This year's uninspired rallying cry urged the black-and-gold to pick up a "six pack." Less poetic, but in the end it produced the same result. The city that insists on keeping track of the exact number of National Football League championships its favorite team wins added on another, this time by a 27-23 score over the Arizona Cardinals. At this point, feel free to ask: Do the Steelers really win these titles for themselves or for us?
To gauge local reaction, you might assume the latter. Periodic appearances by the Steelers in the Super Bowl have become so predictable they've developed a local reaction that is almost ritualistic. First you see an increase in the number of women who walk around Pittsburgh with their black-and-gold handbags with the number "43" on them. Then, there's an influx of out-of-shape men wearing "86" jerseys in Giant Eagle. This is followed by those predictable downtown rallies and "Black-and-Gold Fridays" at schools and offices. Sprinkled in along the way are the funny wagers by politicians. This year, the AFC championship game prompted the mayor to temporarily renounce his name "Raven"stahl in favor of "Steeler"stahl. He even said he was keeping the name for the Super Bowl.
Steelers linebacker James Harrison - in the midst of completing a 100-yard interception - outruns Larry Fitzgerald (#11) and the Arizona Cardinals defense. Photo: Mike Fabus, Pittsburgh Steelers
But these familiar Pittsburgh accouterments that go with another Steelers' appearance in the Super Bowl carry a sense of urgency, too. If winning is what makes it wonderful, then nothing less than winning is acceptable. This year, even before the big game started, we got word that most area school districts had scheduled two-hour delays for Monday morning.
This time, a sixth title wasn't just hoped for, it was pretty much expected. At the start of the two-week preparation leading up to Super Bowl XLIII, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin talked about how important it was to keep his team on a regular work schedule before they all flew to Tampa and left "normalcy" behind. But, really, what's "normalcy" for the Steelers? You could certainly make the case that periodic Super Bowl appearances are not abnormal occurrences for them. For the Arizona Cardinals, yes. But the Steelers?
"This group understands the standard that comes with being a Pittsburgh Steeler," said Tomlin. "We are aware of the standards. We are aware of the expectations. We embrace it. We don't run from it. That's how we operate."
Above: Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes hug it out. Photos Mike Fabus, Pittsburgh Steelers
No other team competing for the championship this year could say the same. The New York Giants were the defending champs, yes, but before they got to embrace the expectations that go with such titles, they had that distracting business involving former Steeler Plaxico Burress and his handgun. One round and they were gone. After they left, the field was mostly loaded with teams that hadn't spent much time anywhere near a Super Bowl spotlight in quite some time, if ever. Titans, Ravens, Dolphins, Cardinals. Teams without expectations. Without standards, if you will.
Teams without Rooneys, certainly, and too bad for them. This sixth title, above all the others, was really a demonstration of how essential the Rooney way is to the success of the franchise. It's about how high expectations are quietly, but forcefully, passed from the owners of this family-run business to their highly paid employees; how a personal touch can still succeed in a business with no heart.
It's a tradition that started with Art Rooney Sr., and has been passed on to his son Dan and now on to Dan's son Arthur Rooney II. A tradition that starts with the family's "genuine appreciation for the tough game that it is," says former Steelers linebacker Andy Russell.
Russell remembers that "The Chief" knew how tough the game was, because he made it a point to attend every practice, not just the ones held on sunny days. Russell and his teammates always appreciated the way the family makes it a point to know the names of all the players and to know about their families as well.
In family businesses it is essential that "the owner cares" and is "genuine," says Bill Repack, a professor of management at Robert Morris University and an expert on family-run businesses. "If people feel they are part of the family, they work harder," Repack says. "They feel almost as if it's their company."
As a result, the high expectations the Rooneys have for their players are often fulfilled. "What they [the Rooneys] expect is your best," says Repack. "Anything else is not good enough."