There is historical precedent for the shocking preferences of the political left in this country and around the world.

As stunning as it might be currently to right-thinking (pun intended) individuals to see many on the left siding with illegal immigrants, narco-terrorists, violent law-breakers and other dregs of society, it is not something new under the sun.

While rational types do not condone welfare, mortgage or voting fraud, those on the left embrace the concepts.

I’m reminded of a quote from a William F. Buckley Jr. book I read in my youth, in which a 1960s rioter, carting a TV he had looted from a store, proclaimed “How else are we going to get color TV into the hands of the masses?”

How, indeed!

Similarly, in view of the across-the-board failure of socialism wherever practiced, how can so many leftists champion that losing socio-economic principle? And yet they do.

Feel free to indulge in an obligatory headshake at this point.

Again, this open-arms approach to obviously wrong moral, ethical and legal matters is merely a repeat of history.

For example, progressive types around the world openly embraced Hitler and Mussolini while both were still alive and in power. In a case of art imitating life, the move “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” features a title character who openly admires Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

In reality, there were many like her. A story on discoverthenetworks.org cites notables of the 1930s such as H.G. Wells (he of the War of the Worlds book), NAACP co-founder W.E.B. DuBois, playwright George Bernard Shaw, humorist Will Rogers (who never met a man he didn’t like, and he did meet Mussolini) and other reporters, commentators and shapers of public opinion who just adored two of the more infamous people in the history of mankind.

Should we be surprised that contemporary leftists cream their jeans over the Maryland Dad, socialists/communists holding elective office and the millions of illegal aliens who crowd our schools, welfare system and courts, while likely also voting left in the process?

The world recovered from the Mussolini and Hitler worship — sort of — but it required World War II.

Hopefully there is an easier solution this time, but I’m not optimistic.

Images of Aaron Rodgers, bloodied from a particularly tough quarterback sack by the Buffalo Bills Sunday, brought back memories of former New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle and one of the most iconic photos in modern day sports.

The situations shared many details, including both occurring in Pittsburgh and both leading to defensive scores, but mainly they were metaphors for Hall of Fame careers suddenly running on empty.

In 1963, when the Steelers were the lovable losers of the NFL, the team surprisingly contended for a playoff spot, only to have it vaporize in a late-season loss to Tittle’s Giants.

A year later, there was a September rematch at Pitt Stadium and the Steelers were looking for revenge. The Giants got out to a 14-0 lead, but Tittle was brutalized on a hit by Steelers defensive end John Baker, a blow that cracked Tittle’s sternum, pulled rib cage muscles, knocked loose his helmet and produced a flow of blood on his bald head.

The ball fluttered in the air due to the contact, was picked off by tackle Chuck Hinton, and Hinton waltzed 8 yards to the end zone for a touchdown that sparked a Steelers comeback win.

Tittle, dazed, kneeling in the end zone with blood running down his forehead, was snapped by a photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In an incredible editorial decision, the paper ran four other pictures the next day and not this one.

Only later, when Sports Illustrated got permission to run the picture, was it recognized, winning an award for best sports picture of the year.

The photo went on to hang in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was used in a campaign ad when the aforementioned Baker ran for sheriff of Wake County, N.C., and won with a slogan “If you don’t obey the law, this is what Big John will do to you.”

Tittle looked ancient in the photo. He was a month short of his 38^th birthday and the 1964 season would be his last.

Now, let’s move on to Rodgers, who turned 42 years of age Tuesday.

From the start, I wondered in this space about the wisdom of the Steelers signing an ancient quarterback, albeit one with a Hall of Fame resume. Suffice it to say Rodgers isn’t going to the Hall based on recent seasons.

It can be argued that Rodgers lacks a solid supporting cast, but that doesn’t change the reality that he meanders around the pocket like Joe Biden trying to find a stage exit.

Quick to unload the ball or blame others, apparently unclear in his decision process, and lacking the elusiveness that once was his calling card, Rodgers is a sliver of his former self.

