RUSH: We welcome now to the program, the Hutch, the Reverend Dr. Ken Hutcherson from Seattle.
RUSH: Very well. I was just sitting here thinking that all this talk about the Packers coming out with four wide receivers or five wide receivers and spreading the field, with all this talk, they’ll probably come out and try to run the ball.
THE HUTCH: (laughing) Well, you know, that’s probably one of the weakest points of the Packers is their running back and fullback situation. But they got a lot of the guns, they got Rodgers back there.
RUSH: They do have Rodgers, but this James Starks guy, he’s a rookie and he popped out of nowhere in the Philadelphia playoff game.
THE HUTCH: Yeah.
RUSH: The Steelers have the number one run defense in the league anyway. But if they want to run the ball, they’ve got personnel to do it, good personnel grouping, but —
THE HUTCH: I think they’re balanced. They didn’t get to the Super Bowl because they got lucky. They have done some things very well and this is the year of the upset, so that’s why I think you gonna be crying Sunday night.
RUSH: No, no, no. The upset would be the Steelers winning.
THE HUTCH: The way the news has been, man, everyone thinks that the Packers are gonna lose. I’m just really surprised at that thinking. But one thing I want to get straight before we get into football and get some of these names and stats —
RUSH: Yeah, right.
THE HUTCH: Is I want to know what the Pittsburgh Steelers is gonna do for you.
RUSH: What will the Pittsburgh Steelers do for me?
THE HUTCH: Yeah. I mean you’ve been the biggest fan ever. You’ve given them more free time than VanCamp’s got pork and beans. What size ring do you wear?
RUSH: I don’t know.
THE HUTCH: You gotta know what size.
RUSH: You think they gotta get me a ring?
THE HUTCH: What’s that?
RUSH: (laughing) Listen, they don’t call you old captain excrement stirrer for nothing.
THE HUTCH: (laughing) I’m just telling you, the Rooneys and John Stallworth, you know that’s my man, we went to the same round and had the same agent when he went to Pittsburgh and I went to Dallas. I’m gonna tell him if the Steelers win… Now, that’s a big if; you know, ‘if’ is the biggest word in the English language. If Custer wouldn’t have went to Little Bighorn he wouldn’t have been wearing an Arrow Shirt. So I want you to know that if the Pittsburgh Steelers win, Rooney needs to write one more check and get you a Super Bowl ring.
RUSH: Well, that’s very kind of you, Hutch, but you and I know that it ain’t happening.
RUSH: (laughing)
THE HUTCH: (laughing)
RUSH: You know what?
THE HUTCH: But if they do they better get you a ring.
RUSH: How do you actually see this turning out? Do you think it’s gonna be a Packers blowout? Do you see where that could happen?
THE HUTCH: Well, I do. That’s why I was gonna make you promise me that you won’t turn the TV off at halftime.
RUSH: I would never turn the Super Bowl off at halftime no matter what’s happening.
THE HUTCH: I think that people are gonna be surprised. I think, you know, Ben, Big Ben, he’s the boy. This is a phenomenal comeback season. After all the controversy starting off, Rush, no one can say that these guys have not come through controversy, and they’ve shown a lot of class.
RUSH: Right.
THE HUTCH: But I do believe that we just got the power. You looking at the linebacker corps over there against the running back. Mendenhall was the workhorse two weeks ago.
RUSH: Yeah.
THE HUTCH: They gonna take Mendenhall out of that game quick. I mean you got the Predator over there, you know, Clay Matthews. They gonna mess up the running game. And Pittsburgh has really done a great job passing. Hasn’t done a very good job the whole year running the ball and rushing the ball, but as far as passing they’ve done a phenomenal job. (crosstalk)
RUSH: Are you saying they’re gonna take Mendenhall out or you’re gonna stop whoever is running the ball?
THE HUTCH: Whoever. But Mendenhall is a big horse. He was the main reason they won two weeks ago with the running game they had with him.
RUSH: Against the Jets?
THE HUTCH: Yeah.
RUSH: Yeah, well, the Jets linebackers aren’t chump change.
THE HUTCH: Yeah, but they’re — hey, wait ’til you see what’s gonna happen this Sunday.
RUSH: Look it, I watch game film myself. I know what the Mendenhall vulnerabilities are. He’s gotta stutter step before he hits a hole. He doesn’t start off at a hundred miles an hour, and if they’ve spotted this on film, if they clog up lanes, I could see where you could be right.
THE HUTCH: They gonna have to get to Ben. They can’t have any broken plays because if you notice over the year, the Steelers have really taken advantage of mistakes.
RUSH: All right, what are the Packers’ vulnerabilities?
