sports n'at

It was shortly after Ben Roethlisberger was accused a second time of essentially the same crime that I began to sour on the Pittsburgh Steelers, not only as a football team, but as an organization as well. Once the Antonio Brown experiment finally reached its conclusion in the Steel City, I was more than ready to move on. From the team, from the organization, from the sport.

Like so many others, I grew up a Stillers fan, bleeding Black & Gold from Super Bowl IX through the 2010s. We planned our weekends around games, always making sure to be planted in front of the television way before kickoff. While it’s a bit histrionic to say that we lived and died for the team, we were close.

Football, it’s been said, is part of the fabric of southwestern Pennsylvania, home to many, many athletes who have excelled on Friday nights, some of whom went on to play on Saturdays and Sundays. Friday night lights … H2P … the Terrible Towel! The gridiron is part of who we are.

Until it isn’t.

Football, from the top level down, has become unwatchable for me because it’s one of the most self-centered “team” sports on the planet. Players begin to build their brand in Pop Warner, create highlight reels in middle school, and have NIL deals in place - and agents - before graduating high school.

The NCAA football scene, in my opinion, has worsened with the advent of the College Football Playoff, which has provided better competition for the National Championship, but has reduced the playing field to three or four major conferences. That’s hardly parity, especially when the Big Ten and SEC seem to dominate every year.

And then there’s the NFL, which has descended from a watchable sport to a sideshow spectacle that honestly hurts my eyes. The grandstanding and showboating that these alleged professionals exhibit is embarrassing at best. I mean, if every single play is celebrated, how can any play be special?

I’m old enough to remember players like Billy “White Shoes” Johnson and Mark Gastineua, both of whose antics seemed eccentric when they were practicing them in the 1980s. But they were anomalies, exceptions to the rule. Players like Walter Payton and Franco Harris were the humble ones, scoring touchdowns, then handing the ball to an official before moving on to the next play.

Watching a gentleman like Barry Sanders play the game the way I feel all sports should be played was a absolute joy. For me, Sanders was one of the last true athletes who played for the love of the game and no other reason. It’s a shame we don’t have many (any?) more like Barry these days.

These days we get Special Team players who do what they’re supposed to do (i.e. their job), then run 30, 40, 50 yards to celebrate … a tackle … to start the game. It’s a joke.

Then we’ve got players like Joey Porter, Jr., who gets toasted on two consecutive plays, but celebrates wildly when he makes a tackle on the next play, which got the opposing team a first down.

It’s all ME, ME, ME. Players that tell you they’re in it to win it for the T-E-A-M are selling you snake oil because they’re all trying to build their individual brands.  

For as much as I can get past all of that, the off-the-field activities simply became too much, starting with Big Ben, moving through A.B., and settling this year on players like Cam Heyward, DeKaylin Metcalf, and TJ Watt.

Heyward & Watt are clearly good football players, who bring leadership to the field and command respect during the game. How they manage to do that is beyond my comprehension because neither of them showed much in the way of leadership during Training Camp, when both sat out/sat in like spoiled little brats. For all of the tough talk in Pittsburgh, football fans can certainly look past athletes not honoring their contracts. I wonder how those same fans react during a teachers strike? Probably wouldn’t be as well received as Cam & TJ’s little protests were.

And then there’s DK … oh, DeKaylin. I don’t care what Metcalf brings to the team, and I certainly don’t care about his status for the playoffs or anything else. Here’s the reality of the Detroit situation: If Metcalf had connected on his punch and the fan had been injured in any way - especially if the fan had fallen from the stands and died - we would all be having a very different conversation. DeKaylin, and the organization, are 100% at fault, end of story. He shouldn’t have been engaging with anyone in the stands.  

Once Ben was finally, mercifully done with the team, I started to take a rooting interest again. Kenny Pickett’s arrival gave me hope even if Matt Canada’s offense left something to be desired. Then Pickett got traded, Arthur Smith arrived, and nothing really has felt right since. Yeah, I know, the old man got them back to the playoffs, yippee. I’m yawning.

I’ll watch the Texans game although I’ll probably fall asleep before halftime. That’s how much I care.  

I'd like to be the first to congratulate the Pittsburgh Penguins organization for giving a convicted domestic abuser a second chance.  It's not every day that someone like Jamie John (Jon?) Harris, who has been performing his "Shadows of the King" act for decades, can get the opportunity to wipe his past completely clean and get on with the performance.

If you peruse this public Court Summary, you'll notice big words like "aggravated assault", "simple assault", and "Terroristic Threats W/ Int To Terrorize Another", which seem inappropriate for a public performer, one who interacts with children by the way.  Look even closer and you'll notice a "Arrest For Violation of Order (PFA)"; "PFA", for those of you still a little slow on the uptake, stand for Protection From Abuse.

So we can go to a game and not hear "Rock and Roll Part 2" because of Gary Glitter's horrific past, yet we are able to be entertained by someone who thinks smacking his ol' lady around is a-ok?  Bravo, Pens, bravo!

I hear that Sean Parnell will be performing the National Anthem next month. 

Excellent piece profiling Toronto Maple Leafs legend Darryl Sittler, who has the distinction of racking up ten (10) points in a game against the Boston Bruins back on February 7, 1976.  Thank you, Mike Zeisberger, NHL.com Staff Writer, for an in-depth, moving story.  LINK