So let me get this straight, Pittsburgh sports fans.
The Penguins just hired their bogeyman from the 1980s to be their new general manager. Your new boss is a guy who openly appointed the franchise on two different occasions. The power game is a mess. And Tristan Jarry is as unstable as the camera work during the Super Bowl break Show.
Still, is everything I receive in my email a negative reaction about the Steelers?
Well, that and films from the 1990s, it seems.
See yourself at “Are you crazy, man?”
Kathryn thinks I have been a little too hard on Ben Roethlisberger lately.
“It is up to Ben and the Steelers to decide who should retire and not some crazy person, reporter !! #! #! #. I think this reporter should retire for lack of realistic, accurate and true reporting. Ben is the best of all !! “
Kathryn, believe me when I say this reporter would gladly take your crazy golden parachute and retire.
If he had already made $ 253 million as Roethlisberger.
However, I think your email is neither “real” nor “real”. Because, despite all that money, Big Ben has another $ 19 million coming in 2021. And I would never envy a man to earn $ 19 million more, even though he has already earned 250 million.
Then he can come back if he wants to. I’m not “telling him to retire”. But if I’m Art Rooney II, I’m not paying him that much money based on how he fared in the last six weeks of last year. It’s time to move on.
Oh, and as for the “best of all” part of your email, I think Tom Brady might disagree with your assessment.
Speaking of Brady, I have been. A lot lately. And that seems to have irritated Mike. He sent an email from Jacksonville, Florida.
“I admire you for trying to remove the black and yellow glasses from fans when it comes to Pittsburgh sports teams. I’m just surprised that you don’t take the same approach when it comes to Tom Brady.
Look, the guy deserves some credit, but could the whole world of journalism simply acknowledge that he benefited from SpyGate and DeflateGate?“
“Any credit?” Wow, Mike, thanks for allowing so much.
Perhaps the news travels slowly to Jacksonville. But I am not sure how these things were not recognized.
I mean, he was suspended for four games by Deflategate. And Spygate was a Bill Belichick operation that caused the organization to be fined and lose its recruitment choices.
If you want Brady to suffer a consequence for Spygate, who else in the Patriots’ attack will have to suffer as well? Do you want to retroactively penalize names like Deion Branch, Antowain Smith, Joe Andruzzi and the rest of the crime as well?
I fully recognize that Brady benefited from these activities. Now, here’s what I want you to recognize.
1. That he has been to seven Super Bowls since Spygate (September 2007) and won four of them.
2. Who has been to five Super Bowls since the Deflategate balls were seized and won four of them.
When you’re at least willing to acknowledge that he has as many “clean” rings as Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana have, we can have any debate you want.
Justin obviously appreciated my views on the Steelers’ hiring of free agent Dwayne Haskins quarterback.
“So are you asking fans to give up Steelers? Stop going to the games? Buying merchandise? And oh yes, listening to sports ‘experts’ like you?
Yes, the Steelers are (screwed) now, and the Dwayne Haskins movement reeks of despair. But you made a living with them long enough to know that Pittsburgh is a city of champions. It’s only a matter of time.”
No. I don’t remember asking them to do any of those things. However, it has been four years since his last playoff victory. It’s been 10 years since his last Super Bowl appearance. And they went from 1980-2004 without a Super Bowl victory during their last prolonged drought.
So, Justin, how long have we been talking about here? Another 14 or 15 years? Do you want me to set the over-under to 13.5?
When the nickname “City of Champions” was awarded, it was linked to the Pirates who won the 1979 World Series. And we are yet waiting for another one of those.
You may want to lessen the Steelers’ bravado as well.
Kurt is angry with Steelers fans who … just don’t understand. Like, well, Justin and Kathryn, I presume.
“I’ve been a Steelers fan for 42 years. I am proud to see the TRUTH with them. I’ll just say this … When they were 11-0, they were the worst 11-0 team in the sport’s history. They were trained out, (out) hurried and (out) played their last six games. Fans are kidding themselves if they don’t see the problems.
Frankly, if I were to rank them at the end of the season, I would put them in 14 out of 32. “
In fact, the odds makers put them 17th. So in comparison, you are a stupid optimist.
Hey, Kurt, when fans can get back to the stands, how about you, me, Justin and Kathryn going to a game together? We will take a package of four tickets and sit in section 500.
I think it would be a great time. What could go wrong?
And finally, our old friend Mort held out his hand again. If you are familiar with this weekly segment, you know that Mort emails about, um, everything.
This time, he didn’t like a recent hockey podcast that Brian Metzer and I did together.
Well, at least in the last few minutes anyway. That’s when Brian and I made a sharp left turn and started toying with the sale of the “Silence of the Lambs” house in Fayette County.
“What was the purpose of the last four minutes of your podcast today?
What does this have to do with hockey? I’m 80 years old tomorrow and I don’t need to waste time like that. Why not end the Podcast at 16 minutes?“
Quid pro quo, Agent Mort!
Look, I know this would have been a hasty decision, but you could have taken the bold step of clicking “stop” after the first 16 minutes if you didn’t like the content.
And, if you are so concerned about how you spend every minute of your life at 80, why bother sending me this email?
After all, you’ve already wasted four minutes of your late ’70s listening to us recap a classic’ 90s Oscar winner. So you probably lost at least that much time by sending me this email.
I mean, my God, Mort! In the words of Hannibal Lecter … “Tic-tac, tic-tac.”
So, what “waste” of a few minutes do you regret now? Are you listening to the podcast about a story of local interest in the region of our readers? Or are you sending me an email that won’t change my opinion?
And now, having to read that answer too? Well, I hope you have a happy birthday anyway. When blowing out the candles on the cake, make sure you want the lambs to stop screaming.
Tim Benz is an editor on the Tribune-Review team. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets can be posted again. All emails are subject to publication, unless otherwise specified.
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Sports | Steelers / NFL | Breakfast with Benz