mesaSteeler
12-28-2008, 09:35 AM
TOO FAR Steelers' fans take towel too seriously
Public Opinion Online
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/sports/ci_11322363
My wife and everybody in her family is from Pittsburgh, loves the Steelers and isn't afraid to have a good time when the Black and Gold is rockin'.
Well, last week the Steelers got rocked 31-14 by the Tennessee Titans in a tough, gritty game.
Once the Titans had more or less secured the victory, running back LenDale White pulled out a Steelers' Terrible Towel and began dancing and grinding it into the ground.
Evidently, some Steelers fans felt White should apologize.
It's a towel, man.
Granted it is Terrible, but it's still a towel.
Any Steeler fan worth his or her weight in salt secretly loved White's dance. Yeah, you might've been irritated, but you also know how much more that pours gas on the fire of fandomonium and feeds deep-seeded "hatred" that we all like to conjure up for rivalries.
Anymore, any negative comment, profanityfilterprofanityfilterprofanityfilterprofa nityfiltery comment or bone-jarring hit can be used as bulletin-board material or great reference point for a pregame speech when two teams play. One can't say or do anything even slightly confrontational and not be called some sort of ogre.
Bulletin-board fodder is not reserved just for the actual players. Fans have memories like elephants. Even as the Steelers play their first playoff game, talk will turn to the Terrible Towel Dance and how sweet it would be to play the Titans again. It's part of the fun and intensity of it all.
It's good -hearted fun when these players hype the defeat. And when you win a physically destructive game like the Titans-Steelers, you don't start speaking in the Queen's English and smartly extol the toughness of being a titanic individual from Nashville. The celebration might be both emotional and spontaneous.
Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher responded the same way I have -- by more or less waving off the complaints, saying he doesn't think the Steelers can play any harder because they always play hard. If you watched Sunday's game, you know it was a bonecrusher.
While he's 99% right, I do believe some players need anything, and I mean anything, to get the mental edge. Even though big games are big games, it's still another game. When you see guys like Ray Lewis going nutso before the game, it's because playing the game itself sometimes isn't enough. There is being excited to play and then there's being completely focused and dialed in ... and sometimes a towel can provide that extra "umph."
Even though the towel mashing was insignificant in the scheme of things, you can bet your bottom dollar that it'll become the focus of the game for the media and the fans. There won't be as much talk about Ben Roethlisberger getting racked up continuously by blue-and-white clad Titans last Sunday as there will be about a disheveled gold rag.
So my point is this: If the two teams play again, thank LenDale White for providing the added spark for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. Thank White for an even more vigorous display of towel waving after every good play. And Titans fans can thank White for what is surely going to be a free Tennessee Towel giveaway if, and when, Pittsburgh heads to Nashville.
Heck, maybe one of the big three automakers or AIG can sponsor the towels ... and then we can ALL do the Monster Mash on them.
Graham Messner, a former coach at the high school level, is a local columnist for Public Opinion. He may be reached at graham@innernet.net.
Public Opinion Online
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/sports/ci_11322363
My wife and everybody in her family is from Pittsburgh, loves the Steelers and isn't afraid to have a good time when the Black and Gold is rockin'.
Well, last week the Steelers got rocked 31-14 by the Tennessee Titans in a tough, gritty game.
Once the Titans had more or less secured the victory, running back LenDale White pulled out a Steelers' Terrible Towel and began dancing and grinding it into the ground.
Evidently, some Steelers fans felt White should apologize.
It's a towel, man.
Granted it is Terrible, but it's still a towel.
Any Steeler fan worth his or her weight in salt secretly loved White's dance. Yeah, you might've been irritated, but you also know how much more that pours gas on the fire of fandomonium and feeds deep-seeded "hatred" that we all like to conjure up for rivalries.
Anymore, any negative comment, profanityfilterprofanityfilterprofanityfilterprofa nityfiltery comment or bone-jarring hit can be used as bulletin-board material or great reference point for a pregame speech when two teams play. One can't say or do anything even slightly confrontational and not be called some sort of ogre.
Bulletin-board fodder is not reserved just for the actual players. Fans have memories like elephants. Even as the Steelers play their first playoff game, talk will turn to the Terrible Towel Dance and how sweet it would be to play the Titans again. It's part of the fun and intensity of it all.
It's good -hearted fun when these players hype the defeat. And when you win a physically destructive game like the Titans-Steelers, you don't start speaking in the Queen's English and smartly extol the toughness of being a titanic individual from Nashville. The celebration might be both emotional and spontaneous.
Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher responded the same way I have -- by more or less waving off the complaints, saying he doesn't think the Steelers can play any harder because they always play hard. If you watched Sunday's game, you know it was a bonecrusher.
While he's 99% right, I do believe some players need anything, and I mean anything, to get the mental edge. Even though big games are big games, it's still another game. When you see guys like Ray Lewis going nutso before the game, it's because playing the game itself sometimes isn't enough. There is being excited to play and then there's being completely focused and dialed in ... and sometimes a towel can provide that extra "umph."
Even though the towel mashing was insignificant in the scheme of things, you can bet your bottom dollar that it'll become the focus of the game for the media and the fans. There won't be as much talk about Ben Roethlisberger getting racked up continuously by blue-and-white clad Titans last Sunday as there will be about a disheveled gold rag.
So my point is this: If the two teams play again, thank LenDale White for providing the added spark for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. Thank White for an even more vigorous display of towel waving after every good play. And Titans fans can thank White for what is surely going to be a free Tennessee Towel giveaway if, and when, Pittsburgh heads to Nashville.
Heck, maybe one of the big three automakers or AIG can sponsor the towels ... and then we can ALL do the Monster Mash on them.
Graham Messner, a former coach at the high school level, is a local columnist for Public Opinion. He may be reached at graham@innernet.net.