Already playing with a broken left wrist, Rodgers was wandering aimlessly in the pocket vs. Buffalo when Bills lineman Joey Bosa planted him from behind and in the process shook loose the football, leading to a go-ahead TD return, putting the Bills on top to stay.

Rodgers left the game with blood streaming from a cut on his nose, but returned later, to no effect.

For his birthday Tuesday the Steelers gave Rodgers a new wide receiver, but that is unlikely to be enough to cure what ails him.

A more appropriate gift might have been a photo of Rodgers, bleeding and stumbling from the field Sunday.

I read a story online that Tittle had what he referred to as his “Blood Picture” in his trophy room, along with a Hall of Fame plaque and various SI covers on which he had appeared.

Tittle had a sense of history and Rodgers might want to recognize that a similar situation now is repeating in Pittsburgh.

About that Pitt-Miami college football prediction I made Friday, never mind.

If only I were a heavy drinker, I could plead drunkenness. Would you believe it was the bit of undigested beef, blot of mustard, crumb of cheese or fragment of underdone potato like what Scrooge blamed for his hallucinations?

Didn’t think so.

Regardless, suggesting Pitt would play Miami close and easily could win outright have proved to be the ravings of a lunatic.

Oh, for a time it seemed to be on course early Saturday afternoon. Pitt scored at the outset of the second quarter to go up 7-3 and the prediction seemed to be prescient.

Then Miami scored and scored, and scored, on the way to a 38-7 demolition of the Panthers, before a crowd charitably announced at 49,845. Considering all those glaring yellow empty seats, Acrisure Stadium must hold 100,000-plus when full.

The people who stayed away from this Top 25 matchup knew better than I what to expect.

Pitt was, in the words of the announcers, “undisciplined.” When things went bad, it seemed as if the players were reading from the quotebook of coach Pat Narduzzi, but got confused. The “Narz” said he didn’t care if his team lost by 100 or more to Notre Dame, not to Miami.

Alas, the Panthers played as if they were willing to have a C-note laid on them.

Miami, inexplicably locked in a battle with Notre Dame — a team the Hurricanes beat this season — to get into the national championship playoffs, certainly would have liked a triple-digit final margin.

As it was, Miami beat Pitt by a larger amount than Notre Dame had two games back, not that it matters because, Notre Dame.

As a former high school football coach friend of mine used to say after one-sided losses, at least we (Pitt) saved the uniforms.

And now we contemplate whether the Steelers will underperform as badly as Pitt did. Recall, the second half of my Pittsburgh sports weekend parlay was the Steelers having good prospects against the visiting Bills Sunday.

The positive news is it would be tough for the Steelers to look more pathetic against Buffalo than Pitt did vs. Miami and, by extension, make my pick look as bad or worse.

Opportunity is knocking for Pitt and the Steelers. Will they answer the door?

Begin with Pitt. Now that coach Pat Narduzzi no longer is making ridiculous statements about being OK with losing games by 100 points, his Panther team is halfway toward his goal of losing to Notre Dame, but winning two remaining ACC games.

That might be enough to get Pitt to the ACC title game, or not.

Last week, Georgia Tech succumbed to Pitt in ridiculous, error-prone fashion. Even as I write this Friday evening, Tech is playing better, but still losing to Georgia in a massive rivalry game.

That leaves Pitt contemplating a noon kickoff Saturday at the stadium formerly known as Heinz Field. Visiting Miami is a 7-point favorite and the bettor in me thinks that’s high, for many reasons.

Begin with the game location. It’s going to be cold in Pittsburgh Saturday, perhaps a problem for a team from the sunny south. I’ve seen such teams struggle mightily with low temperatures, the polar opposite of the way asthmatic former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis used to dread games played in steamy, humid locales.

Also, Miami is a fragile, uneven team, prone to errors. Their high-buck quarterback isn’t exactly Mr. Clutch.

