here we go...

ewww my blogs suck lately.

i wasn't going to be this person simply because EVERYONE else is being this person but awww hell, i'll be this person.

pittsburgh's going to the superbowl (notice however, that i did not feel the need to capitalize or make fun bright colors?). this is a good thing, don't get me wrong. its just that i hate bandwagon fans (don't even start with me Badger bandwagon fans because you all really SUCK) and i so evidently have become one in the last two weeks. gross. i've always said that growing up in Wisconsin either makes you a crazed packer junkie or makes you rue the day professional football emerged (or made you root for every team that was playing the packers just to piss your mom off). me, it made me hate professional football. of course that was only after i fully understood that teachers get paid nothing to control a classroom of screaming children while football players make more in one season than i'll see in my lifetime to voluntarily get beat up. before i realized that these people actually got PAID for this i cheered for teams like the cowboys. i knew people hated this. i was such a brat. but then when i got to high school and college i was thankful for living in a state where professional football governed the mood of 90% of the population on monday mornings because it meant that sundays i could visit the mall or the grocery store and actually get things accomplished.

now i'm not gonna lie here. i had NO idea how big of a football town pittsburgh was when i moved here. when you live in wisconsin and you hate professional football all you know is that the state believes that lambeau field is the vatican, green and gold are sacred colors, and brett favre is God. what's the point of knowing anything else about the NFL? and then people started asking me: "are you a steelers fan?" my response: "i'm from wisconsin. i hate the packers. do you actually think that if i'm from wisconsin and i hate the packers that i'd be in support of any other NFL team? the Badgers. they're my boys. lets talk NCAA." and i started realizing that the black and gold is just as crazy, if not more so, than the green and gold. amen, i still have sundays to run errands successfully. i TRIED unsuccessfully to watch games. i tended to fall asleep before half time. i tried to scream at the tv, tried to yell at bettis, and roethlesberger. but when your heart isn't in it, its just not worth the effort.

and then came the playoffs which is ulitmately the same as march madness in my mind. fail to watch an entire season and get caught up on the teams that really matter and pick your loyalties from them. i hate basketball. but wisconsin generally makes it to the big dance and hell, i'll support that. miraculously enough, pittsburgh somehow makes it in with a wild card long after greenbay had blown any chances of seeing the inside of ford field. and i watched them beat indianapolis, slated by many to win the whole thing, narrowly after bettis fumbed and ben tackled. and the last minute of that game reminded me so intently of what it is that i love about college football. the upsets, the narrow wins in the last seconds. and suddenly its not such a long shot anymore. and i have this strange feeling inside me that feels a little bit like excitement. and then the steelers take home the AFC title. and now its all over. i've succombed. the wagon rolled by and i jumped on it. i'm suddenly screaming so loud i've lost my voice, smiling at the sight of terrible towels. wishing i too was in the southside celebrating in the street with the thousands of other fans. i have become he epitomy of what i hate. but i guess we all need to take baby steps and start somewhere right? and i've never been one to leave my team high and dry when they are floundering so lets assume that i'm considering myself a true fan. it just took a couple of wins to get me there. besides, the superbowl is so much more interesting when you actually have something to watch other than the commercials, which quite frankly are just not that great anymore. does anybody have an extra terrible towel?


but shhhhh, please don't tell greenbay. they will not think its fair that the 96 and 97 NFC titles were not enough to convert me.