It was a dreary Sunday weatherwise, matched by the current states of the Pirates and the Steelers.
Even as the Pirates continued to play out the string with meaningless wins over bad competition, having been eliminated even from specious wild-card contention a day earlier, the Steelers were looking quite bad in absorbing a 20-3 pounding at New England.
That the Pirates again are sitting out postseason play is nothing new. The Pirates have played on past the regular season only three times since 1992. Their current run of postseason absences now stands at 11 consecutive years, despite atypical boasts by management before the season that this would end in 2026.
Once again, wait until next year!
This is a horrendous franchise, content to operate an open-air food court with breathtaking views of the city and reap in revenue sharing from Major League Baseball. That is the lone category in which the Pirates can lead the league.
Yippeee.
We saw this coming months back, even when the optimistic sorts were squinting their eyes hard and seeing a wild-card berth for the Pirates.
As usual, the Pirates just weren’t good enough and it’s not only the cheapness of the ownership. Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, to name a few, consistently compete despite small-market status and modest payrolls. You just need good baseball people making the decisions.
It can be done, but apparently not by the Pirates.
By way of faint praise, at least the Pirates aren’t stinking while paying their players a king’s ransom payroll in the $360-million range, as the New York Mets are.
Just the other day I saw three of those highly paid players, representing about $1.3 billion in contracted salaries, fail to catch a pop up in short left field. Instead, they surrounded the ball, then looked blankly at each other as though there was a dinner check to be paid.
Then there are the Steelers. I didn’t bother to watch, anticipating the outcome would not be good. After all, the Steelers were playing the New England Patriots, one of the few good opponents on their typically putrid schedule.
Even as the Steelers were flailing around hopelessly today, the Atlanta Falcons team the Steelers had struggled to subdue in their opener last weekend was being disemboweled, 34-3, by a mediocre Carolina team.
Ancient mariner Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers apparently should spend less time mouthing off on podcasts about his political views, and more time studying opposing defenses.
Rodgers, who will turn 43 years of age in early December, looked not a day over 143 in coughing up the ball repeatedly and generally presiding over an inept unit that has managed one offensive touchdown in two games.
The network postgame types were flaming Rodgers and the offense in general. All except former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who was preaching patience.
Someone the age of Rodgers doesn’t have the time for us to be patient.
It was somehow ironic that the Steelers were flattened by the Patriots, whose Gillette Stadium home was privately financed and built.
That is unlike the Steelers, and most other pro sports teams, who are owned by billionaires and have mostly millionaire players, yet still extort new playpens from the taxpayers by threatening to go elsewhere.
The Steelers and Pirates did that with their current facilities and the Steelers are talking about the need for a replacement, already. Didn’t they just open the joint in 2001?
Asking taxpayers to pay for a new stadium, then sticking it to them with excessive ticket prices and license fees to purchase said tickets, seems to be a bit much.
That is especially true when the product is subpar. Your beloved Steelers have not won a playoff game since the 2016 postseason.
At least the Penguins 2026-27 season is upon us.
Oh, wait, the Penguins ended a three-year playoff absence last season, but still have not won a playoff series since 2018.
Never mind.
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