So let me get this straight, Pittsburgh sports fans.

The Penguins just hired their boogeyman from the 1980s to be their new general manager. His new boss is a guy who openly jabbed the franchise on two different occasions. The power play is a mess. And Tristan Jarry is about as shaky as the camera work during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Yet, still, all I’m getting in my email is blowback about the Steelers?

Well, that, and movies from the 1990s as it turns out.

See for yourself in this week’s “U mad, bro?”

Kathryn thinks I’ve been a bit too harsh on Ben Roethlisberger lately.

“It is up to Ben and the Steelers to decide who should retire and not some crackpot, know nothing, reporter!!#!#!#. I think this reporter should retire for lack of realivent, accurate, and truthfull reporting. Ben is the best ever!!”

Kathryn, believe me when I tell you that this reporter would gladly take his crackpot golden parachute and retire.

If he had already made $253 million as Roethlisberger has.

However, I find your email to be neither “truthfull” nor “realivent.” Because, despite all that money, Big Ben has another $19 million coming his way in 2021. And I would never begrudge a man from making 19 million more dollars, even if he’s made a quarter billion already.

So he can come back if he wants. I’m not “telling him to retire.” But if I’m Art Rooney II, I’m not paying him that much money based on how he performed over the last six weeks of last year. It’s time to move on.

Oh, and as far as the “best ever” part of your email, I’m thinking Tom Brady may disagree with your assessment.

Speaking of Brady, I have been. Quite a bit lately. And that seems to have angered Mike. He emailed from Jacksonville, Fla.

“I’ve admired you for trying to remove the fans black and yellow glasses when it comes to Pittsburgh sports teams. I’m just amazed that you don’t take that same approach when it comes to Tom Brady.

Look, the guy does deserve some credit, but could the entire journalism world just acknowledge that he benefited from SpyGate and DeflateGate?”

“Some credit?” Gee, Mike, thanks for allowing that much.

Maybe word travels slowly down to Jacksonville. But I’m not sure how those things have failed to be acknowledged.

I mean, he got suspended four games for Deflategate. And Spygate was a Bill Belichick operation that caused the organization to get fined and lose draft picks.

If you want Brady to suffer a consequence for Spygate, who else on the Patriots offense has to do so as well? Do you wanna retroactively penalize the likes of Deion Branch, Antowain Smith, Joe Andruzzi and the rest of the offense, too?

I fully acknowledge Brady benefited from those activities. Now here’s what I want you to acknowledge.

1. That he’s been to seven Super Bowls since Spygate (Sept. 2007) and has won four of them.

2. That he’s been to five Super Bowls since the Deflategate balls were seized and won four of them.

When you are at least willing to acknowledge that he has as many “clean” rings as Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana have, we can have any debate you want.

Justin obviously appreciated my views on the Steelers’ signing of free agent quarterback Dwayne Haskins.

“So you are asking the fans to give up on the Steelers? Stop attending games? Buying merch? And oh yea listening to sports ‘experts’ like yourself?

Yea the Steelers are (screwed up) right now, and the Dwayne Haskins move smacks of desperation. But you’ve made a living off them for long enough to know Pittsburgh is a city of champions. It’s only a matter of time.”

No. I don’t remember asking them to do any of those things. However, it’s been four years since their last playoff win. It’s been 10 years since their last Super Bowl appearance. And they went from 1980-2004 without a Super Bowl victory during their last extended drought.

So, Justin, how much time are we talking about here? Another 14 or 15 years? Want me to set the over-under at 13.5?

When that “City of Champions” moniker was bestowed, it was tied into the Pirates winning the 1979 World Series. And we are still waiting on another one of those.

You may want to dial back the Steelers bravado, as well.

Kurt is mad at Steelers fans who … just don’t get it. Like, well, Justin and Kathryn, I assume.

“I’m a 42-year Steelers fan. I pride myself on seeing the TRUTH with them. I’ll just say this… When they were 11-0, they were the worst 11-0 team in the history of sports. They were out coached, (out) hustled, and (out) played their last six games. The fans are kidding themselves if they don’t see the problems.

Frankly if I were ranking them season end I’d put them at 14 out of 32.”

Actually, the oddsmakers have them 17th. So you are a cockeyed optimist by comparison.

Hey, Kurt, when fans are allowed back in the stands again, how about you, me, Justin and Kathryn, all go to a game together? We’ll get a four pack of tickets and sit in the 500 section.

I think it’d be a swell time. What could go wrong?

And, finally, our old pal Mort reached out again. If you are familiar with this weekly segment you know that Mort emails about, um, everything.

This time, he did not like a recent hockey podcast Brian Metzer and I did together.

Well, at least the last few minutes of it anyway. That’s when Brian and I took a hard left turn and started goofing around regarding the sale of the “Silence of the Lambs” house in Fayette County.

“What was the point of the last four minutes of your podcast today?

What did it have to do with hockey? I’m 80 tomorrow and I do not need to waste time like that. Why not just end the Podcast at 16 minutes?”

Quid pro quo, Agent Mort!

Look, I know this would’ve been a rash decision, but you could’ve taken the bold step of hitting “stop” after the first 16 minutes if you didn’t like the content.

And, if you are so worried about how you spend every minute of your life in your 80s, why did you bother sending me this email?

After all, you already wasted four minutes of your late 70s listening to us recap an Oscar winning classic from the 1990s. Then, you probably wasted at least that much time sending me this email.

I mean, gosh, Mort! In the words of Hannibal Lecter… “Tick tock, tick tock.”

So what “waste” of a few minutes do you regret now? Listening to the podcast about a story of local interest in our readership’s region? Or sending me an email that isn’t going to change my mind?

And, now, having to read this response, too? Well, I hope you have a happy birthday anyway. When you blow out the candles on your cake, make sure you wish for the lambs to stop screaming.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)