If you could rank the top 10 NFL fan bases, where would you place Steelers Nation? With bias, we would be number one correct? Bias aside, would you still put us at the top? I would. EASILY. Bias aside, our fan base travels better than any other, perhaps in any sport. We are spread out around the world better than any other fan base. We know our football. We LOVE our team. We are loyal…to the bone Who rivals us? Green Bay perhaps. Cleveland has a nice fan base. Dallas to me are more fair weather fans than anything else. Oakland? They have some true diehards, but their numbers pale in comparison to us. Today, a news source actually ranked the fan bases and placed us at number SIX! SIX? Are you freaking kidding me? The rankings follow.
FoxSports.com, NFL's Top 10 Fan Bases
#6 Pittsburgh Steelers
The "Stillers" fans are a very annoying bunch. If you ever encounter one and the subject of football comes up, all you'll hear about is how many rings they have. Whatever your argument is, they will counter with that. That being said, they have Heinz Field and sports bars around the country rocking on Sundays. They're very passionate about their football and it's completely understandable. Before Sidney Crosby, what else have they had to root for?
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Ok. True we often brag about winning it all five times. I agree that the line of “how many rings” is getting old. But what Fox fails to realize is what else counts. Attendance at games; traveling; knowledge; and the fact that despite the failures of the Pittsburgh Pirates, some of us are still loyal Pirates fans whether we follow them as closely as the Steelers or not. They are way off base in their rankings. For the record, here is their top 10:
10-Dallas Cowboys
9-Chicago Bears
8-Buffalo Bills
7-Denver Broncos
6-Steelers
5-Green Bay Packers
4-Cleveland Browns
3-Oakland Raiders
2-Kansas City Chiefs
1-Philadelphia Eagles
EAGLES? PLLEEEASSE! Philadelphia fans have the reputation of being the WORST. Jerks many of them are. This is the fan base that booed Santa Claus and Donovan McNabb at Madison Square Garden the year he was drafted. I was there for proof. These are the fans that I personally witnessed on video tape clobbering a Miami Dolphin fan from his blindside in the back just because he was a Dolphins fan. This is the stadium that had a jail cell inside the stadium for arrests made on their fans that got out of control.
The Kansas City Chiefs are a strong fan base, but only at HOME. We spoke to the Raiders, and the Browns also are strong at home and have a few fans dispersed around the country but also pale in comparison to our numbers. The Packers are much like Kansas City. So what do other fans think? You can cast your vote at:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8450106/VOTE-NOW:-Which-team-has-the-NFL%27s-best-fan-base?
As of around 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, the results:
Bills-24%
Other-19%
Packers-13%
Steelers-10%
Raiders-7%
Cowboys-7%
Browns-6%
Broncos-3%
Bears-3%
Chiefs-3%
Meanwhile on the Steelers front, I spoke yesterday about our defense. It seems James Harrison agrees with me:
“We're going out there and treating the preseason too much like the preseason. We're going out there and thinking everything is just going to come when the regular season begins and we're just out there playing snap for snap, getting our timing and not playing up to the level were capable of playing at. I don't feel that's OK. You go out there and have two teams run the length of field on us three times out of four series, hell, yeah, that's concerning. I feel like our base defense is enough to do what we need to do. It's not just going to snap around and just come soon as September comes. You got to go out there and play these preseason games like it's a real game, no matter how long you're in there. And I don't feel like we're doing that right now. We're going out there and getting our timing, getting our plays in and getting out. We're not playing or coming out with the same attitude we come out with in the regular season. You got to show something in the preseason. That's why we play the damn games.”
Let’s hope the pre-season is not a sign of things to come. Also it may be a case of not showing too much. Time to adjust your rosters again. The Steelers have released Jon Dekker added a replacement tight end in Lee Vickers. Additionally, Kevin Huntley just signed the other day from the Redskins failed his physical and was released. Vickers is a big one at 6’6”, 275 and in 2006 was signed by Pittsburgh as an undrafted free agent. After being released he was with the Eagles and last year with Baltimore where he made two catches for four yards.
