They say the holidays are the most stressful time of the year. Even more so for members of Steeler Nation when there’s a monumental showdown against the Baltimore Ravens looming this Sunday. In order to help you kill two birds with one stone, let’s take our minds off the game by reviewing some cool gifts you might want to give the rabid Steeler fan in your life.

For your convenience, I have included links to where the products can be purchased online. They are the cheapest prices I am aware of but you’re welcome to search around on your own. I do not receive any commission, referral fee, or any other compensation if you click those links. This isn’t Aintitcoolnews, ya know.

Oh, and by the way, you also have a chance to win FREE CROCS. Interested? Read on…

Pittsburgh Steelers Mammoth Crocs

My fashionista cousins, Taylor and Lexi, were constantly on me to get a pair of Crocs, advice I foolishly ignored until this summer when a trip to Kennywood hipped me to the fact everyone was wearing them.  I finally bought a pair and I swear they are the most comfortable shoes ever. If you’re one of those people, like me, who lives in sandals or flip-flops from May to September, you should definitely check them out.

If you “fan” the official Crocs Facebook page linked here and then order through them, they’ll take 15% off your order.

Now for the part I know you’re interested in. I was making this list but before I could check it twice, the fine folks over at Crocs contacted me. I told them what I was doing, they loved the idea and generously offered not one but TWO free pair of Pittsburgh Steelers Mammoth Crocs (pictured above) for my loyal readers. The Mammoths, retail price $44.99, are a new line designed to keep your gnarly toes warm during the frigid winter months.

Since I hate elaborate, “Write a 1,500 word essay about how the Roethlisberger-Ward dynamic represents interpersonal communication within the workplace”-type contests, this one is very simple. All you have to do is guess how many TOTAL POINTS will be scored this Sunday in Baltimore. In other words, come up with a final score, add the numbers together, and post this guess IN THE COMMENTS below. Whoever comes closest wins (in case of tie, LOW man wins) and one guess per person.

Wait, I said there were two pairs, right? Here’s the best part. Even if your guess is absolutely rotten, I will take everybody who participates, put their name in my Steeler Stocking, and choose a second winner. One guess, two chances to win. Please make sure your email address is working (or post one with your guess) so I can contact the winner.

When you’re finished trying to win free swag, here a few more gift ideas for you to give (or give yourself) this Yuletide season:

“Steel Dynasty” by Bill Chastain

I’m guessing most of you are my age (GenX) or younger. As such, you were born too late to experience the Steel Curtain teams of the 1970’s. The history of that team lives on in our older relatives, who remember every last player, every last game, and love telling stories which recount their greatness.

However, if you want a history told by an actual professional author, this is the book for you. While the 70’s Steelers are the subject of many books, I found this one a fairly quick read which still gives you a ton of fascinating information. It starts with the arrival of Chuck Noll, describes how he built the team into a juggernaut, and then goes year by year through their accomplishments. The book also doesn’t shy away from controversial topics like Terry Bradshaw’s feud with Noll or Pittsburgh’s racist treatment of QB Joe Gilliam.

You can find (or order) this book at most major booksellers so I suggest you buy it wherever you have a discount membership card or you can look through Amazon’s second hand booksellers and find it for about $8.00.

Steelers Super Bowl Victories DVD Set

After reading about the Steel Curtain, you can watch them with this sweet DVD set containing the original broadcasts of their Super Bowl victories. When I first got online back in 1994 as a freshman at CMU, one of the first things I searched for was tape traders. There were a ton that traded wrestling and a bunch who swapped soap operas but I only found one guy with a crappy 4^th generation dub of Super Bowl XIV. Here you get them all plus the One for the Thumb against the Seahawks.

Deepdiscount has it for $30, ten less than retail plus they don’t charge tax or shipping.

LaMarr Woodley Kills People T-shirt

Ever since I posted this picture way back in week two, people have emailed me asking where to get one. After searching until my fingers bled, here you go. Now stop bothering me. I paid a little less for mine but you can pay $20 for this awesome shirt online or you can walk around outside Heinz Field on game day and hope you bump into a tall olive-skinned gentleman in a bucket hat like I did.

