In all honesty, I was hoping for a sinkhole to appear at the 50-yard line and swallow both sidelines whole, rendering the results of the New York Jets-Pittsburgh Steelers AFC Championship game moot.
Unfortunately, that did not transpire, and we are left with a Super Bowl featuring the Green Bay Packers — as Marcus Hartman of Buckeye Sports Bulletin tweeted, “Baaaaa-dump-ba-dump-bump-bump GO PACK GO” — and the Heinz Hilljacks.
When it comes to the players that will comprise the rosters of the two Super Bowl participants, though, there is a very big surprise amongst the powerhouse collegiate football programs. According to a press release fired off within minutes of the end of the AFC title game, there are four Div. 1-A schools that will have four players each on the active rosters of the respective teams that will square off amidst and around the commercials for the right to hoist the Lombardi.
Three of those programs are to be expected — LSU, Ohio State and Tennessee. The fourth? The mighty Chippewas of Central Michigan.
Yep, venerable CMU will have four former players on the active rosters representing the Chips when the Packers and Steelers take the field at Jerry’s World – Cullen Jenkins, Frank Zombo and Josh Gordy are with the NFC champions, while Antonio Brown is in his rookie season with the AFC champions.
Of course, this post does not come without a bit of controversy.
Shortly after posting portions of CMU’s release on CFT’s Twitter feed, the whining commenced. Specifically, the whining about Ryan Mundy‘s rightful collegiate slot commenced in earnest. The Pittsburgh defensive back graduated from Michigan, but finished his collegiate football career at West Virginia. Some Twits were arguing for his inclusion as a Wolverine, which would give the Ann Arbor school four former players in the Super Bowl.
And there were also a couple of tweets from Tennessee fans declaring that there were actually five ex-Vols that are members of the two teams participating in the Super Bowl.
Frankly, we don’t care enough about this to cross-check the work of the CMU sports information department.
We find it astonishing enough that CMU is actually in the discussion for “most players from one Div. 1-A football program in the 2011 Super Bowl”. And that was the whole point of this endeavor.
Don’t ESPNificate the name: Chippewas but NOT Chips (Do you expect to eat just one?).
I understand that you are the know-all and be-all of college football, but you do realize that CMU’s rally cry is “Fire Up Chips!”, right?
Yes the Vols have 5 Green Bay has Chad Clifton, Justin Harrell, and Scott Wells Pittsburgh has Ramon Foster and Chris Scott.
I happen to be Ojibwe — we don’t call ourselves Chips. It’s one of the big reasons why Natives want them to stop using these names (Just as there are no natives,even the Seminoles, that chant like Florida State).
We LSU alums are happy to see fellow LSU alums playing for the big marbles. A good program at LSU, headed by Coach Miles and his staff, building boys into men, and at the same time producing top 10 teams, often vying for and competitive with the best in the SEC and nation, not afraid of high level competition (how could you be in the SEC West anyway?) and scheduling Oregon as the first game in 2011 season? We’ll enjoy the tailgating, games and even the good seats we’ll have, some advantages of old time alumnis. Congrats to the Chippewas! Merci Beaucoup Coach Miles! Geaux Tigers!
Will Eric Estrada be there too? Go Chips!
When I was at CMU, the Saginaw Chippewa’s chief talked at our orientation events, and he would start a “Fire up Chips!” chant. You could see the Diversity officials cringing on stage. There were also quite a few tribal members who would use “Fire up Chips!” as well in regards to athletics. It certainly isn’t an uniform position of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe.
I thought Frank Zombo played at Western Michigan??????? Could’ve swore thats what they said when I watched a Packers preseason game this year….so somebody somwhere is wrong.
Odds are that its me.
Hey edgy, wah.
rreck5,
I suppose you have the same problem with people complaining about the n-word. Would you tell any of the black people here or any where else that they were crying because they didn’t like being called that or having Al Jolson put on black face and singing “Mammy”?
I guess the rest think that as long as you can get a couple of people to go along with it that it’s ok. You can’t get people to do the right thing like they did at Stanford and other places. I know that a lot of people get desensitized to this, especially when they’re not a member but I have to wonder if you think that a lot of Sioux appreciate T-shirts showing a Bison screwing a Native American like they’ve had in North Dakota.
To get on topic, does it really matter what school has the most? It’s more a matter of pride than of any real consequence, especially if they happen to be sitting on the bench for most of the game.
What exactly did the first two paragraphs have to do with this story??
The point of this whole endeavor … hah! We know better now, don’t we?
If the Brownies were playing the Packers in the Super Bowl, I’d root for you guys. But it’s not like that’s gonna happen anytime soon
You know the SEC philosophy … the more Lombardis our division collects, the more it boosts all our stock. And since my Steelers seem to be the only team serious about collecting Lombardis, you guys should give them all the support you can
GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!
Hey edgy, take your PC crap and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.