This Thanksgiving, Pittsburgh sports figures owe thanks to Mike Tomlin and the Steelers

As we head into Thanksgiving, I can’t help but notice the cornucopia of Pittsburgh sports figures who owe a debt of thanks to Mike Tomlin and the Steelers.

Their loss in Chicago on Sunday has the local sports scene so engulfed in flames that no one is paying attention to any of the other Pittsburgh sports brush fires across the Western Pa. landscape.

So let’s go around the table and identify who else needs to be giving ol’ Coach T and his players “thanks” for absorbing all of the slings and arrows of a fan base that’s acting as if it got to dinner after everyone else ate all the stuffing.

Pat Narduzzi

Had the Steelers won in Chicago, many fans and media members would’ve carved out a little more time to blast Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi for that moronic fake punt against Georgia Tech.

Up 35-21 in the fourth quarter with just over seven minutes left, the Duzz decided a fake punt was the best course of action.

It was not.

Pitt runs a fake punt for -1 yards #H2P pic.twitter.com/k93b62wBgX

— Carter ???? College Sports Highlights (@F2FHighlights) November 23, 2025

The Yellow Jackets scored on the ensuing possession.

“I’m a dumb (jerk),” Narduzzi said after the game. “Just a coach trying to make a play. We hadn’t run a fake punt all year. They were bringing pressure, and (I) thought it was a good time just to sequence and try to make a play. I’ll take that one on me.”

Fortunately for the Panthers, they won anyway and kept their ACC Championship game hopes alive heading into Saturday’s contest against Miami.

For Pitt’s sake, hopefully Narduzzi doesn’t try to make any plays himself against the Hurricanes. Leave it to the players. See if they are good enough on their own.

The Penguins

Heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, the Penguins have just two wins in November.

They are now 10-6-5. That’s actually 10-11, under .500 when you take loser-point “hockey math” out of the equation. They’ve lost all five of their overtime and shootout results.

“We can’t afford to be just giving away points,” coach Dan Muse said after last week’s overtime loss to Seattle.

“I’m not going to keep saying that one point is good enough. It’s not. We’re better than that. Our standard needs to be better than that.”

Muse is right, the Penguins changed everyone’s expectations for the team after an 8-2-2 start to the year. I’m sure most Penguins would’ve signed up in blood for 10-6-5 back in September.

But that hot October has adjusted everyone’s eye level. Lowering it again so quickly is going to come with frustrations.

Especially when goal scoring (just 2.22 goals per game since Nov. 1) and an inability to finish close games are the biggest problems.

Related:

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• First Call: Ja'Marr Chase omits Jalen Ramsey's name from spitting apology; Bengals expect Joe Burrow at QB vs. Ravens
• Madden Monday: Steelers coaches had a 'cowardly, chicken scratch, offensive game plan' vs. Bears

Pitt basketball

The Panthers lost to Quinnipiac this week.

In basketball. Not hockey.

The Bobcats are a good team from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. They have three straight seasons of 20-plus wins. But an ACC university can’t be dropping home games to MAAC schools. Not with NCAA bids in March being so tight.

When the game was on the line, our guy @AmarriMonroe delivered.#BobcatNation x #MAACHoops pic.twitter.com/2GQhmz1FZl

— Quinnipiac Men's Basketball (@QU_MBB) November 24, 2025

With three losses already, it’s time for Jeff Capel’s team to get its act together. Games against power-conference schools from Ohio State, Texas A&M and Villanova are all looming between now and Dec. 13.

Meanwhile, the women’s team isn’t immune from criticism either. They lost to Division III Scranton recently. But at least Tory Verdi’s group rebounded against Le Moyne and Robert Morris.

The Pirates front office

Clearly, the Pirates are leaking out information to national writers to change the narrative about the team.

ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan wrote about their interest in big-ticket free agents Josh Naylor and Kyle Schwarber, a few players from Japan, and potentially making hot prospect Konnor Griffin their full-time shortstop.

Within a week, though, The Athletic tamped down the Naylor story, claiming that whatever interest the Pirates may have had never manifested in an offer because he signed a new $92 million contract to stay in Seattle.

However, that piece in The Athletic did corroborate the alleged interest in Schwarber, Kazuma Okamoto (Yomiuri Giants, Japan), Jorge Polanco (Seattle) and Ryan O’Hearn (San Diego). Not to mention the notion of making some trades with the St. Louis Cardinals.

At this point in their existence, the only thing that angers Pirates fans more than their team’s inactivity on the open market is the club’s repeated attempt to pretend like they are trying.

If the Pirates are going to boost fan enthusiasm by dropping these little hints to national writers, they have to follow through and actually acquire a few players of note.

Or they need to hope no one remembers in a few months because they are all still mad when the Steelers fail to win a playoff game again.