I couldn't give any less shits about their personal beliefs if I wanted to. Even if I tried really hard.

I am emotionally attached to this game. When my dad came home from deployment, my earliest, fondest memories are going to whatever Steelers bar was in whatever town we lived in at the moment, and screaming/lamenting at the big screen TVs and wishing those moments would never end.

I have a tattoo on my back that I've gotten updated twice because the Steelers have won two Super Bowls since I got the original one.

I am so drawn into these games that I get upset stomachs. I have to pretend that the only thing that calms it down is a good ol Iron City Beer, but I know it doesn't. I have spent thousands of dollars on tickets, jerseys, memorabilia for my dog, and NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions.

So whatever these guys have to do or believe in that makes it compelling for me to watch---so be it. So long as the Steelers get whatever Jeebus mojo Russell Wilson gets and bring that shit back to Pittsburgh.

(January 22, 2015 at 10:12 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: So whatever these guys have to do or believe in that makes it compelling for me to watch---so be it. So long as the Steelers get whatever Jeebus mojo Russell Wilson gets and bring that shit back to Pittsburgh.

What, you're not happy with having a.... oh, how can I put this delicately... for a quarterback?

Huh??

(January 22, 2015 at 10:47 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Huh??

Let's put it this way, I'm not calling him a serial rapist.

I figured. I don't know what happened. He was never accused of rape, by the way. He was accused of sexual assault, which is a different thing altogether. Not a better thing, but a different thing. He never got charged with anything. Not saying that means he didn't do it at all. Neither of the incidents happened in Pittsburgh or Ohio, so I don't think anyone can claim home cooking.

The first incident cropped up days after he signed his first $100 million dollar contract, and was dropped after a friend of the woman issued a sworn affidavit saying that she had multiple conversations with the woman where she was bragging in public about having had sex with Ben.

The second incident started as a rape accusation but then changed into a sexual assault after rape was proved impossible. The woman claimed Ben raped her but it was conclusive when the rape kit was administered that that in fact did not happen. After what looked like a pretty shoddy investigation, the police concluded that there wasn't even enough evidence to pursue a sexual assault charge.

Ben was in the wrong here. He clearly never raped anyone, but he was abusive and may have sexually assaulted a woman. After the first accusation to even put yourself in a situation where another accusation could even happen was stupid. I don't know. I will just defer to the police investigation and Ben's record since. I don't think he's a serial rapist. I think he was an asshole that has hopefully changed.

(January 23, 2015 at 12:33 am)SteelCurtain Wrote: I don't think he's a serial rapist.

I don't think he's a serial rapist, either, which I why I didn't call him one (yeah, I made a hyperbolic implication, to be sure). I'm not sure what to call him. Serial sexual assaultist? Personally, I'm not sure sexual assault is any less heinous than rape. I hope he's changed as well.

In the balance of things though, Jesus freakery seems a bit less heinous than what Ben was accused of.

Agreed.
But if the Jesus freakery gives them some sort of placebo ability to bring moar Lombardis to the Burgh, then by all means. Ben does the old sky pointy thing now that he's all married up with the babies, so maybe he's got a similar, albeit less lucrative deal with football Jesus.

It really grinds my gears. By stating that god is right there, watching the game and interfering on their behalf, there's an implication. He has all his attention here, and none on all the actually important things like people starving to death and dying of horrible diseases. Fucking self absorbed pricks.

They've been doing this more and more in real football over the years too. It was rare to see anyone make religious gestures after scoring a goal once, but hardly a game goes by now, on match of the day at least, without some egotistical foreign player thanking God, Jesus, Allah, or whoever for helping them score a goal or win a match.

Mind you, that's not to say we're immune from the insanity because we did have Glenn Hoddle, a born again Christian who was sacked from the job as England manager because he believed in reincarnation and thought disabled people were being punished for past sins through karma.