Inspired by something SteelerBuddha said in the Week 6 thread about how lucky we are to have this team, compared to what fans of teams like the Lions, Rams, Chiefs, etc. go through.

In 1999, as they had in 1998, a somewhat promising Steelers team absolutely fell apart down the stretch.  Then the 2000 season (the Kent Graham year; the final season at Three Rivers) looked like it would be an absolute joke, with an 0-3 start.  Maybe it was that second loss, in which the Stillers put on a clinic in how not to manage the clock, and lost to a Browns team that sucked more than they did.  Maybe it was the third loss, in which they almost upset Tennessee before letting Steve McNair go something like 370 yards in 0.5 seconds (I'm exaggerating slightly).  But, anyone remember how you felt then?  Because that's the last time you would have really understood what it's like to have a consistently losing team.  That's when you might have understood what it's like to be a Rams fan today.

Then Kordell Stewart re-earned the starting job after Graham was injured, the defense stepped up, and the 2000 Steelers then won 5 straight, including two upsets on the road that *no one* expected.  This led a to an inconsistent/streaky year and a 9-7 finish that was almost but not quite good enough for a playoff berth.  They haven't had two consecutive losing seasons since '98-'99, which was itself quite an anomaly for the Steelers of this era.

As SteelerBuddha put it, yes, we are pretty darn lucky.

It's almost a good thing (although not really) about the Pirates.  I don't care about baseball at all, but it keeps the city karmically balanced, so to speak, and makes Pittsburghers a little less likely to get spoiled by the success of the Steelers and Pens.