A Potpourri of Steelers Talk

Photo via Steelers.com

There’s a surprisingly large amount to report/discuss/disagree about in the Steelers universe, given that we are only one week out from the most offensive Super Bowl in the history of the game. (Read that as you like.)

For one thing, the Steelers have been busy making small signings and salary restructures, the former to take care of impending free agents of one sort or another, the latter presumably in the name of freeing up the cartloads of money it will take to re-sign Le’Veon Bell.

Homer J.’s Second Thoughts: Bengals Desecrate Towel, Shoot Selves in Head

via Steelers.com

by Homer J. 

Some truths are eternal.

You don’t tug on superman’s cape

You don’t spit into the wind

You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don’t mess around with the Terrible Towel.

Jeremy Hill didn’t get the memo, and, like so many other before him, he and his confederates paid the price. 

On Second Thought: Giddyup, Let’s Go (Steelers)

via Steelers.com

by Homer J.

“Oh, it’s lovely weather for a victory together with you.”

Playing on the road in winter conditions can be too much, even for heavily favored teams performing at their best.

Napoleon was on a big winning streak when he took on the Czars in a big road game in Moscow. The weather, as they say, was a factor. The Czar’s field generals, General Mud, General Frost, and General Snow wore down the plucky little Corsican. The home team won the battle in the trenches, and humiliated the heavily-favored French, sending them limping home in defeat. Tchaikowsky wrote a song about it, or something, and they still play it on the 4th of July. 

2016 Pittsburgh Steelers First Quarter Report, Part 1

steelers.com

by Ivan Cole

I have been doing these quarterly reports for several years now, and the first quarter is always the most challenging in the sense that the analysis has to cut through at least three powerful areas of bias.

The first is the notion that the past equals the future. The tendency is to believe that teams are either going to simply pick up where they left off, the previous season, or even during the preseason, not recognizing that the landscape both within the teams and among their opponents has changed, often significantly.

My Two Cents.

Finally, some real Steeler news with the advent of the free agent signing period. The worst part of the silly season is over, at least until the draft is over . . . .

My favorite signing so far is the three year contract for “Big Play” Willie Gay. Aside from being the team’s most consistent cornerback, he is as mentally tough as any player on the roster.

Once the favorite whipping boy of more critical fans. Gay not only survived the torrent of catcalls for his ouster, he has improved to the point where keeping him was critical to the continued improvement of the secondary. Ike Taylor might have had a lot to do with Willie’s mental toughness. . . .

On Second Thought: Divisional Round

USA Today Sports, Matthew Emmons photo

by Ivan Cole

The purpose of it all

There are those who say that winning the Lombardi is not the most important thing but the only thing. If you honestly subscribe to that line of thought then being a devoted fan of any particular NFL team is an exercise in masochism.

If we just examine those teams that qualified for this season’s post season tournament, four (Cincinnati, Houston, Minnesota and Carolina) have never reached the Promised Land of being the last team standing. Perhaps it will happen for the Panthers in February.

Four others have championships (not all Super Bowls) as artifacts of their history but no real experiential relevance to the vast majority of their current fan bases. The Cardinals, for example, won once, before I was born, when they were located in Chicago and Harry Truman was president. Kansas City won during the first Nixon administration. Washington and Denver won sometime in the nineties. Of the four remaining, the successes of New England and Seattle have been strictly recent.