The Alyssa Milano NFL Collection

Actually, I don’t really like that shirt, I just wanted to post Alyssa Milano in my blog. “Embrace of the Vampire” is a cinematic masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. In her spare time, she designs NFL clothes for women. Wait, I thought she was a baseball groupie? “Charmed” residuals mustn’t be paying well.

Actually, this does bring up something I’ve been meaning to tell all the ladies out there. Please, I beg you, STOP BUYING pink #7 Roethlisberger jerseys. You do not look cute. You look like a cliché. Pink Roethlisberger jerseys scream, “I’m trying to show my boyfriend how cool I am by pretending to love his favorite team.”

If you’re female and you truly love the Steelers (and I believe some of you do exist), buy a REGULAR jersey. Believe me when I say guys will find you 300% cuter if you’re wearing an actual Polamalu jersey rather than one that got attacked by a Bedazzler. If that’s not feminine enough for you, check out the Alyssa Collection. Pretty much anything except one of those pink abominations. Okay?

Jack Lambert (McFarlane Toys Legends Collection)

If you’re an old school comic geek like yours truly, you probably remember the squiggly web-drawing greatness of one Todd McFarlane. You also probably know he retired from funny books years ago to devote himself to other projects, like making toys. I’m in no way, shape, or form a toy collector but his NFL licensed figures are outstanding. He has a Polamalu and Roethlisberger which are both tremendous. He also has a Hall of Fame line with an excellent reproduction of Franco Harris scooping up the Immaculate Reception, which I would’ve chosen but are hard to find and currently listed as $75.00 on Ebay. So my new favorite has to be this one of Jack Lambert.

You can find them for about $10.00 on Amazon, probably a little less on Ebay although that would require a bit more searching. I leave that up to you.

Hope this quick stroll through Chrismukkah Gift Ideas provides you with some inspiration. And don’t forget to enter the contest. Happy Holidays everybody!

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I love Pittsburgh.

My grandparents were born here. My parents were born here. I was born here. Most of my family still lives here and none of us have any desire to ever leave. I love the city. The sights and sounds. The local culture. And the people. I’ve visited many other places in this country and can honestly say no other city deserves the title of Most Livable or Friendliest more than the ‘Burgh.

However, there is one part of Pittsburgh I’m not proud of. One aspect of the city we all know about but seldom like to speak of. Something which is brought up by outsiders from time to time although never spoken about here.

Pittsburgh is a racist city.

Please understand that I’m not calling you a racist. Or your parents. Or even your grandparents. And I’m not saying things haven’t gotten better over the years. But this is still a city that has a very spotty history when it comes to racial prejudices, especially when it comes to athletes.

Once upon a time Steelers head coach Chuck Noll received death threats for starting a black quarterback named Joe Gilliam. Gilliam, by the way, was undefeated at the time leading the team in place of the benched (for ineffectiveness) Terry Bradshaw. While I don’t think that would happen today, the disgraceful treatment of Kordell Stewart toward the end of his time in the Black and Gold shows there is still an undercurrent of racism around these parts. Sure, Steeler fans are always hard on their QBs. But there’s a big difference between considering Bubby Brister a functioning retard or dumping trash on Tommy Maddox’s lawn and labeling a guy a homosexual because he had a bad season after leading your team to not one but two AFC championship games.

With this in mind, I want to bring up the recent case of WR Santonio Holmes. Holmes issued a contrite apology this week after being caught with two joints in his car which lead to him being suspended for the Giants game. I read coverage of the incident and waited for somebody to point out what was obvious to me. Sadly, I’m still waiting.

The part of the story everybody seemed to either miss or more likely gloss over was WHY Holmes was stopped. Here’s what the police had to say:

“At the 3 p.m. roll call, the officers were told to look for an SUV with an out-of-state license plate traveling through the Hill with a “large amount of narcotics,” the police affidavit said.”

What they conveniently left out was one key word: Black. I will guarantee you any amount of money the roll call description included some variation of the word African-American in it. Guarantee. Of course they’re not going to admit that but do you really think they were stopping every single SUV that rolled through the Hill District that day?

Gotta love those crack redneck cops we have here in Pittsburgh. Accident on the Parkway and it takes 20 minutes for them to show up. But a negro in a fancy car with tinted windows drives around downtown and they’re ON THE CASE!

