Sports, Loyalty & Identity

 Football, Hockey, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture  No Responses »
May 282009
 

The question of loyalty to a hometown and to its sports teams is one that often comes up in sporting discussions. Some folks shed their loyalties to their hometown and its teams and adopt new teams as they move around the country. Others steadfastly cling to their sporting roots, while possibly picking up a “second” team. In some cases, this choice comes down to a fundamental question of identity.

In choosing to root for the Carolina Hurricanes over his hometown Pittsburgh Penguins, Bill Cowher created a maelstrom. Pittsburghers are, to put it lightly, livid. (As an aside, let’s dispense with any idiotic talk about his right to support whom he wants or that he owes Pittsburgh nothing. DUH!)

So does Cowher see himself, in any part, as a Pittsburgher or a solely a Carolinian? If the former, then he shouldn’t be surprised by the consternation created by his decision. If the latter, then so be it. He’s not one of “ours”.

It is generally believed that many ex-pat Pittsburghers take their sporting loyalties with them when they leave western Pennsylvania. The reason that Steelers fans show up in great numbers at road games is not because we travel well (though we do), it’s because ex-Pittsburghers already live there. And we’ve also converted anyone we can. So when Cowher chose to support the Hurricanes instead of the Penguins, he, in essence, chose Carolina over Pittsburgh as his identity. That one of our own would readily do so is reponsible for the hurt and disappointment that many of us feel.

I don’t particularly care to explain away Cowher’s decision based on his Raleigh business contacts or the possibility of coaching the Carolina Panthers one day. If he still saw himself as a Pittsburgher, he could have begged off taking part in such a public display as he gave during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

FAIL

The bottomline is that Cowher isn’t a Pittsburgher anymore, if he ever was. And yes I feel justified in making that statement based on his turncoat sporting allegiance. Perhaps his experiences at NC State and the pressure cooker of coaching the Steelers rendered him less able to embrace this part of his (former) heritage. Sure he had the accent and the roots but in some ways, he always seemed more of a hired hand than someone who embraces his city, like Mario Lemieux or Franco Harris have done.

Of course, I don’t wish Cowher any ill will. Many Steelers fans aren’t from Pittsburgh and so they are under no obligation to root for our other teams. They’re still part of the Steelers Nation. He was a fantastic coach for many, many years and I think Mike Tomlin winning a Superbowl in his second year has blinded some Steelers fans to the difficulty of winning it all. Cowher is welcome to turncoat again and root for the Penguins. But he won’t be doing so as a Pittsburgher.

Mike Vick’s Dog Days

 Football, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture  1 Response »
May 222009
 
Mike Vick

Well, little Mikey Vick is getting out of prison and will no doubt find his way onto an NFL roster soon enough. He spent over a year in prison and his life as a star is pretty much trashed. Hopefully he’s also broke.

There have been any number of reactions to this situation. Most people who aren’t dog owners will probably think that Vick has paid his debt to society and should get a second chance in the NFL. After all, we give domestic abusers and worse (see, Ray-Ray Lewis) multiple chances. Further, they would claim the amount of outrage thrown Vick’s way is disproportionate to his crimes. It seems as though society more easily forgives the likes of Warren Moon than Michael Vick. Continue reading »

Drive to DC, you twit!

 Football, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture  No Responses »
May 202009
 

James Harrison is a bit of a nut. His first well-publicized reason for skipping the Steelers’ visit to the White House received headlines across the country.

“This is how I feel — if you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers, invite us when we don’t win the Super Bowl. As far as I’m concerned, he [Obama] would’ve invited Arizona if they had won,” said Harrison.

Now the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has revealed that Harrison actually has a fear of flying.

Of course, Harrison is somehow gobsmacked that so many people have taken an interest in his personal decisions. Shocking how one of the highest profile players on the Superbowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers would attract attention. Get over it. If the White House invites you, GO. Don’t take a flight if you have a fear of flying. Pull a John Madden and take a bus or a boat or cycle or drive down for the event.

James Harrison, role model for Steelers Nation

It’s the fraking Pres-o-dent who is inviting you! YOU, James Harrison, who worked your way up from undrafted free agent to become the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year. It doesn’t matter if Harrison agrees or disagrees with President Obama’s policies. If I was part of a Superbowl winning team, I would’ve gone even when George W. Bush was in office.

