Pittsburgh Steelers Fans' Reality Check: The World Isn't Out To Get You

Pre-Rant Note: This is not an attack on the entire Steeler Nation.  I know there are very intelligent football minds that wave their Terrible Towels every Sunday afternoon and I hope this does not offend those fans.

"It's a conspiracy!  Roger Goodell and the NFL are out to dethrone the Steelers."

Wrong: I know it's always fun to believe it's you against the world and I'm sorry for ruining your vain trip, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

It's a shame, "conspiracy" is cried all too often in the world of sports.  This particular instance displays the foolishness of the accusation without fail.

Roger Goodell isn't out to dethrone the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers are the most popular team in the NFL.  

There are Steelers bars in every major city coast-to-coast, they are a top-selling team for merchandise every year, and they've sold out every home game since 1972.  There are fans that have been on the season-ticket waiting list for over a decade.

Really?  You think Goodell would mess with that?

The Steelers are a money maker.  If any conspiracy would ever take place, it would be to keep them at the top, not to knock them off of it.

Secondly, why target the Rooney's?  They are arguably the greatest owners in NFL history and have put forth an unmatched effort to run a classy organization.  Dan Rooney is in the NFL Hall of Fame and is the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.

Just stop.  The wolf cry of a conspiracy is a joke.

"Richard Seymour should have got fined more than $25,000!  James Harrison was fined $75,000!"

Please.

I can't possibly count the amount of Pittsburgh natives that are hockey fanatics for the fights alone and have no respect for the sport of basketball because of the lack of contact.

For all those people who mock the NBA for flops, your 6'5" 240 pound quarterback flopped.  That's the NBA equivalent of Shaq flopping.  That was after a hit that was closer to a stiff arm than a punch. 

The NFL doesn't take five minutes on these situations to come up with a punishment.  Unlike many members of the Steeler Nation, they didn't let their emotions get in the way of making the right decision.

They saw it for what it truly was: an acting job far short of a Hollywood-caliber bluff.

On the fines, stop complaining.

Every other team's players are getting fined.  Just as Pacman Jones' past made him the poster boy for the suspensions of years past, James Harrison's past supplanted him as the NFL's poster boy for dirty hits.

The Super Bowl body slam of Aaron Francisco in front of the entire world pretty much single-handedly branded Harrison with the label "dirty" for the rest of his career.  Being arrested for assault a year earlier eliminated the possibility of the excuse that it was a onetime loss of cool.

Now, I can't argue that some of those roughing calls weren't ridiculous.  A flag thrown on a defender for putting all of his weight on an offensive player is beyond absurd.  

Even though the fines on Harrison himself are getting ridiculous, you would think he get the hint.  He's like the little kid who keeps touching the hot stove, and he continues to get burnt.

The one thing worse than those types of calls though is calling them part of a conspiracy.  

To give relief to the delicate psyche of hundreds, maybe thousands, of Steelers fans with the above point of view, the world isn't out to get you.

David Daniels is an NFL Featured Columnist and Writing Intern at Bleacher Report and a Syndicated Writer.  Follow him at One Yard Short.com or on Twitter