Pitt can’t expect Miami to put up minimal resistance, as Georgia Tech did, but this is a game the Panthers could win outright.

Just keep Narduzzi away from microphones and the opportunity to re-state how he’s just fine with losing by 100 points.

And now, consider the Steelers, your leaders of the AFC North by virtue of being the only division team with a winning record.

Talk about dumpster fires, that’s the AFC North.

The Steelers are, in theory, staring at a tough game Sunday vs. Buffalo even though the Bills are a disappointing 7-4, and find themselves in the unimaginable position of trailing New England in the AFC East.

Of course, the Bills are favored, by 3.5 points at last check. But the Bills have been anything but consistent this year.

For this game, at the playing site formerly known as Heinz Field, the spotty Bills offense will be missing both tackles.

And the soft, cheesy Buffalo defense could be just what the doctor ordered for a Steelers offense anticipating the return of ancient quarterback Aaron Rodgers, he of the injured wrist.

Weather won’t bother the Bills, being from snowy Buffalo and all that. But the banged up nature of the team’s offense, and the fact the defense, particularly against the run, reminds of the French vs. the Nazis in World War II, mean this Buffalo team is a pale imitation of what many considered a Super Bowl group.

I know, I know, the Steelers are inconsistent, with outings such as the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals while that team was playing without quarterback Joe Burrow. I also know the Steelers played the Bears tough in recent weeks, the very same Bears who knocked off Philadelphia’s Eagles Friday.

The Steelers should be able to keep it close and maybe win Sunday.

Same for Pitt Saturday.

Let’s see how it all turns out.

Owing to the vagaries of split families, we celebrated our Thanksgiving two weekends back.

The wife made the traditional feast, with a huge turkey as the centerpiece and, somewhere amidst the festive proceedings, granddaughter No. 2 asked me to share things for which I am thankful.

A loving family including the granddaughters, fairly good personal health for me and the family, and relative security financially were among the items that headed my list.

I might have added having Donald Trump as president, living in interesting times, and finally having reliable high-speed internet at my house (thank you, Elon Musk and Starlink) as other notable mentions.

I wish others might take a break from their constant whining to appreciate their blessings on this holiday of thanks.

Already, in recent days, I’ve seen the traditional holiday staple of network and local broadcasts, the person pumping gas and lamenting the high cost of it all.

For some reason, the gripers always seem to be driving massive pickup trucks or SUVs large and powerful enough to pull a house off its foundation, all while carrying six or more passengers.

If the Bing search engine is to be trusted, the average roundtrip mileage for Thanksgiving visits this year is 549 miles. Not 550, mind you, but I’m going to round up to that number to make the math simpler.

Say the behemoth vehicle being driven only gets 10 mpg, that’s going to require 55 gallons of what the Brits call petrol to get there and back. And, if that petrol was $1 a gallon more this year than last (which it isn’t; actually the cost per gallon is lower) that would mean an extra $55 spent.

I’m here to say if $55 ruins your budget, you’ve got problems beyond Thanksgiving travel.

Consider your apparent financial illiteracy and the similar affliction that seems to affect an increasingly large portion of the nation’s populace.

It seems these people expected economic miracles from Trump; true fishes and loaves stuff.

They don’t understand that even if inflation is percolating at under 3 percent on his watch, compared to Clueless Joe Biden’s peak of 9 percent, prices still are going up on average, and from a higher base due to that 9-percent bulge.

The only way to get prices lower is deflation and, trust me, you don’t want that. Try reading about this country’s Great Depression of the 1930s.

Gen Z types lament hopelessness due to their worthless college degrees, being priced out of the housing market and generally feeling excluded from economic good times.

It doesn’t register with them that guzzling $5 cups of coffee, dining out multiple times a week, leasing high-end vehicles they can’t afford to buy, and indulging in multiple exotic vacations each year might help explain their feeling of being so many paupers.

But, I guess I shouldn’t be so harsh on the general population because Tuesday, on Fox Business Channel’s Charles Payne show, there was a financial guy saying the poverty line should be $140,000 a year of income. He wasn’t kidding.

