13.7 billion years ago, with every single piece of matter that had ever, or would ever exist, compressed into a infinitesimally small space, under unfathomable pressure, at a temperature that our compression is simply not adequately equipped to quantify, the universe, as we would come to know it, suddenly and violently exploded into existence. In a fraction of a fraction of a second the building blocks for every star, every planet and every moon, every animal, plant, insect, bird, cheeseburger and 1974 Ford Escort MK2 limited slip differential, every strand of Troys glorious perm and every blade of grass that James Harrison crossed taking it to the house in Superbowl XLIII were flung out across the freezing, void of nothingness to create the heavens and the Earth and everything in-between and provide the backdrop for everything and everyone to come. Our stage was set, the blueprint for the genesis of life etched onto a barren, grey hunk of rock hurtling outward into a never ending expanse of nihility, a revolution of eventual sentience put into motion.
That said, it would be a pretty unrecognisable spectacle to you or I, should either of us find ourselves 88mph'd back to the dawn of existence. It's widely accepted that the first stars formed only 100-300 million years after the big bang. It took hundreds of thousand of years even for the first electrons to collide with the first basic atomic nuclei to form any elements more complex than hydrogen or helium, and the first galaxies didn't coalesce for at least one billion years after time began. All in all, there would be a distinct lack of familiarity with which to breed contempt, as human beings tend to posses a proclivity to do.
Luckily for the intrepid traveller, the consistency and inevitability of certain things can traverse the bounds of both time and space, and amidst the chaos of our universe coming into being, certain immutable laws, always to be relied upon, came along with it.
Every action has a equal and opposite reaction, an object at rest shall remain at rest and an object in motion continues at a constant velocity unless acted on by an external force, if two systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third system, they are in thermal equilibrium with each other, and as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Michael Pettaway Tomlin will never finish an NFL regular season under .500. Some things in life are just meant to be! As sure as night follows day, for a period of time verging on what could arguably constitute the emergence of a new generation of NFL fans, Tomlin has never overseen a losing season in the North Shore.
Many people alive today have never seen Pittsburgh dip under .500. Read that again, and really let it sink in.
The Tomlin detractor brigade regularly manipulate this remarkable feat, with all the contortion skills of an olympic gymnast, to suit their own agenda, a milestone of mediocraty in over a decade of also-running, but beware before boarding the Tomlin bashing bandwagon. This is a Steelers team, and head coach teetering on the verge of sporting immortality, and it won't take a lot to propel this legacy out of the echelons of greatness and into NFL Valhalla.
In the years between 1969 and 2009, our Steelers went about setting the tone for greatness in the NFL. Records were set, legacies established and tales of wonder that would transcend generations of fans were wound.
In 1953, the Detroit Lions became the first team to draft two future hall of famers in the same draft, selecting Messrs YA. Tittle and Doak Walker. The feat was repeated by the Packers in '56, a year before our very own 'auld enemy, the Cleveland Browns managed to better the record, selecting three in Jim Brown, Henry Jordan and Gene Hickerson. That record would stand for a little under twenty years until, as is so often the case for Cleveland, along came the Pittsburgh Steelers.
On January 29th 1974 at the Americana Hotel in New York City, Chuck Noll selected Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster to become the first, and still the only team ever to draft four future hall of famers in a single draft. To put the icing on the cake, we then signed Donnie Shell as a UDFA to complete what is widely regarded as the greatest NFL draft class of all time, setting the standard for not only our organisation, but the game as a whole, and as well all know, the standard is the standard.
Fast forward to February 1st 2009, and the Steelers are on the verge of another NFL record. With Chuck Noll's four Lombardi trophies and Bill Cowher's fifth already secured, only the Arizona Cardinals stood in the way of Tomlin and Roethlisberger et al. leading Pittsburgh to a league first sixth Superbowl victory and surpassing the record they shared with the 49ers and the Cowboys. James Harrison's iconic one hundred yard pick six and Santonio Holmes phenomenal catch endure in the minds of Yinzers the world over and another piece of our sports history was written by the black and gold.
At 6pm GMT, on Sunday 17th November, the Pittsburgh Steelers will make yet more history. No team has ever had to wait until week 11 to face their first divisional rival of the season. In other words, no team has every had to face all six divisional games within their final eight games of the regular season before, and the general consensus amongst the NFL establishment, was that that we would be limping into these next eight games like a wounded animal, beaten and broken and there for the taking. Nobody gave us much hope back in September. Our season was all but written off before it started, and yet, we face the challenge before us with a renewed hope, a sense of belief that we haven't harboured for a number of years, one that many of us may never have experienced. It stands as a testament to the enduring greatness of our organisation and indeed to Mr Tomlin himself that we, as fans, consider such a short period of time devoid of a realistic ability to challenge the paradigm as harshly as we do. Many teams have suffered far longer exiles from success and relevancy coughs Cleveland Browns coughs and the fact that so many of our fans revile Tomlin for his lack of success only goes to prove that we are an organisation operating in levels of expectancy far surpassing many of our peers.
For that, I am truly proud.
Russel Wilson might not be the missing piece of the puzzle. We might have to wait a little longer for number seven, but what he has done, along with GP, Muth, Najee and the phenom that is TJ Watt alongside Cam, Alex Highsmith and my personal favourite player Minkah, is bring relevancy back to the 'Burgh. With just two more wins this year, our team will set it's latest NFL record as the team with the longest consecutive streak of plus .500 seasons in the history of the sport. Two more wins and it will have been twenty one years since the Pittsburgh Steelers lost more games than they won.
There's no argument that Tomlin needs another ring to really put the shine on the shoes he wears for his HoF induction. Wilson might need the ring to cement his place in Canton. TJ deserves one. So does Cam. It might not come this year. We might have to wait a little bit longer, but it all starts here, tonight. Beating Baltimore, coming out of this gauntlet of eight games to finish our 2024 season with our heads held high will send a message that nobody in the NFL can ignore, not Colin Cowherd, not PFF, not anyone who every cast aspersions over our Pittsburgh Steelers.
Our grandfathers had their time, and our fathers had theirs. Maybe this is the dawn of our time.
I for one, dare to believe.
Comments