The title “My Worthless 2 Cents” that I came up with isn’t one I feel I can take full credit for, but is a story in itself, so here it is. I was in the 8th grade at the time, and found myself tagging along with my older sister (a senior in high school), as she was a part of the high school theatre group who would work as ushers for local community theatre productions. Working as an usher at a production of “Harvey”, the dad for one of my baseball friends came up to me at intermission and handed me two pennies and asked me to go back to the dressing area and find the lead actor in the play. I was to give him the pennies and tell him “this is from the guy with the big nostrils, giving you his two cents worth”. I thought this was funny so I agreed to do it, especially since I knew the two were friends. I go to the dressing room and deliver the message and the “gift”. The response I was given was even better. The actor told me to return the pennies and I was to “tell the guy with the big nostrils to take his worthless 2 cents and shove the right up those big nostrils”. So that’s it. This is my 2 cents after sitting on the latest Steelers game for a bit. You might tell me to take my worthless two cents and shove them up my nostrils, and that’s okay, because we are friends and I don’t look at it as personal.

I am going to break things down into three categories: One, something I feel stronger about. Two, something I have softened on a bit. Three, something that didn’t really change.

SOMETHING I FEEL STRONGER ABOUT

The NFL is starting to ruin football. I have decided that my issues with officiating is not necessarily due to the officials. The NFL is micromanaging the officials. Anyone that has ever been micromanaged knows that you start making decisions and doing things based on what the micromanager wants not based on what should be done. I think the lead bombards the officials with things that they want to see enforced more. This leads the officials to quit looking at the game as a whole and actually look at just specific pieces. As most of you know, when you look for something hard enough you’re always going to find it. This is leading to a brand of football that is almost unwatchable. I do not watch college football because I feel that brand and style of football is not watchable. The NFL as a league is starting to turn professional football into that same type of unwatchable game. I actually started watching the Seattle vs. Cleveland game after the Steelers, and was seeing a similar product and just decided to turn it off. I watched no more football on Sunday, and did not watch football on Monday night. The NFL needs to be careful or it will start to lose viewers. Not viewers to their favorite team, but viewers like me who would watch an NFL football game over anything else on TV.

SOMETHING I’VE SOFTENED ON

Expecting the Steelers to make trades as the trade deadline nears every year. I saw a lot of fans on Tuesday with their wish list and their rumors swirling about moves that the Steelers were going to make and players the Steelers were going to trade for. The Steelers do not normally make a lot of moves during the season. When the Steelers traded for minka Fitzpatrick a couple of years ago, I was extremely shocked because this is not something I expected them to do. I have now taken the stance that I am not expecting the team to make a move like that, but when they do I then am just pleasantly surprised. If I were to put a lot of emotion into wanting them to make moves every year, I would end up being a very unhappy person because it’s just not something they are going to do on a regular basis.

SOMETHING THAT HASN’T CHANGED

The Steelers offense is just plain bad, from scheme to execution to predictability. There is no margin for error for the offensive players and there has been plenty of error to go around. For an offense that is not designed to come from behind, I am disappointed that it starts off so slow, as it is then destined to always be playing from behind. At this point I don’t know what to say, as I am just plain disappointed. This team is boring to watch, and at times I wish I could just turn off the TV (but unfortunately I can’t as I have to provide my Knee Jerk Reactions. I will continue to hope the Steelers find their way on offense, but at this point I am starting to lose hope that they can recover.

There you have it. My worthless 2 cents. Maybe you liked it, maybe you didn’t. Maybe you want to tell me to shove my worthless two cents up my big nostrils. Maybe you have your own worthless 2 cents you would like to share. If so please feel free to share it in the comments below, I might look at it and tell you to shove it up your big nostrils…but that’s okay, because we are still friends.