Steelers vs Beijing
August 10th, 2008
As the sun sets on a numerical alliteration of a date, The Pittsburgh Steelers continue to be the most important story in town. Perhaps 4 billion people were somewhere watching the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, those in China are already asleep, but 54,000 plus people ignored the events to attend the Steelers first preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Wow! 8-8-08 came and went and Pittsburgh barely gave ground to a worldwide event. That’s how intimidating the Steelers can be. (James Harrison has that effect on people everywhere).
And if you thought there were problems in the world before today wait until read today’s Steelers News. Forget war in Russia, or human rights in China. We have bigger problems here at home. The Steelers suffered a huge injury to their second string quarterback, Charlie Batch. That is enough to keep me up at nights worrying about the future.
I love that the Steelers dominate the news. But I still have to chuckle when local media elevates our local worries to the level of world news. But like it or not, every story that crosses the wires has a Pittsburgh connection. And Beijing’s was that it had the sooty air of the Pittsburgh of old. It makes us feel as if Pittsburgh is somehow contributing to the rest of the world. But in fact, we probably wouldn’t give the story a second glance unless it included the word “Pittsburgh.”