Wow. Last night I was in a CLEVELAND Heights bar and it was 70% full with Pittsburgh Steelers fans who were making 99% of the noise. As they fell further and further behind a few tables started openly rooting for the Jaguars, including ours. I didn't go out looking to root against the Steelers last night--but the obnoxious sell-out Clevelanders pushed me to that point and beyond. Down 18 points to start the fourth quarter, I thought...how sweet. Some fans appeared to be considering going home.Then Pittsburgh scored a touchdown, and I thought to myself (a) uh-oh, there could be a whole lot of shit-talking going on soon, and (b) in a perfect world, the Steelers will come back all the way and lose in a heartbreaking way. Like, for instance, Big Ben having only to take a knee with 20 seconds left and fumbling the snap away. The comeback was unreal. (Not that I know how Hines Ward grabbing the CB's facemask and pulling it down constitutes defensive pass interference on fourth down.) But this was even sweeter. David Garrard's scramble was like a gut punch to 70% of the bar, and got the other 30% louder than ever.
So for today, I'm a Jags fan. And we can all enjoy Maurice Jones-Drew giving up 65 pounds a few weeks ago and blowing up Shawn Merriman, right?
And when it was all over, I just wanted to sit back and smoke a cigar in celebration, that's how satisfying it was. 2007 brought us that sick-to-your-stomach feeling about a dozen times. Let 2008 bring it to someone else.