U mad, bro? Readers rant about Antonio Brown, Penguins goalies, banned Blue Jays, Steelers O-line

“Return to play” must be a real emotional lightning bolt. Because we’ve got people fired up about all three of Pittsburgh’s pro sports teams.

Readers are ready to pounce on Antonio Brown’s “retirement,” the state stopping the Toronto Blue Jays from playing at PNC Park, Matt Murray’s glove hand, and too much hype for the Steelers offensive line.

Oh, and I get some very touching fan mail.

Let’s start with Aaron. He enjoys my work and would like to get to know me better.

“YOU ARE A (expletive deleted) IDIOT. IF I SEE YOU IT’S ON SIGHT (expletive deleted).”

Well, Aaron, I’m moved by your outpouring of affection. Two questions, though.

1. You didn’t tell me why you sent this heartfelt email. Are you replying to a specific column of mine? Or do you just generally enjoy my warm and fuzzy personality?

And …

2. We’re all working from home these days. Can we meet each other “on sight” virtually instead? What’s your preferred method of interaction? Teams? Google Hangouts? RingCentral?

Oooh! How about a Zoom happy hour? I’ll bring the martini shaker.

Kenneth sent a Facebook post in response to the story about how Pennsylvania state lawmakers got in the way of the Toronto Blue Jays using PNC Park as a de facto home field this season.

“I don’t get this decision. How can it be OK for the Pirates to have visitors, but not the Blue Jays?”

I’m with you. The line in this story that had me laughing out loud was from state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, “We know that this virus does not discriminate, and can even make professional athletes very sick.”

Actually, Doc, discriminating is exactly what you are doing here. You are discriminating between athletes in the East division and the Central division.

Or maybe you are discriminating between an American League host team and a National League host team.

Dr. Levine never struck me as a person who had a hang up about the universal designated hitter. But maybe I missed that.

Look, Kenneth, you and I both know what’s happening here. This decision isn’t about player safety, public health or an attempt to be consistent.

Like many coronavirus-related matters coming from Gov. Tom Wolf’s office — and those of the Pittsburgh mayor and the Allegheny County executive — they don’t care about transparency or consistency.

In theory, if Blue Jays-Red Sox games are unsafe, so are Pirates-Indians games.

But in their minds, it’s risk-reward. It’s cost-benefit analysis. But they can’t say that, because if they do, then they’re acknowledging there is “risk” and there could be additional “cost.”

Such as liability — either legally or politically.

So, in the eyes of the state, it’s worth the risk to let the Pirates play their games at PNC Park to make the local team and fans happy. It isn’t worth it to invite the Blue Jays here and nearly double the opportunities for exposure.

If they just said that, I’d understand.

But they don’t. They talk about the virus “not discriminating,” while making decisions that discriminate based on their perception of necessity.

Not medicine. Like, over the past few months …

• Limiting the size of gatherings anywhere between 25 to 250 people — but allowing protests thousands of people deep.

• Encouraging socially distanced outdoor activity — but locking up tennis courts.

• Shutting down mom-and-pop garden shops — but leaving open the big box-store garden sections.

• Allowing people to sit and order three drinks outside — but only if there is food with your order.

And innumerable other “what’s the difference?” inconsistencies and contradictions we’ve seen since the shut-in began in March.

We don’t know enough about covid-19. But what we do know is that, apparently, it has a social conscience, a voracious appetite, and likes Josh Bell way more than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Robert didn’t appreciate our “First Call” post about the latest “retirement” of former Steelers superstar Antonio Brown.

“Why cover this jerk. Nobody cares.”

Robert, since Fourth of July weekend, two of the top five sports stories at TribLive have included the words “Antonio” and “Brown” in the headline.

One of those stories is the most-read sports story of the month.

Two of the three most-read sports stories since the pandemic lockdown also involve Brown.

You may not care. But many people do. And I bet you care just a teeny, tiny bit more than you want to admit.

This tweet was sent to me regarding my Tuesday podcast with Brian Metzer about the Penguins goaltending debate between Tristan Jarry and Matt Murray.

Everyone knows that Murray doesn’t have a glove hand and it is exploited. Jarry doesn’t have such a glaring weakness.

— ConservativeIsRisingUp (@MDolinari) July 22, 2020

I’d go a little easy on the “Jarry doesn’t have a weakness” thing. He’s got no playoff experience. He’s a little smaller than Murray. And Jarry was just 7-7-1 after Jan. 1. His goals against average was 3.06 during that stretch, and his save percentage was 90.1.

So he’s got to have a weakness somewhere.

Furthermore, the “Murray’s glove hand” thing? That’s kinda become the hockey version of “Ben Roethlisberger throws too many interceptions in traffic”!

Well, yeah. No kidding. But he’s completed a lot of them, too. To the tune of two Super Bowl trophies.

Similarly, despite Murray apparently only having one hand, he’s still managed to hoist the Stanley Cup twice.

It’s a far cry between Murray’s glove hand being a flaw in his game and Murray not having one at all.

Alan posted in the Facebook comments for last week’s “U mad, bro?”

He thought the Steelers offensive linemen — David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey — were overrated in a recent ESPN.com poll.

“Two of the top ten o-line from the 30th ranked offense are Steelers? Did the guy who ranked them take a year or 2 off? Some real lazy reporting there. Pouncey can’t even get the ball to the qb and their 3rd/4th and a yard was horrid. Oh, that’s right, it was all (Ramon) Foster’s fault.”

Alan, as you well know, there’s nothing easier than blaming a guy who is leaving. But if the Steelers truly felt that way, they should’ve played B.J. Finney more last year or made the move of Matt Feiler to guard earlier.

But they didn’t, and you’re right. The dip in offensive line play wasn’t all on him. However, this poll was about interior offensive line play only. So Pouncey is excluded from being graded against Pro Bowl-level tackles.

Yes, his shotgun snaps were sometimes a problem last year. And maybe he didn’t have a top-10 season as ESPN.com ranks. But he’s still much better than most centers, going into his eleventh year.

One last entry about Mr. Big Chest. Some have noted that Brown’s “retirement” coincides with the release of his new rap album. Maybe this is just a publicity stunt to promote it?

AB's rap music would've been great for terrorist torture at Guantanamo Bay

— LousersCringe (@LousersCringe) July 21, 2020

“Geneva Convention” does have a nice ring to it for an album title.

However, apparently the new record is going to be called “Himothy” or “Himmothy,” depending on A.B.’s preferred spelling mood at the time of his tweet.

Brown should figure that out.