Harrison should realize what an honor he is receiving. This trip to the White House should remind him that however enjoyable FOOTBALL may be, and even if the President picked your team, that the really important people in this world ARE.NOT.JAMES.HARRISON. They are ones who have invited Harrison to the White House.

Is Andre Smith the Next Muñoz or Mandarich?

 College Football, Football, Pro-Football  No Responses »
Apr 232009
 

I daresay I’m one of the few football fans out there who has little interest in the upcoming NFL draft. I may track who the Steelers take with their first couple picks but I don’t tune in to ESPN all day or get immersed in the minutiae of late round picks or talking about a potential draftee’s upside or the dreaded “value pick”. Give me a damn break.

Mel Kiper has to be one of the greatest snake oil salesmen in modern history. He whiffs on picks, mis-analyses players and generally mucks up the works. I remember a number of years ago, he claimed that the Steelers would regret for years afterwards not picking Chad Pennington, a player at the time whose greatest upside was that he was a “poor man’s Joe Montana”. As if.

I suppose that the draft is a time of hope for those who root for inferior teams. But I support a team and organization whose drafting prowess is so well-established that there’s really no point in my questioning their draft decisions. This year, the Steelers will be looking to shore up OL, DL and DB. They could also use some depth at WR and LB. Yes, I pretty much named every position except QB. No wait, the Steelers might need to draft a late-round QB for #3/#4 QB depth reasons.

Tony Mandarich, 1989

Tony Mandarch was a colossal flame-out.  Rod Woodson was a highly rated first round pick. James Harrison and Willie Parker went undrafted. Donovan McNabb was booed on draft day. Tom Brady was a 6th round pick. Joe Montana was a 3rd round pick. Tim Worley was drafted ahead of Emmitt Smith. Gabe Rivera was drafted by the Steelers instead of Dan Marino. I do get interested in where Pitt kids or my favorite college football fantasy players may get drafted but it’s still worth noting that Curtis Martin slipped into the 3rd round and had a Hall of Fame career nonetheless.

Wake me up when training camp starts. Otherwise, I think I’ll skip Kiper and his faux intensity.

Stop stealing our people, Arizona!

 Basketball, College Basketball, Football, Pro-Football  No Responses »
Apr 072009
 

A quick list of the Grand Canyon State’s ever growing contingent of Pittsburgh-related coaching connections:

* Cardinals’ coach Ken Whisenhunt served most of his coaching career with the Steelers, ending as Offensive Coordinator.

* Whisenhunt’s top assistant Russ Grimm is from Scottsdale, played his college ball at Pitt and was Bill Cowher’s top assistant/offensive line coach with the Steelers.

* Cardinals’ defensive coordinator Billy Davis got his first start in NFL coaching with the Steelers.

* Arizona State head basketball coach Herb Sendek grew up in Pittsburgh, graduating from Penn Hills High School and Carnegie Mellon University.

* Finally, new University of Arizona head basketball coach Sean Miller is from Blackhawk High School and considered one of the best point guards ever to play for Pitt. He also spent some time as an assistant at Pitt.

Is that enough to convince you that Arizona = Pittsburgh West? Oh and there’s also Larry Fitzgerald.

Standards of Expectation

 Baseball, Basketball, College Basketball, College Football, Football, Futbol/Soccer, The Bigger Picture  1 Response »
Mar 292009
 

By and large, I consider myself to be a fortunate sports fan. My teams generally do well. Two Superbowl titles, 2 Stanley Cups, 7 Sweet Sixteens, 1 Elite Eight, 1 Champions League, 1 FA Cup, Curtis Martin, Larry Fitzgerald, many others. And someday the Pirates will get to .500 and all of Pittsburgh will go nuts.

I think a reasonable standard of expectation for a fan is for one’s teams to be in the hunt, in any given year. Nothing more, nothing less. All the crazies who expect a title every single season can stay in Lexington or Tuscaloosa or the Bronx.