I never made $140,000 a year, but somehow I’ve accumulated six vehicles, a house and some financial assets.

Just lucky, I guess.

I will give the Gen Z types their due regarding housing. The Federal Reserve’s cheap money experiment — until it looked like Trump was going to win — has sent a gush of money into housing, raising prices substantially and now that the mortgage rates have risen again, pricing out a lot of would-be first-time homeowners.

Still, just as the prices of gasoline, eggs, orange juice and lumber have been coming down, so, too, have housing prices – at least beyond the Greater Johnstown area.

A story on CNBC Tuesday cited several sources that reported an increasing supply of homes for sale, extended listing periods and some listings simply being pulled because, despite multiple price reductions, they did not sell.

Zerohedge.com on Wednesday quoted a Zillow news release in a story telling of record average listing price reductions of $25,000 in October. Beyond the usual housing hotspots of California and New York, Pittsburgh was mentioned as having a high average price reduction per property listed.

Curiously, this phenomenon has not fully hit Johnstown. Take it from a guy who spends too much time browsing realtor.com, area listings are selling quickly and price reductions are minimal.

So, for Gen Z types living outside Johnstown, the trends seem to be moving in your favor regarding real estate. Declining prices and the prospect of lower mortgage interest rates just might bring that house within your reach.

No doubt you will find something else to lament. But, just for today, let’s try to be positive and thankful.

Two national guard members were shot in Washington, D.C., Wednesday and are said to be clinging to life, each in critical condition. The gunman reportedly was an Afghan national, in the U.S. illegally, of course.

And I think it could have happened here if our Myopia 2025 people had their way. Recall that shadowy organization, fond of operating in the background (as in never running for office, but pulling a lot of political strings), had tried to slip a bunch of Afghans into Johnstown in late 2021/early 2022, and might have succeeded were it not for the likes of Rep. Frank Burns.

Oh, the platitudes mouthed by the Myopia types. Trying to build up our sagging population and filling jobs begging for workers with Afghans. Blah, blah, blah.

Perhaps there were government grants to be acquired and distributed through their core constituency of nonprofits, charities, foundations and not-for-profits?

Maybe some business owners who are Myopia favorites needed cheap labor?

But, once the public-relations spotlight was put on Myopia, the Afghan plan disappeared.

Readers of this blog might recall me recounting in a September 2024 blog post about some give-and-take with a largely uninformed guy I met at the Cambria County Republican office in Richland. I was there to purchase a Trump yard sign and the Afghan subject came up when I mentioned I also had a Burns sign.

I was told the usual claptrap about the Afghans proposed for settlement here would have been vetted. I pointed out that I recalled “vetted” Afghans were guilty of many incident vs. U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

The man challenged me for specifics. I went home, researched the topic and wrote a blog post in early September laying it all out for him, even tried to call the office to reach him (he never did give me his name) but said office was closed.

To spare you the need to look up that blog post, there were numerous such incidents in Afghanistan, and some since in the U.S., even before this latest Washington, D.C., abomination. I was right. The know-it-all at the Republican office was wrong.

Such often-wrong, never-in-doubt thinking would stand him in good stead in the Democrat party. The usual suspects rushed to social media Wednesday to blame the D.C. tragedy not on the alleged illegal Afghan shooter, but instead on President Trump for putting National Guard troops in harm’s way.

In harm’s way. In our freaking nation’s capital, you morons?

Do you also pontificate about rape victims asking for it by dressing provocatively, or that battered women brought it on themselves by making their partners – male or female – angry?

This incident is about Trump trying to clean up the illegals/crime mess left by Clueless Joe Biden and abetted by every mayor and liberal puke in the legal system that thinks deporting or jailing scofflaws is unfair, a risk to democracy, or just plain mean-spirited stuff.

The shooting makes Trump’s point that D.C., like most cities run by raging Blue Democrats, are not safe places and need National Guard presence to change that.

