U mad, bro?: A lack of playoff football is forcing Steelers fans to lash out against Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger, the media
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What else should I expect in Pittsburgh when the Steelers season ends with so much postseason football left to be played? People are on edge.
Some are angry at the team for coming up short in the regular season. Others are angry at those people for … being angry, I guess.
It doesn’t make for a lot of shiny, happy dispositions walking around Point State Park. But it does make for great “U mad, bro?” fodder.
Just wait until people start paying attention to hockey and seeing that the Penguins are barely hanging around .500, as well. Then we’ll really have some material.
Let’s start with Nick. He thinks I’m asking too much of the Steelers to win a playoff game more than once every six years.
Tim, name the teams in the NFL outside of KC that have been doing all the winning up to your high standards the last 4-5 years.
— N.G. (@NickGozz24) January 16, 2023
Instead, Nick, how about I name all of the teams that have a longer playoff win drought than the Steelers?
It won’t take long. Now that the New York Giants won one last weekend, there are only nine remaining. They are Denver, Carolina, Arizona, the New York Jets, Washington, Chicago, Vegas, Miami and Detroit.
How’s that for lofty standards? Esteemed company, eh?
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I frequently point out that the Steelers have only won two playoff games over the last 12 years. These guys think they have a counter to that statistic.
Baltimore has won 2 playoff games in last 10yrs
— EDOG (@pityinzer) January 16, 2023
Bingo. Steelers biggest rival, and the one they are most often compared with has exactly 2 wins in 10 years, some of them with an MVP winner at qb. Yet the Steelers are the ones settling for mediocrity.
— Jeff (@jglow43) January 16, 2023
Fellas, “whataboutism” is what people turn to when they try to rationalize a problem they can’t solve on their own.
I’m not interested in comparing the Steelers to the Ravens. I’m interested in comparing the Steelers to the Steelers.
Specifically, who the Steelers used to be and the “standard” Mike Tomlin so frequently references.
This guy is on my side when it comes to being unsatisfied with the Steelers’ current state of mediocrity.
It’s the Standard Tim. So long as we are better than CLE and have material to support the gray matter that is ‘Tomlin is a great coach’, playoff success or SBs are secondary.
The Steelers under Tomlin have become the Pirates. A winning season is the goal, the rest is gravy.
— ProPitFan! (@PilotPITFanTN) January 12, 2023
Well, let’s not get crazy. The Steelers have slipped, but they aren’t the Pirates.
Yet.
The Pirates’ goal seems to be just to turn a profit, and if they avoid losing 100 games, that’s their “gravy.”
Speaking of gravy, do they sell gravy fries at PNC Park? If they don’t, they should. Forget re-signing Andrew McCutchen. Gravy Fries Night. That’ll get people through the turnstiles!
Here’s another person who is fed up with Steelers post-season shortcomings. He’s going after the current coach and the previous quarterback.
Ben underachieved/choked in the pressure. So does Tomlin. 1 down, 1 to go
— MagicCynic122 (@MCynic122) January 12, 2023
You can’t call them chokers when they have both been to multiple Super Bowls, won at least one ring, and, in the case of Ben Roethlisberger, won two of them.
You can criticize them for underachieving when it comes to postseason accomplishments since that last Super Bowl berth, though. Ten of those 12 years I mentioned earlier have ended without a postseason victory. Five ended without even making the playoff bracket.
It’s intellectually dishonest to praise Tomlin and Roethlisberger for their greatness based on regular-season consistency throughout their careers and Super Bowl titles early in their careers and then to simply ignore the postseason part for last dozen years.
In Tuesday’s “First Call,” the headline included a reference to the Patriots being a gambling favorite to acquire Lamar Jackson at one offshore book. This emailer didn’t like that.
“The Patriots aren’t gonna go after Jackson. Too injury prone and too expensive. The Ravens will franchise him if he can’t agree to a contract exten(s)ion and then the price gets even higher. I sure as (expletive) don’t want him. Oh, and then there’s the fact that they already have a quarterback. They aren’t gonna give up on the kid for at least 2 more years. By then he may prove nitwits like you wrong. But hey as long as you get your clicks I guess it doesn’t matter how stupid you are. Carry on.”
Dear Sir,
Did you notice in the actual entry of the story, I said that betting on the Patriots was a “total leap of faith”? I wouldn’t do it. I even mentioned the very same points you brought up about current QB Mac Jones and the franchise-tag prospect.
So, did you actually read the story, or just see the headline, draw your own conclusions, get ticked off and scamper to your email?
Next time, maybe do what Lamar has done and have your mother act as your representation. Have her email me on your behalf instead. Until then … carry on.
Sincerely,
Nitwit
This guy didn’t like the quotes we ran in Tuesday’s “First Call” from Kenny Pickett endorsing the retention of offensive coordinator Matt Canada and the potential drafting of receiver Jordan Addison.
What’s Pickett going to say, fire Canada. He is a rookie. And what’s he going to do, rip a former Pitt teammate? This is total non-story and should be treated as such, or pointed out how disingenuous the comments are.
— Olde school (@oldejournalist) January 18, 2023
Or he could just be giving an honest opinion. But, OK, I’ll bite. For the sake of argument, let’s say those comments are disingenuous.
If so, is Pickett being any more disingenuous than a guy who (in his Twitter handle and via comments in his Twitter feed) claims to be a 40-year veteran of the newspaper business, but doesn’t reveal his own name or photo on his social media account?
Is it any more disingenuous than that?
Before we finish up, one of those Ravens-Steelers Twitter bros decided he wasn’t done with me. So let’s give him another swing.
Your just another miserable media member that never has anything positive to say
— EDOG (@pityinzer) January 17, 2023
And “you’re” just a gushy fanboy with his head in the sand, who can’t handle the truth about his favorite team.
Now that we’ve called each other names, shouted our opinions back and forth and poisoned our view of one another, I think we have used Twitter enough for the day and have done so in exactly the way most folks tend to use it.
So, are we done, here?
I think we’re done.