Mike Toth

Mike Toth is a Connected anchor and writes weekly for Sportsnet.ca.

The NFL season kicked off Thursday and as usual, other leagues were humbled.

It may be hard to believe but in spite of how well the NHL has handled the "Coyote Ugly" affair, the NFL is still the most successful professional sports entity in North America.

That fact was on full display Thursday night with the NFL Kick-Off Celebration; a pageantry of pomp and circumstance that even included a football game between the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans. Up first, however, a pre-game party on NBC that featured The Black Eyed Peas and Tim McGraw.

The Peas are no strangers to pigskin, as they also performed during halftime at the 2005 Grey Cup in Vancouver. Still, while gritting my teeth through something called "Boom Boom Pow," I couldn't help thinking it would be the perfect piece to finally convince Brett Favre to retire. After all, trying to figure out how this poor excuse for noise pollution became a big hit is guaranteed to make anybody feel old and out of touch.

McGraw, on the other hand, was born to be a football front man. In the past, the NFL famously showcased Hank Jr., asking folks if they were "ready for some football!" and McGraw is more than capable of picking up that ball and taking it to the house. Thursday, the country star shone brightest while performing his new single "Southern Voice" a tune that includes tributes to sports heroes such as Bear Bryant, Hank Aaron and Michael Jordan.

And it turns out McGraw throws a pretty solid spiral, too. At the end of his set, he tossed a bunch of footballs into the crowd and managed to complete more passes than this year's edition of the Toronto Argonauts.

But even though McGraw was on top of his game, the best show of the night occurred when the Steelers took the field in front of their Terrible Towel-waving fans. With images of past Steelers legends such as Bradshaw, Franco and Rocky appearing on the TV screen, you could almost smell the blood and sweat that went into the franchise's six Super Bowl titles.

Meanwhile, as the Steelers began defence of their latest crown, the Penguins were at the White House on Thursday being honoured for their Stanley Cup triumph.

How would you like to be a Pittsburgh Pirate?

Surrounded by success, the baseball team has suffered 17 consecutive losing seasons. When you're in a city with three pro franchises, it's tough enough landing the best looking female groupies on the local scene. But if you're a Pirate in Pittsburgh, you have absolutely no prayer of getting lucky on a Saturday night.

To improve their chances with the ladies, and to try to keep from getting their old carcasses fired, a lot of guys on the other side of forty dye their hair. But every time I think about taking the plunge, all I have to do is check out somebody like Al Michaels, the voice of NFL football on NBC. The 64-year-old Michaels is one of the top play-by-play men on the planet. However, judging from the can of black shoe polish he's mixed into his salad, it's obvious that Al still wants to be referred to as "the 24-year-old Al Michaels."

But with apologies to Al's hair stylist, the toughest job in football belongs to Chris Collinsworth. He's the talking head whose been given the impossible task of filling the shoes of John Madden.

It's still hard to believe Madden has retired and on Thursday, you couldn't help but wish it was just a promotional stunt and that with a resounding "Boom!" the big guy would suddenly rush into the booth and grab a microphone. As if to underline the absence, Michaels served up an early verbal softball that Madden would have belted out of the park.

"There's 325-pound Casey Hampton of the Steelers," noted Michaels. "He eats up a whole lot of space."

"Let me tell yah, Al," Madden would have almost assuredly said. "This guy eats up a whole lot of everything."

Collinsworth, on the other hand, chose not to swing at Michaels' pitch. Later, however, he did suggest that the Titans are hoping receiver Nate Washington can be their version of Plaxico Burress.

In other words, Collinsworth put his foot in his mouth in much the same manner that Plaxico shot himself in the leg.

Be that as it may, however, Collinsworth is a consummate pro who definitely hit his stride as the game progressed. Besides, as Madden himself would attest to, the game is always the biggest star and if the game is good, the broadcasters don't have to do very much.

Thursday's tilt, fortunately, was one of those games and it featured a number of memorable moments.

-- Former B.C. Lion Stefan Logan thrilling Canadian fans by receiving the opening kick-off for the Steelers and returning it 40 yards. NFLers who come to Canada are usually big busts and it would be fantastic to see a CFLer cross the border and open some American eyes.

-- Watching "The Hairy Human Highlight Film," Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu. Before he left the game with a scary-looking knee injury, Polamalu and his flowing locks were flying all over the field -- sometimes legally, sometimes not -- but always in exciting fashion. And yes, just in case you were wondering, he and his hair both have an endorsement deal with Head and Shoulders.

-- A Snoop Dogg sighting. Okay, he's not The Black Eyed Peas but at least Snoop loves sports. He's even been spotted at a few NHL games and with that in mind, it wouldn't be a shock to learn that Gary Bettman is trying to convince the multimedia kingpin to buy a certain franchise in Phoenix. "Take it from your old pal Gary, Snoopy my main man. What could be better than the Dogg owning the Desert Dogs?"

-- An unbelievable Hines Ward fumble inside Tennessee's five-yard line with 51 seconds left, sending an exciting contest to overtime. In the end, Ward was spared the goat horns as the Steelers kicked the winning field goal and the Terrible Towels were waving proudly once again.

One of the only real downers?

The hated NFL overtime rule. Sure, Tennessee lost the coin toss in the extra session fair and square (C'mon Titans, you never pick "Tails!") but the opposition should get at least one chance to put their offence on the field before the game ends.

All in all, however, it was a typically grand production from the most powerful league on the continent.

And with the NFL opener out of the way, the NHL would like to remind fans that the Coyotes home opener is set for Saturday, October 10th against Columbus.

The location, of course, still to be determined.