2017 Pittsburgh Steelers

[Jack Lambert]

The 2017 edition of the Pittsburgh Steelers, although it may not look like it, will be one of the whitest teams they've had in a while. Ben Roethlisberger, who is now in his 14th season out of Miami (OH) with Pittsburgh, is still a top-flight QB and the key to the Steelers' success. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer, and has been one of the better QBs in NFL history. After nearly retiring in the offseason, this may be the 35-year old Roethlisberger's last season, so enjoy him while he's still around. Landry Jones returns as Ben's backup, despite the Steeler DWFs wanting new upside QB Josh Dobbs as the 2nd string. The Steelers recently traded for speedy TE Vance McDonald, who'll likely share a lot of time at the position with incumbent starter Jesse James. James, a local product out of Penn State, has defied DWF expectations in holding off two "higher-upside" TEs in LeDarius Green (now released) and Xavier Grimble to win the starting job after Heath Miller retired.

On the offensive line, the Steelers feature two white starters, and those two are both good ones. David DeCastro, who's been to two Pro Bowls, and has been on the 1st team (2015) and 2nd team (2016) All-Pro teams the last two seasons. He's an absolute mauler at right guard. Left tackle Alejandro Villanueva (a former Army ranger) returns as Big Ben's blindside protector. Another one of those pesky white players Steeler DWFs thought shouldn't be starting at first, he's ran with the job over the last two seasons to the point where he's signed a contract extension with the team recently. At 6-9, 320, Villanueva is massive, and does a pretty good job of protecting Ben's blindside; he's one of the better tackles in the league. The Steelers amazingly have two white backups on the line as well in interior lineman BJ Finney, and G/T Ryan Feiler, a local product.

On defense, rookie TJ Watt has more than lived up to expectations, beating out 39-year old James Harrison for a starting OLB spot. Watt is going to be a good one. The rookie out of Wisconsin may not be as dominant as his older brother, but he'll be one of better LBs in the league. He got two sacks in his very first preseason game. He's a good athlete in space, and should bolster what wasn't the best pass rush last year for Pittsburgh. I'm looking forward to watching Watt develop. The Steelers actually have some white depth at LB, including Anthony Chickillo. The vet out of Miami will be an integral part of Pittsburgh's rotation at OLB this year. Tyler Matakevich out of Temple backs up one of the ILB spots.

Chris Boswell is one of the league's top kickers, Jordan Berry is a decent punter, and Kameron Canaday is the new long snapper after Greg Warren was released due to a failed physical in the offseason.

On the practice squad, the Steelers have a few white players in LB Matt Galambos, C Kyle Friend, TE Jake McGhee, and S Jacob Hagen (who I'm not quite sure on).

So, on the active roster:

Offense
QB: Ben Roethlisberger, Landry Jones
TE: Jesse James, Vance McDonald
OL: David DeCastro (RG), Alejandro Villanueva (LT), BJ Finney, Matt Feiler

Defense
LB: TJ Watt, Anthony Chickillo, Tyler Matakevich

Specialists
K/P/LS: Chris Boswell, Jordan Berry, Kameron Canaday

The numbers may not be staggering, but this seems like one of the whitest teams the Steelers have had in a while, especially with three whites on defense who have a shot to play. Their white players (especially the starters) are also mostly impact players, so for that, Pittsburgh likely picks up the first non "F" grade CF has given them.

Starters: 5
Total Number of White Players on the Active Roster: 14
Grade: D-

 

[Deceptive Speed]

OLB/DE Anthony Chickillo started in week 1 with Watt at OLB, and had 6 tackles and 2 sacks!

 

[Don Wassall]

I was just listening to Pittsburgh talk show host Mark Madden for about 15 minutes. I've mentioned him before, he can be a jerk quite often but he loves hockey and hates basketball and can be hilarious ripping into the antics of black football players, so he's the only local sports host I will occasionally listen to when driving.

He is a big fan of Big Ben, and noted that Ben had a terrible game yesterday and hasn't looked good this season, but his main thrust was that Ben intensely dislikes Antonio Brown and that Brown has created a toxic environment in the locker room, which has spilled out onto the field. Ben's dislike for Brown goes back several years, but Madden thinks the players who are militant about kneeling for the anthem and otherwise disrespecting the country has exacerbated racial tensions on teams across the league, which is probably accurate.

