Football season is a six-month commitment, but that shouldn’t hamper your ability to socialize if you’re just tuning in for tomorrow’s Super Bowl. Tackle these helpful crib notes on the rival teams — the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers — and you’ll avoid fumbling an opportunity to stay in the game.
1. With six championships to their name, the Steelers have more Super Bowl titles than any other NFL franchise, closely followed by Dallas and San Francisco. This will be the third Super Bowl appearance by the Steelers in six years.
2. Green Bay’s “Cheesehead” nickname was originally a pejorative lobbed from folks in nearby Chicago. Wearing the nom de dairy on supporters’ heads began in 1987, when Milwaukee fan Ralph Bruno created the original out of his mother’s sofa, which he was reupholstering. He wore it to a Brewers baseball game, and the cheddar chapeau has been worn by Packers fans ever since. “We’ve been running the machines 20 hours a day to keep up with the demand,” says Denise Kaminski, manager of Foamation, the company that holds the Cheesehead hat patent.
3.The Pittsburgh Steelers’ gold Terrible Towel was a gimmick dreamed up by a radio personality to rev up fans for a 1975 playoff game. After gold hand towels disappeared from stores in bulk, an official, branded version was created, and is currently made in – of all places! – Wisconsin. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Allegheny Valley School — a school for children with special needs.
4.If you can’t tell defense from offense, let the hair be your guide. The long, black curly locks in a Steelers uniform belong to safety Troy Polamalu, who was just named the NFL’s top defensive player by the AP. If there’s a cascade of straight blond hair in a Packers jersey, it’s linebacker Clay Matthews, who was ranked No. 2 — in on-field play, not hair.
5.The ’85 Chicago Bears had William “The Refrigerator” Perry, but the Packers have “The Freezer” in 6-foot-2 lineman B.J. Raji, who weighs a whopping 337 pounds.
6.In a controversial safety-minded decision made mid-October, the NFL instituted a rule fining players who inflict devastatingly strong hits to their opponents’ heads. It particularly affected the hard-nosed Steelers and their ferocious linebacker, James Harrison, who racked up $125,000 in fines.
7.Packers coach Mike McCarthy grew up in Pittsburgh as a devout Catholic and Steelers fan. His childhood Sundays revolved around Mass and Steelers games, but now his mother has rid her home of Steelers ephemera and replaced it with green and gold.
8.Steeler Ben Roethlisberger, who wears No. 7 in honor of his boyhood hero, Denver Bronco star John Elway, was at 23 the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl (in 2006). He currently has two titles under his belt.
