This has been a tough week to concentrate, what with the debut of American Idol III, Donald Trump's wedding III and Bush Inauguration II. But what really has been stressing me out is the AFC title game Saturday between the defending Superbowl champion New England Patriots and my favorite team for the remainder of the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As the Cleveland Browns melted like the victim in a bad horror film, I had to find a new favorite and the Steelers were the easiest choice.
They are close by, relatively, not much farther to Pittsburgh than to Detroit. They are a part of the Central Division, just like Cleveland and they are not the Cincinnati Bengals.
Not to mention the fact that local boy, almost, Ben Roethlisberger of Findlay, emerged as Pittsburgh's starting quarterback.
So, I've been rooting for the Steelers. Last Saturday nearly caused apoplexy, as they had to rely on two missed field goal attempts by the New York Jets' Doug Brien to have a chance to win the game 20-17 with an overtime ending kick by Jeff Reed and move on to the conference title game. They'd be called the Kardiac Kids if that wasn't already taken.
They weren't sharp … they were pretty poor, in fact. But it's a common cliché in sports that "winning ugly" is the sign of a good team.
The Patriots, on the other hand, handily defeated a ravenous Indianapolis Colts team, 20-3.
Scanning national sports columnists, the general feeling seems to be that the Patriots will handle the Steelers easily and move on to the Superbowl. This despite Pittsburgh's regular season win over New England last Halloween.
The others seem to like NE's head coach Bill Belichick over PA's Bill Cowher. I don't find either coach particularly easy to like. I attended a so-called press conference one late summer when I was working in radio and Belichick was coaching the Browns.
He was uncooperative, nearly incoherent and pretty unimpressive that afternoon. Of course I don't suppose he was too impressed with me either. But nothing in the rest of his tenure in Cleveland was especially impressive.
As a Browns' fan, I have spent a good number of years not liking Cowher either. He has developed a reputation for not being able to "win the big one" while Belichick walks on water as he dissects opponents.
At least it keeps my mind off the Trump wedding.