Pittsburgh Steelers Bulletin Board Material Won't Phase Tennessee Titans

Take a look at the NFL schedule for 2009 and the season opener will pop out at you no matter who your favorite team is.

For most NFL fans, Sept. 10^th marks the first game of a year long quest for the Lombardi Trophy.  222 days after the Super Bowl, football purists can finally exhale, sit back on a Thursday night, and soak in the fresh aroma of a newly opened NFL season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers play host to the Tennessee Titans, on that Thursday night, in a rematch the Steelers have been waiting for since December 21st of last year. Not because they got manhandled by Jeff Fisher’s squad 31-14, but because they got their feelings hurt.

Their feelings hurt?

This is a franchise that prides itself on being one of the toughest teams in the history of the NFL, and now they are wearing their hearts on their sleeves?

They claim their brand of smash mouth football, and dominating defense has been key to their championship success over the years. And there has been plenty of success. The six Super Bowl wins by Pittsburgh is the most of any NFL team.

So what could be more important than avenging the undressing they took at the hands of the Titans on that December night? According to “Steeler nation”, the bigger slap in the face came from the fact that some of the Titan players stomped on the Terrible Towels following the game.

I have been fortunate enough to tailgate in a lot of cities over the years, and I have seen a lot of NFL emblems, symbols, toys, and clothing, burned, torn, ripped, and stomped on.

It’s a towel right?

Oh no! A Steeler fan will tell you that it is a sacred symbol of the majestic and proud Pittsburgh history.

Ok, so to the rest of the NFL, it’s a towel right?

Not so fast. Steelerfans will argue that since 1996, it is an instrument used for charity with all the proceeds from the sales of the Terrible Towel going to the Allegheny Valley School which provides care for disabled children and adults.

Over the years it has raised 1.1 million dollars for the school.

In 13 years all the proceeds from the sales of the Terrible Towel is barely over a million dollars? If I was that school, I might be asking for a new team to sponsor me, but I digress.

It’s a towel.

And to attack the Titans with the argument that they desecrated a charitable symbol is childish. If the towels meant so much to the Steeler fans, why were they found all over the ground in the stadium immediately after the game?

Pittsburgh fans had no problem throwing them down following their embarrassing loss.

I was at the game and saw more than my share of yellow dish towels discarded like yesterday’s news. In all honesty, it probably shouldn’t have been done. It was not a classy thing to do, but it’s trivial. Grow up Pittsburgh.

The truth is hours before the Titans were stomping on the towel; it was your offense that was under their foot. Big Ben was pressured into four turnovers and the team could generate no more than 14 points. In addition your defense couldn’t hold twice on 4^th down late in the game and you gave up over 300 yards for the only time that season.

You are 1-8 vs. the Titans, in Tennessee, since their inaugural year in 1999, and even though you went on to win the Super Bowl while the Titans bowed out in the divisional round, the reality is they have your number.

To the Steelerfans, I have no problem with your love affair of the Terrible Towel. It is unique to your team and history. Just know that it doesn’t mean a hill of beans to anyone else.

If you want to post pictures of Keith Bulluck dancing on your towel to give you the motivation you need to face them in the season opener, go right ahead. If you need quotes from Lendale White about how he would do it again, be my guest.

I’m sure the Titans would like your best effort for once, since it hasn’t been much of a rivalry lately.

I love the claims of the curse too. Folklore states that those who disrespect the Terrible Towel will doom themselves the following week or soon after (See Cincinnati Bengals 2005, and Cleveland Browns 1994).  I’m amazed a team so rich in tradition is relying so heavily on curses.

I just hope September 10^th you bring your game Pittsburgh and not your hurt feelings.  Because if history repeats itself, and in wondering where all your towels is, you find the Titans are standing on it….

The reality is they’re dancing on it.