The First Annual Steelers Defend The Lombardi Trophy Thread

[SenorBeef]

@Airman Doors

You may have kept the records, but you cannot deny that the players wearing the Cleveland Browns uniform one year were wearing Ravens purple the next year. For better or worse, that’s their lineage. Just like the Minnesota Twins maintain the lineage of the original Washington Senators in baseball, even though they were immediately replaced by the second Washington Senators franchise.

Technically true, but turnover in the NFL in modern times takes away some of the meaning of certain players on certain teams at any given time.

You were talking about the Ravens counting Browns hall of famers. Jim Brown, Otto Graham, and many others, have far more to do with the city of Cleveland, and its fans and dedication to its team, than a technical link to Baltimore. There is no way any of them would consider themselves Balitmore Ravens in any sense, and I’m sure they are all proud to be Browns.

It’s a shame that if you go to the Hall of Fame, Johnny Unitas is displayed as a quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Cleveland fans rebelled harder than any other sports team in the same situation in history, and made sure that sort of thing wouldn’t happen. It’s a testament to the dedication of Cleveland fans, and how special the Browns are to Cleveland and the obvious ties between the city and team. The Browns will be forever tied to Cleveland, even if a bunch of players who were once Browns became Ravens. I think it’s disrespectful to that level of dedication to contradict that dedication.

[Enginerd]

@Airman Doors

You may have kept the records, but you cannot deny that the players wearing the Cleveland Browns uniform one year were wearing Ravens purple the next year. For better or worse, that’s their lineage. Just like the Minnesota Twins maintain the lineage of the original Washington Senators in baseball, even though they were immediately replaced by the second Washington Senators franchise.

That’s the history of the team, sure. But good smack talk works because it targets the emotions of a person, not because of it’s unassailable logic. When you’re talking to Baltimore fans over 30, there’s probably going to be a much greater emotional connection to the Colts (::leans over and spits on the ground: than there is to the Browns. You can talk shit about the Browns all day, and the only goat you’re going to get is Senor Beef’s.

@SenorBeef

It’s a shame that if you go to the Hall of Fame, Johnny Unitas is displayed as a quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Cleveland fans rebelled harder than any other sports team in the same situation in history, and made sure that sort of thing wouldn’t happen. It’s a testament to the dedication of Cleveland fans, and how special the Browns are to Cleveland and the obvious ties between the city and team. The Browns will be forever tied to Cleveland, even if a bunch of players who were once Browns became Ravens. I think it’s disrespectful to that level of dedication to contradict that dedication.

As a Ravens fan, I agree with this wholeheartedly. In the last years of his life, Johnny U was on the sidelines of Ravens games, not Colts games. The fact that a team moves doesn’t change what those guys did, or where they did it, and Browns fans did a great job when the team left of making sure it wouldn’t happen to their city.

[Guinastasia]

@mhendo

You’re kidding, right?

I mean, i think that typical sports smack-talk (a la Senor Beef’s most recent post) is juvenile and lame at the best of times.

But the most pathetic, cringe-worthy smack-talk is the desperate appeal to history (and i say that as a historian).

Did you really sit there, after today’s game, and console yourself with the fact that the Steelers have more Superbowl victories and more Hall-of-Famers than the Ravens? Do the Pittsburgh glory days really serve as a panacea when your quarterback is being mugged every time he gets the ball, or when your vaunted running offense barely gets enough yards to cross over a Baltimore alleyway?

I enjoyed today’s victory, no doubt. But i know there will be losses to Pittsburgh in the future, and when they come, the knowledge of Baltimore’s victory today won’t be much of a consolation.

Relax! I’m just kidding. I probably should have included a smiley.

God, trash talk between sports rivals is pretty much manditory, I believe.

[Weirddave]

@Airman Doors

It doesn’t feel all that great, thanks. But remember, the tide ebbs and flows. A few good shots on McNair and the Ravens might be in the same place. But they’re not, so couldawouldashoulda. Baltimore is clearly the better team this year.

Undoubtedly! And then you’ll be asking me how it feels to be Pittsburgh’s bitch, and I’ll be grumbling in MY beer (which, fortunately, won’t be Iron City, at least my situation will be that much will be better)

@Airman Doors

What kind of a douchebag shits all over a thread that I started by invoking He Who Shall Not Be Named In My House Or In My Presence, Forever And Ever Amen? It’s only that you’re a fellow Steelers fan that I don’t smite you where you stand. Never say that name again upon pain of… well, I’ll be really pissed off.

I’m afraid that as long as you are so determined to hang on to your crackpot conspiracy theories, people are going to throw Neil O’Donnell in your face. It’s just fun! (Neil O’Donnell, Neil O’Donnell, Neil O’Donnell! Neener! Neener! Neener!)

@The Mad Hermit

Weirddave is still smarting from the beating the Crabby Hermits gave him last week. (was it last week?) Beating him with Willie Parker, Hines Ward, the Pitt defense and Jamal Lewis must have been frustrating. Glad to see he’s got something to hold onto.