In any given year, I expect that the Steelers will win 10+ games and have a shot at the Superbowl. I expect the Penguins to make the NHL playoffs and have a shot at the Stanley Cup. I expect that Pitt basketball will make the Field of 65 and have a shot to make a run to the Final Four. I expect Liverpool FC to contend for the Premiership, Champions League, and/or FA Cup titles. Eventually, I would like to expect that Pitt football will win 8-9 games in most years and once every few years when the pieces fall into place, they should contend for a national title.

Pitt vs Villanova

But even with what I believe are reasonable expectations, you inevitably get heart-breaking losses. I don’t have to tell you which loss I’m “mourning” today. I would have to say that Pitt’s loss to Villanova ranks second only to Francisco Cabrera’s single for Atlanta vs the Pirates in the 1992 NLCS. Even the Penguins recovered from David Volek. The Pirates have never recovered from that loss.

Pitt basketball is a strong program and they’ll rebound, rebuild and contend again. I know we had a successful season. I’m proud of how they battled and banged with the big boys. We’ll be back. I expect it.

Capping a Run to Daylight

 Baseball, Basketball, Football, Pro-Basketball, Pro-Football  No Responses »
Mar 262009
 

I want a salary cap and comprehensive revenue sharing in baseball. It’s the only way to ensure a proper competitive balance in the sport. It’s the only hope a small market team, such as my Pirates, have for contending on a regular basis. Every game that the NY Yankees or the Boston Red Sox play make this point even more painfully clear to me.

But the naysayers will point out that other small market teams have contended and even won the World Series. True though that may be, it hides the ugly reality that a well-run small market team (such as the Minnesota Twins or Oakland Athletics, NOT the Pirates) can only compete for a couple years in a given cycle. They will build a team, contend for a time, maybe even reach/win a World Series and then watch as their best and brightest leave for the big money spenders, such as New York, Chicago or Boston. Does anyone remember that Manny Ramirez began his career with the Cleveland Indians? Talk about the model small market franchise. The Indians drafted well, managed their payroll, tried to sign their stars to manageable contracts before their hit arbitration or free agency. They made the World Series and then went kerplunk!

World Series Trophy

A salary cap does NOT guarantee that every team will contend. But it does provide cost certainty such that any team, big market or small, will have a shot to retain its hard-earned, home-grown talent when the big money comes calling (without having to revert to the Reserve Clause).

In the NFL’s infancy, New York Giants owner Wellington Mara decided to give up what could have become a Yankees’ sized advantage in monies in favor of comprehensive revenue sharing. Later, the NFL adopted a salary cap that gives cost certainty to all teams. Today, Ben Roethlisberger is in the midst of a $102 million contract, Troy Polamalu is one of the highest paid players at his position and a team like the Washington Redskins is spending itself into oblivion. Well-run teams like the big market New York Giants or the medium market Pittsburgh Steelers continue to thrive by building rather than poaching.

If MLB did institute a salary cap, perhaps the Pirates would continue to lose; that wouldn’t surprise me one bit. But I think Wellington Mara would be pleased with the idea that well-run, well-built baseball teams would be afforded the opportunity to prosper for many, many years, not just 2-3 years.

Passions of “Worth”

 Football, Pro-Football  3 Responses »
Sep 122008
 

[Originally written Sept 12, 2002]

Football season begins anew. Maher’s pulse quickens, his blood begins to boil and the cynics renew their yearly pretensions. Let me relay a story.

I attended a gathering not too long ago. Some old friends, some new. It was a nice event. In the course of the evening’s conversations, football came up. I expressed dismay that my Steelers had failed to reach the Superbowl during the previous season.

“Depressed” was the word I used; an obvious exaggeration of my emotions but nonetheless, I thought, an understood exaggeration. On hearing of my state of mind, one acquaintance turned to another and remarked that she could not fathom how one could become depressed over something so trivial as a football game. No doubt.

I thought for a long time on this subject. The central issue here is “worth”. We often define ourselves by our passions. Think about a pursuit that captures your passion, your emotion, your energy… then realize that not everyone will see it the way you do. Chances are it is a “trivial pursuit”, one that does not necessarily affect your right to life or liberty. Nonetheless it still serves a purpose. 

