STEELER (ALIE)NATION


yinz need some help.

Anyone who has ever lived in Pittsburgh for more than six months -- or, for that matter, anyone who has ever visited Pittsburgh for more than six minutes -- will immediately recognize both the absurdity and the veracity of this exchange, suffered by Sports Illustrated's Peter King...

Men's room, Buffalo airport, Saturday morning:

Loud guy: "Hey, what do you think of the Stillers this year?''

Me (knowing Loud Guy meant the "Steelers'' in his South Side-ish accent): "Pretty good. I like [Coach Mike] Tomlin. I think he'll do a good job.''

Loud Guy: "How 'bout Big Ben? He gonna come back and be good?''

Me: "I think so. Got a lot to prove, but he's got too good an arm and too good a head to play as inconsistently as he did last year.''

By now, we're at the sink, and he's not letting me go. A few people are looking on.

Loud Guy: "You like Hines?''

Me: "Love him. How can you like football and not like Hines Ward?''

Loud Guy: "Can we do it again? Win it all?''

Me: "Well, you might be a year away. You got a shot, but that's a tough conference this year, about as tough as I've seen in a while.

Loud Guy: "They're no year away. This is their year. I don't know why you guys in the media don't like the Stillers.''

The guys in the media do, of course, like the Stillers. But should the day come that, all sense and reason and civility to the contrary, they decide they do not, it will almost surely be thanks to a nation of fans that, among its millions of minions, counts far too many of these knuckle-dragging, men's-room-stalking morons.

Posted: Mon - August 20, 2007 at 09:40 AM          

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