Amile's Super Bowl XLV Blog: Steelers are America's REAL TEAM

Donald Miralle/Getty ImagesThe Steelers have won six Super Bowls, more than any other team, and will try for a seventh Sunday.

Arguments are only as strong as the facts that support them. So to prove to you that the Steelers, the AFC representative in Super Bowl XLV, are indeed America's favorite NFL team, I present you with these incontrovertible, undeniable, irrefutable facts:

The man whose jersey outsold every other player's in the NFL this past year and the team whose merchandise outsold every other NFL franchise's this season: safety Troy Polamalu and the Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively.

The team with the most Hall of Fame inductees during the NFL's modern era: The Pittsburgh Steelers, with nine.

The team that has won more Super Bowls than any other: Umm, let me see, take a second, oh yeah, wait for it -- THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS.

Commercialism! Idol-worship! Achievement! What's more American than those? Good night, game over, light up the fireworks and sing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" while waving the Terrible Towel. Really, need I go on? OK, I will, only because the myths that the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers are worthy of "America's Team" status need to be buried. They need to be destroyed and humiliated, as the Steelers have done to opponents for the past four decades.

In fact, the notion that the Cowboys, especially, were first anointed "America's Team" has long bugged the Steelers. In the 1970s, there was no more heated rivalry in sports than these two franchises, who were as opposite in style to each other as "Jersey Shore" and "PBS NewsHour."

The Steelers represented their blue-collar, coal-dust choked city with physical dominance on the field. The Cowboys, with gleaming pants, stars on their helmets and trickery on offense, reflected the slick, oil-rich, new-money ways of Dallas. From 1971 to 1980, Dallas and Pittsburgh played in nine Super Bowls between them. Twice, after the 1975 and 1978 seasons, they played each other. Both games became, up to that point, the biggest spectacles the Super Bowl had ever seen. More media credentials were doled out, and TV commercial rates hit all-time highs.

The Steelers were defending Super Bowl champs the first time the two played for the title and had the NFL's best regular-season record heading into their second matchup. And yet, both times, Chuck Noll's players felt stung by their second-class status. At one point before the two teams' first Super Bowl, which was played in Miami, Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert complained to the media about the Cowboys' team hotel being closer to the beach than Pittsburgh's. "I hope," said Lambert, "that Roger Staubach is eaten by a shark."

The Whole Story

Chad Millman's book, "The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, the Cowboys, the 70s and the Fight for America's Soul," is out now and is available here.

"We took it personally that they were called 'America's Team,'" Steelers cornerback Mel Blount once told NFL Films. "Who granted them that?"

The Steelers, by contrast, have never been given anything. The team was founded by Art Rooney in 1933 and then had losing seasons for 36 of the next 39 years. At times, Rooney was short on funds and couldn't afford to pay a full roster of players; instead, workers from his father's brewery filled in for free. Until Three Rivers Stadium opened in 1970, the Steelers never had a home field to call their own. They practiced in South Park, a public fairgrounds, where the players had to clear rocks from the field and take cold-water showers after drills.

It was appropriate that all of the Burgh could watch this team practice, because Rooney viewed owning the team as a public trust, no matter how big the business of football became. One hot summer afternoon in 1974, Steelers linebacker Jack Ham and offensive lineman Gerry Mullins found themselves on a dusty road across from a cemetery, outside of the entrance to the Steelers' training camp. They were on strike, along with the rest of the Steelers and NFL players at training camps across the country, fighting the owners for free agency, more money, better contracts. At that moment, rookies Jack Lambert and Mike Webster and Lynn Swann and John Stallworth were at practice, getting coached up by Chuck Noll, while the veterans waited and wondered: Will we win this fight? Or will we lose our jobs?

As the day dragged on, the picket line began to thin. By late afternoon, only Mullins and Ham remained. As they sat by the side of the road, a car came flying toward them, kicking up dust. Then it stopped, right where they sat. It was Rooney. "He rolled down his window and said to us, 'Don't you boys worry about this strike. We'll get it settled,'" Mullins remembered. "Then he pulled a six-pack of beer out of the car, handed it to us and drove off."

That season the Steelers won the first of their NFL record six Super Bowls.

As fans we may appreciate the Packers' small-town narrative; we may aspire to live as large and be as brash as the Cowboys; but we are all the Steelers. A ragtag bunch of misfits, underestimated yet undeterred, born in the foundries and rising to the highest peaks.

