U mad, bro?: Steelers fans are riled up about Kenny Pickett and the media coverage of him

It was a very contentious week when it comes to Pittsburgh Steelers coverage. Everybody had opinions about what went down with Kenny Pickett’s healthy scratch heading into Seattle.

And all of them were very heated.

We touch on many of them and more in this week’s “U mad, bro?”

I think it is fair to say that holiday cheer failed to carry over into 2024.

David is definitely mad. About what? I have no clue. It wasn’t exactly specified. But he sure is angry about something.

“Sports writers..are particularly lazy.. Afraid of getting a real job.. First qualification to be a sports writer is to be a natural at being a 100% full fledged narcissist.. Starving for the attention you so need in your life… Also wanting to connect with sports which most sports writers suck at. And envy of the players you so judge.. Hate to burst your bubble,,writing about sports doesn’t tie you to or make you part of sports, or the sports industry ..any more than myself writing about astronauts and space flights make me part of NASA..”

Well, David, one thing sports writers can do is formulate an argument and express a well laid-out opinion. That’s something you didn’t do at all in this email. I have no idea what column you are responding to or what opinion I advanced that is agitating you. I just know you wanted to verbalize a little temper tantrum in written form and hit send.

It’s like you were logging on to stick your tongue out at me and run away like a 6-year-old.

If you want to respond and tell me what you think I did wrong or wrote incorrectly, feel free. Until then, keep working on that feature story about NASA and let me know when it posts. I’ll look forward to reading it.

Also, you seem somewhat stuck between double periods, double commas and the use of ellipses. Perhaps that’s the industry norm in space-travel writing. I’m not sure. But it was throwing me off while reading your email.

Uh, I mean, “your email..”

Maybe David was mad about this column. A lot of other people were worked up about it. It ran last week. I wrote about how NFL parity dilutes the 20-year “Steelers have never had a losing season” streak. Richard, a frequent emailer, didn’t like the piece.

“We’re fans, what should we do? Not watch, picket the front office, ask the owners to sell the team? We’ve been watching for 50 years, what should we do, boycott? Give us some ideas on what fans can do to make the team win more.”

Stop spamming local media members about how they are being too hard on the franchise when it fails to win a playoff game every year.

That’s a start.

This person had a similar response to that column.

If u add overall wins & losses in NFL, #’s are equal & have always been, #math. Steelers have been consistently good since 1972. 32 playoffs, 24 division titles, 8 AFC Championships, 6 Superbowl Championships, only SEVEN losing seasons in FIFTY-ONE YRS! Simply amazing. Appreciate

— You Know It’s Tru Tho (@know_tru) December 29, 2023

The whole point of the post is to stop measuring success by simply avoiding losing seasons.

No playoff wins in six (potentially seven) years. This is also setting up to be the 13th season of the last 17 without one. #MoreMath

Thanks for the history lesson, though. That said, I already appreciate the franchise’s past. You should wake up and grasp its present situation of perpetual mediocrity.

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Ron is still blaming Matt Canada.

“Bringing back Canada was the biggest issue facing the team heading into the 2023 season and I thought at the time that he should’ve been gone the day after the last 2022 game. After they announced that he would be back for 2023, I felt it would waste the 2023 season, and it now looks like it has thrown the season into confusion….tough to evaluate the offense until they hire a real OC. But, firing Canada was like peeling an onion…..Pickett looked pretty good in the 1½ games after Canada, but they were still stuck with Canada’s playbook/schemes. I think it’ll be best to evaluate Pickett and the offense after hiring a competent OC in the offseason.”

Agreed. But easier said than assuming it’ll be done. Todd Haley, Randy Fichtner and Canada have all had a hand in this stretch of years without a playoff win.

Plus, I’d caution against presuming that Pickett was going to be fine post-Canada. They put up plenty of yards but still only netted 16 points against the Bengals in the first game after he was fired. Also, the team punted on three drives and stalled out in the red zone on two more with Pickett against Arizona before he was injured.

Let’s not revise history too much in an attempt to absolve Pickett’s stalled development by way of heaping everything on Canada.

Speaking of Pickett-related history revision …

The offense put up more yards against Cincy with Kenny than Mason, but go off dork

— Coach Klein (@MudDogsHC) January 2, 2024

Ah, yes. The Super Bowl is always awarded to the team with the most yards in the game as opposed to points on the scoreboard. I had forgotten that. You got me.

Sean didn’t like this week’s coverage of the Pickett situation regarding why he didn’t dress for Saturday’s game in Seattle when he was apparently medically cleared to do so.

“Can you just cut the (expletive) and the discord? How about writing about the upcoming game? My sincere hope is that the media has a total overhaul. You are way past your prime, if you ever had a prime.”

Does failing to win a playoff game for seven straight years qualify as being “past a prime” too?

Look, I wrote about Pickett after he addressed the situation for the first time on Tuesday. I’ll be writing about the game in advance of the trip to Baltimore again on Friday, and I have been already.

But, I do kinda consider the makeup of the quarterback depth chart to be somewhat germane to the outcome of the games. Don’t you, Sean? I would’ve thought how and why last week’s QB depth chart was assembled would’ve been a point of interest for you and other fans. But perhaps I was wrong.

Based on my timeline and inbox, what is truly important regarding the Pickett conversation is that we have been granted the opportunity for a healthy and robust re-adjudication of the “Fake Slide” in the 2021 ACC Championship and his decision to pull out of the Peach Bowl.

The first one is from Tom.

“Spoiled Brat who stiffed Pitt.”

And here’s one of many tweets I got regarding the “Fake Slide.”

The first thing you guys won’t admit to is that he didn’t set out to manipulate the rule. It happened in the moment. It was not premeditated. I think there is a huge difference there.

— Steve Mumaw (@Quipscript_SM) January 2, 2024

Indeed, these are the most important matters at hand.

Finally, “Beaker” checks in with his theory as to what happened with Pickett’s scratch in Seattle. I suggested that, possibly, Mike Tomlin and the coaches weren’t being honest with Pickett. That they planned to start Rudolph all along last week, and they were just using Pickett’s healing ankle and lack of practice reps as an excuse to avoid starting him.

Thats what they told him. Doesnt mean it would’ve happened. Case in point, coaches needed to say he was healthy enough to play. Maybe they all waited until Thursday on purpose

— Beaker (@Beakerlives) January 3, 2024

Perhaps. But in honor of you, Beaker, let me sum up the entire Pickett situation in GIF form.

via GIPHY