The anthem controversy may continue to have unanticipated results, such as teams quitting or at least not trying very hard due to internal, mostly racial divisions. The Patriots had a bunch of kneelers, which could well be a factor in them not looking anywhere near as dominant as expected so far this season. You can bet there's a lot of White players who have played along with the "solidarity" gestures because they know they have to who despise their teammates not showing respect for the flag and anthem.

 

[Shadowlight]

No doubt this Anthem stuff has caused some friction in the locker rooms. Here is my main worry. Things are tough enough for the white athlete and added racial disharmony might have a negative effect on the skilled white players. The last two weeks we have seen white WR's put up anemic or mediocre numbers. Is it a mere coincidence or has some internal dissonance from black teammates hindered the success of white WR's? Call me paranoid but since there are so many black players in the league I worry about sabotage. Even before this Anthem controversy I was worried about sabotage but it seems the stakes are even higher now. Indeed why is it that Travis Kelce is the only pass catcher that was skulled this past week while quite a few black receivers put up huge numbers without much of any disturbances from black DB's? Even in college I often wonder (perhaps letting my imagination get away from me) when black DB's on occasion let the black WR's run wild is it because it is good for the black supremacy theme? People forget who was playing DB on given days but they remember big down field plays by black WR's. As the media plods on as usual I have always suspected an underlying theme among many black players that their main purpose in sports is to make whites look deficient and slow and promote the everlasting idea that they and they alone are superior supermen. Just ask ESPN's Mike Greenberg in my mind the most sickening human being covering sports today. And that is saying something when you consider the competition he has at ESPN.

 

[Thrashen]

I was just listening to Pittsburgh talk show host Mark Madden for about 15 minutes. I've mentioned him before, he can be a jerk quite often but he loves hockey and hates basketball and can be hilarious ripping into the antics of black football players, so he's the only local sports host I will occasionally listen to when driving.

He is a big fan of Big Ben, and noted that Ben had a terrible game yesterday and hasn't looked good this season, but his main thrust was that Ben intensely dislikes Antonio Brown and that Brown has created a toxic environment in the locker room, which has spilled out onto the field. Ben's dislike for Brown goes back several years, but Madden thinks the players who are militant about kneeling for the anthem and otherwise disrespecting the country has exacerbated racial tensions on teams across the league, which is probably accurate.

The anthem controversy may continue to have unanticipated results, such as teams quitting or at least not trying very hard due to internal, mostly racial divisions. The Patriots had a bunch of kneelers, which could well be a factor in them not looking anywhere near as dominant as expected so far this season. You can bet there's a lot of White players who have played along with the "solidarity" gestures because they know they have to who despise their teammates not showing respect for the flag and anthem.

I can't imagine why Ben would dislike Brown, who was actually a humble player a few years back but has since turned into one of the most obnoxious diva headcase WR's aside from OBJ...

After the little black baby threw his tantrum, Ben targeted him 19 times in their ugly loss to Jacksonville the following week. A losing formula that probably made their relationship even worse. Since Brown (who is widely considered to be the "best" WR in the league) joined the team in 2010, the Steelers haven't even appeared in the Superbowl, let alone won the title.

 

[sprintstar]

Ben should not blame himself, I tend to think he has a gun to his head by the wankers..I mean "owners" to target negro WR's. I think he will either retire to get out of the shytehole he is stuck in or demand a trade.

 

[Rocky B]

The Steelers haven't had a white wideout in years.
Kupp was available and they needed a wr, they picked JuJu.....
Especially after taking TJ Watt in the first round , there was no way they'd double up and
get Kupp in the 2nd round......No way in hell

 

[Thrashen]

The Steelers haven't had a white wideout in years.
Kupp was available and they needed a wr, they picked JuJu.....
Especially after taking TJ Watt in the first round , there was no way they'd double up and
get Kupp in the 2nd round......No way in hell

I don't believe that Ben Roethlisberger has completed a pass to a white WR since Sean Morey, a legendary special-teamer who accidentally caught 2 passes for 29 yards back in 2006, presumably after injuries to their "real" receivers. Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Here is one of Morey's catches against the Browns in 2006...

 

[Don Wassall]

Going back a couple of years before that, the Steelers had Chris Doering in 2003 and '04, the final two years of his NFL "career."