There is an outrageous tale making the rounds from Chicago, another hotbed of crime, about an incident Nov. 17 in which a guy with more than 70 arrests was set free by a DEI judge with a hyphenated last name to douse gasoline on an innocent woman riding a train, setting her on fire and sending her to the hospital in critical condition.

But, Chicago is absolutely safe. Stop talking about the hundred or so shootings there every weekend. I can only imagine the carnage of this holiday-elongated weekend.

Democrats are emboldened to stand up for illegal immigrants, criminals in general, and any group that wants to disrupt polite society. They rush to social media to preach hate and urge breaking of the law, even by those in the military.

It’s because these crazed leftist Democrats feel no career risk since their brain-dead electorate keeps voting them back into office.

Until that changes, expect more of the same in D.C., Chicago and other Blue bastions.

We’re going all tri-lingal on you today regarding the week that was.

Quien sabe?” for our Spanish-speaking friends.

Quis scit? is how the ancient Romans would reply in their native Latin to requests for analysis.

And, for those speaking English, the mother tongue of our land, which was not officially designated as such until a March executive order from President Trump, who knows? sums it up.

The week was filled with the incongruous, inexplicable and just simply bizarre.

Let us reflect.

It was a week in which firebrand Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green likened herself to a battered wife as she announced she was quitting her job as of early January 2026 amidst a social media feud with Trump.

Numerous high-profile Democrats took to social media to urge U.S. military members to disobey orders from Trump and apparently foment the insurrection they so publicly abhorred just a few years back.

It was a week during which the U.S. presented a peace demand to Zelenskyy, even as his regime continued to be wracked with reports of yet more corruption.

Also the past week, we saw 98 Democrats vote against a bill condemning socialism, with two gutless types voting present and 27 more simply refusing to vote. Predictably, AOC did vote – against the condemnation of socialism.

We saw more pathetic leftist federal judges look to overrule the will of the people who voted for Trump by throwing national guard troops out of D.C. and forbidding that strings be attached to federal funds.

This was the week we saw mugging Mamdani “The Commie” smile it up with Trump in the Oval Office, 20 pounds of meth found stuffed in frozen meat at our southern border, reports that Somalis are robbing the country via welfare fraud and sending the proceeds to terrorists, and the Cracker Barrel marketing guru who nearly sank the chain with a Woke reboot, resign its job.

It’s enough to make your head spin, and that’s even without some of the speculation to explain these strange occurrences, including that Taylor Green has seen her net worth skyrocket and is resigning in January so as to lock in a pension, but not have to report her finances.

I cannot begin to guess the ins and outs of these various strange stories of last week.

What I do believe – strongly – is that the sheer number of these outrageous happenings provides further evidence that our nation is spiraling out of control and falling ever closer to that shooting Civil War that Democrats seem to want, but might not like if they got their wish.

Were I inclined to dabble on the dark side, I might try bootlegging Pennsylvania state inspection stickers. I understand it’s a lucrative trade, with stickers fetching as much as $800 on the black market.

This knowledge was imparted to me Wednesday while I waited for the diagnosis on the rear driver’s side tire on my wife’s car, which has a slow leak that has haunted her, and by extension me, for months.

When I say slow leak, I’m talking losing about two PSI a day. The good folks at the Westwood Monro found the offending object, a broken, aluminum looking nail or screw, that had impaled the tread.

While I waited for the repair, the guy at the order desk, another patron and I came to discuss inspection stickers.

It didn’t start out about stickers, but instead was a matter of general agreement that the Monro phone answering system, which places an intermediary between you and the store you would like to visit, leaves a lot to be desired.

The conversation then swung to the general subject of inspections and the trade in fake stickers.

Allow me to talk a bit of inspection history. In my youth, cars were required to be inspected twice a year, a biannual cause of consternation for many in my family, who drove cars that were on the far end of their lifespans.

