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U mad, bro?: Pittsburgh fans snarl about Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt hoops, the Pirates and our coverage of it all - TribLIVE

This is stunning. I went a whole week with no negative feedback from Steelers or Penguins fans. Nary a complaint from a reader about the Pirates. Not one angry tweet about Pitt. Not a single Facebook post lashing back at one of my columns.

It was amazing.

Ha! Gotcha! Happy April Fools’ Day.

Here’s this week’s “U mad, bro?”


Ron thinks I’m too concerned about the Steelers’ offseason departures. His sarcastic subject line was “Thanks for the positivity.”

Alex Highsmith showed promise without having any OTAs. It would’ve been stupid to bring back (Bud) Dupree after an injury and for huge money, especially since he can disappear for games at a time and benefited from being on the other side of TJ Watt.

I always liked (Mike) Hilton, but they would’ve locked him up a while ago if they really thought they couldn’t replace him. (Cam) Sutton will do better in coverage and look for them to sign a veteran to help out in the secondary to replace Nelson. (Vince) Williams also struggled in coverage. I think they think they can replace him with a draft pick, or else they wouldn’t have let him walk.

They will definitely pick one of the top 2 or 3 RBs in the first round. As far as losing (Maurkice) Pouncey and Al Villanueva, did you see Pouncey getting pushed back in the playoff game against Cleveland? It was time to move on and replace him with a second-round center. Al might also come back, but with a center they will be fine with Chuks (Okorafor) and (Zach) Banner.

So, relax and let them complete their roster before predicting doom and gloom.

Ron, I’ve had plenty of time to relax. I relaxed during each of the past four postseasons after they’ve failed to win a playoff game — or sometimes even qualify.

Look, you have two choices here. You can either:

1. Spin all those departures as if to say that most of the players they lost were no good (which you are doing)

- or -

2. Admit the 12-4 season was a fraud because they got that way with a roster that — apparently — wasn’t all that good since you seem to think losing seven starters is no big deal

Which one is it? It can’t be both.

Please understand that it’s not my job to provide “positivity.” As a fan, that’s your job.

Actually, it’s your choice. It’s my job to call it as I see it. I don’t know what you see. What I see is a team that got worse as 2020 went along, and it now has a roster that got even thinner in the offseason.


John didn’t like my column about the fan and media spin surrounding the Steelers this offseason. You know, emails from folks like Ron.

No. When it comes to JuJu Smith-Schuster specifically, the spin cycle comes from his internet bots like you who are trying to make it sound like he got what he wanted in free agency. And this is all part of a master plan by JuJu.

Sure, it was. I’m sure JuJu had a deal as good as Kenny Golladay’s ($40 million) on the table, but he decided to come back to Pittsburgh out of a sense of loyalty and love for $8 million.

Yeah. I fully believe he did that for an 80% discount. Yup. Absolutely.

I mean, if players genuinely thought that way, why don’t they all just gladly accept the franchise tag when it’s usually a much better deal than that?

Dude, your TikTok hero swung and missed in free agency. Just admit it. This contract was what he deemed to be his best path to a real contract next year. Pure and simple.


This guy on Twitter was disappointed in my Pirates 2021 season preview column.

Well, that’s exactly what’s in the podcast that I did with Kevin Gorman, which is linked at the bottom of the story. So listen to that if that’s what you wanted.

But if I had written a “rundown of the roster and lineup,” the headline would’ve said, “Here’s a rundown of the Pirates roster and lineup.”

And the column would’ve only been two words long.

“They stink.”

I’m not sure if that would’ve satisfied the edit desk. So I went a different route. Sorry if you were disappointed.

But if you are that easily disappointed when it comes to the Pirates, I’m going to feel really sorry for you by the time this season ends.


Mark isn’t wild about Ben Roethlisberger’s new contract.

I wished they would’ve had the stones to move on from Ben. Save money, sink it into other positions and let Rudolph and Haskins fight it out to be a game-managing QB.

Instead, they are overpaying Ben to be a game-managing QB that has zero mobility. For his sake, I hope he can actually walk off the field by the end of the season.”

Mark, unless they upgrade that offensive line in the draft and get him a good running back to absorb some of the offensive plays, I’ll be concerned about that, too.


Finally, Jim is a frustrated Pitt basketball fan.

I’m a life-long Pitt fan, and I don’t have any delusions about where the MBB program is heading — right to the bottom of the ACC. And Coach (Jeff) Capel has to bear the brunt of the responsibility in my opinion. At this point in his tenure, I can’t find a single thing that supports the argument that things are getting better.

I can, however, find lots of evidence to the contrary: three of his top four players leaving within the last year with remaining eligibility (two of whom flat out quit in the middle of the season); his best player with one foot out the door, a prize recruit suspended from the team and unlikely to suit up again, colossal faceplants every February-March to erase any good vibes from an early upset win or two; zero defense against three-point shots.

If I can see this, I’m guessing AD (Heather) Lyke can as well. If she chooses to keep Capel after yet another uncompetitive season, it’ll be for one reason, and this is what bothers me the most: she knows anybody good enough to fix the program wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Jim, I know you’re angry. But look at it this way, so long as Pitt never makes the tournament, you’ll never have to endure watching those god-awful, non-stop commercials with Lily from AT&T.

That may be a win for you and Panthers fans everywhere.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

Categories: Pirates/MLB | Pitt | Sports | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz

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U mad, bro?: Pittsburgh fans snarl about Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt hoops, the Pirates and our coverage of it all - TribLIVE
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