Following his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, President Barack Obama was in Wisconsin giving a speech on Wednesday. He wished the crowd good luck for their hometown Packers, but also added that next year he hoped the team wouldn't be as lucky.
"I'm glad to see that one of the greatest rivalries in sports is still there," he told the crowd during a follow-up speech after his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
"And we will get you next year. I'm just letting you know."
Obama, an avid Chicago Bears fan, was obviously disappointed with the outcome of the NFC Championship game. He will not be in attendance at the Super Bowl, but that didn't stop Packer defensive back Charles Woodson from responding.
"The president don't want to come watch us win the Super Bowl?" he said. "Guess what? We'll go see him."
Obama has expressed his support of the Steelers in the past, most notably during the 2008 presidential election campaign, when Steelers owner Dan Rooney joined Obama in western PA to lend support. Rooney was eventually named as the American ambassador to Ireland, but the President's support of the Steelers was born long ago, when a young Obama was growing up in Hawaii.
Growing up in Hawaii, Obama did not have a local team. Like many such fans who came of age in the 1970s, Obama latched on to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who won four Super Bowls in that era. The Steelers have won two more National Football League titles in the past five years.
The President put his support behind the Steelers two years ago, prior to Super Bowl XLIII, and the Steelers wound up beating the Arizona Cardinals for the franchise's sixth Super Bowl trophy. While he hasn't explicitly come out in support of Pittsburgh (yet) this year, his remarks seem to indicate an anti-Green Bay stance, which is good enough for Steelers Nation. For now.