There’s a difference for you, we tip our cap and respect the Giants even though they broke our hearts. We used to look at them the way we look at the Giants and their fans, loud and proud with a right to be. I have been a Pats season ticket holder since ’82 and Pats fans by and large always held respect for the Steelers and their fans, river of ‘roids rings or not they got it done on the field, made no excuses and offered no apologies. I write “almost” any fan base because I’m of the opinion that the Patriots really are cheating cheaters who cheat, cheat, cheat so much that probably they even eat Cheetos and laugh, maniacally, while drawing bloody pentagrams on the floors of their mansions.Ĭan’t help but feel that has something to do with that 3-8 record in the Belichick era and the resultant missed SB opportunities. If, in 40 years, your team has had something of the same success you’ll understand where all that hate is coming from and shrug it off, too. I recognize that I am fortunate to be sitting on a very high mountain, and consequently I have a very different view. In my case, I find myself amused whenever some sweet little team wins its first championship, or even third, and starts smack talking Pittsburgh. This might sound odd to a Cards fan, who can’t imagine rooting for the Seahawks, but championships and “power” don’t only corrupt. I suspect this fallow period they’re in will be brief. Sure, I “hate” them and yes, I too still consider them the Steelers greatest rival, but I can’t help but respect the way they’ve gone about building good, physical teams over a long period of time. The exception is the Ravens, who I have gained so much respect for, over the years, as a franchise, that once the Steelers are gone they automatically get my vote. When the Steelers are truly knocked out for the year, I generally pick one as my “favorite” and usually it’s a team that has never won the Super Bowl before. When the Steelers don’t have the look of a super bowl champion, I start eyeballing the real contenders. But I am also operating from such a different set of experiences than most of you, who “hate the Steelers” that I am not sure you can relate. The point is this: I like all of you guys. I write “almost” any fan base because I’m of the opinion that the Patriots really are cheating cheaters who cheat, cheat, cheat so much that probably they even eat Cheetos and laugh, maniacally, while drawing bloody pentagrams on the floors of their mansions. But I also have this deep reservoir of great, fun experiences to draw upon whenever bad times hit my team.Īs a result, I tend not to get too low with lows when they occur, and I find myself being very happy for almost any fan base that wins a Super Bowl and enjoys a little of that juice I’ve already enjoyed. As a result, I feel like I have some sense of what it felt like to be, say, a Seahawks fan all of those years. That said, I am also old enough to remember what qualifies as the Steelers only “dark” period in the last 40 years, from ’85 to ’92, when they still made the playoffs a few times and even won in the postseason but were alos, sometimes, plain bad. That kind of run, 40 years long, of Super Bowl championships and consistent relevancy is rare. ![]() ![]() The Steelers are one of the most successful franchises in the history of sports. And my response is going to sound like smack talk, which I admit lots of Pittsburgh fans engage in, but it really isn’t. I get it: Lots of people hate the Steelers. I think there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs among fanbases, in which our experiences as fans really guide how we interpret pretty much everything that happens in the NFL.
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