Admittedly, the good news was we didn’t have emissions inspections back then to sideline weak and infirm cars.

But, getting cars checked twice a year for safety was a bit of a pain and this prompted some to pass on it all, taking their chances.

It also gave rise to a class of garage known as “paper hangers” for their willingness to put an inspection sticker on just about anything with four wheels – for a price.

The state frowned on this, as you might expect, and the paper hangers didn’t tend to be around for years at a time.

Along the way, we’ve dropped safety inspections to once a year, but with the added burden of the aforementioned emissions. We’re not yet California on this matter, but we’re headed that way.

I once knew a guy who drew and colored – by hand – a fake inspection sticker, propped it into place on the windshield of his pickup truck using gloves on the dashboard, and drove around merrily.

Alas, it all turned bad when he attracted the attention of the gendarmes for wearing a bulletproof vest (under a black raincoat) into WalMart. When those gendarmes walked him to his truck, they were not amused by the faux sticker and so the vehicle was towed.

If this guy were around today, and in the market, apparently he could get a more realistic bootleg sticker for the aforementioned $800.

The woman patron at Monro today had heard a story of an arrest in Pennsylvania earlier this year and I did some internet research when I got home.

Yes, a story from January 2025 confirmed an interception by the good folks of U.S. Customs and Border Protection of two shipments of fake inspection stickers from Israel and bound for Philadelphia. A value of more than $1.4 million was put on the total of approximately 22,000 stickers.

Drug dealers, eat your hearts out.

Now, if only we could get PennDOT to stop issuing commercial drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

That, my friends, is a bigger story than scofflaws bootlegging inspection stickers.

Historians debate whether the British army band actually, as oft is written, played “The World Turned Upside Down” during the surrender to the Americans at Yorktown that ended the Revolutionary War. But it might have been so and probably should have been.

Similarly, we hear no requests for “The World Turned Upside Down” regarding current NFL standings, but it would be fitting.

Those standings seem to have been flipped by an unseen hand.

Imagine how eager you’d have been before the season to bet against the Kansas City Swifts and the Baltimore Ravens each being just .500 through 10 games at 5-5, while the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos each would be division leaders at 9-2, tied for the best record in the league.

If you saw that coming, I’d like some of what you are smoking.

On a less stunning scale, your beloved Steelers lead the AFC North, courtesy of a cake schedule and having the only record above .500 in the mostly pedestrian division.

Chicago’s Bears standing atop the NFC North at 7-3 is quite the surprise, as is Jacksonville at 6-4 and in the playoff hunt from the AFC South.

But some things remain NFL constants, including, but not limited to, the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders continuing to stink like month-old fish.

It all provides an abundance of interesting story lines as the NFL prepares to head down the regular season’s homestretch.

The most riveting tale is that of the Swifts, who used to be the Chiefs until the NFL glommed on to the prominent relationship breakup songstress’s ongoing dalliance with a Swifts tight end (his position, not a physical description.)

As betting arrests plague other sports, and questionable officiating continues to dog the NFL, you’d think the football league would be on the hotline to make sure the Swifts don’t miss the playoffs and so take a bite out of ratings as the simpletons who tune in hoping for gratuitous shots of said songstress watching a game from a luxury box go AWOL.

How would the NFL, networks, and advertisers shake off such an absence?

In retrospect, I guess we should have seen the Swifts decline coming, if only for mathematical reasons. Last year, the Swifts won all their one-score games, posting a 10-0 record in such contests, and prompting some unseen hand speculation. This year, they are 0-5 in one-score outcomes.

A story on ESPN.com cited one computer index giving the Swifts nearly a 45-percent chance of missing the playoffs, this after having run off nine consecutive AFC West titles.

Don’t count out the Swifts, if only because of magician quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the aforementioned songstress, and the league’s vested interest in the Swifts making the field.

Regarding other surprises to date, were I a Bears fan, I would not be booking a Super Bowl trip. Same for the Patriots and Broncos fans.

