#SPORTS: ON TOM BRADY, AND A STEELERS FAN'S PERSPECTIVE ON SUPER BOWL LV (2021-01-29)

As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to meet in Super Bowl LV, there are dozens of early storylines trending on Twitter and other social media sites.

At the top of that list, and deservedly so, is the fact that Tom Brady is about to appear in his 10th Super Bowl. More than any other TEAM in the league, except his former team, the Patriots.

And, Brady is doing this at 43 years of age. He took a so-so team and made them NFC Champs, and many speculate there are any teams out there that he couldn’t have done this with.

It’s truly amazing. I am not a Tom Brady fan, but he is the best quarterback to ever play the game. Okay, he’s the GOAT.  That term gets thrown around a lot nowadays, but it’s true. Brady is the Greatest Of All Time. Greatest quarterback, anyway.

Look down a few hashtags and you’ll see some of the other top storylines for the Super Bowl.
An annoyingly popular one involves my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It was a tough year to be a Steeler fan, like usual. Yep, there was the 11-0 start. (True Steeler fans were cautiously optimistic, at best, about this.)

There was a dominating defense, led by young superstar T.J. Watt.

Unfortunately, as much as his name came up in “Defensive Player of the Year” conversations, Watt trended just as often as Steeler fans across the world speculated and pushed for his brother J.J, to come join T.J. and third brother Derek in the ‘Burgh.

But as for why the Steelers are NOW getting so much media attention leading up to a Super Bowl that they didn’t come close to playing in, it’s because Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell are.

Brown and Bell had infamously tumultuous tenures in Pittsburgh, to say the least. Rehashing all of the ridiculousness the two caused would be way too space-consuming, so just Google it, if you can stomach it.

Their subsequent break-ups with the Steelers, and the weird paths each took to their current teams, occupied headlines for months. They both burned every bridge, save the Clemente, as they headed out of town.

Ultimately, Pittsburgh fans were very happy to be rid of them.

So now we’re supposed to be, what, jealous?  Sorry that the Steelers parted ways with these two?
 
There really was no other option. This wasn’t the Steelers thinking these two were washed up. Given the amount of turmoil each caused within the team, they simply were not worth keeping and trying to mend all of the relationships they soured.

Pittsburgh has been extraordinarily accurate, historically, when deciding to cut players loose. Even popular players. Very few have ever put up anywhere near the numbers they did in Pittsburgh, once released.

Except Rod Woodson. And he did it with the Ravens. I’m not going to lie, watching Woodson win a Super Bowl with the Ratbirds … that hurt.

But this?

If Bell’s two playoff carries for 6 yards somehow helps the Chiefs win? OK. I like Mahomes, coach Andy Reid seems like a good guy and former Steeler wide receiver Antwaan Randle-El is an offensive assistant, so, good job, LeVeon!

If AB doesn’t find a way to self-destruct, plays, and contributes anything at all, above or below his three catches in the playoffs, and “helps” the Bucs get a ring? Great! Bucs head coach Bruce Arians spent eight years coaching in Pittsburgh. And James Farrior, the ultimate “everyman” linebacker who played for 11 seasons as a Steeler, is an assistant coach.

Pittsburgh fans really don’t care who wins this Super Bowl. Trust me. We just lost back-to-back games to the Cleveland Browns to end the season. Who or who isn’t on the Super Bowl Champion team roster means absolutely nothing after that!

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Lance Larcom is a former Canton varsity boys basketball coach, and frequent contributor to Northern Tier Sports Report, and Valley Sports Report.