Doering was a record setting receiver at Florida who physically was pretty much a clone of fellow Florida receiver Crissie Collinsworth (Doering was 6' 4" and thin, Collinsworth was 6'5" and thin), even looked a lot like him facially. But Collinsworth was highly recruited, while by this time in the 1990s Doering had to go the obligatory walk-on route. And unlike Collinsworth, the last highly touted White receiver, who was a second round draft choice in 1981 just as the Caste System was going hard-core and started as a rookie, Doering was drafted in the sixth round by Jacksonville and never received anything close to a legitimate opportunity in the NFL. His career stats are pathetic and sad:

1996 - 1 catch with Indy (after being cut by Jacksonville)
1997- 2 catches with Indy
1999 - 3 catches with Denver
2002 - 18 catches with Washington
2003 - 18 catches with Pittsburgh
2004 - 0 catches with Pittsburgh in three games

I used to watch Florida just to watch Doering. Would he have been as good as Collinsworth if he hadn't been screwed over? He might not have been quite as fast as Crissie, who was very fast although he's ashamed to admit it in his long-running role as White Step 'n Fetchit Caste analyst, but Doering at the least could have been a quality starting outside receiver on a team.

 

[Rocky B]

Going back a couple of years before that, the Steelers had Chris Doering in 2003 and '04, the final two years of his NFL "career."

Doering was a record setting receiver at Florida who physically was pretty much a clone of fellow Florida receiver Crissie Collinsworth (Doering was 6' 4" and thin, Collinsworth was 6'5" and thin), even looked a lot like him facially. But Collinsworth was highly recruited, while by this time in the 1990s Doering had to go the obligatory walk-on route. And unlike Collinsworth, the last highly touted White receiver, who was a second round draft choice in 1981 just as the Caste System was going hard-core and started as a rookie, Doering was drafted in the sixth round by Jacksonville and never received anything close to a legitimate opportunity in the NFL. His career stats are pathetic and sad:

1996 - 1 catch with Indy (after being cut by Jacksonville)
1997- 2 catches with Indy
1999 - 3 catches with Denver
2002 - 18 catches with Washington
2003 - 18 catches with Pittsburgh
2004 - 0 catches with Pittsburgh in three games

I used to watch Florida just to watch Doering. Would he have been as good as Collinsworth if he hadn't been screwed over? He might not have been quite as fast as Crissie, who was very fast although he's ashamed to admit it in his long-running role as White Step 'n Fetchit Caste analyst, but Doering at the least could have been a quality starting outside receiver on a team.

As a lifetime Steeler fan, I remember Weegie Thompson in the 80's, who was ok.....Pittsburgh actually drafted a wideout around 15 years ago in Danny Farmer from USC or UCLA....3rd rd I believe, but fizzled out early, real early.....Don, do you remember Rich Erenberg? RB from Colgate?????.....Tough back from the '80's........The Steelers drafted a safety 10-15 years ago from a small school....Can't remember his name...Didn't work out, big dude for a db........Pale skill positions have been few and far between for Pittsburgh......not drafting Puz or Sean Lee still pisses me off......Letting Vrabel go........

 

[Don Wassall]

As a lifetime Steeler fan, I remember Weegie Thompson in the 80's, who was ok.....Pittsburgh actually drafted a wideout around 15 years ago in Danny Farmer from USC or UCLA....3rd rd I believe, but fizzled out early, real early.....Don, do you remember Rich Erenberg? RB from Colgate?????.....Tough back from the '80's........The Steelers drafted a safety 10-15 years ago from a small school....Can't remember his name...Didn't work out, big dude for a db........Pale skill positions have been few and far between for Pittsburgh......not drafting Puz or Sean Lee still pisses me off......Letting Vrabel go........

I remember Erenberg, he was a backup RB who had some talent, Jewish too, as was tight end Randy Grossman from that era. The Steelers often had a White RB or WR during Chuck Noll's reign, mostly as backups though Merrill Hoge had the most carries in the backfield from '88 through '91. After that Bill Cowher took over and he quickly demoted Hoge to blocking fullback status and purged most of the White players from the roster.