I close today with some pertinent news from the worldwide web.
ProFootballWeekly.com, The Way We Hear It
Leftwich's future in Pittsburgh unclear beyond this season
The Steelers reacted quickly when No. 2 QB Charlie Batch suffered a broken collarbone in the preseason opener, signing former Falcons and Jaguars QB Byron Leftwich to replace him. However, while the Steelers were pleased to see a quarterback with Leftwich's talent and credentials still on the market, he may just be a one-year solution at the position. He's signed only for this season, and the starting job in Pittsburgh is unlikely to come open any time soon. The Steelers are also high on fifth-round pick Dennis Dixon, who is likely to be the No. 3 quarterback for the time being. As of this writing, it's unclear whether the Steelers will place Batch on injured reserve or release him, but it's unlikely that Pittsburgh would carry four quarterbacks on the active roster. The prospect of Batch's injury lingering into the regular season — as well as the presence of Leftwich — may cause the Steelers to move on.
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Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk.com, Rumor Mill
Starks Biding His Time for Free Agency?
With a guaranteed one-year contract worth nearly $7 million and a shot at hitting in March 2009 a market that pays long-term contracts worth $7 million per year to so-so players, the buzz coming out of Steelers camp is that tackle Max Starks is merely going through the motions. As one source put it, Starks’ training-camp performance has been among the worst on the entire team. Indeed, he’s still stuck behind Willie Colon at right tackle. But it doesn’t matter for Starks; he’ll still get his money. The reason he’s getting the money is because the Steelers opted to retain an opportunity to match any offers he might have gotten on the open market earlier this year via the transition tag, which provided a right of first refusal but no compensation if he had left. Use of the tag required tender of a one-year, $6.895 million salary. And once Starks signed the tender after realizing that no other team was interested in taking the time to negotiate a deal that the Steelers could then bogart, the salary became fully guaranteed. For roughly $500,000 more, the Steelers could have used the franchise tag on Faneca, and at a minimum could have gotten a draft pick or two by thereafter trading him. In hindsight, that would have been the better move. And if anyone is looking for tangible evidence of how the unsettled ownership situation could be affecting the football operation, the decision to keep Starks for $6.895 million instead of Faneca for $7.45 million could be it.
Rooneys to Meet with Commish Next Week
Amid criticism that the league office has allowed members of the Steelers ownership group to hold prohibited gambling interests for too long without forcing them to divest those interests or sell their stake in the team, the five Rooney brothers will meet with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on August 21 in New York, according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Though team chairman Dan Rooney has given up his shares of dog and horse tracks (which are permitted by league rules) that now include casino-style gaming (which isn’t), the other four Rooney brothers who each hold 16 percent of the team still own a portion of the forbidden gambling interests. (Dan’s brother Art Jr. has sold 90 percent of his own interests, and is looking to dump the rest.) The problem is, and has been, that Dan Rooney wants to buy out his brothers, but apparently doesn’t want to pay them market value for their shares of the team. The brothers apparently want to sell to billionaire A.G. Pennypacker Stanley Druckenmiller, who’s reportedly poisted to write a check for the full amount. Meanwhile, Dan Rooney apparently is scrambling to come up with a group of investors who’ll each hold a piece of the team and allow Dan Rooney and son Art, II, to continue to run it. We’ve been told that a resolution is coming soon. But unless Dan Rooney can come up with a plan that pays his brothers at or about the same amount they’d get from Druckenmiller, the answer to this one seems obvious — even if it means an end result that a month or so ago was unthinkable.
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Michael Lombardi, SportsIllustrated.com, Frankly Football: Evaluating all of last year's first-round picks
Inside the NFL
Expecting a big year from these guys
Lawrence Timmons, LB, Steelers (No. 15): Now that he is comfortable in Dick LeBeau's defensive system, he can use his talents and skills to make plays. His speed and quickness will pay huge benefits.
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