Norm has been dominating the series on Pittsburgh’s past ten drafts so it’s time for me to come back and jerk some chains and deliver a rant.
This falls in line with most of my rants. They aren’t directed at one person, but rather the Steelers’ internet posse and just things I overhear in western PA.
I’ve gotten sick and tired of Steeler Nation thinking that every person who has ever played football has always had a secret desire to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the jump, I’m taking these stooges to task…
Among other things, these are some of the assumptions that 95% of Steeler Nation seem to make (I feel a full list coming in a post someday):
1. Players who grew up or lived in Pittsburgh at some point are inherently better than those who grew up elsewhere.
2. Everybody should settle for less money to play for the Steelers. No matter what.
3. Pittsburgh is a better place to live than anywhere else.
4. Anybody who violates one of these rules is a traitor and obviously hates everything about Pittsburgh.
I’m obviously sensationalizing a bit, but I know I’m not the only one who have heard the countless people who believe these rules. Heck, I even fall into that trap sometime thinking that Pittsburgh is a paradise and there’s no reason for any player to believe otherwise. But it’s just not true.
Case in point: Larry Foote.
Foote was drafted and developed by the Steelers, helped the team win a few Super Bowl rings, and was a generally solid contributor in tons of ways. But a few months ago, he decided he wanted to see more playing time and play for the team he grew up rooting for, the Detroit Lions.
Not all, but a lot of Steeler fans blew up. A football player who has won everything possible wanting to end his career in the city he grew up in? Inconceivable! Traitorous!
Steelers Today recently wrote about Foote and found fans calling him disloyal for wanting to be released.
The obvious irony is that Foote did the same thing that Steeler fans expect Pittsburgh natives to do all the time — take less money to get a chance to play for their hometown team.
If Ty Law had wanted to play in Pittsburgh after the Pats won their Super Bowls, he’d be called loyal and be a hero. But not when Larry Foote wants to go back home after a productive and hard-fought career wearing black and gold.
Point being, not everybody views Pittsburgh and the Steelers like we do. Like it or not, the NFL is a job and people will leave because of money or other reasons. Since we’re bloggers, we obviously suck at sports. But would we really take the league minimum every year to stay in Pittsburgh when we could have say twice as much money and thrice as much playing time elsewhere? Probably not.
Let’s all try not to get on these guys too much. If anything, Foote did an admirable thing and bashing him or any other player who changes teams is stupid.
Sure, there are greedy bastards out there who only play sports because of the cash, but just because somebody doesn’t want to spend every season in Heinz Field, every summer in Latrobe, and every lunch at Primanti’s doesn’t make them a bad person.
For us and yinz, it may be paradise, but Pittsburgh and the Steelers ain’t perfect to everybody.
Do you think Steeler fans are oversensitive about these so-called “traitors?” Should players be expected to play out their entire career for one team?