Danny Farmer didn't fizzle, he was as screwed over as any White WR has ever been by the NFL. A record setter at UCLA (former NFL quarterback Cade McNown called him the best receiver he had ever seen), some of the Steelers' black players, in particular CB Chad Scott, decided they hated Farmer, and Cowher took it from there with the cooperation of the local media. Scott also just happened to be the player who took out Patrick Jeffers' knee in a '00 preseason game after Jeffers' incredible '99 season with Carolina. That injury effectively ended Jeffers' career.

Farmer was the highest drafted player from the 2000 draft cut in the league that year. Farmer bounced around for a few years, always showing very well when he played, particularly with the Bengals, before ending up with the Jon Gruden-coached Buccaneers, who cut him and he never played for another team.

I wrote quite a bit about Farmer as he was someone I followed at UCLA who was not only a great receiver but an All-American volleyball player who could jump like a kangaroo, but it's been lost due to the hacking Caste Football has endured over the years. If you check the Steelers forum, there's a short thread on Weegie Thompson and a longer one I started about Cowher after he quit, called "Bill Cowher -- A Caste Remembrance," which summed up my memories of this virulently anti-White head coach.

 

[Don Wassall]

Big Ben is now tied with Aaron Rodgers for 9th all time in TD passes with 310 after throwing two yesterday.

At this still admittedly relatively early point in the season, the Steelers and Patriots look headed toward another AFC championship game showdown. The Patriots have owned the Steelers in the Mike Tomlin era.

Now to this week's drama. Martavis Bryant was suspended for the entire 2016 season after failing numerous drug tests. The Steelers never gave up on him and have done everything possible to ease his transition back to the league. In return, Bryant demanded a trade last week because he doesn't feel he's being used enough even though he's done next to nothing when he's been on the field. Total ingrate.

After yesterday's beatdown of the Bengals, Bryant was at it again, posting on Instagram regarding his teammate Ju Ju Smith Schuster [sic]: "juju is no where near better than me fool all they need to do is give me what I want an y'all can have juju and who ever else"

Note that what set Bryant off was some random DWF commenting that "Ju Ju" was now more valuable than Bryant in fantasy football! This level of thin skin sensitivity is beyond comprehension for Whites, but par for the course for many blacks.

Once the quick and inevitable polite backlash began to set in, Bryant deleted his post and replaced it with an over the top compensatory one, again with the same illiterate grammar that must make all the professors and administrators at Clemson so proud that they recruited and "educated" this outstanding "student-athlete": “JuJu is the future and got great talent and is going to be one of the best to play this game. I want him to get his. I just want mines, period, point-blank. Ain’t nobody did nothing to get me back. I worked my ass off to get myself back with no help and little support, period. In due time the process will show.”

And speaking of "Ju Ju," he engaged in a quick game of the old kindergarten favorite, hide n seek, in the endzone with a teammate after scoring yesterday. It's a step up from Odell Beckham urinating dog-like after scoring, but not much. But of course the media lapped it up and it will be shown all week on sports media while White announcers beam with their best fake smiles. One can only imagine how much material Bryant, Ju Ju, Beckham and dozens of others would provide for comedians were the U.S. not strictly governed by the rules of cultural communism. If they were White, Bill Maher would have his audience in stitches making fun of their names and antics and calling them "inbred White Southerners." But because they're black it just adds to their legends as the Magical Race in this land of make believe.

 

[Freethinker]

Great post Don, as per your usual. I love your local updates on your hometown Crawfords....errr Kneelers. Your reports should be picked up by local beat writers as you speak more truth about this marxist squad than has ever been written in all the local rags combined.

 

[Rocky B]

I've been a Steeler fan since around 1977.....Shame about Farmer....I'd love to see them trade ingrate Martavis and sign a Max McCaffrey.....Get some solid people in the organization, weed out the shitheads......One thing I remember about Rich Erenberg was that he body slammed a db after he intercepted a pass in the end zone.......Picked him up and slammed him......One thing that made me upset about the anthem thing was seeing Mike Mitchell run out of the tunnel with an antifa bandana over his face......How do you root for a team that puts up with that bull crap.....The animals are definitely running the zoo.....

 

[Thrashen]

“JuJu is the future and got great talent and is going to be one of the best to play this game. I want him to get his. I just want mines, period, point-blank. Ain’t nobody did nothing to get me back. I worked my ass off to get myself back with no help and little support, period. In due time the process will show.”

