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John Steigerwald Columns category, Page 2

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
John Steigerwald: Sports without fans will be dreadful, and we all know it
Good for the NFL. The league, after taking major heat for holding its draft as scheduled at the end of April, released its 2020 schedule Thursday with the intention of starting the season on time. The big question, of course, is will fans be allowed to attend the games? If...
John Steigerwald: Time to consider small-town venues for major league sports
Hit ’em where they ain’t. That was Wee Willie Keeler’s hitting philosophy. He played right field for the Yankees in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was one of the best hitters in baseball history and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. Maybe Major League Baseball...
John Steigerwald: Viewers, Steelers offense winners in NFL Draft
America survived. Remember all of those people who trashed the NFL when it announced the draft would go on as scheduled April 24? Here’s what ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter said April 1: “We all want to see the days where we have that distraction of football. But OTAs? That’s...
John Steigerwald: Kudos to Jalen Green for choosing G League over college
Good for Jalen Green. He decided not to go to college. Instead, he’ll make $500,000 playing basketball in the G League. That’s the official minor league of the NBA. It used to be known as the D League for NBA Developmental League. It was changed to G League in 2017....
John Steigerwald: Don’t let Terry Bradshaw fool you about Steelers’ best QB
Terry Bradshaw is right about Tom Brady and wrong about Terry Bradshaw. Bradshaw created quite a stir Thursday on 93.7 FM, especially in New England, when he said he didn’t consider Tom Brady the greatest quarterback of all time. That’s not permitted in New England, and it’s violently frowned upon...
John Steigerwald: When they return, sports should be made-for-TV events
Let the games begin. Or not. President Donald Trump held a conference call with the commissioners of all the major sports leagues Saturday and told them he is hoping people can start filling stadiums and arenas by August or September. That’s good news for the NFL and college football, but,...
John Steigerwald: Ex-Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh belongs in Hall of Fame
Tim Murtaugh made it to the big leagues. Maybe you remember or have heard of Tim’s grandfather, Danny, who managed the Pirates off and on for 15 years and won two World Series. Tim’s father, also named Tim, never made it to the major leagues as a player, but he...
John Steigerwald: What to make of Tom Brady’s motivation, legacy, expectations?
Imagine Mario Lemieux coming out of retirement to play for the Florida Panthers in 2000 instead of the Penguins. Tom Brady did the equivalent of that when he decided to leave the New England Patriots last week and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There was a time when staying...
John Steigerwald: YouTube rabbit hole proves useful in sportsless world 
Now what? We’ve now gone through a full sportsless weekend, and it’s hard to imagine any American, who’s alive today, ever experiencing it. This, of course, doesn’t include the millions of people in America who couldn’t care less about sports. Remember, when the Pittsburgh Steelers play on Sundays, between 40...
John Steigerwald: OK, now it’s time for Penguins fans to panic
Feel free to panic. The six-game losing streak with three straight losses to bad teams on the road was a good reason for Penguins to be annoyed, but it could be written off as an ordinary, if not expected, bad spell in a long season. Losing to the Capitals at...
John Steigerwald: Penguins’ rough stretch no reason to panic 
The Pittsburgh Penguins stink right now. The Washington Capitals might be worse. You’ve probably noticed how things have been going for the Penguins lately. They lost their sixth in a row Saturday night, 5-0 to San Jose, in a game they might as well have been playing in their bare...
John Steigerwald: Hockey in Pittsburgh makes major strides since ‘Miracle on Ice’
Hockey has come a long way. Especially in Pittsburgh. Forty years ago Saturday, Al Michaels opened ABC’s tape-delayed telecast of what would become the greatest moment in American sports history with this: “A lot of people in this building don’t know the difference between a blue line and a clothesline.”...
John Steigerwald: Myles Garrett’s verbal attack on Steelers’ Mason Rudolph worse than helmet hit 
Jussie Smollett called. He said he believes Myles Garrett. You remember Smollett, he’s the gay black actor who claimed he was attacked in the middle of the night on a Chicago street by two white guys wearing MAGA hats, who used racial and homophobic slurs while putting a noose around...
John Steigerwald: Small-market teams should steal Astros’ tactics
Spare me the outrage. People in and out of MLB are being whipped into a frenzy again over the Houston Astros’ stealing signs on their way to a 2017 World Series win. Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal reported this week MLB’s claim the plan was “entirely player-driven” is...
John Steigerwald: Chiefs fans deserved Super Bowl title
The right team won. With the possible exception of the Browns, no team’s fans deserved a Super Bowl win more than the Chiefs. The 49ers fans have had five Super Bowl wins to celebrate, and I’m pretty sure there are a lot more real fans in Kansas City than there...
John Steigerwald: It might be time to show skepticism about CTE research
Maybe Merril Hoge was right. Hoge, a running back who played eight seasons in the NFL — seven with the Steelers and one with the Bears — retired at 29 because of multiple concussions. His book, “Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE and the Plot to Destroy Football,” co-authored with...
John Steigerwald: Super Bowl matchup proves NFL now belongs to young QBs
The old guys are staying home. There will be no grizzled veteran quarterback in the Super Bowl this year. Patrick Mahomes, 24, will go to Miami in two weeks with the Kansas City Chiefs, and 28-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo will be there with the San Francisco 49ers. Tom Brady, 43, Drew...
John Steigerwald: Lamar Jackson deserved better from Ravens teammates
Lamar Jackson can’t win the big one. If you haven’t heard that yet, be patient, you will. After the Baltimore Ravens’ loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night, Jackson is 0-2 in the NFL playoffs. Of course, he’s one of those athletic, mobile quarterbacks, who many observers just can’t...
John Steigerwald: Patriots QB Tom Brady looked his age without Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown
The Patriots’ party appears to be over. They won’t be going to the Super Bowl this year, and they won’t even be going to the AFC championship game, which you might have thought was on their schedule since they had been to eight consecutive. They’ve also reached the Super Bowl...
John Steigerwald: Coach of the Year? Not Steelers’ Mike Tomlin
Sorry, Mike Tomlin, but John Harbaugh is NFL Coach of the Year. You deserved serious consideration when your Pittsburgh Steelers somehow were in position to get into the playoffs after losing Ben Roethlisberger for the season and having to deal with so many injuries to other key players along the...
John Steigerwald: The Devlin Hodges era is over for Steelers
The “Duck” Era is over. If you still think Devlin Hodges has a future as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback, you haven’t been paying attention. Hodges had to be on a short leash after throwing four interceptions last week against the Buffalo Bills, but nobody should feel guilty about second guessing...
John Steigerwald: Steelers QB Duck Hodges should have short leash against Jets
It’s time for the short leash. Mike Tomlin needs to put one on Devlin Hodges at practice Wednesday and keep it on him when he lines up against the New York Jets next Sunday. He should use it to yank him out of the game in a hurry if he...
John Steigerwald: Gerrit Cole situation a sobering reminder for Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are excited about having a new general manager and a new manager. Maybe some fans are, too. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees are the favorites to sign Gerrit Cole as a free agent. According to the New York Post, it’ll be a shock if they don’t. Yankees...
John Steigerwald: With these Steelers, expect the unexpected
Who saw that coming? Not the 7-5 record and being in contention for the wild card, the 20-13 win after that hideous start. When the Browns scored to make it 10-0 everything pointed to a long, ugly day for the Steelers. It was the middle of the second quarter. The...
John Steigerwald: Steelers barely beat a really bad Bengals team 
Tank you very much. That’s what Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin should have said to Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor during the postgame handshake Sunday in Cincinnati. A team doing its best to lock up the first pick in the 2020 draft couldn’t have come at a better time for...


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