Time For The NFL Playoffs!!!
Question: How many Steelers Fans does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Five (One to actually change the bulb and four to reminisce about the old one.)
This joke was originally told by an Associate Minister at a church I was a member of some years back, but he was a Green Bay Packers fan. I liked it so much; I stole it and simply change the name of the team. As I write this weeks Blog, I am watching NFL Films and a review of the Pittsburgh Steelers 1972 season that my TiVo automatically picked up and recorded for me. It’s been 25 years since Pittsburgh won their last World Championship and 10 years since they last reached the Super Bowl. So this joke has special meaning to me as a fan of this special team I grew up watching and rooting for. I too like to reminisce about Bradshaw, Harris, Lambert, Green, Ham, Swann, and Stalworth
It’s the end of the regular NFL season and this weekend, we start yet another journey into the NFL Playoffs. Topping the news in the NFL this week is all the Head Coaching changes going on. There have been no less than 8 firings so far this week in the league, with the rumor mill spinning round and round about other changes to be made by other teams. Since my earliest recollection of my Pittsburgh Steelers, I only know of two Head Coaches for my Steelers. (Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher) I can name more home stadiums than I can coaches for my team. (Forbes Field, Three Rivers Stadium, and Heinz Field)
I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous seasons with my beloved Steelers in this month of heart beating, palm sweating, carpet pacing second seasons. Win and go on to the next weekend…loose, and go home. My wife knows she’s a Football Widow for most of the season, and after 9 seasons together, she also knows that this is the most intense month of the entire year. My children are still a little too young to realize just how important this month is to their Daddy. Make no mistake; they know which team Daddy roots for. My daughter watched her first game with me while still in the hospital after being born for a Monday Night Football match up between Tennessee and Pittsburgh. She knew instantly what this game, and this team means to her Daddy. I, in my Kordell Stewart jersey, and her in a Steelers logo jumper, as we kept the entire delivery ward up till the wee hours of the night. Now that I think back to our first night together of watching football, I wonder if some of the nursing staff had concerns of me attempting to “spike” my daughter. In all honesty, my daughter has special meaning to me. It was because of her that my wife allowed me to get DirecTV along with the NFL Sunday Ticket Package. Because of her, I now don’t have to leave home to watch any game I want all day Sunday afternoons.
My son arrived two years later at the beginning of July, just in time to make training camp at the end of the month in Latrobe. He was a few week pre-mature and only 5 pounds 8 ounces when he arrived, but we worked hard to get him up the playing weight before camp opened. He’s my linebacker and let me tell you, he’s the perfect mold for a Steelers Linebacker. Quick and very light on his feet, and I know, I’ve had to chase him a few times! My proudest day was a when he was drafted last year at the last minute. I still have the Press Release saved that was sent out from the Front Office. Both my children’s first words weren’t Mommy or Daddy…it was “Touchdown!”
Pittsburgh heads to Cincinnati this weekend where we rightfully take back our AFC North crown that was handed to the Bengals in week 13. Make no mistake Cincinnati, we still own this division. A win in Cincinnati sends us to Indianapolis, for a rematch of another Monday Night game earlier in the year. I didn’t talk to one of my best team members for a week after that game earlier in the season, and it looks like heads will roll once again.
No matter what happens this year, Pittsburgh will be traveling “On the Road to the Super Bowl” this year, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing in my eyes. We have stayed home no less than 5 times over the last 14 years and made it to the Big Game only once. (I’ll remind that same team member that one game was against Indianapolis.)
Here’s to the NFL Playoffs. A month of great anticipation and excitement only to go through withdrawal until April and the NFL draft.
Let’s hope this will be the year of “One for the Thumb!”
Go Steelers!
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Learn How To Become A Travel Agent
Book Your Travel & Vacations With
Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635