"No help and little support"...except from the Steelers organization, who drafted me, signed me to a multi-million dollar contract, developed me, trained me, started me, and patiently waited for me to return from two different drug suspensions.

Bryant's punishment for these ridiculously-selfish comments? Sitting out one game.

With ungrateful super-divas like Bell, Brown, and Bryant, it's hard to believe that Pittsburgh looks as good as they do in 2017.

 

[Don Wassall]

Two powerhouse suburban Pittsburgh high school football teams are North Allegheny and Pine-Richland. I live near both districts and in fact graduated from North Allegheny many moons ago. The two schools met recently and Pine-Richland pulled off the win, a big one for them as North Allegheny is a large and excellent school district that is very strong academically as well as in just about all boys and girls sports. After the game, Pine-Richland's star quarterback, Phil Jurkovec, was deemed by some NA fans to have celebrated too heartily, including a parent who came up to his face and yelled at him, calling him the "great white hope." Both football teams are overwhelmingly White.

Who was the parent who made the racial taunt? Why none other than Mike Tomlin's good buddy and the Crawfords' linebacker coach, Joey Porter, the irrepressible thug and moron. (Porter and Tomlin caused a disruption at a high school football game last year, to the point that Porter was nearly arrested and undoubtedly would have been if he wasn't Joey Porter.)

BTW, when I went to North Allegheny it was 100 percent White, not a single minority student in the school district hard as that may be to believe today. Now, Joey Porter apparently has at least one child in the district, but what's really changed is the shocking number of Chinese and Indian students. Most of them will go on to displace White Americans in a few years as doctors and IT specialists. It's a microcosm of the dramatic demographic change that Pittsburgh is undergoing, and the nation as a whole as STEM jobs go to Indians and East Asians, following so many blue collar jobs going to Mexicans and just plain disappearing due to the offshoring and "free trade" policies promoted by the Democrats and Republicans.

 

[McCaffrey Dude]

This has been talked about here before but I just got into a fist fight with a guy wearing a Steelers hat. I just got out of the hospital after recovering for a month after surgery and I was not in a good mood. I see this guy with a Steelers hat and I just kind of laugh at him. Yes, I did start it. At least I finished it and have learned that the assumption would b e it is very rare to change the mind of a programmed DWF.
I told him I hate the Steelers because of Art Rooney and the implementation of the Rooney rule some decade plus ago. I think the reply was " yeah well thank God we have more minority coaches now. Look how good they are doing. Look at all the black quarterbacks in college ." Ouch.
Well douche bag then why is the NFL 70 plus percent black? It doesn't hurt that most of the affletes can't catch the ball half the time, can't tackle, and the linemen are just overweight duffle bags with feet. If I was 360 pounds I am pretty sure I could have pushed Jack Youngblood out of the way a few times a game. Athleticism isin't just about speed or jumping ability. Balance, hand eye coordination and intelligence also factor heavily in sports. Other than Warren Moon or Rodney Pete has there ever really been an overly intelligent quarterback?
Liberals only see diversity as a one way street because of 400 years of oppression. The real argument I have heard many times for the need for the Rooney rule is becau see se of the " good-old boy network ". Meaning that white owners and GM's are going to only hire white guys because we allz beez alike. Why aren't the players 72 percent white? Surely because all of whites are inherently racist seen through the liberals eyes. To imply white owners and GMS only hired whites at managerial and coaching positions because they are white is racist in itself. I just don't understand the brainwashing of so many people in this country that can't see the stupidity of their logic.

 

[Thrashen]

This has been talked about here before but I just got into a fist fight with a guy wearing a Steelers hat. I just got out of the hospital after recovering for a month after surgery and I was not in a good mood. I see this guy with a Steelers hat and I just kind of laugh at him. Yes, I did start it. At least I finished it and have learned that the assumption would b e it is very rare to change the mind of a programmed DWF.
I told him I hate the Steelers because of Art Rooney and the implementation of the Rooney rule some decade plus ago. I think the reply was " yeah well thank God we have more minority coaches now. Look how good they are doing. Look at all the black quarterbacks in college ." Ouch.
Well douche bag then why is the NFL 70 plus percent black? It doesn't hurt that most of the affletes can't catch the ball half the time, can't tackle, and the linemen are just overweight duffle bags with feet. If I was 360 pounds I am pretty sure I could have pushed Jack Youngblood out of the way a few times a game. Athleticism isin't just about speed or jumping ability. Balance, hand eye coordination and intelligence also factor heavily in sports. Other than Warren Moon or Rodney Pete has there ever really been an overly intelligent quarterback?
Liberals only see diversity as a one way street because of 400 years of oppression. The real argument I have heard many times for the need for the Rooney rule is becau see se of the " good-old boy network ". Meaning that white owners and GM's are going to only hire white guys because we allz beez alike. Why aren't the players 72 percent white? Surely because all of whites are inherently racist seen through the liberals eyes. To imply white owners and GMS only hired whites at managerial and coaching positions because they are white is racist in itself. I just don't understand the brainwashing of so many people in this country that can't see the stupidity of their logic.

