U mad, bro?: Fans spit fire about Steelers' QB situation, Heinz Field attendance, Evgeni Malkin, Antonio Brown, NFL OT

Based on what I’ve seen the past few weeks, I was getting concerned that “U mad, bro?” would essentially just boil down to a weekly rant session about the Steelers quarterback situation.

And I have no doubt that it will get mentioned every week between now and when a starter is eventually named in advance of the regular season.

Then likely for the next decade and beyond.

But you folks never let me down. There was plenty of angst to go around this week regarding other topics, and you pressed a lot of buttons.

Let’s start with a guy who responded to a tweet I sent about the NFL’s overtime format. I’m simply not bent out of shape about how overtime is outlined.

Agree, but it seems like the majority of media express opinion when is that really your job? Plus these options seem to be more for clicks than actual content. But I appreciate the civil conversation!

— GT87 (@GT8771) January 30, 2022

Yes. I write columns and host talk shows. Giving my opinion is not only important to my job … it’s pretty much at the heart of my job description.

Mark doesn’t like my opinion that the Steelers should at least ask the Packers what it would take to get quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“Aaron Rodgers to the Steelers? What an assinine (sic) article. All you did was state the obvious. Rodgers is a great QB but the Steelers dont and wont do business that way and we are proud of that. We’ve been the most stable franchise in history because of the…”

Gosh, Mark. I’d like to read more. But you are so “assinine” that you emailed everything in the subject heading instead of the body of the email. Hence, the rest of your response was cut off when you hit send.

However, let me respond to at least one point you made. If the Steelers are the model of stability and they failed to win a playoff game in nine of the last 11 seasons, what’s it going to look like if they ever become unstable?

Matt didn’t enjoy last week’s “U mad, bro?” entitled “Steelers fans do not like the idea of Aaron Rodgers coming to Pittsburgh at all.”

“Tom, it looks like the poll proved you wrong. What a dumb (expletive) deleted politically incorrect article.”

Well, Matt, I’m not sure what was “politically incorrect” about the post. I mean, your response was only two lines long and I had to delete one word. So, your threshold seems a little inconsistent to me.

As far as the poll goes. I checked after I saw your email. At the time, there were 1,111 votes. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they didn’t want Rodgers. Forty-seven percent said they did. Six percent said they were unsure.

So I’m not sure how I was proven wrong, exactly. Especially since I couldn’t share many responses backing the idea of acquiring Rodgers — because I only got two.

Both were far less impassioned in their messaging than those against the idea. As you can see by the opposing sentiment indicated above.

Respectfully,

Tom Benz

Here’s an exchange that I had with a fan named Bob about how the Steelers only managed to tie the Detroit Lions earlier this season when Mason Rudolph was the quarterback.

Yes. Just pointing out that the Lions won some games this year, and a top QB struggled against them. You seemed to be suggesting that a tie was bad, it may be but being given a chance consists of more than 1 game and his being pulled for Duck in '19 in a 7 to 3 game was dumb.

— вoв ɢardner (@robfgard) January 27, 2022

You are right. I suggested tying a three-win Lions team at home was bad. I know that’s a hot take. But I live on the edge.

Patrick responds to my post about lagging attendance and television viewership of Steelers games. He says people should have to use their season tickets or lose them.

They need to identify the season ticket holders that don’t show up to games and take away their season ticket privileges. They should then open up season tickets for new customers. Way too many season ticket holders don’t show up or sell on seat geek.

— Patrick (@PatrickL201) January 26, 2022

How do you make people go to a game? Do you want the Steelers to hire Allegheny County sheriffs and drag people out of their homes?

So, let’s just say that someone tested positive for covid-19 during the season. What did you want them to do if you don’t want them to be allowed to resell the tickets?

Just show up anyway? Or give them away for free?

Like, to you … specifically.

Brian had a calm, balanced, rational response to a recent column I wrote about Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins after their 2-1 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken.

“Easy there Malkin hater. If it wasn’t for Malkin they may have lost in regulation and gotten 0 points. Then again I suppose you could do better. Great reporting! According to you the loss is entirely Malkin’s fault. It had nothing to do with the fact that the rest of the team couldn’t score or many of the other mistakes that were made by other players. Last I checked it was a team sport. Perhaps you should change careers. Then again who wouldn’t want to get paid to write trash?”

This is why writing about Malkin is so frustrating. He has become entirely too polarizing, through no fault of his own. It’s because of his sycophants on Twitter (like Brian) who can’t read a single word of criticism about Malkin without breaking out in hives.

If Brian had actually read the article instead of seeing red at the first negative mention associated with Malkin’s name, he would’ve seen that I did point out that Malkin scored the lone regulation goal that night. I also spread blame around to others, including Jeff Carter.

But never let facts get in the way of a good ol’ fashioned fanboy hissy fit.

At least I’m getting paid to write “trash,” Brian. You just spent time emailing yours for free.

Finally, J.R. didn’t like our reference to Antonio Brown in a recent “First Call” item.

“AB is no longer of any interest. FYI.”

J.R., the post you emailed about was the most read story at TribLIVE for the month of January. Not just sports. The entire website. I guess some people must’ve found it interesting.

FYI.