Does anybody care about this Super Bowl?

Super Bowl XL? What is that? X is 10, L is, 50 right? So it’s like you subtract 10 from 50.. so this is number 40. Ok, I got it.

It still looks like Super Bowl Extra Large to me.

If you grew up in Texas (did I mention I’m from Texas?), and you cared about Pro Football, you were probably a Cowboys fan. Yeah, I know, Houston Oilers.. Earl Campbell and Bum Phillips and all that. I dunno. I never really ran into a whole lot of Oilers fans, not even in the Houston area.

I give Tex Schramm a lot of the credit for that. He worked hard to get Dallas in the NFC East, with teams that were in big television markets. It was a smart move and it made them a lot of money. That exposure and some pretty good teams, putting couple of Super Bowls under their belts, helped to make them bigger than they were. They became “America’s Team� (which pretty much irritated everyone, even Dallas fans thought it was dopey).

I read an article last week about the “Steeler Nation�, which was interesting to me. Over the past 20 years, lots of people left Pittsburgh as the steel industry declined. And they moved everywhere. All across the country you can find Steeler fans, and their kids. I work with several, the sons and daughters of former “Pittsburghers� that grew up loving their Steelers and still do. The “Steeler Nation� makes sense to me. They built it with migration.

Having seen Dallas lose some heartbreakers to Pittsburgh, I can’t find it in me to embrace them. But for all the relocated fans across America who sucked it up and found something else when their livelihood left them, leaving home to do it, I guess I can pull for them. Good luck, Steeler Nation.

posted by Dave In Texas at 03:30 PM

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