U mad, bro? Readers rant about Steelers outlook, college football, NHL reboot, Antonio Brown

I’m not mad today.

I know. That’s rare.

I’ve got a week of vacation coming up. So I’m in a good mood. As good of a mood as one can have given the circumstances of the present day.

But, apparently, some things in the sports world still have you fine folks fired up. So I’ll give you one more chance to clear your throats before I punch out for the week.

Let’s get it out of your system in this week’s “U mad, bro?”

Chad did not like this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast with Mark Madden. He posted this in the comments section.

“Madden and Benz are the Dr. Fauci of sports writers. Always worst case.

The Steelers went 8-8 with a practice squad QB and these two spent their podcast discussing the negative. We know the season is going to be garbage when Ben Roethlisberger is out for 14 weeks.

Can we enjoy the heart this team showed fighting for eight wins with an offense Terry Hanratty probably enjoyed?”

I don’t know, Chad. You tell me. Did you enjoy the last three weeks of the year and missing the playoffs? Did you enjoy a third straight season that ended with the team failing to win a playoff game?

I sure didn’t.

And as far as Terry Hanratty goes, please! Don’t insult him that way. Hanratty would’ve gotten that team to at least 10-6.

Which, by the way, is what I’m saying about the Steelers this year. I think they’ll be back in the playoffs. So I don’t know why you are tagging that scenario as so gosh-darned pessimistic.

Something strikes might about Chad. It seems like he’s the kind of guy who would see a 15-1 prediction and be mad that someone thought the Steelers were actually capable of losing a game.

I think Mark makes a good point. Even if Roethlisberger returning healthy results in four additional wins, I bet a natural regression in the defense from last year results in two fewer wins to partially cut into those gains.

You can’t possibly expect that defense to have as many sacks, turnovers and totally healthy weeks (aside from Stephon Tuitt) as it had last year. For as good as that defense was — and still is — asking it to equal the numbers it generated between Game 3 and Game 13 of last year is unfair.

Now, as far as the Fauci comparison goes, I hope you washed your hands after leaving that remark, Chad. And you better have stayed 6 feet away from the next commenter.

In Thursday’s “First Call,” I mentioned Antonio Brown’s workout with Washington Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins.

In the post, I wrote, “Washington, D.C. is the one city in America where I can guarantee that you’ll find plenty of jackwagons who are even bigger dimwits than he is.”

I thought that was a fairly obvious jab at our esteemed, beloved federal lawmakers. But perhaps I was being too subtle for this Redskins fan.

Pretty sure you can find more "dimwits and jack wagons" in Pittsburgh but nice article

— Dr.Wyder/Sad Redskins Fan (@DrEzWyder) May 28, 2020

Not until they move the White House and the Capitol Building to Western Pa. Or did you fail to grasp the reference, Doc?

Wait. That can’t happen, can it?

TribLIVE hockey writer Seth Rorabaugh joined me for a podcast Thursday. Among the items we discussed was the NHL’s concerns about having the network broadcasters live at games in the hub cities. Seth is hearing that the league may have the network broadcasters call the games from a remote location.

That may go for the local radio broadcast guys, too.

This guy hates that idea. And I’m with him.

So ridiculous. I really love hockey, but if stupid things like this make the game unwatchable, I might just give it up. Why one Earth couldn't you have two TV guys in a booth calling the game?

— MN (@gvillesasquatch) May 28, 2020

Indeed. I don’t think I’d avoid watching games like this reader is suggesting. But I agree with his sentiment.

Social-distancing mania when it comes to reopening sports, restaurants, museums and theaters is inconsistent, logically flawed insanity.

Four people can sit in a booth together, but the bar stools have to be 6 feet apart? Well, unless you have a “common relationship.” You can sit at the bar, but you can’t stand?

Gimme a break!

This is about “abundance of caution” in the NHL. Not for health, mind you. It’s an abundance of caution about not getting sued.

It’s very easy to walk into an arena as a network broadcaster and call a game without contacting the players.

Or pretty much anyone else for that matter.

Just like every other walk of life in the covid-19 era.

“Kobe the Cat” had a rather sarcastic response to my column about the importance of keeping college football solvent amid coronavirus shutdowns.

Well, Pitt lost college football 20 years ago when they tore down Pitt Stadium

— KobeTheCat (@CatNamedKobe) May 28, 2020

Look, I know the whole Pitt Stadium thing is low-hanging fruit as a catchall excuse. But I’d advance having one winning season (7-5) over the last nine years of the stadium didn’t help either.

Rick sent me an email about that column, too.

“If ‘the loss of college football’ ever means paying these uneducated sports players less money — that is consistent with normal salaries — I’ll be all for it! Clarified … I’ll be ALL FOR IT.”

I don’t even know where to start with that. Or what it means.

The crux of the column is that student-athletes who don’t play the big-money sports would suffer if college football went away.

So I don’t get your point. Unless your point is just to scream into the void that “‘dem athletes get paid too darn much, n’at!”

Which is what I think you’re trying to say.

The most cliched, angry-old-guy sports fan trope in the book is, “why don’t they get paid more like I get paid?”

And the answer is simple, Rick. No one pays ticket money — or has a network television contract — to watch you do whatever it is you do for your “normal salary.”

Save your passive-aggressive, working-class-hero spiel for someone else.

OK, so maybe I am a little on edge after all. Or, at least, I am now having filed this post.