The Pittsburgh Steelers will face the Arizona Cardinals in this Sunday's Super Bowl. To our readers from everywhere but North America, that's the championship game of the sport where the ball bounces funny (no, not rugby).
As everyone knows, Barack Obama is from Chicago. That makes him a Bears fan. But that hasn't stopped the press from asking who he's rooting for in the big game. His answer?
''Other than the (Chicago) Bears,'' Obama said, ''the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart.''
You might be asking yourself, how does a guy who was born in Hawaii, lived in Indonesia, attended college in L.A. and New York, law school in Boston, and spent his adult life in Chicago become such a sentimental Steelers fan?
Well...Pittsburgh=Western Pennsylvania/Eastern Ohio media markets=key electoral battlegrounds=2010/2012 elections=Steelers fans are really, really important in American politics.
If it sounds trivial, you've never met this guy:
Football matters.
