This Tribune Review article from April 2004 is such a treat to read because it would be impossible for a sports writer to be more wrong:
Steelers shift their approach while rebuilding
In the days leading up to Saturday and in the minutes immediately following the No. 11 overall selection, Bill Cowher kept insisting the Steelers didn’t expect to be drafting this high very often.
But in the wake of taking Ben Roethlisberger in the first round, you have to wonder if picking in the vicinity of the top 10 isn’t about to become habit forming.
Same time next year, fellas?
The Steelers used to declare each season that their goal was to “win the championship.” But while they’ll still offer lip service along those lines this season, it’s clear they’re in the midst of a significant philosophical shift.
The emphasis now appears to be on winning “a championship” at some point, and if the 2004 season has to be sacrificed to an extent to get one, so be it.
***Roethlisberger, from Miami (Ohio) and second-round pick Ricardo Colclough, from Tusculum College, are upside guys who won’t have much of an immediate impact provided they make any at all as rookies.
You’d expect more from No. 11 overall.
Then again, the Steelers should have expected more than they got from Troy Polamalu at No. 16 overall a season ago.
They also haven’t been to a Super Bowl since the 1995 campaign.
The Steelers went 15-1 in the regular season last year, starting several months after this was penned. You know what happened this year and this week. And because no Super Bowl celebration is complete without pictures of grinning nose tackles in bath robes, I present you with this:
This post was made partially because I just wanted to spend another day thinking about the Steelers, partially because I thought the picture of Hampton was funny, and partially to piss off PPGAZ, who whines in every Steelers thread.
jg
You’re closing in on Red Sox fan level of annoying here. I should know.
I just wish it had been a better game. Steelers still win of course just a little more drama. Game drama, not ref drama.
Brad R.
John, you ever read the Fire Joe Morgan blog? They’re like the Sadly, No!/World O’Crap of sports writing.
ppGaz
What a moron.
neil
Ha ha! ppGaz sucks!
Pooh
Hey! I resemble that remark!
BTW, I have to give this round to ppG, just for getting the front page smackdown. Stick’n’move John, stick and move.
Stormy70
Steelers, smeelers. This is all I have to say about that:
Let the Olympic Ice Skating commence! Oh, yes. The beauty, the grace, the Russo-French judging conspiracies. And all the rest.
J’adore the Winter Olympics. It is my two-week superbowl. I think my husband is ready to kick me out, though. I don’t understand why he keeps rolling his eyes when I mention ice skating. I only watch it once every 4 years. Dude.
Katie and Bob blow, though. Ugh!
Pooh
Heh
Stormy70
Here are the best Valentines I have ever seen.
ppGaz
(( Storm, posting inside parens so John won’t see it. I’m with you …. I watch every minute of the Olympics ))
Stormy70
(( Well, skip the Ice Skating special airing on USA. It blew.
I have always watched every single Winter Olympics, and I remember watching the “Miracle on Ice” as a little girl. We will have to establish super secret Olympic threads where John can’t catch us. Maybe he will be distracted with all these stupid steeler (still no capitalization for them) threads. Storm, out.))
rilkefan
Stormy, I’m quite aware my wife will now disappear into the tv room for two weeks or however long this lasts, esp. during the figure skating (except for the ice dancing, which she disdains). No need to rub my nose in it.
rilkefan
Great link, Pooh.
Bob In Pacifica
ppGaz, a penalty for tackling the ball carrier.
Whatever relevance that the Winter Olympics had for me is long gone. Back close to twenty years ago my friend had the hots for Katerina Witt. We ended up writing a rap song about the fall of Communism based on olympic competition.
These Communists chicks with their steroid fix
are overpowerin’ sometimes.
Their smalltalk is off-the-wall talk
when the government controls their minds.
But I gotta impress ’em if I wanna undress ’em
or my nightlife is uncertain
’cause after the meet it’s between the sheets
for sex behind the iron curtain.
This was written before drug-testing.
Gray
John, bragging about the Steelers Superbowl win for several days now, an event you didn’t contribute to (except swirling your yellow towel in front of the screen) is becoming quite pathetic. Get a life.
Veeshir
John, I just love it when people tell you what you can and can’t post. It never fails to make me laugh.
To think, I only clicked through to here to watch ppGaz whine and got that and so much more.
John Cole
Non-believers never understand exactly how much fans sacrifice and how much we have to do in order to make our team win.
joe
There are fans who actually change their socks and underwear after a win. Unbelievable!!
Joe
Pooh
I’ll refrain from some solid-gold snark about the ‘sacrifices’ involved with the ‘wins’ of John’s other ‘team’.
B. Minich, PI
Ohh, come on haters . . . you at least have to laugh at that article.
That was seriously the funniest thing I’ve read all day. The Trib was so off base it made me laugh out loud – good thing I’m in my basement apartment.
That is seriously a new low in sports punditry, and I’m not surprised to see the Trib hit it.
Vlad
“…it would be impossible for a sports writer to be more wrong.”
This Ron Cook column about the Pirates might come close.