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    Celebrating 10 Years of Steel Balls!

    Bycopanut

    Allow me to extend a humble thank you to the teeming hordes of miscreants who have graced this site with their boundless charm, rapier-like wit, and prescient insight into all things Steelers, for these past ten non-losing seasons.

    We began this enterprise as a response to the P-G paywall, and to have a place to compare opinions and predictions, and now we are only a few weeks away from what may be a momentous NFL draft event where we can once again prove just how much more we know than the professionals.

    We’ve had a lot of fun over the years, but we still have much yet to be accomplished, beginning with a jointly-enjoyed Super Bowl appearance and championship.

    I poured through our user list, which numbers well over 1800 thanks largely to Russian spam bots, to try to extract a list of legitimate users. I may have deleted some that were legit, but here is my best guess at our participant list over the years. Here they are, in order of registration.

    copanut
    abennihana
    jeffmi
    steelerfan58
    drock
    ChicoSteelersFan
    BGINTN
    steelers1
    MWalsh26
    Tuskegee_Brown
    TomPaulBillyBob
    mack
    tennbob
    Earl
    STILLERS35
    craig
    Steeltyke
    Army01
    steelerfan
    JMS55
    malsor
    J A M E S H
    EstimatedProphet
    saneman
    ktyoung
    Clubber
    cerone
    BlitzBurghDude
    jac
    gsmaroff
    floyd3421
    fatxbrian
    hksteelerfan
    RickinLA
    Black and Gold Foo
    endaround
    stillers_35
    Steeler_in_VZ
    Toadsly
    Poz
    Froggy
    testname
    sixter
    bgigli
    Reacher
    JoeSlice
    Pete
    Steeler 1950
    afrazier9
    JimHim
    Steelergill66
    steelddiddy
    jconroy
    WritersRock
    reddog
    pubunchka
    SteelerFanBudMan
    blackanyellow
    tobiathan
    Fansincebubbywouldntmopup
    kalel1199
    kingribel
    BigJ
    Ravenslayer
    sean.willison
    Bill Strickland
    davesdogs
    Bill S
    BiggiePops67
    kedorfman
    HetBob
    ktalk
    Stu
    captainnasty86
    kordellStewart
    Steelers252006
    dberry731
    justjack1961
    diamondback13
    Miguelipto
    sdsteel
    moose
    GodfatherofPittsburgh
    72Steel
    mikeflores16
    eneg
    Bilbo_shaggins80
    elesher43
    therealdonaldtrump
    DumbCrackerDouche
    Tomee4758

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    An offseason non-football post

    Byabennihana

    From an author who apparently wishes to remain anonymous.

    Don’t mess this up for America

    Democrats have one job in 2020: Beating Donald Trump. Nothing else matters. If progressives manage to mess this up by insisting on hard-left positions and ideological purity, they will own Trump’s second term. There is a time and a place for everything. When the ship is sinking and you find yourself in a lifeboat, you don’t argue about where you want to go, you head for the nearest land. Further travel arrangements can wait until you’re back in civilization.

    The 2020 election is not a normal election. It isn’t going to be about progressives and conservatives. It’s going to be about those who believe America’s democratic institutions are more important than the politics of the day and those who are willing to wreck them for short-term political gain. We who choose to stand with our democratic institutions need to keep our eye on the prize. We can’t afford the self-indulgence of standing on principle and going down in glorious defeat.

    Or rather, we must all stand on one overriding principle, that we must install someone with respect for the rule of law and reverence for our constitutional system of government as the next president of the United States. That will require compromise from all of us. The bridge is long and narrow, but cross it we must.

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    A Tale Of A Wishy Washy Raiders Fan

    Byabennihana

    Richie

    My buddy Richie S. comes to Portland on a Monday and the only time I can see him is during the Steelers Monday Night game vs. the Chargers. So basically, I told him that was what we were doing. There wasn’t really even a, “Hey, how do you feel about this?” type of suggestion floated out to Richie. I said, “This is going on.” He said, “Sounds like fun!”

    Richie shows up, cheers for the Steelers, has a good time. It’s evident from the TV coverage (and subsequent stories that Rivers went to a silent count during a home game) that Qualcomm Stadium has been taken over by Steelers fans. Jonny has been sack tapped the week before as a good luck omen (long story). All seems right with the World. Steelers win. We go home because we all have to work the next day.

    Fast forward 24 hours and Richie gets outed by my buddy Matt T. as a Raiders fan. On the one hand, after finding out that Richie was actually a Raiders fan, I thought to myself, “What the hell? I would never put on the shirt of another team and cheer for them, no matter how much I liked one of their fans.”
    Then, “Oh, what the heck? We won. Why question it? Maybe it was because Richie finally left the Dark Side. The football gods must have rewarded us with our first West Coast road win in a decade due to my intervention in his sporting life.”

    Fast forward again to this past weekend. Richie texts me about how our two favorite teams are playing.
    I respond with, “You only get one team, Richie.”
    He responds with, “That would be the one.”
    I knew then that we would win. I was absolutely certain that the football gods would punish Richie’s wishy-washy, flip floppiness with a Raider loss. Then mid 1st quarter, Dan sack taps Jonny with his Terrible Towel and the outcome was all but completely certain.

    I felt pretty bad about goading Richie into turning his back on his favorite team and fellow fans for a second….

    Well, no I actually didn’t. It just seemed like a polite thing to write. But, you all know me and realize statements like that are BS. So, nevermind.

    Fast forward again to the Sunday. Steelers are up 35-28 and cruising toward a victory, I’m teetering between whether I should send a conciliatory text to Richie or just taunt the heck out of him for showing some fair weather fan tendencies, thus sending his team on the path toward defeat at the Steelers’ hands.

    And then,…. Aldon Smith stumbles while trying to tackle Roethlisberger and lands on Ben’s left foot. Watching the replay, I was sure that Roethlisberger’s foot was broken. Hoped not, but really thought it was.

    It turns out that Big Ben’s injury was only a sprain. He will probably miss a week, but Monday morning on his radio show said that he is not counting himself out this week versus the Browns.

    Just the same, I probably should have waited to gloat until it was over. That’s what I get.