SIX… count ‘em… SIX, ladies and gentlemen, SIX Super Bowl Rings!

I am in celebration and I am ready for some football!

On this first day of the 2009 NFL season – in honor of the CURRENT Super Bowl Champions – the most honored Pittsburgh Steelers – let the NFL season begin!

Thanks for indulging me. I just had to make that announcement. As usual, it’s been a long – football-less – summer. Don’t get me wrong, I really like most sports and never seem to get enough…

• I love you NBA and Lebron and the Cavs and the Pistons and KG!
• I love you WNBA and Lisa Leslie and the Houston Comets!
• I love you Wimbledon, Roger, Serena, Venus, Rafael, Andy and the Tennis Grand Slam!
• I love you Tiger, the tour majors and everybody chasing you down!
• I love you UFC, the Iceman, the Spider, GSP and MMA combat.

Okay… not so much hockey and baseball… but

I AM READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!

As a sports fan - specifically, as a Steelers fan – I have experienced Nirvana, Utopia, Shangri La, Steelers Heaven six times. Six times, more than any other NFL team, we have been holders of the Holy Grail (aka the Lombardi Trophy). This season marks the beginning of our final step to 7th Heaven – in the form of ring number seven!

Steelers Super Sundays… for the record

Ring #1 – Super Bowl IX - January 12, 1975
Steelers 16 – Vikings 6, Tulane Stadium, New Orleans
1974 Regular Season Record – 10-3-1
Coach – Chuck Noll, QB – Terry Bradshaw
Super Bowl MVP – Franco Harris
NOTE to self: This was my senior year of high school, and after the past several seasons of finally making the playoffs ( a first since team inception in 1933) I am a truly converted member of the Steelers Nation.

Ring #2 – Super Bowl X – January 18, 1976
Steelers 21 – Cowboys 17, Orange Bowl, Miami
1975 Regular Season Record – 12-2-0
Coach – Chuck Noll, QB – Terry Bradshaw
Super Bowl MVP – Lynn Swann
Note to self: My first year in the USAF at Myrtle Beach. I was younger than everybody else there, didn’t have much street smarts, but my Steelers won the Super Bowl. Right there in the barracks day room, in front of all of my new friends from around the country, my Steelers defeated ‘America’s Team’ and I talked much trash! Boy, Pennsylvania held it’s head high that day and so did some kid from some obscure Pennsylvania town!

Ring #3 – Super Bowl XIII – January 21, 1979
Steelers 35 – Cowboys 31, Orange Bowl, Miami
1978 Regular Season Record – 14-2-0
Coach – Chuck Noll, QB – Terry Bradshaw
Super Bowl MVP – Terry Bradshaw
Note to self: My last year in the USAF at Myrtle Beach. One more for the road, just so they’d know it wasn’t a fluke. This was my REAL honorable discharge – The Steelers sent me back to civilian life in style!

Ring #4 – Super Bowl XIV – January 20, 1980
Steelers 31 – Rams 19, Rose Bowl, Pasadena
1979 Regular Season Record – 12-4-0
Coach – Chuck Noll, QB – Terry Bradshaw
Super Bowl MVP – Terry Bradshaw
Note to self: We repeated again!?! This makes it an official dynasty and gives me just that much more trash to talk to a new group a friends who need to know “It’s all about the Steelers!”

Ring #5 – Super Bowl XL – February 8, 2006
Steelers 21 – Seahawks 10, Ford Field, Detroit
2005 Regular Season Record – 11-5-0
Coach – Bill Cowher, QB – Ben Roethlisberger
Super Bowl MVP – Heinz Ward
Note to self: It’s been a long dry season (an we won’t discuss that ’96 Super Bowl loss to the Cowboys) but the Football Gods have smiled upon us once again! “One for the Thumb!”

Ring #6 – Super Bowl XLIII - February 1, 2009
Steelers 27 – Cardinals 23, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa
2008 Regular Season Record – 12-4-0
Coach – Mike Tomlin, QB – Ben Roethlisberger
Super Bowl MVP – Santonio Holmes
Note to self: There are no words. There just are no words! Sniff.

Now let’s get it on!

PEACE.
Rick

Tonight’s Game – 2009 NFL Season Kickoff
Pittsburgh Steelers at Tennessee Titans