U mad, bro?: Steelers quarterback carping; Penguins postseason pouting; Pittsburgh postseason pontification
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This week’s “U mad, bro?” features clamoring about the Steelers’ quarterback situation. There is much fretting about the future of the Penguins. Fans are pushing back about my concern of recent Pittsburgh playoff incompetence.
Plus, my readers are very fired up about a particular movie poll.
And, well, I think they are spot on!
“Frank and Beans” did not like the Steelers’ decision to draft Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett.
It’s an awful pick. Steelers are about to find out what it’s like to not have a franchise QB and be tempted to try to win the lottery every 1st rnd rather than draft best players available
— Franknbeans (@smetlydc2) April 29, 2022
Frank, I hate to break it to you. They would have been in that situation if they didn’t draft Pickett, too. Now they are at least taking a stab at avoiding that problem.
Keep your fingers crossed.
“SBEALL68” thinks the Penguins are aging out.
“The Game 7 hero of the 2009 Stanley Cup was a still relatively young Maxime Talbot, who doesn’t even play hockey anymore, yet they still rely on the same core of players who also played in that game, and far from the ‘superstars’ they were.”
Careful. Based on how Ron Hextall was speaking on Monday, you may be talking him into signing Talbot out of retirement.
This guy sent a two-letter tweet, detailing what the Steelers still need before the season starts.
OL
— Special K. (@the_legit_shag) April 27, 2022
YES.
OK, mine was three letters long. I tried my best to match your brevity.
Walt isn’t wild about the idea of the Penguins coming back next season with so much of the current roster intact.
Doing the same thing and expecting different results is certainly one approach.
— Walter (@walterwonky) May 24, 2022
Walt, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not even sure they are expecting different results. I just think they are finding it too hard to say goodbye and are too scared that they won’t rebuild properly.
Cue up the “Boyz II Men.”
“PantherPride89” wanted to challenge my point about the Penguins and Steelers being stuck in playoff purgatory since the Pens had their most recent Stanley Cup run in 2017.
The thing left out here and I know it’s not fun to point out. Is that these teams have also had horrid luck with injuries the last 5 years.
Shazier doesn’t end his career on a poor tackle, the Steelers might have another trophy in that case.
Penguins haven’t been healthy ever.
— Pantherpride89 (@PantherPride89) May 21, 2022
That’s true. Valid response, indeed.
However, let’s remember that the Pens won that ’17 Cup without Kris Letang. And the Steelers won eight of their first 11 games without Ben Roethlisberger in 2019, only to collapse at the end of the season.
So it’s not like these teams have proven to be incapable of overcoming injury for one game or one series.
Finally, on a much more serious topic, our friend Dave Dameshek (WDVE, the “Minus-3” podcast) floated out his list of most heartbreaking movie character deaths.
SADDEST MOVIE DEATHS
Ellie in Up is #1, then…
Goose
Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment
Creed
Girl in the red coat in Schindler's List
Braveheart’s wife
The 54th in Glory
Jack Twist
Dad in Life is Beautiful
Ricky in Boyz in the Hood
Delacroix the Mouse Guy in Green Mile https://t.co/HJgnho9nlF pic.twitter.com/xk91P5j6e8— Dave Dameshek (@Dameshek) May 24, 2022
When I retweeted that, my extremely cultured and highbrow audience (including a TribLIVE colleague and a former Penguins Stanley Cup Champion) lobbied for a few characters that they thought were omitted.
I think we were all stunned and shaken by the death of Chubbs in Happy Gilmore
— Jeff Milano (@jeff_milano) May 24, 2022
Donny in the Big Lebowski…. Good surfer, fine bowler.
— Dude Priest (@DudeistATX) May 24, 2022
Maximus family in gladiator
— Scott O'Brien (@ScottOB18006367) May 25, 2022
Wilson in Castaway?
— Mike Spezialetti (@SpezialettiMike) May 24, 2022
Brian Piccolo!!
— Peter Taglianetti (@PeterTags) May 25, 2022
Blue in Old School
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) May 24, 2022
Personally, I went with Patches O’Houlihan in “Dodgeball.” So, now you understand the level of the room on my Twitter feed.
Except for Tags, of course. He’s respectable. Not you, Adamski.