NFL Playoffs: There is no tomorrow
Digest Correspondent
I read and re-read the note from Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola. As I read it, my mind began to drift, my heart rate kicked up a beat or two.
“Digest assignment: Playoff football. How is it different? How do players treat it versus regular season football? Anecdotes. Let it fly.”
Indeed …
Playoff memories from ages ago began to wash across my noggin as I sat there pondering the assignment. Playoff football. What is it that so completely dominates players, coaches, and fans, that so thoroughly drives emotions and passions to the heights of frenzied anticipation when playoffs begin?
There’s only one answer that satisfies. It’s the quest for the big one. The philosophical semi-apology, “We’ll get 'em next time,” in the wake of a loss, gives way to the one and done Apollo Creed-Rocky Balboa simplification of “There is no tomorrow! There is no tomorrow!”
I remember Steelers fans, and seemingly the entire city of Pittsburgh, cresting to a crescendo when the playoffs rolled around with the Chargers coming to town in 1982. Life suddenly kicked into another gear when the Steelers morphed the ‘Burgh into the “City of Champions,” with banners, songs, and throngs.
You immediately became aware, and knew all week long, that this