Just enjoy the unexpected success so far, guys and gals and, when the likely playoff disappointment arrives, again, shake it off.

The Philadelphia Eagles are looking like a very strong candidate to challenge for a repeat Super Bowl win and could this be the year Buffalo’s Bills get back to a Super Bowl, and dare their fans dream, actually win one?

As a side note in the bad news, good news vein, my DISH satellite receiver experienced hard drive failure Sunday evening, just as I was viewing the dramatic end to the Seattle-LA Rams game. This failure also deprived me of the chance to watch the Eagles and Detroit Lions later Sunday night on the big-screen TV.

But there is a positive note regarding that DISH woe, which is unlikely to be resolved for six more days. It means I won’t be tempted to indulge in masochism and watch the putrid Monday Night matchup between the sad sack Dallas Cowboys and Raiders.

Talk about silver (and black) linings!

Pitt fans were blue after their football team absorbed a 37-15 beatdown Saturday at the hands of Notre Dame, but presumably Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi was happy.

Recall, it was Narduzzi who peed on the parade in advance of the matchup of ranked opponents, a game which brought the ESPN traveling pregame circus to Pittsburgh, by noting the game was virtually meaningless to Pitt.

Narduzzi went so far as to say he wouldn’t mind losing by 100, as long as Pitt would win its remaining ACC games.

We haven’t heard such tone-deaf commentary since Cackling Kamala told her sycophants on The View – two times – that she could not think of a single thing she’d do differently than Clueless Joe Biden.

The Kamala comparison is fitting. Neither she, nor Narduzzi, has a clue.

When your team is ranked 22^nd nationally, as Narduzzi’s Pitt team was ahead of this game, and the opposition is No. 9, as Notre Dame was, you embrace the opportunity to make a statement.

Cackling Kamala had a chance to indicate she was up to the top job. Narduzzi had a chance to indicate his team had higher aspirations.

Both were found wanting.

When you aim low, you hit low.

Pitt was hoping somehow to compete for an ACC title. That ship almost assuredly has sailed, leaving the bitter taste of a one-sided loss to Notre Dame left on the dock.

It is fitting that even as Pitt was being humbled by Notre Dame, word was circulating that fired Penn State coach “Big Game” James Franklin, he of the $50-million-ish buyout, was being considered to take over Virginia Tech and lose big games there.

Franklin and Narduzzi are peas in an unfortunate pod, able to win games only when the bright lights of national attention are not shining upon them. Under such glare, both come up short consistently.

Penn State’s administration tired of the Franklin act and showed him the door during the season, albeit with a monstrous golden parachute.

Pitt, which long ago ceded any hopes of being a factor on the national scene, likely will continue to be content with Narduzzi and his goal of losing by less than 100 points to quality non-conference opposition.

Ironically, the Steelers seem to have settled into such acceptance of modest coaching success with Mike Tomlin. He won a Super Bowl and never has suffered a losing season as Steelers head coach, his boosters crow.

Tomlin also has a losing record in the playoffs and hasn’t won a playoff game since Rin Tin Tin was a pup.

For those who say the Steelers can’t fire Tomlin because of past success, here’s some historical perspective. Chuck Noll won FOUR SUPER BOWLS as head coach and it can be argued Bill Cowher won another with a Noll-built team.

Technically the Steelers didn’t fire Noll, but they did maneuver him into retiring. After the 1988 season, team owner Dan Rooney forced Noll to fire assistant coaches as penance for the losing record.

Noll bristled, but remained. A bitter cherry on top was having Tom Donahoe installed with the power, among other things, to help Noll hire future assistants.

The Steelers made the playoffs in 1989 and — take note Tomlin — even won a playoff game. But there were no playoff appearances in 1990 or 1991.

Rumors were flying that Rooney again was going to force Noll to change his staff and this time, Noll said I’m outta here.

How ironic it is that Franklin, Narduzzi and Tomlin all have been bitten by the same mediocrity bug. Yet, two of the three remain on the job.