Being the Cowboys fan that I am, as well as the history buff that I am, it pained me this weekend to watch as the first Super Bowl in my hometown of Dallas will host two of my Cowboys sworn enemies from the early NFL.
Growing up in Dallas I distinctly remember watching Super Bowl XXX, where my Dallas Cowboys played it’s old time nemesis, the Pittsburgh Steelers. I also remember how my Dad told me about how the Steelers were the Cowboys biggest rival, and that even “America’s team”, and the genius Tom Landry never beat the Steelers in the two Super Bowls that they matched up in before Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin exercised the demons and beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX.
I also relished in the clash of cultures that each franchise represented, it was hard-nosed, defensive minded (even though it was before I was born) “Iron Curtain”, blue-collar Pittsburgh versus high-flying, “America’s Team”, finesse, flashy, white-collar Dallas. The distinctive diverse qualities of each city and the fact that they were brought together on this grand stage of the Super Bowl really struck a cord with me, I will always consider my Cowboys better than the Steelers but History has other ideas.
On the other end the Green Bay Packers, who I never actually respected as a franchise to be completely honest. An NFL team that won the majority of its Super Bowls when Lyndon Johnson was President of the United States, and oh by the way, the city of Green Bay Wisconsin has a population just over 100,000 people which ranks last in the NFL in size. So besides my dislike for the Packers winning super bowls during the Johnson administration, there is the annoying fact of the Ice Bowl, which saw my Dallas Cowboys lose to the Green Bay Packers.
So besides my Cowboys being the fodder for the successes of the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the fact remains that they will play on February 6th in Dallas. I can be pleased with the fact that football’s biggest event is being held in what I consider the Mecca of football activity, the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, but seeing my Cowboys historical rivals compete for the NFL’s ultimate prize still pokes me in the ribs.
