All posts tagged Pittsburgh Steelers

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.”

Living Behind Enemy Lines

By | January 26, 2011 | Football, NFL | 3 Comments

That's an expensive tie.

I’m a Cleveland Browns fan. I live in Pittsburgh. And believe me, I understand what Chicago resident John Stone is feeling.

Sort of.

Stone is the latest victim of what we’re going to call Sports Discrimination, which is what happens when an out-of-town sports fan pokes the locals by wearing gear of his favorite team and then is shocked — SHOCKED — when he catches some abuse in return.

Stone was working as a salesman at a Chicago-area auto dealership, and one day after Green Bay beat the Bears, Stone, a Packers fan, wore his favorite Packers tie to work. The trouble is that he not only works with a business full of pissed-off Bears fans, but the guy who signs his paychecks is also a sponsor for Bears radio broadcasts. That guy doesn’t want to irritate any potential customers, so he tells Stone to take off the tie. Stone refuses, apparently several times.

And Stone was fired.

This seems to happen a lot during the NFL playoffs. It happened a couple weeks ago in Tacoma, Wash., when Grendon Bailie , a seventh-grade student at Truman Middle School, had the audacity to wear a Steelers jersey to school on a day when the school’s normally strict dress code had been relaxed to allow Seahawks gear. Bailie was sent home for the day.

And then there was Joshua Vannoy, a student at Beaver Falls (Pa.) High School who wore a Denver Broncos jersey to school during a Steelers playoff run in 2006. Vannoy’s teacher in the school’s honors ethnic relations class made Vannoy take a test while sitting on the floor in the middle of the classroom; the teacher, John Kelly, also had the other students in the class throw wads of paper at Vannoy while he took the test.

Outrageous, right?

Maybe. Think about the context in each situation.

Stone is an at-will employee. When the boss tells you to do something, it’s probably best that you do it.

Vannoy was abused in a ethnic relations class where the teacher frequently singled out students so they could have some real-life experience with the subject matter; the teacher said he saw Vannoy’s John Elway jersey as a an opportunity for another teaching moment. To my knowledge, no one else in the class sued the teacher and the district because they felt “dehumanized.”

I think the administrators at Bailie’s school could have cut him some slack, but if they make one exception to a strict dress code — Seahawks gear only — then they can at least say they’ve been consistent in the enforcement of those rules.

And here’s the other thing: I’ll cut the middle-school kid some slack, but I am not buying the notion that Stone or Vannoy were surprised when their co-workers or classmates reacted negatively. When I drive around Pittsburgh with the Browns flag flapping from the passenger-side window, I know I’m going to get some middle fingers. When I leave home wearing my Bernie Kosar jersey, I expect some comments when I’m walking around town.

I’m not surprised by it; the reactions are why I do it. Stone’s a grown-up, Vannoy an honors student; each had to know they were in for a little abuse when they showed up at work and/or school, and in both cases, they reacted badly.

Photo source.

Steelers: Bigger Than Ben Roethlisberger

By | January 26, 2011 | Football | 9 Comments

Tweets about evil quarterbacks and home team love were running rampant during Sunday night’s AFC championship game between the Steelers and Jets. Some chimed in about never forgiving Michael Vick, a position I support with every fiber of my being. As a Pittsburgh resident, I’m caught between a rock and very hard and cold place. I love my Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger? Not so much. At the start of the season I went on record saying I’d rather see Charlie Batch and that Leftwich guy play every down, even if it meant we would lose every game, than have Ben as our quarterback. Unfortunately, head coach Mike Tomlin and the Rooney family ownership group didn’t call to consult with me.

Draft Day Suit coach Laurie and I had the following exchange:

No.No.No. Not the gagging part. I get that, but I know I can love a team while harboring intense hatred for their quarterback.  There’s more to love about the Steelers than Ben. So much more.