The police admit Holmes was driving perfectly fine. Not swerving. Not steering erratically. They pulled him over for no reason other than he fit a very dubious description. Pirate outfielder Nyjer Morgan was driving to PNC Park a few months ago and was similarly pulled over for having “tinted windows.” I guess “tinted windows” must be their new code word for “black man in nice car.” Of course, nobody said anything at the time because nobody likes to talk about this and because, well, nobody cares about the Pirates.

Here it’s happened again and this time it cost us a very important member of our team. Yes, Holmes needs to be smarter. Yes, he needs to take responsibility for his actions. But if the fact some Bacon Bits can just pull you over for no other reason than your ethnic background doesn’t bother you a little, you need to wake up and smell the Starbucks.

I don’t want to open up a debate about drugs. Usage of marijuana isn’t the issue here. The fact is the city of Pittsburgh doesn’t really care. The penalty for being caught with the amount Santonio had in his glove box was a ticket. That’s it. A ticket, just like one you’d get for speeding. Would the Rooneys suspend Holmes for not driving 55? I’m sure Herr Goodell and his Nazi-like regime would like to but even they know that would be taking things too far.

So what we have here is a guy stopped for no legitimate reason given a ticket for an extremely minor infraction who is going to probably miss at least two games over it. And the worst part is people are heaping criticicism on HIM. Gene Collier in the Post-Gazette wrote a column about how Santonio’s absence caused the offense to stall. Yeah, because Holmes not being there is why Big Ben refused to throw the football in a timely fashion or our line couldn’t block worth a damn. Ron Cook used his soapbox to also criticize Holmes, going as far as to claim he might have cost them the game. Good lord. The harshest words were by WXDX radio host Mark Madden who wrote he had no respect for Holmes. So the same guy who worked for and is close friends with a number of professional wrestlers, guys who abuse drugs and alcohol, not to mention beat and kill their wives and children, is disgusted by a pot bust? Really?

All the anger in this situation has seemingly been focused on Holmes and I’m tired of hearing it. Take your hands off your ears, open up your eyes, and point your blame finger where it truly belongs.

September 27, 1992.

I was a senior in high school, eagerly awaiting my acceptance letter from Carnegie Mellon University. Between us, I firmly believe the extra 250 points the SATs give you for spelling your name correctly put me over the top. “Wayne’s World” kept me sane by repeatedly asking, “Are you mental?” Kriss Kross promised to make me Jump! Jump!

And for the first time in 25 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a new coach roaming the sideline. Emperor Chuck Noll had stepped aside and his successor was a fiery, spit-spewing, thirty-five year old former KC assistant with a lantern jaw that would make Jay Leno jealous. It was Bill Cowher’s first season as head coach and this native son of Pittsburgh made us all proud by getting the Steelers off to a 2-0 start.

In week three, we played the Green Bay Packers. The city, the team, and even I were on a roll and none of us were ready for the ride to end. We had every reason to think it would continue as the Majik Man, quarterback Don Majkowski, was injured the previous week, forcing the sorry Pack to turn to some nobody making his first career NFL start.

That guy’s name was Brett Favre. And not only did he start, he won. He threw for over 200 yards and two touchdown passes, handing the Steelers a crushing 17-3 defeat. Brett started the next week. Then the next. In fact, he went on to start 253 games in a row. Along the way he picked up three MVP awards, reached two Super Bowls (winning one), set a whole slew of quarterbacking records, and left us all with a number of memorable performances.

Yes, I’ve been critical of Favre from time to time. I do happen to feel this retirement should’ve taken place 2-3 years ago. Granted, he had a pretty damn good year last season but the last couple prior to that were so bad that nobody, other than the most ardent of Favre supporters (which apparently includes 98% of the media), saw them as anything more than him hanging around just to break a few records.

That said, he has had an incredible career, and those few bad years won’t diminish his prior accomplishments. He’s easily a top-10 all-time QB and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. While I’ve never been his biggest fan, or even a big fan, he has my respect. And I’m sure when September 2008 rolls around, we’ll all find it a little bit weird and a little bit sad to have an NFL season without #4 playing for the Packers.