The picture above is of my friends and I making sure that the referees in Tampa saw Santonio’s toes dancing in the endzone.  I love the Steelers, but I think many Pittsburghers have taken Big Ben’s troubles too seriously.  Ben Roethlisberger’s actions do not tarnish the image of this great city.  Big Ben is the arm of the Steelers, and the Steelers are the ring finger of this great city.  He’s a tiny part of a tiny part of the city’s identity.  While we’re all proud of the Steelers and we’d prefer all of their players deserve our pride, it’s not essential.

I’ve been in Charlotte for two Steelers seasons now, and I’ve become a regular at Dixie’s, the largest (but certainly not the only) Steeler bar in the city.  It’s always impressed me, and anyone who comes with me, how little of the conversation is about the game.  We cheer, but what people seem to enjoy most is being around other Pittsburghers.  The conversation always seems to go back home; it goes to our High Schools and our Colleges to our neighborhoods and our neighbors to our rivers and our bridges to our zoo and our aviary to our churches and our ball parks to our restaurants and our bars.

There’s something about our city that makes people in to good people and that’s the heart of our identity.  I guess Big Ben hasn’t picked that up in his few years here, but give him time he just might.  Were you the same person at 25 that you are now?  I’m not apologizing for the man.  He needs to get his shit together, own up to who he is, pay for what he’s done and try to learn what being a Pittsburgher is all about.