Catching up with some Pittsburgh Steelers related news I may have missed while digging myself out from Snowmageddon ’10.

Super Bowl X MVP and gubernatorial washout Lynn Swann has challenged The Bus to a ten pin smackdown at next year’s Super Bowl. Swann, serving as event host for the Fifth Annual NFL Charities Super Bowl Celebrity Bowling Classic, welcomed more than 40 ex-NFLers in Miami to a benefit for the NFL’s Youth Education Town (YET) initiative.  What is it with Steelers and bowling?  It can’t be a Pittsburgh thing because I haven’t been to McKnight Lanes in fifteen years.  Did our favorite rotund halfback accept the challenge from our Hall of Fame wide receiver?

Stay tuned!

Speaking of Hall of Famers, beloved Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau was finally selected for the Hall of Fame. Of course, he’s going in as a DB and not a coach but let’s not quibble over details.  After over fifty years of distinguished service to the NFL, nobody is more deserving.   Also making it is longtime Redskins All-Pro OG and Pitt legend Russ Grimm.   Hope this takes some of the sting off the whole “You’re the Steelers new head coach!  Oh wait, no you’re not!” thing, Russ.

Ben Roethlisberger is a dick, chapter 24. The New York Post ran this story about Big Ben leaving a Chicago night club.   Evidently, he dropped some cash on the ground, then gave a lady the stuck up jock treatment when she tried to return it.  Given Ben’s recent history, I don’t blame him for being leery of strange women.  Plus, he was probably fresh out of Rohypnol.

Ben Roethlisberger is awesome, chapter 5. Yahoo Sports has an article up proclaiming Big Ben a better QB than Peyton Manning.  Seriously.  I’m not going to get into this debate again since your opinion is going to be influenced by whether you’re a biased homer or a reasonable and realistic football fan.  I will say this, who cares if you’re the most clutch playoff performer in NFL history if YOU CAN’T GET YOUR DAMN TEAM TO THE POSTSEASON IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts returned home to a massive throng of… Eleven fans?   ELEVEN?  I guess they had better things to do, like cow-tipping or taking advantage of that free Grand Slam breakfast.  File this sad display away in your memory banks for the next time some uneducated moron claims Steeler Nation is filled with bandwagon jumpers.

The Steelers sign training camp fodder. First, they plucked LB Derrick Doggett from the CFL.  Doggett was a special teams ace for that Mickey Mouse league up north.  I don’t know why they bother since he’ll need to beat out James Harrison or that nincompoop Tomlin will cut him because he “doesn’t believe in keeping strictly special teams players on the main roster.”   They signed two more guys yesterday. Brandon London is a 6-4 WR who was a practice squadder with the Giants but spent 2009 out of football.  Limas Sweed had better spend the off-season playing with radioactive spiders.  They also signed former Pitt punter Adam Graessle, who kicked last year in the UFL.   Teams usually bring multiple Ps, Ks, and QBs to camp so they can practice against real life people.   Don’t worry, ladies, Dreamy Daniel Sepulveda isn’t on the chopping block.

Which reminds me, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Last year, I turned my blog over to one of our most frequent and insightful commenters, Robyn, and she delivered a great post on the animal magnetism (or lack thereof) of Skippy Reed.  If any of my hundreds of sassy female readers would like to give it a shot this year, drop me a line at this address or post in the comments below.

Finally, a plea to you, my dear readers. I don’t ask for much.  In fact, I give you countless hours of high quality entertainment for the bargain basement low price of free several times per week.  But now I am asking for something.   Sean over at Sean’s Ramblings is hosting his 2nd Annual Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament.   Last year, I was bounced in the Sweet Sixteen by the tournament’s eventual winner, PensBlog.  While I have no delusions of grandeur, I would like to improve upon last year’s performance.   So please, take a second to click this link, scroll down about a quarter of the way (to the Ironhead Heyward Division), and drop a vote or two or three for the most super duper spiffy Steelers blog on the interwebs.   Thank you.

On the surface, one wouldn’t think Detroit and Pittsburgh have much in common. After all, Pittsburgh was recently named America’s #1 sports city. Detroit came in 10th. Let’s be honest, SportingNews is just confirming what we’ve known all along.

As football fans, comparing our two cities is like comparing Star Wars to BioDome. In 2008, the Detroit Lions had the worst season in NFL history. They went oh-for the entire year, losing every game. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers had about as good a season as there’s ever been. They survived the toughest regular season schedule any team faced in the last 30 years, then went on to win Super Bowl XLIII for their unprecedented sixth championship.

Now, I’m sure you expect me to belittle the Lions. To mock them for being such a pitiful franchise. To shake my head in disgust at their lousy ownership and inept management. I’m sure you’re even wondering why a proud city would even bother to support such a lowly team.

And that’s when I say the magic words: Pittsburgh Pirates.

Despite our many successes, the Pittsburgh sports fan knows the stench of failure all too well. While our two other professional teams set the bar for being world class, we have the Pirates to keep us humble. Pittsburgh baseball fans know what it’s like for a once great franchise to suffer the slings and arrows of lousy ownership and inept management. And we know that despite the embarrassment, we stay loyal.

Coming into this season, the Lions were mired in a 19-game losing streak. The team has won just a single playoff game in 51 seasons.  To think Pittsburghers still mourn losing that Wild Card game to the Jaguars. Despite their level of futility, Detroit sold out its opener at Ford Field, capacity 65,000.

Not long ago, the Pirates clinched their 17th straight losing season. That’s longer than any other franchise in any major sport in North American history. Think about how utterly incompetent you have to be to go 17 years without winning one more game than you lost. It boggles the mind. Toward the end of the season, the Bucs were mired in a slump where they would win only 3 times during a 20 game stretch. And yet, on a seasonable Saturday night during the final homestand of the year, 38,000 fans crammed into PNC Park.

Okay, they were probably there for the Foreigner concert but just go with it.

The point is that no matter how rotten your team is, and believe me both these teams are rotten, you can’t change who you root for. Well, you can, but those people are fair-weather asshats. The people of Detroit grew up Lions fans and continue to support their team even in the face of certain doom. Pittsburghers, even though we’re the City of Champions, still have room in their hearts for those bumbling idiots of the diamond.

After all, we still have our other teams to root for. Pittsburgh has their Penguins and Steelers. Detroit has their Red Wings and Tigers. Which reminds me, even though the Tigers were in the World Series as recently as three years ago, we even share some baseball-related pain. Both cities know what it feels like to watch a Jim Leyland managed team completely self-destruct in a do-or-die playoff game.