My friend Sean wrote a great post about why Steelers fans should be rooting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. He makes some excellent points, particularly about Byron Leftwich and Antwaan Randle El. Naturally though, I need to argue.
You should be rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs due to the plethora of Pittsburgh connections to the city. Here we go, this will be a wild ride.
-Mark Donovan: President of the Chiefs is from Pittsburgh. I do not know if he has any actual connection to the city aside from that, but it’s good enough for me. Also, he went to Brown. Know who else went to Brown? Joe Paterno. And Jonathan Moxon!
-Deland McCullough: The Running Backs Coach. He was also born in Pittsburgh. And he has a cool story about being put up for adoption as a newborn and then being reunited with mom a few years ago. It is basically This Is Us, which is set in Pittsburgh!
-Greg Lewis & Matt House were both coaches at Pitt. I guess that is a good connection, but I doubt either of them would put that on a resume since Pitt sucks.
-David Girardi: Offensive Quality Control–he is from New Kensington. I have no clue what he does, but he does it well enough that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year.
Those are the coaches, which now brings us to the guys that actually play during the Super Bowl: the players.
-Dorian O’Daniel: Linebacker–born in Canonsburg, but he moved to Maryland in junior high. He played his college career at Clemson, where he had a forced fumble against the Panthers.
-Willie Gay Jr: Linebacker–Is not former Steeler William Gay. In fact, they are not related at all. Weird, right?
-Dustin Colquitt: Punter–He was signed by the Steelers this year, but then was cut. He is on the Chiefs practice squad. I am excited to bust out my Colquitt jersey.
-Stefen Wisniewski: Guard–Central Catholic High School star. He went to college at Penn State. He also played one game this year for the Steelers.
-Maurice Ffrench: Wide Receiver–Ffrench played for the Pitt Panthers. I honestly do not know if he was very good, but I do feel like he always had great games against Penn State. He is on the practice squad for the Chiefs.
-Le’Veon Bell: Running Back–Remember him? He was a running back for the Steelers. Over 5000 yards rushing, 35 rushing TDs, 2600 yards receiving, and seven touchdowns as a receiver. He was pretty awesome during those five years and I cannot for the life of me think of a reason why Steelers fans wouldn’t want him to win a Super Bowl.
-Patrick Mahomes: Quarterback–The Chiefs have a decent QB named Patrick Mahomes. I know what you are thinking: wait, wasn’t Pat Mahomes a pitcher for the Pirates? You would be right. He went 0-1 in 2003 with a 4.84 ERA and 13 strikeouts.
So there you have it. The reasons why you should root for the Chiefs!*
*Seriously though, Sean’s reasons are way better. Root for the Bucs.
Nice reply! You could also mention that Dustin Colquitt’s father was the Steelers’ punter for many years. And if I could include Russ Grimm’s son in my post, it is definitely valid to include pitcher Pat Mahomes.
I also think Willie Gay should be the former Steeler Wilie Gay.
The first time I heard them say Willie Gay, I was like “huh, he is at KC now as a LB? He must have bulked up”
Oh, you also missed that Kansas City’s strength & conditioning assistant coach is named Ryan Reynolds. That’s pretty cool. You should also check out the picture of Travis Crittenden, the assistant strength and conditioning coach, from the Chief’s website. All I can say is wow. https://www.chiefs.com/team/coaches-roster/travis-crittenden
Crittenden looks like a cosplay Jason Mamoa…