No, just Lewis. That hurt. I’m simultaneously cheering TDs and muttering “Can’t they pass to Clayton ferchristsake” under my breath. It didn’t help that Lewis’ numbers were the difference in the FF game) :mad:

[Guinastasia]

Dave, even many Pittsburghers acknowledge that IC’s a shitty beer (not that I would know personally-beer’s not my drink of choice). Even my grandfather, a die-hard Steeler’s fan, drank Rolling Rock.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

@Guinastasia

Dave, even many Pittsburghers acknowledge that IC’s a shitty beer (not that I would know personally-beer’s not my drink of choice). Even my grandfather, a die-hard Steeler’s fan, drank Rolling Rock.

HEY! I like IC Light.

[The_Mad_Hermit]

@Guinastasia

Dave, even many Pittsburghers acknowledge that IC’s a shitty beer (not that I would know personally-beer’s not my drink of choice). Even my grandfather, a die-hard Steeler’s fan, drank Rolling Rock.

Rolling Rock, now that’s a good beer. One of them was nice after I spent a week in the hospital next to the brewery, with a view of the brewery through the window. Had to have one when I got home.

[Guinastasia]

@Hentor the Barbarian

HEY! I like IC Light.

Well, like I said-I’m just going by reputation-I don’t know jackshit about beer, so I couldn’t tell you.

Me? I prefer cream liquors and whiskeys. (Like Carolan’s Irish Cream, or Harvey’s Bristol Cream)

[Khadaji]

@Hentor the Barbarian

HEY! I like IC Light.

I’ve always said that IC is the only beer I know where the light version is better than the regular.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

@Khadaji

I’ve always said that IC is the only beer I know where the light version is better than the regular.

Very true! For regular beer, my new favorite is Yuengling. If you’re in town, you should try out the Penn Brewery and the Church Brew Works. Both are interesting places to eat, and the beers are worth giving a try.

[Khadaji]

Yeah Yuengling is pretty much the only beer I drink. But if I come back to Pittsburg I’ll give those breweries a try.

[Guinastasia]

Condolences to Jerome Bettis and his family.

[Khadaji]

We are not getting the game here today. With Ward and Troy both out, I am not hopeful for the result - but as of this post it was 7-0 Steelers.

[Khadaji]

Wow. 10 - 0 at the half. Not a bad start.

[Khadaji]

Wow, 20-3! I wish I had seen it.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

Is there any fan of Willie Parker’s who can defend keeping him as our primary and nearly only running back? I contend that one cannot be a real fan of Steeler football and also like this type of running game.

A Steeler football running game busts your ass for 3 or 4 yards a pop for three quarters, so that by the fourth quarter your linebackers are thinking about the locker room, and look like they are dragging a refrigerator on their backs.

With a Steeler football running game, when you are winning by the time the fourth quarter rolls around, you’ll see nothing but hand-offs up the middle for 8 straight minutes of game time.

A Steeler running game is not a dice roll. With a Steeler running game, you don’t have to wait through 10 carries of 1 yard or no gain before you get a 30 yard run. A Steeler running game doesn’t routinely require the quarterbacks to complete a 3rd and 10 or 3rd and 8.

I say that if you’re willing to wait through three series of three and outs before you get anything productive, you may as well drop back and lob up long bombs on every play. They’ll pay off about as often as Fast Willie does.

[Airman_Doors_USAF]

Fast Willie is Franco Harris redux. He gets 10 runs for 2 yards each and then breaks one for 70 which makes his stats look good.

All I want to know is where this effort was last week.

[Guinastasia]

Maybe it was the home field advantage, maybe it was Papa Bettis smiling down on us-who knows?

Keep it up, guys!

[Kid_A_1]

Maybe because it was Tampa Bay.

Just a thought.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

@Kid_A

Maybe because it was Tampa Bay.

Just a thought.

I’d say we should play 3-8 teams every week, but then I remember our game against the Raiders.

Willie Parker is no Franco Harris. I don’t have Franco’s stats at hand, but I would wager that his stats were exceptionally more consistent than Parker’s.

If we continue to rely on Parker in this role, we will never see another post-season. If we luck into one, we will never make it to the Superbowl. Without exceptional performances by Roethlisberger, we would not have done nearly as well last year.

Here’s Parker’s numbers from the four post-season games last year:

Cincinatti: 16 rushes for 38 yards
Indianapolis: 17 rushes for 59 yards
Denver: 14 rushes for 35 yards
Superbowl: 10 rushes for 93 yards. Which means that apart from the 75 yard run, he was 9 rushes for 18 yards. I hear a lot of people talking about how without Parker’s 75 yard run, we might have lost the Superbowl. I contend that without averaging 2 yards a run every other carry, we wouldn’t need a 75 yard run.

With a good running game in 2004 (with Duce Staley in the first half of the year), we went 15 and 1 and lost the AFC Championship game. Featuring Willie Parker in 2005, we went 11 and 5 and backed into the playoffs, having success because of the success of our passing game. In 2006, our clearly impaired passing game exposes the lack of a consistent running game, and we stand at 5 and 7.