THE HUTCH: The Packers vulnerability is definitely gonna be their secondary. I think that they’re gonna have to really, really, really put pressure on Ben, not give him enough time, because their corners and their safeties are vulnerable.
RUSH: Well, but they got Woodson. I mean you wouldn’t —
THE HUTCH: Well, I mean, you know, one out of four, Rush, it takes more than one to make good defense.
RUSH: Well, obviously. Obviously. And the Steelers cornerbacks, I mean they’re good but they’re not the greatest in the league.
THE HUTCH: Oh, no, you know McFadden, you got him, you got Taylor, but, man, you got three wide receivers over there that could be first team on any team with the Packers. You got Driver, you’ve got Jennings, you’ve got Nelson. Any of those guys could start for any team. So they’re gonna put the pressure on them big time and as long as they’re spreading ’em out, which I hope they do, Polamalu is gonna be out of the game, and they gonna keep —
RUSH: You know they’re gonna spread ’em out. That has been the key. I hate to say this, but it’s been the key to beating the Steelers. The Saints did it this year. The Patriots do it every time they play ’em and the Steelers have to know it’s coming and they haven’t been able to stop it when people spread the field out. Now, Cleveland Browns spread the field on you you can handle it, but you get somebody like Tom Brady or Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers doing it, you have a problem.
THE HUTCH: Well, you’ve got a lot better quarterback with Brees, and, you know, Rodgers, and it’s gonna be very difficult for them to keep those linebackers from dropping back. If they do, they gonna get picked to death by — I mean, he reads so well, and (unintelligible). And I hope the one thing that’s gonna be very vulnerable for the Steelers and that is they better not start Pouncey. They better not start Pouncey. I mean Rodgers is gonna have a field — he’s gonna be all pro in that one game when they start that guy center.
THE HUTCH: No, no, no —
RUSH: You haven’t mentioned Casey Hampton. You haven’t talked about James Harrison. You’ve made it sound like the Steelers, all they’re made up of is their cornerbacks in the secondary and that Rodgers is just gonna have a little fun day at the picnic. He’s gotta put up with Farrior, Timmons, Lamar — (crosstalk)
THE HUTCH: You gotta put up with Woodley, yeah, you gotta put up with all those things. But they’re ready for ’em.
RUSH: Well, I gotta think they’re ready for it on both sides of the ball.
THE HUTCH: Hey, if both teams hadn’t played well, Rush, you know as well as I do they wouldn’t be at the Super Bowl, they’d be watching.
RUSH: That’s true.
THE HUTCH: They would be watching. But if you will notice, why do most advertisers want to advertize on the first half?
RUSH: Well, Hutch, it’s because the women stop watching at halftime.
THE HUTCH: (laughing) No. Because they know, man, that the Super Bowl has a tendency to be one-sided. We’ve had some great Super Bowls in the last — (crosstalk)
RUSH: Yeah, but it hasn’t been the case in the last five or six years. This game has gone down to the last play. (crosstalk)
THE HUTCH: But there is a possibility that someone could be put to shame this week. I’m not gonna push, but I believe my Green Bay Packers are gonna come through.
RUSH: All right, if you’re right, let’s just take your hypothesis.
THE HUTCH: Okay.
RUSH: I want you to think about this during the break and tell people about it because the Super Bowl, making it can be one of the greatest things or it can be a curse that ends dynasties.
THE HUTCH: Yes.
RUSH: If the Steelers get blown out of this game, average age I think they’re older than anybody in the league, if they do get blown out of this game, it’s tantamount to blowing up that team and starting over. If they get blown out it’s almost as though they’d rather not have been there at all.
THE HUTCH: You got that right.
RUSH: That’s right. Okay, I knew that. One thing before I go to the break, John Stallworth and you had the same agent?
THE HUTCH: Yeah, yeah. Also drafted in the same round.
RUSH: I had no clue.
THE HUTCH: Yeah, he’s my man. You know, he’s an Alabama boy.
RUSH: Well, I know that. I had no idea that you had the same — every time I talk to you I learn things about you that I didn’t know.
THE HUTCH: See, you should talk to me more often. (laughing)
RUSH: Absolutely. Do you still talk to Stallworth?
THE HUTCH: I haven’t talked to John, it’s gotta be at least five, six years.
RUSH: You and he have a lot in common. He parlayed his football career into a remarkable private sector success story.
THE HUTCH: Yes, he did, up in Huntsville, Alabama.
RUSH: Yeah. He really has. Computer sciences or some such thing.
THE HUTCH: Man, he is one of the prime examples of what athletes need to do after they get out of ball.
RUSH: Yeah. Smart guy, obviously. I’ve never met him.
THE HUTCH: You would love him. Maybe we can set up a time we can get together.
