All posts tagged Pittsburgh Steelers

Dying For A Superbowl (or not)

By | January 8, 2012 | Coaches, Dain Bramage, Football, injuries, NFL | No comments
Football-stretcher

Two NFL players put health in the spotlight this week and their stories are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

San Diego Chargers’ offensive lineman Kris Dielman, who happens to have two little kids, was quoted saying he would put going for a win ahead of his own health. Later in the article he says that he would get cleared by doctors but since the Chargers didn’t make the playoffs it’s a moot point.

This is in stark contrast to Ryan Clark, free safety of the Pittsburgh Steelers’, who will sit out today’s playoff game against the Broncos due to sickle cell trait and the issues associated with playing at altitude. Clark had problems in 2007, when playing in Denver ended up costing him his spleen, gallbladder, and about 30 pounds. He hasn’t played a game in Denver since.

Read more…

Looking at the NFL Playoff Picture: The AFC

By | January 4, 2012 | NFL, playoffs | 3 Comments
Dear Jesus, please don't let this family sure me.

Aw Christ, Denver made it into the playoffs? The only good that will come of this is more Tebow jokes.

But lo – I’m not here to make fun of Tim Tebow. I am here to talk about the playoff picture in the AFC.

Read more…

Why I Love…the Seattle Seahawks

By | October 12, 2011 | Football, NFL, Why I Love... | Comments Off
Matt Hasselbeck

I had just graduated from college and, while waiting for WNBC to offer me a radio disk jockey position as Howard Stern’s replacement, took a job in my home town of Lancaster, Pa., at a now-defunct sports bar called Rookies. Lacking any obvious Budweiser-pouring and hot wings-frying skills, Rookies’ management hired me on as one of two male servers. (The other guy was “the hot one.”)

Now, Rookies was a typical sports bar in most ways, except for a carefully crafted niche: they made sure to advertise the fact that, in the modern age of 1997, they had 4,731 televisions* and, therefore, could show every single NFL game playing on any given Sunday at the same time. You can probably guess that this excited a lot of people in my hometown in Pennsyltucky: “IGGLES. STILLERS. COWBOYS. WE CAN SEE ALL OF THE GAMES. Pack up the kids and let’s go.”

Read more…

Dancing With the Football Star: Mirror Ball for Hines Ward

By | May 25, 2011 | Celebrity Athletes, Contest!, Football, injuries, NFL, Payoffs | 2 Comments

With all the hysteria in Pittsburgh today, you’d think Steelers receiver Hines Ward had just hoisted this trophy once again:

Nope. The trophy behind the hoopla is this one. And Ward won it for dancing.

That’s Ward and his dancing partner, Kym Johnson, on Tuesday night, as they won the coveted (ahem) Mirror Ball Trophy as the best dancers on this season’s Dancing With The Stars. And Pittsburgh is as excited about this win as it would have been for winning a Super Bowl ring for the other, uh, other thumb.

I’m normally not too crazy about all the extracurricular stuff that goes with living in Stiller* Country, but I have to give Hines credit. I watched nearly every episode — a problem I brought upon myself by agreeing to sort of cover the series as part of my real job — and the football player acquitted himself well. Ward’s personality — which I’ve heard described as something like shooting sunshine out his ass — was evident on the dance floor, and he was consistently rewarded for it by the judges, who were responsible for half of the total scores for each couple.

The other half? I imagine there was some serious ballot-box stuffing on the part of Stiller Nation.

But if I’m a Stillers fan — and I most definitely am not — I still might have a couple questions about the worth of Ward’s appearance on the show. He’ll apparently soon have surgery to repair one of his ring-laden thumbs, although the injury appears to be football-related and not a rogue paso doble sprain. And while Ward is generally one of the most sure-handed receivers in football, he had one big drop on the show — as in dropping Johnson on her head during a rehearsal session:

Ow.

But I suspect that as long as dropping dancers doesn’t translate into dropping football the next time Ward’s on the field, Pittsburgh is going to be OK with any little nagging troubles left over from the show. We love us some football, and we love us some reality TV — the winner of the first Survivor All-Star season is a Pittsburgher, after all — and putting the two together has made for a fun off-season.

Hm. American Idol is holding auditions in Pittsburgh on July 15. I wonder if Ben Roethlisberger knows how to sing?

*Preferred local pronunciation.

Photo sources: One. Two. Three: A screen cap I took myself.

The Most Hated Man in Cleveland

By | February 6, 2011 | Football, NFL | 1 Comment

Early Sunday evening, I once again take my mantle as the most hated man in Cleveland. Ok. Maybe not really. But I will definitely be less well-liked. I will go from my normal, unremarkable low ranking on the hated power-meter and skyrocket up near the top.

Becoming a Steelers Fan. (pbs.org)

Why? Well, because the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Super Bowl. And my name is Roger and I am a Steelers fan living in Cleveland. It helps to admit when you have a problem.

How does one become a Steelers fan in Cleveland ? One Pennsylvanian-native parent and a childhood of brainwashing usually do the trick. In any picture of me under the age of 12, there’s about a 78% chance I’m wearing a Steelers t-shirt. Don’t get me wrong, I look good, but with that attire there was probably also a 78% chance of having a brick thrown at me.  Like a lot of things in sports there are plenty of people who take this rivalry a wee bit too seriously.

Why is coach wearing a helmet?

It’s not easy though. I love my city and being a fan of her most-hated (and very successful) rival is a touchy issue.  Whenever I’m around a friend who doesn’t yet know I’m a Steelers fan, there inevitably comes a moment when they will say something like, “Man, can you believe how much bronzer Mangini is wearing this year?”  That’s when I have to come clean.  “You know, I’m actually a Steelers fan.”

You ever kicked a puppy?  They just get this look on their face like, “Why did this happen?  Why did you do that to me?”  And before the red-hot burn of anger comes to their face, I first see them flash me the “kicked puppy.”  After explaining my dad is from Pennsylvania and a Steelers fan, I usually get a begrudged grunt of acceptance – not as a human being, just acceptance that my reasons for rooting for a hated enemy are somewhat legitimate.

So tomorrow as the Steelers try for their seventh Super Bowl title, I will sit in my chair at my own Super Bowl party knowing that my dad and I are the only ones in the house rooting for a Steelers win.  It’s a special bond we share.

And when we (hopefully) hear the groans of disappointment at another Steelers victory, I’ll look over to my dad and say, “Thanks for not forcing me into being a fan of the Pirates.”

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
← Older Entries