You really engaged in a fist fight with a complete stranger simply because he was a Steelers DWF? Wow, that takes some balls, as most normal white people wouldn’t engage someone in physical violence over something as trivial as sports.

Where did this encounter occur? How old was he compared to you? Who threw the first punch and why? Were there any injuries? Did you get in trouble with the law?

 

[Don Wassall]

Big Ben threw for 351 yards against Green Bay, the 30th time he's thrown for at least 350 yards. The only QBs to do it more often are Drew Brees (57), Tom Brady (42), and Peyton Manning (35).

The Steelers' branch of DWF Nation as well as the Pittsburgh media have been obsessed with the Patriots the past few years, because New England has dominated Pittsburgh in both the regular season and the playoffs. It sometimes seems like Brady, Belichick and the Pats are discussed as much on local radio as the Steelers themselves. The two teams meet in Pittsburgh on December 17th with the winner likely to have homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, so it looms large as a huge game for both teams. The consensus among the Pittsburgh media is that the only chance the Steelers have of beating New England in the playoffs is by doing so at home so the stakes for the game will be rightly viewed as immense.

 

[Don Wassall]

The latest Steelers drama took place on New Year's Eve, when the wife of offensive coordinator Todd Haley was involved in an "incident" inside a popular nightclub, and Haley himself was then injured outside the club, with the latest news stories now saying he was pushed to the ground. Initial reports merely said he's fallen, presumably at home, but what must have been a very public event couldn't be totally covered up like so many incidents involving NFL players and personnel are. The club is very close to Heinz Field and is a hotspot for the young crowd, so the fact that the 50 year old Haley and his wife were there would indicate both were probably drinking heavily, especially when both were involved in separate altercations both inside and outside the club.

 

[celticdb15]

The latest Steelers drama took place on New Year's Eve, when the wife of offensive coordinator Todd Haley was involved in an "incident" inside a popular nightclub, and Haley himself was then injured outside the club, with the latest news stories now saying he was pushed to the ground. Initial reports merely said he's fallen, presumably at home, but what must have been a very public event couldn't be totally covered up like so many incidents involving NFL players and personnel are. The club is very close to Heinz Field and is a hotspot for the young crowd, so the fact that the 50 year old Haley and his wife were there would indicate both were probably drinking heavily, especially when both were involved in separate altercations both inside and outside the club.

Sounds sketchy. In my opinion no 50yr old man or woman should be socializing in a club! To each his own but sounds like Haley having a mid life crisis.

 

[Don Wassall]

The Steelers made a huge mistake in the 1983 draft by passing on Pittsburgh native and Pitt star Dan Marino, instead taking Gabe Rivera, a defensive lineman from Texas Tech. The team's management all wanted Marino, including team owner Art Rooney, but Chuck Noll insisted they draft Rivera.

Terry Bradshaw retired prematurely after the '83 season due to injury, and the Steelers went downhill, making the playoffs just once after 1984 while Noll was coach, in '89, before The Emperor retired after the '91 season. (I've written about the Steelers' amazing '89 season, in which RB Merrill Hoge did so well only to see the team wrecked the next year, but that's irrelevant to this post.) It wasn't until they drafted Ben Roethlisberger in 2004 that they again had a top-flight quarterback.

Rivera was in a head-on car crash after a night of drinking in October of '83 during his rookie season which left him a quadriplegic. It happened just a few miles from where I grew up. He died the other day at the age of 57. A tragic waste of a life, as well as being a draft choice that changed the fortunes of the Steelers for a number of years.