U mad, bro? Readers fume over coverage of Ben Roethlisberger, Barry Bonds, NHL return

This week’s “U mad, bro?” has a little of everything.

Angry hockey fans. Miffed Barry Bonds defenders. Football historians in a snit.

Even a good ol’ fashioned case of mistaken identity.

“B Byrnes” goes hard after Fox’s Jay Glazer for his shot at Ben Roethlisberger’s history of offseason fitness.

Or lack thereof.

“He (Glazer) is a jerk anyway. So just ignore his need for controversy and attention. He should not be walking in Pittsburgh. What an (expletive).”

Sometimes you should just shut up! He did not.”

This email Q&A thing is a lot easier for me to get through when it’s other media guys getting ripped.

What a pleasant departure!

Well, that didn’t last.

A frequent emailer, “Bellva dear,” wasn’t happy about the podcast I did with Dave Dameshek. He has released a series of “What If” videos for NFL.com.

He didn’t like our conversation about the Immaculate Reception.

“I didn’t care for your ‘What If’ article regarding the Immaculate Reception. Mainly because the catch was memorable and a great story.”

It was. We agree.

Look at the words you used, though. “Memorable” and “a great story.” No one is disputing that.

But the premise of Dave’s “What If” pieces center around how things would’ve been different if certain plays or moments in time went another way.

I stand by what Dave and I said. The Steelers lost the next game against the Miami Dolphins. They lost their only playoff game the next year against the Oakland Raiders. And they won four Super Bowls over the next six years anyway.

So I don’t see much “butterfly effect” there. Do you?

I agree with the suggestion of Dave and some of the experts on his panel. Sure, there was an intangible, emotional component to that win for the Steelers. Yet, the fates of Miami and Oakland could’ve changed much more dramatically than what would’ve been the case for the Steelers.

Stephen wasn’t a fan of my column about hockey players questioning the need to return for the end of the 2019-20 hockey season. I noticed a lot of the players who were dubious of the need to reboot were from teams not currently in the playoffs.

In the post, I encouraged those players — and teams — to stay home. Why bring more players back to these proposed “pods” of divisional teams and run the risk of getting players sick with coronavirus?

One of those players was Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk. Stephen is offended I lumped the Wild into that mix.

Minnesota is only 1 point of the playoffs so saying they are way out of the playoffs is so wrong. Go follow the last place buccos and leave the hockey coverage to experts.

— Stephen Santella (@santella81) May 12, 2020

I love “ride-or-die hockey guy.” The kind of hockey fan that thinks the best way of promoting the sport is ripping on other sports or specific teams from other sports.

”ALL HOCKEY, OR NO HOCKEY! If you bother following another sport, you can’t possibly know enough about hockey to talk about it!”

Read the column again. I didn’t say Minnesota was “way out of it.” I said of players on the Wild, Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens who were questioning the wisdom of a return, “Those teams either aren’t going to qualify for the playoffs. Or are unlikely to make a run even if the bracket is expanded.”

Aren’t going to qualify? That’s the Kings.

Unlikely to make a run? That’s the Canadiens and Wild.

Stephen clearly has a futures bet on the Wild making the Cup final or something. Or he just loved Bill Guerin as a Penguin so much he roots for the Wild as much as he does the Pens.

Rodney responded to my column about ESPN’s proposition about Barry Bonds’ time in Pittsburgh.

“Bonds is a Hall of Famer hands down. His numbers before what sport writers call the steroid era should get him in the Hall. Bonds is not in because he marched to his own drum, and sports writers in America just don’t like athletes who march to a different beat!”

Rodney, as I pointed out in the story, the numbers support your claim.

But “marched to a different beat,” c’mon! Bonds was a total jackwagon.

“Marched to the beat of his own drum?” Ya think?! The guy was like Animal from the Muppets in the middle of the Grambling Marching Band.

Don’t sugarcoat it.

If you are jerk to the whole world for 40 years of your life, don’t be surprised if the world is harsh back to you for, at least, the next 20.

Larry doesn’t think that my coverage of the Steelers has been positive enough.

Then again, maybe it’s not my coverage he was talking about.

“Is there anything you like about the Steelers or you still a Bengals fan?”

Bengals fan? I can’t think of a single nice thing I’ve ever said about the Bengals.

I think you are confusing me with Chris Mueller of 93.7 The Fan.

And I think you are confusing the Bengals with the Browns.

Also, I never hit nine three-pointers in a basketball game. I did get a base hit in a co-ed softball game once, though.

Close enough, Larry. Same division, at least. Same state, too.

Therefore, this is still better than most of the emails I get.