from John Riordan in New York
REX Ryan had shed a lot of tears and he didn’t care who knew. He braved the post-match cameras, his eyes red and bleary, and warned America that when the New York Jets regroup for next season, their unique brand of self-belief will be unleashed once again.
But that’s months away - it’s all about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers now because the 13-day build-up to Super Bowl XLV will mercifully avoid a Gang Green sideshow as two traditional giants of the game get ready to battle for supremacy.
Green Bay are back in the big show after a 14-year wait and they’ll face the Steelers who are a lot more accustomed to this sort of thing of late, the Dallas showdown will be their third Super Bowl in five years as they go for an unprecedented seventh Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Sunday was a day for quarterbacks, for good and for bad. Between Green Bay’s NFC conference game victory in Chicago and Pittsburgh’s tense success in the subsequent AFC showdown, four (plus two) QBs vied for our attention.
All throughout this mad season, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers had been tipped to finally step out of Brett Favre’s lengthy shadow. And he didn’t disappoint.
But in two weeks time, if he wins the 45th Super Bowl, Rodgers will have matched the record of his imposing predecessor who officially retired earlier this week with just one ring.
Rodgers ran for a touchdown and even made a TD-saving tackle as Green Bay secured a relatively comfortable 21-14 win.
"It's an incredible feeling," Rodgers said. "I'm at a loss for words."
It was a different sort of day for his opposing number Jay Cutler who left the game just after half-time with a knee injury. His sideline demeanour doesn’t help when question marks persist over his “toughness” and he gave a terse “no comment” to the press while fans in the Windy City burned his number six jersey. Minds made up there, then.
They won’t burn Mark Sanchez’s jersey in New York and New Jersey and why would they? The Steelers had threatened to blow the Jets away when leading 24-0. But a courageous second-half fightback brought Rex Ryan’s men close as Pittsburgh were forced to hold on for a 24-19 win.
“I’m proud of our team,” Ryan said afterwards. “We had a heck of a season. We came up short - just like we did last year. But I’m proud of our guys, we played a good half, we just never played a good game.
“I’ve got news for you, it’ll never change, we’re going to chase that Super Bowl and when we get it, we’re going to chase it again. And if people want to criticise us, you’ve got no right.”
And then there was Big Ben Roethlisberger who knows all about criticism having slogged his way back from a four-game suspension at the start of the season (off-the-field misdemeanours, young male superstar being a young male superstar).
He is now the official story of redemption. And after a gruelling game, Roethlisberger dropped to his knees, covered his head with a towel and meditated for a private moment. Asked afterwards about how special this was for him, he was coy.
“Any time you get to a Super Bowl, it’s good, I don’t care what you’re going through in your life. I’m just really proud of those guys, they really stepped up. That’s what the Pittsburgh Steelers do.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/6fPJ23j40dw/post.aspx
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