Pittsburgh Steelers fans want to be critical of Rashard Mendenhall, but they don’t want criticism of the team.

Ex-officials are analyzing how other ex-officials are criticizing NFL officiating.

Readers want journalism without critical analysis. But everyone wants to be critical of me.

Just another, typical week for “U mad, bro?”

Let’s start with this guy. He was critical of me after I wrote about my desire to see the AFC and NFC Championship games stay in home cities instead of going to neutral sites.

If you didn’t get in free with a press credential you wouldn’t go to a game

— Olde school (@oldejournalist) January 27, 2023

Probably not. And the main reason why I wouldn’t is that I’d be concerned that I might wind up sitting right next to you.

Rick emails about the post we had recapping CBS officiating analyst Gene Steratore’s appearance on WDVE. Steratore was critical of some officiating errors during the NFL’s Championship Weekend.

“Please pass this along to Mr. Steratore,

Regarding your comments on playoff officiating, officials tend not to throw other officials ‘under the bus’ and you would not continue in your positions with the network and the NFL, if you did.

I understand this. I officiated football for more than 30 years at all levels except the NFL, I retired 20 years ago when I turned 55 years old. I understand the ‘speed of the game’ and the replay camera over your shoulder, but football today hardly resembles what I knew. I do commend you for your good work and total analysis during games.”

I’m a little confused, Rick. You are “commending” Steratore at the end of your email. But at the start of your email, it sounds like you are maybe wary of him “throwing” other officials “under the bus.” I can’t tell.

But the main function of what Steratore does is to point out when (and why) the officials are right and when (and how) they are wrong.

If there is some sort of code about officials never correcting each other, as you suggest, then maybe that’s part of the problem.

More sports

• Pitt squeaks by North Carolina on 2 free throws in final seconds • Free agent Robert Spillane loves playing for Steelers, wants chance to play every down • Kenny Pickett ‘snubbed’ for Baltimore’s Tyler Huntley as Pro Bowl replacement — and it’s not going over well in Pittsburgh

A different Rick ripped Rashard Mendenhall after his recent shots at Ben Roethlisberger.

“This perpetual loud mouth loser was arguably the most worthless RB the STEELERS ever drafted. He never fit. We never liked him and yes, “Mendenfences”…, he’s not.”

Kudos, on “Mendenfences,” Rick. Well played there. But it’s clear Mendenhall doesn’t care about making that happen.

As far as him being a “loud mouth,” I agree with you there. For a guy who didn’t do much talking in person, he sure has been lippy on Twitter, especially in the years since he retired.

So, like you, I’m not a big fan. But the “most worthless running back the Steelers ever drafted”? C’mon. Mendenhall had 2,381 yards and 21 touchdowns over two seasons between 2009-10. He had 121 yards and a touchdown in the 2010 AFC Championship Game.

Does the name Tim Worley ring any bells? That guy was the No. 7 overall pick, and his career high for yards was 770 and he barely lasted three seasons here.

Jack wants to give me a lesson on journalism.

“Your snide jabs at fans wanting the media to take it easy on Pickett, etc. are poor examples of journalism. I am not an expert and certainly do not pretend to be one. But I am a long time fan of Pittsburgh sports teams and I go back to the days when Pittsburgh sportswriters were journalists and did not pretend to be coaches or critics. They wrote about Pittsburgh teams in a way that the majority of real fans found entertaining and supportive of the teams they rooted for. You guys today put yourselves in the position of critical analysts. That may be one reason that so many papers are having difficulty staying in business.”

Jack, you are right about one thing. My jabs were “snide.” But that may have been what I was going for in those comments. That’s probably because I have a different idea of what journalism is than you do.

I think journalists on the opinion-making side (like me) are supposed to do things like that to get their point across. I don’t “pretend to be a coach,” but I do try to add as much “critical analysis” as I can. I consider that to be an inherent part of the job description.

The way you describe your idea of “journalism,” to me, that sounds more like public relations. That’s not what I’m trying to do.

It’s 2023. Every pro sports team or Division I college team has its own website and media division. If you want coverage that is designed to “support” the teams, or make you feel better about your own fandom, you should look there or at the myriad fan blogs all over the internet.

In terms of staying in business, I’ve been at this for 25 years. I appreciate your concern, but I’m going to keep doing things my way.

Finally, in a recent “U mad, bro?” post, we had a lot of back-and-forth about the Ivan Provorov “Pride Night” situation. It appears that Cliff would prefer we leave that alone.

“When you go to a game or any sport, people don’t want to hear about politics and supporting this group, or talk about racism. Sport used to be a place where you forgot everything going on in your life and the world for 2 or 3 hours and just enjoyed the sport. Media should stay out of politics and stick to reporting on the game.”

Sounds to me like you are sending this email to the wrong person because I think a lot of sports reporters would prefer if their jobs were just about sports. But if the teams, leagues and athletes constantly thrust themselves into the socio-political realm, we have to cover it when the unavoidable controversies develop.

Also, don’t kid yourself. Sports and “politics” have been intertwined for decades. When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, people considered a lot of that conversation to be about “politics.” Muhammad Ali getting stripped of his heavyweight title and boxing license was about “politics.” The 1936 Olympics featuring Jesse Owens were about “politics.” The 1980 “Miracle on Ice” story was rooted in “politics.”

So was Rocky Balboa versus Ivan Drago in 1985.

Anyway, Cliff, all I can say to you is, “If I can change, and you can change …”

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