Their story is our story. End of argument. And just like I am stubborn with the being a Titan fan..... it is true to my heart about the Steelers. 

Got $70K? Get a Super suite ... maybe

NFL fans are steadily buying tickets for Super Bowl XLV, with one fan spending as much as $70,000 for a suite inside Cowboys Stadium.

While Super Bowl XLV is a sellout, you can still buy tickets from various brokers across North Texas and online.

Locally, tickets for the Feb. 6 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers have an average price range between $2,100 and $8,000, according to Ram Silverman of Golden Tickets.

"They are readily available," Silverman said. "Things started off pretty high, then it's gotten steady."

StubHub, which sells tickets online, said it's on pace to outsell last year and become its top selling event in company history.

The escalating prices will benefit one group. Cowboys fan Neal Hawks purchased an end zone suite at Cowboys Stadium and put it up for auction to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas.

The auction closes on Feb. 2 and fans can bid at www.ha.com/bbbs. As of Friday afternoon, the current bid was $80,000 for the suite.

Hawks wouldn't say if he paid anything close to the $70,000 one fan spent.

Silverman said the $200 Party Plaza tickets the NFL put on sale last week are going for about $375, and that price could keep rising as fans without tickets become desperate to be there for the game.

"Right now, there's not a big call for those outdoor seats," Silverman said. "Some fans might get left out if they think the ticket prices are too high and might come and get them."

StubHub had said earlier Friday that 26 percent of its buyers are from Texas and are paying an average price of $3,268 per ticket. StubHub spokesperson Joellen Ferrer said the average asking price for a Super Bowl ticket is $3,676.

But later in the day, StubHub said that more tickets are hitting the market and driving down prices slightly.

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania buyers picked up their buying as well. They went from making up only 1 percent of the marketplace earlier in the day to 7 percent by evening.

A Ring of Honor Suite, which includes 15 tickets and a catered meal, was purchased for $73,163 by a Texas buyer earlier this week. One fan from California paid $15,002 for a Premium Club Seat at the Steelers' 50-yard line.

"A lot of the tickets are at the corporate level, and I would expect those prices to go up," Ferrer said. "We know fans on both sides are buyers, and that's a good thing for everybody."

Al Burke, another ticket broker based in Dallas, said business is good. Tickets with a face value of $600 are going for about $2,000, and a ticket valued at $900 is selling for around $2,500, he said.

"It's a fairly strong market," Burke said. "The fan base of those two teams is very good and those people travel."

Ticket prices for Super Bowl XLV might have gone higher if there were a different matchup. If the New York Jets were playing the Chicago Bears, for instance, ticket buyers would have been out to spend big money.

"It's different fan bases," Silverman said. "Green Bay and Pittsburgh have blue collar-type fans, and it's a fan base that's nationwide. The demand will be really high next week. But if you have New York or Chicago, you can expect things to go up a little bit the week before the game."

If you possess Super Bowl tickets, don't plan to sell them on the street -- it's against the law in Arlington, Texas. You have to be a ticket broker to avoid losing your tickets and going to jail if you get caught.

2010 Conference Round: Jets -- Steelers Preview

Three teams -- and three of the NFL's highest-profile quarterbacks -- have represented the AFC in the past seven Super Bowls, a trend that can continue Sunday at Heinz Field with a victory by Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Don't expect the New York Jets to be intimidated.

The sixth-seeded Jets have gotten through Peyton Manning and Tom Brady to punch a ticket to their second straight AFC championship game, leaving Roethlisberger's Steelers as the last obstacle to their first Super Bowl appearance in 42 years.

With rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez and rookie head coach Rex Ryan, New York was a surprise participant in last season's conference championship game, a 30-17 loss in Indianapolis.

The Jets were among the favorites to win the AFC heading into this season, but the same couldn't be said as they entered the playoffs as the No. 6 seed -- a path only the 2005 Steelers have taken to a Super Bowl victory.

That road started with a rematch against the Colts that Ryan called "personal" between himself and Manning. New York won 17-16, leading to a game with an even more significant revenge factor.

The Jets (13-5) didn't let a 45-3 drubbing by Brady and the Patriots in Week 13 diminish their confidence. After Ryan and many Jets players spent the week needling New England in the media, they backed up their words last Sunday in a 28-21 upset of the NFL's top team behind Sanchez's three touchdown passes.