If you can honestly tell me that you have absolutely no trivial pursuits then I am trully sorry for you. Even the poorest child living in a slum village in South Asia gets caught up in a cricket match or a swimming contest in a nearby pond. Our passions, our trivial pursuits help us to bear the whips and scorns of time.

So do yourself a favor. If you find yourself scoffing the next time someone is “depressed” over the outcome of a sporting event, “giddy” over his/her performance in a dance or “pissed off” about the club closing early – look at yourself first. Spare me and everyone else your pretensions.

Twice as Good: Race Achievement in America

 Football, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture  No Responses »
Oct 142007
 

Donovan McNabb’s recent comments about the extra scrutiny and pressures of being a black quarterback in the NFL touched a chord with me.  I’m glad he had the courage to speak his truths to power.  Too often, black athletes don’t use the podium to speak truth to power.  Michael Jordan’s famous comment that “even Republicans buy basketball shoes” comes to mind.

The reactions of young quarterbacks Vince Young and Jason Campbell were typical of what most sports fans would probably want to hear – that all quarterbacks are under the pressure cooker, that there is no such prejudice anymore, that you deal with it or get out.  However, these reactions belie a certain naiveté about the institutional racism still prevalent in sports and in society in general.  It also speaks to an ignorance of the sacrifices made by pioneers such as “Jefferson Street” Joe Gilliam and Doug Williams.

Why is it that in a game in which 75% of the athletes are black, there are only 3 or 4 black starting quarterbacks?  For years, we’ve known that NFL owners and coaches questioned the ability to blacks to lead, to be coaches or quarterbacks or point guards in major football and basketball.  How will we know that we do not have such prejudice anymore?  Maybe when leaders such as Donovan McNabb no longer espouse such beliefs, we’ll have gotten there.

The greater issue here is the opportunity to achieve success commensurate with one’s abilities and work ethic.  This is what makes institutional and societal racism so difficult to see and to distinguish.  Just because there aren’t public lynching’s anymore does not mean that we have rid ourselves of racism in this country.  Instead, in many walks of life, there now exists a glass ceiling.

When I was little, my father, in his many exhortations to me to do better in scholastics, told me that I would have to be twice as good as any white person in order to do well.  I never even questioned why that had to be the case.  Only twice as good.  I wonder how much better Donovan McNabb has had to be in order to reach the level of success he’s enjoyed.

On Bill Cowher’s Resignation

 Football, Pro-Football  No Responses »
Jan 052007
 

I remember very little of the pre-Bill Cowher days.  I didn’t start following football in earnest till Chuck Noll’s last year in 1991; seeing the malaise of the team in his final games, thinking on what it must’ve been like in the glory years of the 1970’s before I was born.

I’m one of the lucky ones.  I’ve been to at least one Steelers game every year since Cowher took over.  I can’t imagine anyone else roaming the Steelers’ sidelines.  I can’t imagine not seeing that Jaw jutting out, the fire in Coach’s eyes.  As much as Dan Rooney’s silent, steady leadership, Bill Cowher’s tenure taught me the “Steelers Way”, our city’s way – hard work, team work, leadership, intensity, fundamentals with just a little bit of strut thrown in to keep people off balance (after all, it was a WR to WR pass that defined Superbowl XL).

I remember the coaching search after Coach Noll resigned and thinking who was this assistant from Kansas City who could possibly replace the Legend.  I thought the trendy candidate, Mike Holmgren of SF at the time, would’ve been a better hire.  Fifteen years later, I still marvel at the wisdom of the Rooney’s.  Holmgren also won a Superbowl and sooner than Cowher but he could never have shown a 12yr old football neophyte “how we do”.

I hope and pray and trust that the Rooney’s will once again find another Man who embodies “our way”.  It surely won’t be easy to hit the jackpot three times in a row (and this guy would like to see Russ Grimm as the next head coach).

You’re probably thinking that I’m over-eulogizing.  But you can’t know how it is until you’re one of us, one of the Steelers Nation.  I won’t like it one bit if/when Cowher comes back to coaching with a different team.  I’ll hate it when he coaches against his hometown team for the first time.  But Bill Cowher won’t ever be anything but a Pittsburgh Steeler to me.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries