No Hype, Few Distractions...Just Results

- Mason Noland

A few thoughts ran through my head when reading about the “Friday Night Lights” practice in Latrobe. The first thought is obvious, I need to attend this practice some day, the second thought was this is what makes the Steelers special, and the third is why doesn’t ESPN cover
THIS day of training camp? Who doesn’t want to see highlights of backs on backers? Yet, Sportscenter is entrenched in Cortland, NY covering the Jets and furthering the Tebowmania Hype Machine. It’s embarrassing to me that the Giants just won the Super Bowl, but the Jets are getting massive publicity. The more I think about it though, the better I feel about teams like the Jets getting hype. It lets perennial powers like the Steelers, Giant, Packers and Patriots fly under the radar. Rex Ryan seems to want to be in the spotlight and Mike Tomlin wants to coach football, and that is fine with me.

Steelers fans don’t need the World Wide Leader to follow our team around to know how they
are doing. We follow our favorite players on twitter, we read the Pittsburgh news, whether its
in print or online. I don’t need Ed Werder to give me an update, I probably read it before he
did. The hype that is building for the Jets is absolutely driving me up the wall. They have a self
created quarterback controversy between a quarterback they haven’t tried to develop and a
quarterback who just isn’t very good. Tebow fans aren’t really football fans. I don’t think they
even watch football. When he gets criticized, it’s as if we are saying he’s an awful person.
I’m not going to comment on him as human, he seems like a good guy, I just think he’s better
served at a different position than Quarterback. The Jets have the polar opposite type of coach.
Ryan is a look at me guy. He’s probably best served as a defensive coordinator. The Steelers
have Tomlin, who is cool, calm and collected.

These distractions take away from the task of each team. If you are looking for a team that gets
a lot of publicity without results, go ahead and like the Jets. The Steelers are used to having
distractions, we’ve had plenty over the years, but when most teams fall apart, we get stronger.  Remember 2010?  This year’s distraction is a contract holdout by our pro bowl wide receiver.
I would much rather have this distraction than a quarterback controversy. This distraction is a
question or two by reporters, it’s not having Mark Sanchez being called “Tim” in media sessions.
The other “controversy” we’ve had is Ben Roethlisberger alerting the media of his “String
cheese” rotator cuff tear. Jeff touched on this earlier, and I agree with his take. Ben should shut
up about his injuries, but I heard Trent Dilfer (one of the few World Wide Leader former football
players I like) say that almost every quarterback who’s played as long as Big Ben has this
situation in his shoulder, so I’m not worried about it.

The bottom line is this. If you like your team to be on the news because your back up
quarterback is running laps shirtless after having a poor passing practice, don’t be a Steelers
fan. If you want your team to have special practices for the public, and go on about their
business of winning games, you should be a Steelers fan. The hype the Steelers get is the hype
that’s brought about by winning.