Another steady stream of consciousness Steelers article

As I sit here typing this paragraph in the second week of March, I can’t think of any Steelers-related news to write about that’s fresh and authentic, but I still have a weekly quota to fill for Behind the Steeler Curtain and SB Nation.

Therefore, I thought it would be fun to write yet another steady stream of consciousness article about the Steelers (and other things) as the ideas come into my empty head.

— The Crafton Police have been pulling people over in front of my apartment for years, but they never seem to pull anyone over when they’re tailgating me, which seems to happen all the time these days, and not just in Crafton.

— Speaking of tailgating, I think if they cut down on that at Heinz Field, it would lead to fewer fights in the stands during games

— When I get tickets to a Steelers game, I like to get there right when the game is about to start. No tailgating. No standing around for hours, especially in the cold weather.

— I hate the weather. This is why I need to be rich and famous so I can rent one of those grand luxury boxes where nobody is allowed to bother you unless it’s something very urgent like purchasing yet another island.

— One or thing about tailgating of the driving variety. When you’re driving right behind someone who is going the speed limit or faster—and not just on a highway but on any stretch of road—and are so close to them that they can’t even see your headlights, do you realize that you’re being an incredible tool?

— March 2 has occurred already. In case you don’t know the significance of March 2, it’s Ben Roethlisberger’s birthday. Not only is it his birthday, but it’s his 40th birthday. I remember the good old days when 40-year old ex-athletes looked kind of elderly. Now, some 40-year olds are current athletes and can command eight-figure salaries on the open market. Roethlisberger isn’t one such athlete, but he looks incredibly young for a 40-year old.

— Roethlisberger was born on the second of a month, as was Terry Bradshaw (September 2). Therefore, if you’re into analytics, study the birthdays of all of the quarterbacks who could possibly play for Pittsburgh in 2022—both draft prospects and NFL veterans. If he was born on the second of a month, snatch him up.

— I almost don’t want Joshua Dobbs to be given a chance to be the Steelers' next franchise quarterback. It’s not that I don’t think he can do the job—I have no earthly idea. I just know the odds of anyone quickly establishing himself as the next Big Ben are pretty slim. I’d hate to see Dobbs, who is an incredibly nice guy, be subjected to the kind of fan wrath I’ve seen other quarterbacks go through in the past.

— Hey, PFF, y’all suck!

— Remember two offseasons ago when Jameis Winston was all the media and fans could talk about as someone the Steelers should sign as Roethlisberger’s backup in 2020 before assuming the role of starter in 2021? I remember that quite well; it was right at the onset of the pandemic and a popular radio segment in between making brackets for Easter candy. Here we are two years later, Roethlisberger has retired, and the Winston energy isn’t anything close to what it was then. Winston is a free agent with over 20,000 career yards on his resume. His last full season as a starter—2019—he led the NFL in passing yards with 5,109. True, he also led the league in interceptions with 30, but he threw 33 touchdown passes as well. Just last week, I saw someone refer to Winston as garbage. If his career stat line is garbage, I’d hate to see what cow manure looks like. The moral of the story: Beggars can’t be choosers. In other words, the Steelers could do a whole lot worse than Winston in 2022.

— I’m so happy it’s already March and that the Steelers will have so much cap space to play with once the new calendar year kicks off on the 16th. I don’t even know if they’ll sign anyone significant, but the anticipation of that—along with hours upon hours of rumors and speculation—will be pretty cool. That stuff gets kind of redundant and old in January and February, but it will be quite vibrant again on the eve of the new calendar year.

— Steelers fans continue to carry on about Creed Humphrey like he was the last really good center to ever be drafted.

— Speaking of salary caps, I’m so glad the NFL had the vision to give its league competitive balance decades ago and continued to recognize the importance of that by adopting a salary cap in the early-’90s. Bob Nutting, the Pirates owner, is an easy target for his frugal ways, but some small-market owner was going to be the “Pittsburgh Dad” of the small-market baseball teams—it just happened to be the guy who owns the baseball team in Pittsburgh. What’s wrong with baseball—the very core of it—has been obvious for decades. Yes, maybe baseball is too slow for many youngsters out there. Yes, things like the shift and the length of games have likely driven some folks away and have affected ratings. But let’s be honest, the real problem with MLB has been competitive balance. Everyone has always known this, but so many in the media gave up on the idea of a cap years ago. Instead, they resigned themselves to the fact that small-market teams simply had to make things work in other ways. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think that’s horse bleep. Why should a team from New York or Los Angeles go into a season with an inherent advantage that a team from Pittsburgh or Cincinnati does not have? If the NFL and NHL had started operating the same way years ago, the Steelers might be the Pirates of football today, while the Penguins would have moved to another city a long, long time ago.

— The Pirates might be the laughingstock of baseball, a team that hasn’t been to the World Series since 1979, but they’re no longer the only franchise with a sorry stretch of championship-less play. The Orioles haven’t been to the Series since 1983. The Reds haven’t been to the WS since 1990, same with the A’s. The Twins haven’t been back since 1991. All of these teams, along with the Royals, who finally won a championship in 2015 after 30 years (they quickly fell back down to the basement after that), were the titans of MLB for decades. You mean to tell me it was just a coincidence that they all stopped winning titles around the same time?

— Again, I’m so glad the NFL has never deviated from its business model.

— I’ve been on Twitter for 12 years and have yet to reach even 1,000 followers. What’s with these incredibly popular Twitter personalities who mostly Tweet things such as, “Who loves cake?” and have like 80,000 followers? What am I doing wrong?

Oh well, that’s all I have for you in this latest steady stream of consciousness Steelers article. You likely didn’t gain much from it, but it’s going to help me meet my weekly quota of articles. So I have that going for me, which is nice.