Posted on 01/24/2011 5:17:14 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
He is one of the best guys on the field as well as off
If he is threatening to retire rather than continue to play for the ownership that speaks volumes
Good point. Would they have made such a big deal of the Brett Favre/Jenn Steger text/sext episode if Brett had been in his heyday? BTW, I can't help but root for Aaron Rodgers. He was awesome in the wildcard week. (I'm a frustrated Pats fan).
Entitlement? What's your example?
High expectations for sure, but also a solid team first attitude and a no excuse policy. Hell, last year, they didn't even make the playoffs after coming off a Super Bowl and I never saw anyone pointing fingers or making excuses. They just buckled down and did what they needed to do to get back in the playoffs again.
As a franchise, they draft smart not sexy. They look for not just ability but also attitude that they can develop and they develop it well. Veterans are expected to be leaders and to pass their knowledge and experience on. The culture on that team for the last 40 years is that no one is bigger than the team. No Divas or Drama Queens need apply.
They sure aren't the highest paid players in the league. Only one player on the team has a national TV commercial (Troy P) and that one sure ain't paying like a Peyton Manning spot. And I don't hear anyone complaining or thinking they are entitled to anything.
Well, I can in fact use your entire post as an example, which is an ample enough demonstration of the entitlement mentality I'm talking about.
You seem to think that somehow the Steeler's fight to get back to the playoffs was any different from any other team's, since the Steelers are 'special'.
High expectations for sure, but also a solid team first attitude and a no excuse policy. Hell, last year, they didn't even make the playoffs after coming off a Super Bowl and I never saw anyone pointing fingers or making excuses. They just buckled down and did what they needed to do to get back in the playoffs again.
In fact, one of the only things that Rex Ryan talked about in the Hard Knocks episodes I mentioned was making it back to the conference championship, which they did, and were the only 2009 final four team to do so. I'm sure that all of the teams that made the playoffs made similar adjustments and put in a similar amount of hard work.
Your paragraph could describe any of the teams that played yesterday, but only a Steelers fan would think that what they did was any different than what the other three teams did.
As for excuse making, you must've missed Hines Ward badmouthing Roethlisberger about his injury last year, in effect blaming it and Big Ben's attitude for their crappy season. So much for 'no excuses'.
As a franchise, they draft smart not sexy. They look for not just ability but also attitude that they can develop and they develop it well. Veterans are expected to be leaders and to pass their knowledge and experience on. The culture on that team for the last 40 years is that no one is bigger than the team. No Divas or Drama Queens need apply.
Smart not sexy is a relative term. You could argue that Mark Sanchez or Dez Bryant were 'sexy' choices, but I'd argue that they were smart too. Once again, I find it ironic that a team that has an accused rapist as their quarterback claims 'no divas, no drama'. Har.
Only an entitlement mentality could cause claims so bereft of self reflection.
The whole theme from Pittsburgh seems to be, "But we're THE STEELERS. We're better because we are."
Gag me. I hope Aaron Rodgers kicks the crap out of your team and their Obama-loving owner.
I wonder if any Steelers fans have a moment of doubt about cheering for a rapist. You’d think at least some of the women, and men who have daughters, would feel a bit queasy about it. But evidently not... the franchise’s trademark for decades has been dirty play and cheap shots, and I guess that anything-goes mentality is reflected in the fan base.
It's a football game.
Enjoy it for what it is or isn't. The rest is BS.
Granted, I am a huge Steelers fan and as a woman, don't think Ben deserves all the abuse he's been getting. Somebody told me the definition of rape once: When a woman says "Stop" and the man doesn't. We'll never know if she said "Stop." So far that hasn't been reported for the Georgia incident or the one in Milledgeville. I think the alleged rapes are more about crassness and vulgarity and a sense of entitlement and Ben never having a real girlfriend than violence, but I could be wrong. We may never know.
A story: a friend of mine who is very religious has a friend who confronted Mr. Rooney in a parking lot just before the '08 election. "But Mr. Rooney -- you can't support Obama --he's in favor of abortion!" (Remember the Rooneys are "devout" Catholics) Rooney just got angry, ignored her, and walked away.
Do you detect a pattern?
At first, I thought he was waddling down there to break it up to avoid the 15 yard penalty. The game was not over yet. But then he joins in! That shocked me. The game was not over and the Pats could have still come back.
Can't say I have seen a head coach do that before.
Any time a Steeler fan opens his mouth about the Steelers, I'm provided with all the proof I need. See my earlier post where I was responding to a guy who thought that the Steelers distinguished themselves by "buckling down and doing what they needed to do to get back in the playoffs again", as if that is something remarkable that only Pittsburgh does.
It's mostly the fans and the media that inflate the sense of entitlement, while the players are a little bit better at just playing the game and keeping their mouth shut.
