Don’t Be Like Cleveland: A Letter to Steelers Nation
Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports
Dear Steeler Nation,
As the Pittsburgh Steelers face their Week 18 bout with Baltimore, and potentially the end of their season, I feel the need to remind you of some things.
Allow me to share a brief story.
I went to college in Ohio. Before you offer your condolences and concern for my general well-being, I should tell you, it was magical. The town of Athens is the least “Ohio” place in the state. It’s tucked in the Southeast corner of the state and is a beautiful medley of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. It has rolling hills (yes, hills in Ohio!) and some of the most scenic foliage I’ve laid eyes upon. It is also nearly equidistant from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.
On Sundays, when the leaves had turned from their lush greens to deep yellows and reds, my yinzer friends and I would tuck our Terrible Towels into our cargo shorts, throw on our Ward, Polamalu, and Harrison jerseys, and head up to Lucky’s, the local Steelers bar. Lucky’s sat on the main street, directly across from a Cincinnati Bengals bar. Next to the Bengals bar? You guessed it: a Cleveland Browns bar.
We would smile and shake our heads as we watched people we considered friends six days of the week walk into their respective establishments, knowing that our day was likely to go far better than theirs.
You see, the Browns had a new quarterback for every year that I lived in Athens. That trend, as many of you know, was established before I was born and lasted long after I left. Meanwhile, we sat happily and comfortably with No. 7 at the helm for nearly two decades.
Suddenly, Steeler Nation has forgotten its rich history and has somehow morphed into something that reminds me of an angry mob of Brown and Orange.
The emergence of Mason Rudolph has somehow spurred on some disdain for Kenny Pickett. It seems as if Steelers fans have conflated Mitch Trubisky’s terrible play with Pickett’s. Granted, Pickett did not shine in his abbreviated rookie and sophomore campaigns. Yet he managed to win 14 of his 24 games, and the Steelers have gone 7-2 this season when he started and finished the game.
He has consistently taken care of the ball, and he has been an exemplary teammate on all accounts.
Rudolph’s recent play has been exceptional. He boasts a fantastic quarterback rating in his two starts, and has led the offense to numbers that haven’t been seen by fans of the Black and Gold in years.
Has Rudolph exceeded expectations? Yes. Does Pickett still have a great deal of potential? Yes. Both can be true, and I think many need to be reminded of that.
The sudden desire for many Steelers faithful to pitch Pickett into the trash is baffling at best. The hypocrisy behind it is infuriating. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the very quarterback that Steeler fans are drooling over is the same player who was arguably the most hated man in Pittsburgh until Matt Canada moved into Western Pennsylvania. Rudolph was cast off as a waste of a draft pick who wasn’t fit to be the emergency backup.
Now those same people have a game worth watching on Saturday because of his performance when it looked like the season was over.
This fickle mindset is what crumbles organizations like Cleveland as they clamor for a franchise quarterback. They ran Baker Mayfield out of town, and you can’t tell me they weren’t missing his play right up until Joe Flacco got off of the couch. They loved Mayfield’s fiery attitude until he didn’t perform. They then confused his play with character flaws, something that is happening again as we speak in the south side of Pittsburgh.
The need to disqualify Pickett from ever starting again by questioning his willingness to take on a backup role is as desperate an approach as crowning Mason Rudolph as the franchise quarterback.
Pickett hasn’t excelled, but he might. No one knows. Legitimately, it’s impossible to say. He’s started a total of 24 games, far below two full seasons, and all but two were under Matt Canada.
Before you go on saying Pickett is injury-prone, just stop. For one, concussions are not an indication of fragility. Yes, he’s had other ailments, but was there not nearly a decade-long stint where Ben Roethlisberger missed games practically every season? Pickett needs more time, and so does Rudolph.
For all anyone knows, the Steelers may have two highly serviceable quarterbacks next season. I know the old saying from John Madden, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.” Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem wise to move hastily through this process.
For the first time in 20 years, Steelers fans may witness a true quarterback competition. There will be struggles along the way. In this “What have you done for me lately?” era of football, many fans are willing to throw in the towel after a single poor drive, let alone a poor game performance.
Steeler Nation, the future could be bright. Yes, there may be some frustrations along the way, but under no circumstance should those who call the Pittsburgh Steelers their team begin to behave as if their mascot was an elf.
Yours in football,
Scott
Up Next