“Pittsburgh macho” may haunt the Steelers.
The Green Bay Packers are led by a neighborhood kid who worked his way through college as a tollbooth collector on the Pennsylvania turnpike. His father, a Pittsburgh cop, also tended bar.
Coach Mike McCarthy is a Steel City kid trying to beat his hometown team as the Packers meet Pittsburgh in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
“I’m proud of my hometown,” McCarthy said. “The Steelers are my second-favorite team.”
There are Packers flags proudly displayed in the Pittsburgh neighborhood where McCarthy’s parents live, defying local pressure. Their son loves the Steelers, too, but business is business.
McCarthy spent media week talking as much about his boyhood team as his current one. How Jack Lambert was his favorite player. How meeting Steelers owner Art Rooney was akin to the thrill of a District youth running into President Obama at Ben’s Chili Bowl. How the “Pittsburgh macho” reference by a Packers executive upon McCarthy’s hiring was praise for a region that produces players like Dan Marino, who grew up not far from McCarthy.
Sometimes McCarthy watched the games from his dad’s bar, one of those neighborhood joints that blended right into the block as a converted house. The tavern was closed on Sundays back then, and McCarthy and four siblings spent the down time cleaning the place with the game on TV in the background.
“It was all about watching the Steeler games,” McCarthy said. “That’s a part of the fiber of growing up in Pittsburgh. It’s the same thing in Wisconsin. It’s very, very similar. It’s all about your home team.
“Growing up in Pittsburgh is a big part of who I am. But I am a Green Bay Packer, and we’ve come here to claim the Lombardi Trophy.”
Vince Lombardi’s name comes up quite often around McCarthy. Not that the Packers haven’t had another great coaches. Their stadium is named after Curly Lambeau. Mike Holmgren won a title, too. Lombardi became a legend in between by winning the first two Super Bowls.
As steeped as McCarthy’s past is in Steelers traditions, the past five years have been spent living by the pride of the Packers.
“When you walk in your building every day and you have pictures of Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi and Mike Holmgren, our history is among us all the time,” McCarthy said. “It creates a standard, an expectation that fits right along with our vision. I look at the history of the Green Bay Packers as a tremendous asset to our football team.”
McCarthy has certainly done a tremendous job juggling a roster that opened 3-3 and needed to win three road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl. Green Bay lost 15 players to injured reserve. Thirty-one Packers missed a combined 180 games this season. That’s not just coaching; it’s crisis management.
The old neighborhood will forgive McCarthy should he deny the Steelers their seventh Super Bowl. After all, he’s one of them.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com and on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or e-mail [email protected]
