Damn Skippy

Last night was a huge win for the Pens. Hopefully this is the springboard that turns around the Pens' fortunes and vaults them back into the playoff picture. One of the highlights from last night's game, other than Evgeni Malkin blowing minds, was the ceremonial dropping of the opening faceoff by everyone's favorite party animal, Steelers kicker Jeff Reed. Skippy is a die-hard Pens fan, he attends most, if not all, of the Pens' home games. If you look hard enough at the arena, you might spot him.

Kinda hard to miss this guy.

Every morning I check out the P-G's Empty Netters blog, they keep you up -to-date on any pertinent hockey information you need. If you're a hockey fan, do yourself a favor and check it out. Today they had a comment on Skippy's appearance, and I thought it was quite appropriate to relay it to you...
"Nice to see them honor Reed like that instead of having someone like Ben Roethlisberger or Hines Ward who just show up when things are going good. Reed's a real hockey fan and shows up at all sorts of games."
Ouch, quite the low-blow towards your favorite Steelers. But it's quite true, some athletes only make appearances when it makes them look good. It's refreshing to see Skippy get some props, and I can't wait to see what new adventures he gets into this offseason.

"WE won the Super Bowl!" (No, YOU didn't)

Anyone who knows me on a personal level knows that my biggest pet peeve is when fans refer to their favorite teams as if they are a physical part of it.

"We have the best young talent in the NHL."

"Who do you think we'll take in the draft?"

"We should really look into Manny Ramirez."

Last time I checked, no fan has ever been on the podium to receive the Lombardi trophy when the Steelers won the Super Bowl. No fan has his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. No fan has made a terrible personnel decision for the Pirates (management does a good job of that on their own.) Don't give me that line of bullshit that the fans are part of it, and helped to make it happen. The only way you helped is by purchasing your season tickets in the nosebleed section and your 14th jersey (two for every day of the week!) with your hard earned welfare money. You didn't kick that 48-yard field goal into the wind to win the game. You didn't even hold for it. Or snap it. Chances are you were on your couch downing your 17th Iron City and a bag of Doritos, with your fist cocked to hit your wife just in case Skippy missed the kick. If you were walking down the street and ran into Ben Roethlisberger, I'm sure he may flash you a smile or a quaint "Hello." But chances are he doesn't wanna sit there and bullshit with you about how you were at the Cleveland game and you prayed for him to get off the turf and you knew he was gonna be ok because he took a Chrysler to the head and still lived to tell about it. The dude blew off Arnold Palmer, so why would he want to talk to Joe Schmo who works at a Payless in Blawnox?

Possibly the worst part of all of this is that it's easy for fans to say "We won!" but on the other side of the coin...when the favorite sons lose, you're more inclined to hear "They suck" or "They blew it" than "We suck" or "We blew it." You can't have it both ways folks. So remember, you can feel like you're a part of your special team in your heart, but just don't act like it. Nobody wants to say "Hey, we just clinched our seventeenth consecutive losing season."