Steelers Use 49er’s Game to Redefine Losing. You Should Too.
By dave buzard
I freakin’ love the Pittsburgh Steelers. I love that team from its one sided helmet decal to the Rooney family. The players, coaches, stadium, The Terrible Towel, Troy’s shampoo commercials, I am down with all of it. I don’t pretend to be anything but a total homer. But I’m a homer living in the real world. Much is made of the Steelers’ blue collar, everyman, fan base but Holy Crap; the workin’ man can be one whiny son of a bitch! So, let’s take a step back, catch our breath, and put some things in perspective.
The Steelers got taken to the woodshed by the bay this week and you can Electrical Pun yourself into a light coma with descriptions of how it went down. I am really resisting temptation here to not throw out a “blown fuse” or “lights out performance” line. The Rooney Company flat out lost the game. As opposed to the Kansas City and Cleveland games that the Steelers won this year but were somehow treated like losses. Let me repeat. San Francisco game: LOSS complete with an (L) in the loss column. Kansas City and Cleveland games: Wins with a nice meaty (W). With wins come bonuses and celebrations; production is up, the boss is happy, and we’re all knockin’ off early on Friday! Losses are more like, we ran over a steam line and that shut the conveyor belt down and nobody’s leavin’ til we’re back up and running on schedule. Quit your bitchin’, hard hats, and learn to appreciate a win!
The lunch bucket toting among us know what it’s like to punch the clock and give the company a damn hard day’s work. These are the men and women of Steelers Nation; people who give it their level best come hell or high water to show up and perform for their paycheck. The people of Western Pennsylvania are solid stock! And let me put it out there right now; unless you have endured the 412/724/814 area codes for at least one winter; you are a casual fan, a wanna be. If you have lived in San Diego your whole life but claim to “Bleed Black N’ Gold” you are fooling yourself, friend. You are no different than the pseudo Irish that come out to party with us actual Irish on St. Patrick’s Day; we appreciate the nod but we don’t really need you on our band wagon unless that next round is on you. Work a day people know that you will have good days on the job and less than good days on the job and it’s important to look at things over a period of time instead of day to day or even week to week. Why then does the typical Steelers’ fan want to live and die on every snap of the ball? That is illogical thought. Please do NOT take this opportunity to tell me that “fan” is short for “fanatic”. I passed fifth grade English.
There is no such thing as an ugly win and certainly no such thing as an acceptable or meaningless loss. I don’t give a rat’s high ankle how beat up or depleted the troops are, there are no A’s for effort in the NFL. Way too many Steelers fans, who do amazingly dirty jobs, amazingly well, want to award style points for the ass whoopin’s Pittsburgh gave to the Bengals and Titans and roll their eyes at the outcome of the Seahawks’ or Colts’ games; all W’s, by the way. The Steelers four losses this year have been gut wrenching and each and every win has been a thing of Utopian beauty! This is not ‘America’s Next Top Model’, it is professional tackle football. Sometimes you keep the concrete plant running on binder twine and bubble gum until Dean and his crew shows up with the welder.
To you, the members of the proletariat, love your team through thick or thin, sickness and in health but know when you’ve got it good. Be pissed off about this loss and don’t ask for the victories to be prettier than they need to be. You’re the boss!!