I’m not sure about you, but woke fatigue is sometimes a real thing for me. Not just getting tired of the left’s antics, words, violence, and lies, but also getting tired of getting tired. You need a lift at times like that, even though you can still see that wokeness all around you.
Case in point is the Super Bowl. I’ve been hearing from a lot of you that you have no plans to watch the Super Bowl for pretty obvious reasons. Not only do I understand it, but to a good degree I feel the same way as you.
I have watched the NFL for the vast majority of my life. Football is my number-one sport. I love the game, and not in some fantasy football way. From kickoff to final whistle, I could sit through just about any football game, from peewee leagues to the pros.
As much as I like to watch what happens “between the sidelines,” I’ve never gotten caught up in the off-the-field drama. I could do without it mostly, and in an growing number of cases, it’s caused me to back away from the game.
This was the moment that did it for me — Sept. 25, 2017. Like so many Steelers fans, I sat down to watch the game and was really looking forward to the season. This was in the midst of the Colin Kaepernick saga, when he dragged the whole league down to his level.
Surely my Steelers wouldn’t sit for the anthem, would they? They did something worse. The coach at the time, Mike Tomlin—it was reported then—made the decision to keep the whole team in the locker room so that players who chose to sit during the anthem wouldn’t be called out individually. The empty bench said more, whether Tomlin realized it or not. It came off as a show of unified disrespect for the national anthem.
One Steeler literally stood out. Alejandro Villanueva, a West Point graduate and combat veteran, was the only Steeler to show up for the anthem and give it his respect.
Up to that point I was a lifelong Steelers fan with no reservations. In seconds that changed. “Who is this team? I don’t know it,” I thought.
I didn’t decide to boycott the Steelers at that moment. I just could not watch them or any NFL team anymore. A lot of Steelers fans and NFL fans felt the same way.
This lasted a very long time. I didn’t sit down to watch a Steelers game on purpose even once in the years prior to the pandemic in 2020. To be clear, I’m not saying I didn’t see any games—there were Super Bowl parties for social reasons, and depending on where I happened to be, a game may have been on someone else’s TV. But for the most part, I found other things to do with my Sundays.
Once the pandemic hit, football in an empty stadium was unwatchable for me, including college games. And so, I probably didn’t start watching the NFL and the Steelers for pleasure until around 2022, five years later. It was gradual. Maybe I watched four Steelers games that year?
But it was never the same, and it still isn’t. So, when someone tells me they can’t watch the NFL, I get it.
Now, I just try to ignore the wokeness that has crept into the game at all levels, and tune everything out until gametime. As soon as the game is over, I turn it off. No commentary, no off-the-field drama, no nothing.
That brings me to today. I’m not a fan of the Seahawks or the Patriots. I’d prefer it if neither team won another Super Bowl trophy, but somebody has to win. Still, the teams match up pretty well, and it looks like it could be a good, competitive game. If you like to watch football being played at the highest level, I don't think you'll be disappointed. That is all I will tune in to see.
I’ll watch the first half, switch over to the Turning Point USA halftime show, and then tune back to NBC for the second half of the game. I’ll be surrounded by friends and family. Around our house, Super Bowl Sunday feels like a holiday.
In that spirit, I’m going to ditch the NFL wokeness fatigue and share with you some of my favorite Super Bowl moments from years gone by. This is my favorite of all time. They didn’t have a taunting penalty like they do today, so during Super Bowl X, when the Dallas Cowboys’ Cliff Harris patted Steelers’ kicker Roy Gerela on the head after he missed a field goal, Steelers Hall-of-Fame linebacker Jack Lambert took matters into his own hands.
That changed the momentum of the whole game and almost guaranteed that the Steelers would win on that day.
Another moment I can still see in my mind comes from Super Bowl XLII. The New York Giants’ Eli Manning threw downfield to receiver David Tyree in the final two minutes of the game. Tyree nabbed the ball with one hand, a strong grip, and his helmet. This play will forever be known as “helmet catch.”
18 years ago tonight: the #Giants upset the 18–0 Patriots in Super Bowl XLII — highlighted by Eli Manning’s escape and David Tyree’s miraculous helmet catch.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 3, 2026
pic.twitter.com/qsqGMf1T5q
The Steelers gave me another memory the year after “Helmet Catch” with this interception return for a touchdown from James Harrison, a Steelers linebacker not known for his speed.
Officially 17 years ago today and will never get old
— Matthew Luciow (@matthewluciow92) February 1, 2026
James Harrison to Mike Tomlin after his Super Bowl Pick Six:
“I’m Tired Boss.” #steelers pic.twitter.com/wCPNOdo9VJ
The reason these plays stick out for me isn’t that my favorite team in the game won, or even that the play itself was pivotal to the outcome of the game. It was that, in every instance, a player had to step outside of himself, and even outside of the game, to take the whole thing to another level. A place where it wasn’t about Xs and Os, or skill.
John Elway did that in Super Bowl XXXII in a play now dubbed the “helicopter dive.”
"The Elway-Copter"
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) January 25, 2026
Super Bowl XXXII
John Elway's clutch 8-yard, third-down run in the third quarter of #Broncos' first Super Bowl triumph. #BroncosCountry
January 25, 1998 pic.twitter.com/tKLvSqaKXH
He didn’t score on the play, but he did something more important for a quarterback: He led.
You can’t seriously think about Super Bowl moments without thinking of Tom Brady. He provided so many. I never once rooted for him, since my favorite team was the Steelers, but you can’t take away from the fact he’s one of the greatest QBs of all time.
The play I remember most from his Super Bowls stands out because of the way the receiver refused to let the ball drop. Julian Edelman made what is now known as the “juggle catch.” It’s one of those plays that wouldn’t be what it is without video replay and state-of-the-art videography. Most people will see this in real time and say there’s no way this was a catch. But the eye in the sky says it was.
On this Day in Super Bowl History: Julian Edelman’s Legendary catch that helped catapult the Patriots to the greatest comeback in NFL History.
— Dr. Borus 🦖 (@DILFBorus) February 5, 2026
pic.twitter.com/rJhcKIG4f0
The Buffalo Bills lost four Super Bowls during the Jim Kelly era, but for a team that didn’t win, it has gone down in Super Bowl lore as having in the heart of a lion, never quitting. As much as I liked Kelly, he wasn’t flashy. He didn’t rely on the big play. He beat teams methodically. It didn’t hurt that he had Thurman Thomas in his backfield.
This play stands out for me because it perfectly captures the character of those Bills teams. This play didn’t win the game for Buffalo, but it shows football at its purest. (Excuse the quality of this video. For a number of reasons, this is the best we could do.)
1990: Super Bowl Week- @OJAnderson24 won the MVP, but if Norwood's FG didn't go wide right, it was going to go to Thurman Thomas. His 31 yard TD run in 4Q gave the Bills a 19-17 lead over #NYGiants & highlighted his 135 yards on the ground. pic.twitter.com/yFJ19fRAAR
— BigBlueVCR (@BigBlueVCR) February 3, 2026
This is by no means a comprehensive list of plays I remember from past Super Bowls. It’s just a taste to remind you (and me) of just how great football can be, if the NFL would only let it. What Super Bowl moments stick out for you? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
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