Hey Y'all it's your FAVORITE SportsGal89 IN the Building! What up world! It has definitely been a MINUTE since my last blog, well since I have been consistently on here.
I have been trying to boost my writing for a while now, and thought what better time to make some sort of comeback than with preseason in full swing.
That's right y'all--- FOOTBALL IS BACK!!! And I could not be happier!
For those of you who are joining me for the first time. I love ALL things sports. If it is a sport take me to watch it and I am one happy camper. In particular to the single guys out there, you can make me happy on any date that involves, beer, wings and a good game on TV. I might be a girlie girl at heart, but when it comes to my teams and sports I have all the sass and a little fiestiness in me-- What that means is, I am cute, but when it comes to sports I have a loud mouth and I KNOW how to use it!
Anyways, enough about me doing plug for any future dates out there ;) ha! Let's get back to what I actually came here for. I love sports. I love the game, I love what athletes sacrifice for to get out and do the work that they do all the time. I grew up around athletes. My dad played soccer while I was growing up, I played soccer growing up. My dad coached football and soccer and I had athletes in and out of my home all the time. My next door neighbor was the head college football coach and I grew up in a small town where Friday Night Lights really mattered. Football is my number one sport, something that I live and breathe. In college my friends and exes played football. I spent Friday nights, Saturday nights and some weekends traveling to games and on a field cheering on my boys. I have been to a Superbowl and will spend money on game day. And every Saturday, Monday, Thursday or Sunday watching a football game somewhere.
Most often I will be the girl yelling at the TV, even when my team is NOT playing. Before I am team loyal I am sport loyal.
So, enough about the love of the game the real reason I am writing today is because I have been watching my team this preseason. I am a Steelers fan! I have been since the 1996 Superbowl after Coach Cowher's first season. The Steelers were playing the Cowboys, Micheal Jackson was the Halftime show. My dad was a huge Steelers fan while I was growing up. I however, after a stint in Denver was in love with the Broncos- John Elway will be a legend for me always. Anyways, as I began to understand the concept of football, I started to fall in love with the Steelers- Their history was amazing! The Steel Curtain, Coach Cowher's legacy, well their coaching legacy in general. The Rooney's it all was something that fascinated me and still fascinates me.
This preseason and like every, teams see themselves changing. Players don't stay, or teams release them. This season has not been any different. But for the Steelers the conversation remains on our Offense and really our receivers. Mike Wallace was a Wide Receiver for the Steelers. This season however, we couldn't afford to keep him. Wallace went to Miami this year and according to ESPN and all the sports analysts the Steelers have a void to fill.
What's interesting however is all of the commentary. Football is a team sport, you can't win games off of the back of one person. But the story surrounding the Steelers, is what will they do without Mike Wallace?
These conversations for me are annoying. Yes, Wallace was a great player for the Steelers. I believe he will still be phenomenal for the Dolphins too. But he wasn't the only team member on the Steelers. And surely he wasn't the only receiver. Yes last season he had 8 TD, averaged 838 yards (give or take). But it doesn't mean that the Steelers are down and out. The language about "who will replace..." doesn't and can't apply to the Steelers. In a year such as this, the Steelers are in a place of rebuilding and redesigning our team. We released James Harrison, a critical player in our Defense- it will be a scary thing to have him on the other side of Big Ben. We are reformatting out Offensive Line. Steelers diehards are counting down the days of the end of a Dick Lebeau era and wondering what the next chapter of the Steelers Defense will be. Mike Wallace? Who is he in the grand scheme of change like this?
Will he be missed in Pittsburgh? Yes, but the game does not rise and fall on wide receivers. It rises and falls on a TEAM, and we are only as strong as our weakest link- it could be a void in the wide receivers. But isn't it too early to tell?
That's all she wrote folks....
