Great Expectations: The Renaissance of the Pittsburgh Steelers Dynasty

There are few, if any, sure things when it comes to prognosticating the fortunes of NFL teams from one week to the next, let alone from one season to the next.  However, with great accomplishments come great expectations.  Enter:  The Pittsburgh Steelers.

If there were ever a sport, or art, if you will, that mimics the ups and downs of life, it’s football.  This is because football franchises are just as fragile and just as susceptible to injury or descent.  It’s the epitome of teamwork.  This is why year in and year out the Pittsburgh Steelers compete for the playoffs and are usually a solid choice to make the playoffs, if not compete for the Lombardi trophy.

This, of course, is no accident. The Steelers have built their team, their franchise and ultimately their place in history, in a methodical, shrewd and workman-like manner.  The franchise is comprised of winners from the owner to the head coach to the quarterback to the last man on the practice squad. 

There is a philosophy, a plan and a single-minded approach to the execution of said philosophy.  They are at once the model of a family, but at the same time, the cold, hard truth of the business aspect of the sport.  No one person is bigger than the Steeler tradition.  No one is.

The Steelers are expected to compete for the championship again in 2009 and rightfully so.  They return 22 of 24 starters from their Super Bowl championship team.  These champions stand on the precipice of football history.  Sure, the franchise already claims six NFL championships, more than any other in history.  But the rise of a second dynasty is right there in front of them. 

The current Pittsburgh Steelers could be the first renaissance of a previous dynasty.  It’s arguably never happened in the history of the league.  Squabbles could arise over this claim, but it would be purely semantics.   Eras will be argued; the definition of dynasty will even be argued.  The Steelers were the team of the 1970’s. 

A Super Bowl championship this year would make them a dynasty again.  Three championships in five years qualifies as dynastic. 

This brings me to the main obstacle in the path of the Steelers.

Enter:  The New England Patriots, the latest of great dynasties in the rich history of the league.

It's the only way that it should be.

It would be untrue to say that the Patriots are the yang to the Steelers yin.  They are the same, but different.  They’re not the renegade Raiders or Cowboys, not even close.  They take malcontents from those teams and make them conform.  They’re not the evil empire.  There just not as “wholesome” as the Steelers. 

Steelers vs. Patriots should be the considered the premiere rivalry in the league.  They’ve combined for five championships in nine years.  They’ve met in the AFC championship game three times, all of which were won by the Patriots (which could be why it’s not considered the premiere rivalry, I suppose).  But I expect those two teams to meet again for the AFC championship and, for that matter, the NFL title as well.

The Patriots have re-loaded and the Steelers have fortified.

History hangs in the balance.