"We don't care what people say or whether they like us," All-Pro cornerback and Pittsburgh native Darrelle Revis said. "We just focus on what we need to do to win games."

The Jets aren't just winning -- they're threatening to shake up a conference that's been dominated by three teams for much of the last decade. Manning's Colts, Brady's Patriots and Roethlisberger's Steelers have represented the AFC in every Super Bowl since 2003.

After getting past Brady and Manning, it's only fitting what's standing between New York and its first appearance on the league's grandest stage since Super Bowl III.

"Big Ben, he's next on our list," receiver Braylon Edwards said.

Roethlisberger has the Steelers (13-4) in their fourth AFC championship game in his seven years in the league after it looked like his team might be one-and-done at halftime last Saturday against Baltimore.

Two turnovers helped put Pittsburgh in a 21-7 hole, but Roethlisberger led it back. The two-time Super Bowl winner threw two third-quarter TDs to tie the score, then completed a 58-yard pass to rookie Antonio Brown on third-and-19 late in the fourth, setting up Rashard Mendenhall's score to punctuate a 31-24 victory.

"(Ben) may not be Brady or all those other guys, but when I see him in the huddle I know we've got a chance to win," receiver Hines Ward said. "He's a proven winner."

Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie seems to agree. A week after calling Brady an expletive, Cromartie had nothing but praise for Roethlisberger, who's 9-2 in the postseason.

"I love Ben, man," said Cromartie. "Ben's a competitor."

Ryan says facing the 6-foot-5, 241-pound Roethlisberger is hardly the same as preparing for Manning or Brady, the latter of whom the Jets sacked five times Sunday.

"(Manning and Brady) approach things a little different," said Ryan, who lost the 2009 AFC title game in Pittsburgh as Baltimore's defensive coordinator. "Roethlisberger will beat you up. ... I've never seen a guy take the hits he can take and also make people miss the way he does and be as accurate on the run."

The speedy Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and Mike Wallace give Roethlisberger plenty of chances to make plays down the field, but the Jets largely eliminated those options in Week 15 at Heinz Field. Roethlisberger averaged a season-low 6.0 yards per attempt in a 22-17 loss.

"They're a really good defense," Roethlisberger said. "They try and confuse. That's the big thing they do. ... You don't know where people are lining up and how to identify them.

"The Jets' defense beat the two best quarterbacks in the game at their place. I don't know how I'm going to do it."

With Cromartie and Revis likely shadowing Ward and Wallace, that could leave some room in the middle for tight end Heath Miller, who missed the regular-season meeting with a concussion.

Also sitting out that game was All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu, who's now playing despite a strained Achilles'. Pittsburgh is 31-8 with Polamalu in the lineup since 2008 and 6-7 without him.

Jets wideout and former Steeler Santonio Holmes called Polamalu the "greatest player" he has ever seen play in person.

With plenty of game-changing players in the secondary, running could be key even though Pittsburgh and New York finished first and third, respectively, in rush defense. The Jets ran for 106 yards behind LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Green in the regular-season meeting while Mendenhall had 99 of Pittsburgh's 146.

Both totals were the most either defense has allowed.

While many doubted Sanchez's ability to win a game through the air, he didn't look like a quarterback who's merely a caretaker Sunday. Sanchez is 4-1 on the road in the postseason, and his playoff passer rating is 92.2 -- 22.0 higher than in the regular season.

One Jet who may be more motivated than most Sunday is Holmes, the Super Bowl XLIII MVP who Pittsburgh traded for a fifth-round pick in April following his repeated off-field troubles.

Holmes insists he's not out for revenge.

"I got a chance to beat those guys the first time around," Holmes said. "I don't care about the Steelers right now. ... If we win the Super Bowl, that's a slap back in (their) face for trading me. But right now it's not a focus of mine."

Pittsburgh, which is 5-5 in conference championship games at home, will certainly be monitoring the health of Jets return man Brad Smith. Smith returned the opening kickoff for a score in Week 15 but missed last week's game with a groin injury.

Special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff said Smith "absolutely" will return kicks Sunday night, barring a setback.

2011 NFL PLAYOFFS Preview: Steelers-- Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers have long been defined by their defenses, so it's natural that the two AFC North powers have embraced a back-and-forth rivalry characterized by their physicality and down-to-the-wire finishes.

It's a quarterback, however, who's swung the pendulum in Pittsburgh's favor.

