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

I will not apologize for the Steelers making the playoffs. After the Colts game I felt the Steelers had no chance of making the playoffs. I knew they were not mathematically eliminated but at the time I could not see the Steelers winning another game, let alone the next three games. And then came Rudolph. After he was inserted as the starting quarterback things changed for the Steelers. They have been a different team offensively since Rudolph took the helm. When things played out this past weekend and the Steelers made it into the playoffs I was ecstatic. I saw a lot of things on social media saying the Steelers should not have made the playoffs or they did not deserve to be in the playoffs. I disagree totally. I will not apologize for the Steelers making it into the playoffs. They won 10 games. Some people say “but look at who they lost to”. I will not apologize for that either. Who the Steelers beat during the regular season or who the Steelers lost to during the regular season does not matter. What matters is their record of 10-7 was enough to get them into the playoffs. No apology needed.

SOMETHING I’VE SOFTENED ON

The Steelers defense working to hold teams to field goals. I’ve been tough on the Steelers defense at times this year, even though they were not always giving up a lot of points. I spent a lot of time being frustrated with teams marching the ball up and down the field. What I sometimes failed to realize was that moving the ball up and down the field is not as important as to how many points the other team is putting on the scoreboard while doing that. The Steelers were blown out in some games where they were unable to keep teens from reaching the touchdown zone. There were other games the Steelers were absolutely dominated in the offensive stats across the board except for points. Giving up a 60-yard drive but only allowing three points off of it is actually a win for the defense. Now that the Steelers have reached the playoffs it becomes more important than ever to try to keep teams out of the end zone and limit them to field goal tries.

SOMETHING THAT HASN’T CHANGED

The curse of the Terrible Towel. As I watched the Tennessee Titans take care of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday afternoon to put the Steelers into the playoffs, I could almost hear Myron Cope talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Terrible Towel. In late October members of the Jaguars defense were quite disrespectful of the towel while playing Pittsburgh in Acisure Stadium. Not only that, but days before the game in an interview Trevor Lawrence talked about the little yellow towels that Pittsburgh fans wave. It only seemed too fitting that the Jacksonville Jaguars were then eliminated from the playoffs and propelled none other than the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose towel they had disrespected earlier in the season, into the playoffs. That deserves a “yoi”, no make that a “double yoi”!!!

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.