Rollin' Old Skool

My dad's best friend (and my bud too) recently sent me dvds of the Steelers in Super Bowls 13, 14 and 40. I tweaked my stupid hamstring again around Easter and I've been taking it easy and using a treadmill for the past week after taking 10 or so days off from running. I usually throw a movie in while I'm on the treadmill since I find it so boring so I reached for Super Bowl 13 one night this week. What i saw amazed me! I didn't even watch the entire first quarter but I watched everything that lead up to the beginning of the game and the Steelers first TD. I don't mean to pine for the old days, but this is just a sample of what came to my attention without me even trying to look for things:

* There was only about 20-25 minutes of pregame.

* Very few pregame graphics and weak ones at that. No exploding helmets! Single colors!

* The pregame introductions were by line, receivers (TEs), and backers (RB, FB, QB).

* Curt Gowdy made reference to the Steelers good "Specialty Teams". Allen can you comment here - did they always say that? I don't remember.

* Get this...no celebrations for tackles, no walking up field 5 yards after a tackle, no celebrations for routine catches.

* Unbelievable as it was, there wasn't a comemercial until the Steelers scored. There was a fumble recovery by the Steelers leading up to the TD and I was expecting a commercial and they just kept talking while the teams changed. I couldn't believe it. No TV timeouts on a change of possession.

* You have to remember I was just a kid when this game actually happened (12) . When Bradshaw retired circa '84 I was 16. When I started watching Brett Favre I was already in my mid 20's. On at least 2 or 3 plays already in the game I could tell Bradshaw had the same arm strength and gunslinger mentality. I watched him thread a 3rd down pass to Randy Grossman that he made moving backwards and got popped as he released it. It looked like Favre to me. Weird, really, that I made the connection that fast. As I was thinking it the guys in the booth said Bradshaw was the only QB in the league who would even attempt that pass.

* No graphics covering up the game. The entire screen was pure, beautiful - football.

* It's well into 8 or 9 minutes of the game and the time on the clock HAS NOT BEEN MENTIONED or DISPLAYED....anywhere. Even when they showed the score going into commercial - no time remaining.

* Also weird - no mention at all of Offensive or Defensive coordinators and after the team intros, I'm not sure they've showed Noll or Landry since!

* Lastly and then I'll update this list after I finsih the game, they had a boy's choir sing the National Anthem. No Hollywood types here! Just football.

They say you can't go back...........................................rats!