Like head coach Mike Tomlin, a man I respect and trust like few other people I have never met. He’s a grown up, despite being an infant in NFL head coaching terms at just 38 years old. (For a little comparison, his defensive coordinator, Dick LeBeau, is 73 and already in the Hall of Fame.) When Tomlin and his family moved to Pittsburgh he didn’t settle in one of the ‘burbs, like most of the team has done. He very purposefully bought a house right in the city, in the heart of the East End. He’s our kind of no nonsense, work hard, get the job done sort of guy.

Like Troy Polamalu, who will hang out with kids and throw passes for hours in Arizona, surely risking sun damage to his heavily insured locks.

Like the Rooney family, owners of the team since 1933 and named by Sport Illustrated as the best NFL ownership group in 2009. While the record of six Super Bowl victories is admirable, what amazes me most is that since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the Steelers have had exactly three head coaches. Three. I’ll wait while you do a little math and wrap your head around that. While certainly not the only measure of a franchise, it speaks volumes about the way the franchise is run.

And like Antonio Brown, a rookie who found himself getting the call at the end of the two most important games of the season (so far). And he did.not.fail. I like his mind as much as his sure hands. In a post-game interview following the victory over the Ravens, Brown said, “I’m a part of something special — something that’s bigger than me.”

Say that again. Bigger than himself. Bigger than any one guy. Bigger than, dare I say it, the quarterback.

Packers v. Steelers in Super Bowl XLV

By | January 24, 2011 | Football, NFL | 4 Comments

It’s the Pack and the Stillers in the Super Bowl, dudes.

The Jets crashed and burned (You should believe me when I say that that pun was totally unintended. Weird.) and the Bears resembled a cast of men trying out for Friday Night Lights, which made it not all that difficult, honestly for the Steelers and Packers to win the NFC and AFC divisional titles respectively today. This is not to take away from respectable performances from both of these teams, no way. But it’s just a lot easier when your opponents — the people who have somehow risen to second place, which is to say right behind you — look just that bad.

Chicago suffered a string of quarterback injuries and overall lackluster performance from starter Jay Cutler and replacement Todd Collins, leaving them with their third pick, Caleb Hanie, who gave what was arguably the most exciting showing of the night, actually putting some points on the board.

Image courtesy ChicagoBears.com

Twitter went nuts on Cutler when he left the game in the third quarter and didn’t return. (“He’s dead to me,” one Bears fan said directly to me.) But his coaches and sports analysts in the know say that pulling him had nothing to do with his toughness. Linebacker Brian Urlacher, for one, wouldn’t hear it.

“I don’t give a shit about players around the league who are watching the game from home. It’s easy to talk shit about someone while you’re sitting on your couch watching the game. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it. Let them sprain their MCL — or do whatever he did to his knee — and let them get back in the game. Let’s see them do that, see how well they run the ball, or see how well they do at whatever position they play. I don’t agree with it. It’s easy to write that stuff on the Internet.”

Urlacher was responding to players like Maurice Jones-Drew from the Jaguars who tweeted:

Kerry Rhodes from the Arizona Cardinals:

Rhodes apologized later, saying, “I wanna apologize to cutler if he tore a ligament in his knee! Not good.” One will note that neither Rhodes’s nor Jones-Drew’s team was anywhere near the playoffs at the end.

In Pittsburgh, Sanchez could do nothing right in the first half and neither could his defense. Roethlisberger and his offensive line were on point, rendering a solid defense apparently, well, defenseless, in their wake. Even though the Steelers went scoreless in the second half and the Jets staged a comeback that made the game less than a depressing blowout, it wasn’t enough. The rivers flowed with wine and the Steelers emerged victorious.

Also Rex Ryan threw his headset on the ground unceremoniously, and a lot of guys slowly took in the knowledge that they’d be looking for work again very soon. As in now.

The Steelers-Packers Super Bowl matchup in Dallas should be fun to watch, at the very least. Who’s your pick?

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
← Older Entries
Newer Entries →