One last thing, do you really believe that a Jets cornerback who can't remember the names of all of his kids calling Brady an asshole really shook the Patriots up? Really? The Jet's won because they outplayed the Pats on that day, not because they got in their head. You're starting to believe Ryan's garbage. I guess you feel they would have won yesterday if they had called Hines Ward a bunch of 4 letter words and Rex Ryan rapped on Big Ben. C'mon, please.
Obviously they outplayed them, but I think the trash talking did have something, albeit a small effect, to do with it.
They fanned the flames of a rivalry that is red hot right now, where both teams absolutely hate each other with a passion. For a game based on emotion, I think it had an effect.
They don't have the same relationship as a team with the Steelers, so I can't imagine that trash talking would've helped them yesterday.
Any time a Steeler fan opens his mouth about the Steelers, I'm provided with all the proof I need. See my earlier post where I was responding to a guy who thought that the Steelers distinguished themselves by "buckling down and doing what they needed to do to get back in the playoffs again", as if that is something remarkable that only Pittsburgh does.
It's mostly the fans and the media that inflate the sense of entitlement, while the players are a little bit better at just playing the game and keeping their mouth shut.
One last thing, do you really believe that a Jets cornerback who can't remember the names of all of his kids calling Brady an asshole really shook the Patriots up? Really? The Jet's won because they outplayed the Pats on that day, not because they got in their head. You're starting to believe Ryan's garbage. I guess you feel they would have won yesterday if they had called Hines Ward a bunch of 4 letter words and Rex Ryan rapped on Big Ben. C'mon, please.
Obviously they outplayed them, but I think the trash talking did have something, albeit a small effect, to do with it.
They fanned the flames of a rivalry that is red hot right now, where both teams absolutely hate each other with a passion. For a game based on emotion, I think it had an effect.
They don't have the same relationship as a team with the Steelers, so I can't imagine that trash talking would've helped them yesterday.
I had my first encounters with Steelers fans during the run up to that Super Bowl. Originally a Texan but living in Florida at the time and in high school, was a big Cowboy fan. And I swear, Steeler fans are everywhere; they infest the nation like Yankee or Red Sox fans. Hell I met a woman in New Jersey two weeks ago while travelling that was wearing a Steelers overcoat, and she was from Alabama! God, they're everywhere.
Anyways, during the run up to Super Bowl XXX, I put up with verbal abuse from all of these Yankee transplants who were Steelers fans (we called them 'snow birds' in Florida, liberal Democrats who move down south to escape the cold and tell us how to do things), and they would tell me about how the 3-4 defense was going to kill the Cowboys, and how the Steelers were the team of the working man and American values, and how the Cowboys were all corrupt drug addicts. They'd ask me why I'd root for a bunch of bums from Texas when I lived in Florida, even though I tried to explain I was originally a Texan.
Then came the game, and the media coverage that led up to it. That's when I first became aware of bias in the sports media. It's obvious to us now of course in the era of the New York Yankees and Brett Favre, but back then as a young fan, I was very incredulous about the fact that the media, commentators, and anchors were all actively rooting for the Steelers to win, and it was very frustrating.
What I will never forget, is during the second half of Super Bowl XXX when the Steelers made a brief run at a comeback before O'Donnell's interceptions, was how the camera kept constantly switching to the reactions of Bill Cowher's wife and daughters (who were in the stands) after every play; it was incessant. Not one or two times but during every second half Steeler possession, the camera would focus on Cowher's family, then Dick Enberg would say something about 'how much they want their Dad to win' or make some other schmaltzy comment. I kept screaming at the TV to put the camera back on the action, and was amazed that the media would continue to root for one team over another even during a Super Bowl.
So add that childhood memory to the current situation with the Rooneys and Obama, and maybe you can see where I'm coming from.
Anyways, I know that the Cowboys are financially the most popular team in football, with the Steelers in a distant second (this is according to Forbes, not me). But I just don't see how that's possible. There's more Steelers fans in our little Texas subdivision than Cowboys fans. Like I said, they're everywhere, and its damn annoying.
Superbowl XXX occurred the first year I returned to Pittsburgh from Florida, and it was a terrible game. O’Donnell was a terrible quarterback, no matter what anybody says. Yes, the whole thing with Cowher and his family was schmaltzy, but considering his wife is now dead, perhaps it was appropriate. I think Tomlin is a much better, more levelheaded coach. It was fun to go to Steeler bars in Florida. I’ve also done it in New York City, where it’s also fun. It’s fun to be a Steeler fan in general in fact, which is the reason so many people are.
Every Cowboy fan is aware of what the city can do to players, whether it's Bullet Bob Hayes, Hollywood Henderson, Mark Tuinei, Leon Lett, or Michael Irvin, more guys seem to get into trouble as part of that franchise. But we as fans accept it and move on, without a national sports media in their back pocket mind you.
Hopefully the spirit of Tom Landry won't be too pissed that two of his biggest rivals are playing in his team's new stadium for the Super Bowl this year.
Lastly, people can bitch about Jerry Jones (he's a great owner, terrible GM), but you have to hand it to him for keeping a team that's only won one playoff game in the past decade the most popular team in football.
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