Position in the Spotlight: Pittsburgh

Steve and my friend AJ grew up in Detroit and now lives in Pittsburgh. A couple of months ago, he said he would enjoy writing a P.I.T.S. for those two cities. We said yes, because it’s means an easy day for us. Today is Pittsburgh’s turn. AJ’s words are below and not in italics.

Picking the signature position for Pittsburgh is not as easy as you think. At first thought you would say it is simple, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker. But once you give it a little thought you realize that the city has a lot of really strong positions. Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawson and Jeff Hartings are three of the best centers of all time. They are three consecutive generations of NFL Hall of Famers. For a team that is thought of as a smash mouth football, they have had three Wide Receivers named as super bowl MVPs, Lynn Swann, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes. Half of all the Super Bowl MVPs who have been wide receivers were Steelers. Since this blog has a slight Purdue slant I would be remiss not to mention the defensive backs lead by Purdue’s own Rod Woodson, with guys like Mel Blount, Carnell Lake and Troy supporting him. Oh, and they have had three really good coaches, Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin who have all won coach of the year awards and at least one Super Bowl. I would list more, but my parents were wearing diapers last time one of those guys wasn’t coaching the franchise.

While the western Pennsylvanian world revolves around football, the city of Pittsburgh will quickly rally around any team that wins. Starting Mario Lemieux and Ron Francis in the late 80’s/ early 90’s and now with Sid the Kid, Geno Malkin, and Jordan Staal you could argue that no hockey team in the last 20 years has had more talent at the center position then the Pittsburgh Penguins.

For any other city any of these positions would be the signature position. For example the Steelers have had much better coaches than Oakland, or Nashville and as good as Green Bay. And while the Browns may have had strong quarterbacks, no area in the world can compare to the quarter backs that have played high school in the Pittsburgh area, Johnny Lujack, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and Joe Montana are a who’s who list of great quarterbacks. While more recent stars like Gus Frerotte, Charlie Batch and Marc Bulger would make any city proud.

You could argue that the Pittsburgh area high school quarterbacks make the most impressive list, but most of them made their mark on the national sports stage after they left Pittsburgh. The Spotlight Position for Pittsburgh is still the Steelers Linebackers. Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene, Levon Kirkland, Joey Porter, Andy Russell, James Harrison, Larry Foote, LarMarr Woodley and James Farrior are the reason for the Steelers success. Most of these guys were not huge stars when they arrived in Pittsburgh, but they were when they left. James Harrison was an undrafted player from Akron who was cut from several teams, LarMarr Woodley fell to the second round of the draft because of his bad attitude and work ethic. Unlike most cities where the spotlight position is the spotlight position because of luck or chance, linebackers are the spot light position in Pittsburgh because that is what Pittsburgh wants its’ spotlight position to be. Pittsburgh sees it self as a city that needed hard work and grit to get everything that it has. These are the characteristics of a storybook linebacker. And that is why Pittsburgh embraces their linebackers, like not other city does to a single position.