Steel City Blitz
Hey Steelers Fans. Welcome to Tuesday.
My father was many things. A Vietnam Vet, an HR executive, a rancher… He took on many things in his brief life and another of those was as a sailor. Back in the 1970’s he was part of a sailboat crew in Michigan that raced in the annual Port Huron to Mackinac Sailboat race. In one particular race his boat was leading the race and high was quite a feat for a group of small town guys. But then they found the doldrums. If you’ve ever sailed, it’s a bad word and an even worse feeling. It’s essentially where your sails find zero wind. You are as dead in the water as a row boat with no oars. Making it worse, is that other boats see your situation and sail around you. That’s the feeling I always have this time of year. For those of us loving and covering the Steelers, this is our doldrums. Baseball, the World Cup etc all sail by us while we sit idle. The best news is that eventually you get out of this awful state and we fans of the Black and Gold will do just that. In a few more weeks, the Steelers will return and this “dead in the water” feeling will be a thing of the past.
We took a rare week off on July 2nd but we will be back this Thursday! If you haven’t already, check out my interview with Alan Saunders of SteelersNow.com on the SCB Steelers Inside Blitz presented by DEK Roofing Inc.
The World Cup controversy over American Striker Folarin Balogun’s red card and eventual “overturned suspension” reminded me of my early days in coaching. Our varsity was state ranked and a favorite for the state title. At the end of a playoff game we were about to win, a fight broke out. Our all-state tackle and tight end were trying to separate everyone yet were considered part of the group “fighting.” They were ejected and much like Balogun, they were forced to miss the following week. Our head coach felt wronged as did our team and we appealed but were told we had to follow the protocols. We lost the following week. These were kids after all and they struggled without their leaders and best players. When it was over our coach, in his final message to the kids, compared this to life. He talked about how you will have constant disruptions throughout life and how you react to them is what matters. Adversity is part of life. Some handle it well and some don’t.
I have completed all of our Steelers Training Camp Previews and for the first time I’ve completed them way before Camp actually starts. Little victories right? What I’ve done is gone through position-by-position to look at who will be in Camp and who is likely to make the roster. [Check...
