U mad, bro?: Fans angry about Steelers QBs, Ben Roethlisberger's quote on Kenny Pickett, state of the Penguins

So let me get this straight, Pittsburgh sports fans. The Pirates are 5-15 in May. They have played seven series this month and are 0-6-1 in them. They’ve been outscored 91-56 along the way. That’s 2.8 runs scored per game.

Yet none of my “U mad, bro?” entries are Pirates related.

I mean, I can’t believe that it’s not even Memorial Day yet, and after that great stretch to start the season, y’all are so jaded, disassociated, detached and apathetic that you’ve all already moved on to just complaining about the Steelers and Penguins again.

Eh, come to think of it, I totally expected that.

So, I’ll get out of your way and let you folks have at it for this week’s edition.

Jeremy sent me a tweet about Mike Sullivan’s reaction to Drew O’Connor’s two-goal performance for Team USA against France in the IIHF World Championship.

“Mike Sullivan sent O’Connor back to WBS following the game.”

It’s international play, Jeremy. Sully can’t demote his own guys to the AHL from Team USA.

So I assume that he’ll just have him deported instead.

From what I read, Fenway Sports Group is giving Sullivan “the hammer” to do just about anything he wants. Maybe he can pull that off too.

This guy on Twitter has the perfect solution to prevent the NFL’s continuing attempt to eliminate kickoff returns.

A company should offer to sponsor kick returns. The NFL would be perplexed.

— Chad Syrylo (@SyryloChad) May 24, 2023

That’s a brilliant idea, Chad. I love it.

But you and I both know that the NFL would just find more money from an advertiser who wants to sponsor touchbacks instead.

(In best Ian Eagle voice)

“Fair catch inside the 10. That’ll be brought out to the 25 under the new rules. That fair catch brought to us by Bodyprox Protective Knee Pads. The next time you need to take a knee, use the knee pad the pros use … Bodyprox!”

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Ronald is bothered by the fact that the Florida Panthers have advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and they only got there because the Penguins barfed up the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

“If the Panthers win the cup, they should at least give the Pens 25% of the Cup, for choking a playoff spot away. Engrave Ron Hextall’s name on the Cup. Let (Jeff) Carter and (Mikael) Granlund have a day with the Cup. (Jeff) Petry and (???) Ruutuu maybe as well.”

I don’t think so, Ronald. If Hextall was given the Stanley Cup, he’d probably try to trade it to Ralphie’s dad from “A Christmas Story” for the leg lamp trophy.

“It’s a major award!”

And I assume you meant Jan Rutta at the end of your email, right?

Otherwise, what did Jarkko Ruutu have to do with this? I mean, a lot of Penguins deserve a lot of blame for how everything went down this year. But poor Jarkko hasn’t played in Pittsburgh since 2008.

Then again, if Hextall was still the GM this summer, I bet he would’ve tried to sign him out of retirement and played him on a line with Granlund.

Keith is turned off by the reaction from Steelers fans after Mason Rudolph was brought back as third-string quarterback.

“The reaction of fans is amazing. They easily forget that the Tomlin era has seen multiple 3rd string QBs start games, and choose to ignore that a team could do far worse than Rudolph as his third stringer.”

Agreed, Keith. However, I look at it from the other end of the ol’ Black and Gold shaded lens.

I don’t think it’s a matter of forgetting other third-string QBs, so much as it is remembering the “Duck” Hodges phenomenon a bit too fondly.

Sure. Everybody loves to remember the four wins versus the Chargers, Bengals, Browns and Cardinals. But no one ever remembers having three straight passer ratings under 50 in December against the Bills, Jets and Ravens to close out the year — featuring a 1:6 touchdown to interception ratio and a 9-of-25 effort in the rain versus Baltimore.

But the duck heads and the duck calls in the stands during games sure were a blast, weren’t they?

Pat disliked Ben Roethlisberger’s admission that he wasn’t initially willing to root for Kenny Pickett to play well as his successor.

“Someone please tell Ben Roethlisberger to shut the (heck) up and quietly fade into retirement!”

I didn’t have a problem with what Ben said, Pat. Not at all.

Was it self-aggrandizing and typical of Big Ben tacking himself to the cross and doing the whole “applaud me because I shamed myself” routine that he’s done for 20 years?

Yes. Yes, it was.

But at least he was being honest. And interesting. And transparent. And providing good content on the podcast.

It’s not like he was hurting Pickett’s feelings. If Pickett was emotionally damaged by those comments — and he obviously wasn’t — then he is too delicate to be an NFL quarterback in the first place.

But, to your complaint about “fading quietly into retirement,” Troy Polamalu did exactly that. However, all we did up until his Hall of Fame election was wring our hands and fret about Polamalu leaving his career on bad terms with the franchise.

Roethlisberger thinks he had a little more left in the tank at the end than he did. Polamalu did as well, but he’s gotten over it. It may take a little longer with No. 7 because, well, Ben is Ben.

But Roethlisberger will too. Let’s all get over it as well.

Finally, David has his doubts about Kenny Pickett and doesn’t think he is much better than Rudolph or Mitch Trubisky.

“I know the game isn’t won on stats but I don’t see Picket as a starter, let alone the quality starter the rest of the division has. I still don’t know who should be starting out of the three. They are all tied for 2nd.”

David, it’s not like I’m predicting a Pro Bowl for Pickett this year. I do predict he will prove to be better than you are suggesting, though.

But, if you are right and they are all “tied for second,” then I guarantee you the Steelers will finish last all by themselves.