RUSH: Love to. Quick time-out here and we’ll be back. This is Ken Hutcherson who performed the most talked about wedding ceremony in the history of weddings, mine and Kathryn’s. Hutch, people are still talking about it.
THE HUTCH: Wow. (laughing)
RUSH: Well, they are. They’re quoting you verbatim in a lot of cases.
RUSH: All right, now, we go back to the Hutch.
THE HUTCH: Yeah, bro.
RUSH: A decent man, a guy about whom I am honored to call my friend. You’re a great human being, Hutch.
THE HUTCH: Thank you, my brother. You know, it’s friends like you that keep me straight.
RUSH: (laughing)
THE HUTCH: (laughing)
RUSH: I just want to throw a name at you, and —
THE HUTCH: Okay.
RUSH: — that’s Isaac Redman. I guarantee you that if they have problems with Mendenhall, Isaac Redman is not gonna dance to the line. He’s not gonna dance to the hole. He’ll get through there. They have any —
THE HUTCH: I don’t think… Like I said, if Pouncey is trying to go against Raji, Redman is not gonna have a chance.
RUSH: If Pouncey —
THE HUTCH: I think that Adams, and I don’t think Scott — the left tackle and right tackle — are gonna be able to handle the predator, Matthews; and I think they’re gonna shut down the running game because they gotta stop the running game so the passing game of the Steelers would not be effective.
RUSH: Well, I understand the theory — and if Pouncey plays, believe me, it’s gonna be a couple of plays to get him in there.
THE HUTCH: Yeah.
RUSH: He’s a rookie, all pro, first year and so forth.
THE HUTCH: Right.
RUSH: No way with a broken bone and a high sprain he’s gonna be effective, but they might want to get him in for a couple plays just to… They’re that kind of organization, Hutch.
THE HUTCH: I know they are, but that boy, as a rookie, he’s got a whole bunch of seasons ahead of him. They better keep him on the sideline or he’s gonna get more than his (chuckles) bone hurt again.
RUSH: Yeah.
THE HUTCH: He’s gonna get his feelings hurt.
RUSH: Well, what’s…? Now look, I’m not trying to cause any trouble here, but what’s so special of B. J. Raji as opposed to Casey Hampton? He’s the Steelers nose tackle.
THE HUTCH: Yeah. Yeah. Yup.
RUSH: What’s the huff to do about B. J. Raji?
THE HUTCH: Yeah, you gotta understand: Wells isn’t hurt. The centers for the Packers aren’t hurt, right?
RUSH: Well, okay, the center.
THE HUTCH:
RUSH: I know, they call Raji ‘The Freezer,’ as opposed to ‘The Fridge.’
THE HUTCH: Yeah, so the issue that we gotta look at is: Both these teams — if you look at it outside of passing, Rush — are very, very close to being equal.
RUSH: Yeah, one thing that… I’ll tell you one thing impresses me about the Packers. You look at the players they have on injured reserve.
THE HUTCH: Yeah.
RUSH: They lost half a team in week one against the Eagles.
THE HUTCH: Yeah.
RUSH: They lost Ryan Grant. They lost all kinds of guys. They lost their tight end, Jermichael Finley. They’ve lost a lot. That coach has done a good job keeping that team together. Hutch, neither the Steelers nor the Packers have cheerleaders. This is gonna be the first Super Bowl in history, I think, without cheerleaders.
THE HUTCH: (chuckling)
RUSH: Now, as a man of the cloth —
THE HUTCH: Yeah, my bro?
RUSH: — is this progress?
THE HUTCH: The whole aspect of chickification of the game, I’m proud that finally they did something to keep women off the field.
RUSH: (laughing)
THE HUTCH: (laughing)
RUSH: Tell me how the game’s being chickified. I’ve got one minute.
THE HUTCH: Okay. Look at all of the new rules. Everything that keeps you from being boys (laughing) they’re making you get penalties for. You can’t celebrate, and if you do, you gotta do it alone. Helmet to helmet. You can’t have two vicious of a hook. That’s the game of football, and they’re totally feminizing the game, and we’re getting a little tired of it.
RUSH: You think there’s gonna be —
THE HUTCH: Besides, there is a lot more prostate cancer in the world than breast cancer, bro.
RUSH: I hear you, pal.
THE HUTCH: Let’s put some black out there on the field and take care of the guys.
RUSH: I hear you on that. Quick: No doubt there’s gonna be a lockout. Will there be football next season?
THE HUTCH: I think too many guys want their checks and I think that they’re gonna figure some way to get this worked out, Rush. I do, and I think we will have football for the end of the year.
RUSH: That’s the Hutch, the Reverend Dr. Ken Hutcherson from the AB Church in Seattle.