I love Steeler fans, I really do. They are second-to-none when it comes to passion, knowledge of the game and supporting their team. Steeler fans I’ve met on the street, in bars, at games have all been like brothers to me. It’s an awesome bond.
But at the same time, they have frustrated me to no end the last few offseasons during the many legal battles the Steelers players have waged. The reaction to each crime hasn’t been based on what the player did, but rather a bunch of other unrelated factors. The team has been guilty of this too. We have witnessed nonstop hypocrisy for three offseasons and people are still “shocked” that a Steelers player would get into trouble. Let’s look back on three specific players and see how their controversial actions were received by fans and the Steelers front office…
Santonio Holmes
There is no easy way to say this, but a lot of fans were trying to run Holmes out of town before he got here. While guys blue-collar, hard working athletes like Craig Adams, Mike McKenry and Heath Miller fit right into the fabric of Pittsburgh, black, troubled wide receivers stick out like sore thumbs. Holmes had a few brush ups with the law while he was at Ohio State and shortly after he was drafted by the Steelers. I don’t like using anybody’s background as a crutch, but I think it is hard for a lot of people in Pittsburgh to understand where Holmes comes from and why he talks and acts like he does.
Anyway, Holmes’ disorderly conduct charge and marijuana possession were quickly forgiven and forgotten because they occurred before the Steelers 2008 Super Bowl title, where Holmes was the team’s most dynamic player throughout the playoffs, including the Super Bowl. Holmes was a folk hero in town after that. His off the field problems were quickly forgotten after he won the team a Super Bowl, a common theme in Pittsburgh and other sports cities. Nobody really cared anymore.
A couple of years later when the Super Bowl wasn’t as fresh in everybody’s minds, Holmes was accused of throwing a glass at a woman in a night club. Shortly after, he tweeted he was going to “wake n bake” and tested positive for drugs. He was traded less than two weeks later.
Holmes big mistake wasn’t his later ‘incidents’ as much as the timing of it. The glass throwing happened a month after Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault for the second time in a year. The Steelers couldn’t afford to trade Roethlisberger from a football perspective, so Holmes was the scapegoat. He needed a new contract in a season and would probably have left via free agency anyway. Holmes, while not a saint, would not have been traded if Roethlisberger hadn’t brought the biggest black eye in decades to the team at the same time.
Steelers fans hated Holmes and wanted him gone. I’d wager the majority of them still dislike him today and he was booed when he returned to Heinz Field, the same stadium that will cheer Hines Ward with a fervor later this fall…
Rashard Mendenhall
Rashard Mendenhall has never committed any crimes (that I’m aware of). However, that doesn’t mean his moral qualities are high enough to remain a Steeler! Talk show callers, Twitter users and other Steeler fans were calling for Mendenhall to be traded after he tweeted that he felt bad for Osama bin Laden and thought 9/11 might be fake. A little weird? Sure. But last time I checked, athletes were allowed to hold whatever political views that they chose and I really didn’t see the remarks as a big deal at all. I don’t root for football players based on their political beliefs and I really don’t care about what he thinks on 9/11. I wrote a long post about this at the time. A few tweets caused some very smart Steelers people to write things like “Don’t be surprised if Rashard Mendenhall is traded when free agency opens.” The Post-Gazette, ESPN and other outlets made the tweets their top story.
It is no coincidence that a lot of the vitirol towards Mendenhall occurred a few short months after he fumbled away the Super Bowl. Don’t think for a second that turnover didn’t fuel a lot of this hate. I’m fine with people crizicing Mendenhall for what he does on the field, but writing that the Steeler should explore trade options or that Mendenhall is an idiot because of his personal views is not something I will ever condone.
It was a bizarre, frustrating thing to watch unfold and I saw a lot of things being said that disgusted me as a Steeler fan.
Hines Ward
What exactly will play out in the wake of Hines Ward’s DUI remains to be seen. But I haven’t read anybody saying that the Steelers should trade him immediately. Nobody has tweeted me saying he should be released. My guess is that Ward will release a statement apologizing, the NFL lockout will end and after he makes a few catches, flashes a few smiles everybody will forget all about it. Ward has always been a stand up guy, he should get the benefit of the doubt, right?
I guess there might be some truth in that, but after seeing the myriad of other off-the-field incidents play out the last few seasons it seems a little unfair. We want to trade somebody for tweets but Ward’s DUI gets a pass?
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In the end, the actual crime or transgression has never really mattered that much. What has mattered is public perception of the player and how well they perform on the football field. If Arnaz Battle got arrested for DUI, fans would call for his head and the Steelers might just follow suit. Hines Ward is the Steelers greatest receiver of all-time and a likely Hall of Famer. He is well liked in Pittsburgh. He gets a pass.
If Mendenhall doesn’t fumble and he helps the Steelers defeat the Green Bay Packers, nobody is saying he should be traded for believing in conspiracy theories. If Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t get accused of sexual assault twice in two seasons, Santonio Holmes probably plays out his contract in Pittsburgh.
Steeler fans, and to some extent, the organization itself, only comes down hard on players when it is convenient or makes sense from a PR and football perspective. It is a poor way to go about casting judgment.
Another example of this is Jeff Reed. His public urination, paper-towel smashing drinking problem was kind of cute when he was an elite kicker. But this past season when all of a sudden he couldn’t kick anymore, it became an issue. We Steeler fans were happy to get rid of our idiot kicker all of a sudden, in part because of his drinking problem which was no longer funny.
Point being, I can’t wait to watch Mendenhall get booed when he takes the field this fall while Ward gets a standing ovation for overcoming his offseason adversity.
