Written by Ronnie Huckaba
In the spring of 1965 during a family meeting, my dad informed us that we were leaving our Georgia home and moving to Irving, Texas.In my 9-year-old mind, I envisioned horses, stagecoaches and Roy Rogers escorting us into town. I never saw Roy Rogers, but I did become enamored with the Cowboys — the Dallas Cowboys that is.In 1965 Dallas was beginning to move into the upper echelons of the NFL, mentioned in the same breath with the Green Bay Packers and the then- Baltimore Colts.In 1966 I sat in the car before church started on a late fall Sunday evening and listened as Dave Robinson pressured Don Meredith into an ill-advised pass from the Green Bay 2-yard-line that was intercepted by Tom Brown, sealing an NFL championship for the Packers. Yes, the same Packers of Vince Lombardi that would dominate the first two Super Bowls.I watched every play of the infamous “Ice Bowl” in 1967, sneaking out to cry in solitude when Bart Starr scored on a quarterback sneak with seconds left to again send the Pack to the Super Bowl and the Cowboys back to Texas to commiserate with their fans on the what-ifs of that game.Nine years later, in 1976, my teammates on the Harding College Bison football team and I rented a room at the Noble Motel so we could watch the Super Bowl game between the Cowboys and the hated Pittsburgh Steelers.We had an even mixture of Cowboy fans and Cowboy haters and enjoyed a great game that, unfortunately for me, ended with another disappointing Cowboy defeat. Leading in to Super Bowl XLV, it is easy to see why it gives me a great deal of pain to say that I believe the winner will be the team I consider to be the best in the NFL at the present time: the Pittsburgh Steelers.The Steelers should win the game for these reasons:
- They have a dominant running game with arguably the best offensive line in the NFL. This allows them to dictate tempo and dominate time of possession.
- Their defense is tremendously talented,loaded with speed and playmakers who show up in big games over and over again. Additionally, they have a fantastic defensive coordinator in Dick LeBeau, a veteran coach who has consistently had the Steelers ranked near the top of the NFL for his entire tenure with the team. He is considered by many to be the best defensive coordinator in the history of the NFL.
- Ben Roethlisberger. Even though he has made some field choices that cause us to shake our head in disgust, he has a penchant for playing his best in the biggest games. His size, speed and arm give him an advantage over most NFL quarterbacks. Prediction:
Steelers 24, Packers 14.