The Steelers have won the last six installments of one of the NFL's fiercest rivalries when Ben Roethlisberger has played, a trend they'll hope to continue when the Ravens travel to Heinz Field for Saturday's AFC Divisional showdown.

It's been referred to as Armageddon, World War III and "personal between the two cities," and those are only the labels placed on the rivalry by Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs since a 30-7 wild-card victory at Kansas City on Sunday.

"The team that wins this game is going to be the most violent team, the team that is most physical," Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke told the team's official website. "It's the team that goes out there to push the other team around."

Pittsburgh and Baltimore both finished 12-4 in the regular season and scored 27 points apiece in their two meetings, each winning by a field goal on the other's home field. Five of the seven meetings over the past 28 months have been decided by three points, one by four and the other nine -- that courtesy of Troy Polamalu's late interception return in the 2009 AFC championship game that sent the Steelers to their seventh Super Bowl.

In 17 meetings since 2003, the teams have each scored 302 points.

The fifth-seeded Ravens didn't have much trouble against the Chiefs, forcing five turnovers, while the Steelers watched wild-card weekend at home after securing the No. 2 seed. That luxury, again, came largely thanks to Polamalu, whose fourth-quarter strip of Joe Flacco in Week 13 set up a late Roethlisberger touchdown pass to secure a 13-10 comeback win in Baltimore.

"For such a small margin, what a big difference that makes," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "But we kind of understand who we are. We understand our path, our road. We're not intimidated by it at all. We're looking forward to it. We wouldn't have it any other way."

Sunday's win was Baltimore's fourth away from home in the postseason since Flacco took over as a rookie in 2008, and the Ravens have reason to be confident Saturday despite Pittsburgh being rested. From 1990-2004, home teams were 49-11 in the divisional round. Since 2005, they're just 10-10.

"It's a lot of fun to come on the road and into places like this and be confident in yourself and be confident in your teammates that you're going to get the job done. That's really how we feel," said Flacco, the NFL's second highest-rated passer (103.4) since Week 3, trailing only likely MVP Tom Brady.

Flacco, the first quarterback to start and win a playoff game in each of his first three seasons, hasn't fared so well against Pittsburgh. He's thrown six touchdowns and seven interceptions while posting a 69.5 rating in seven meetings.

Five of those came with Roethlisberger healthy for the Steelers, and the two-time Super Bowl winner has certainly done his part to tilt the rivalry in Pittsburgh's favor. Roethlisberger has thrown 10 TD passes in winning six straight versus Baltimore.

"I don't think there's any magic recipe other than I guess I'm lucky," said Roethlisberger, who had his nose broken by Ravens nose tackle Haloti Ngatain Week 13.

Perhaps with his healing nose in mind, the Steelers quarterback admitted he doesn't exactly look forward to facing Baltimore.

"As a competitor, you love it. But heck no, I hate playing the Ravens because they're so good," Roethlisberger said. "On defense, every single person and every scheme, everything they do, it challenges you."

Polamalu is nursing a right Achilles' tendon injury that he expects to be better following the week off, while his counterpart is dealing with a much more personal distraction. Baltimore All-Pro safety Ed Reed, whose younger brother was reported missing Jan. 7 in Louisiana, spent a day with his family following the win over Kansas City.

Reed was back at practice Tuesday and should play Saturday. Baltimore certainly needs him -- he led the league with eight interceptions despite missing the first six games of the season with a hip injury.

Reed has one interception in nine games against Roethlisberger.

Success on the ground figures to be unlikely considering the Ravens and Steelers haven't allowed a 100-yard rusher in their last 28 combined playoff games, but the presence of Mike Wallace and Anquan Boldin offer hope for big plays through the air

Baltimore will definitely need to pay close attention to Wallace. Pittsburgh's speedy second-year wideout led the NFL in receiving yards over the last nine weeks, and his 20.3 yards per catch is the second-most in league history over a receiver's first two seasons.

Wallace hasn't scored in four career games against the Ravens. Baltimore's biggest offensive weapon, running back Ray Rice, hasn't scored in six games versus Pittsburgh.

Saturday's winner will face either the Jets or Patriots in the AFC championship game after those two division rivals also meet for a third time. But even with plenty of talk leading up to that grudge match, Steelers receiver Hines Warddoesn't think it measures up to Steelers-Ravens.

"The Jets and Patriots are great teams, but they're just getting started," Ward said. "This has been going on for years."