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REWIND: What Grinds My Gears · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we're the co-host, I'm Steve Wirt, and with me is Hi, I'm Tim Hannon.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_05: And uh on this episode, we'll be uh talking about things that grind my gears.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so this is stuff that's just like really annoying in sports, and uh sports fans like to complain, and um so I mean some of these are Pittsburgh specific, but I guess some of these are more just like sports stuff, you know, just in general.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_05: So it should be fun.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_05: Some are a little more controversial than others, some are just kind of like everybody like yes, that's annoying.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_05: So we'll jump right in.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_05: So um, I guess I'm old and we'll try and not go too much into old man yelling at cloud territory today, or or channel my inner Lewis Black, but here we go.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_05: Um this is like I've turned into my father category, probably.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um instant replay, not instant replay, but like TV review replay, like where they're now actually like deterbing the outcome of plays.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_05: Talk about something that's totally ruining ruined the sporting experience.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_05: It's just like it seems like every week, and I guess this is more like football, though it seems like it's crept into hockey too.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_05: Like they just overanalyze everything.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, did the guy have his was his pinky toe in?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_05: Well, what did the ref call it?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: Did he call it in?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_05: Then let's just you know move on with our lives.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_05: I realize like I guess people bet money on this and they get you know all worked up or their fantasy football team.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like, wasn't there who was that that baseball player that punched another baseball player over fantasy football?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: So maybe it is a little more serious than I think, but not to me, because I don't gamble or play fantasy football.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: But have you have you ever wanted to punch somebody over fantasy football, Tim?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh multiple times.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, I wanted to wanted to really punch Sam Darnold once because he he lost me a week uh of fantasy football by throwing five interceptions.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: But but I I I I think for instant replay, Steve, the the you know, what we're a we're a Pittsburgh sports history show.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: One of the probably the one of the most exciting moments in Pittsburgh Sports history was Centennial's catching the touchdown in the Super Bowl, right?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And what happened when he caught that ball?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did you jump up and celebrate?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_05: Or did you say Yeah, you had to hold your breath until Terry McCauley went in when they're like, okay, yes.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_05: And then they showed like two million replays of it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, oh, and then there's people, there's still you still run into fans on Twitter.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, his foot wasn't down.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, it was.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, but come on.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: But the point is you can't the it's taken sort of the um spontaneous joy.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good that's a good word for it.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like in that that moment, you couldn't get excited because you're like, well, I think he scored a touchdown, but you couldn't celebrate until they until a referee came out and made an announcement.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's your moment of drama when you jump up and celebrate, not when the not the moment he catches the ball.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's kind of how sports have gone.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh like you said, especially football.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but but that's for me, that's what I and I can I can see, you know, if they mess up a call and they overturn it, you know, then certainly you're kind of happy it's there.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, yeah, it just takes all that all that kind of fun out of it.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_05: And like you said, it delays the game.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, games get longer and longer because you're sitting there like, and it seems like sometimes they just sit there and they try and like I don't know what they're trying to do.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: Like, it's like they keep showing the same thing, and it's like, okay, it's pretty obvious, or it's a 50-50.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, okay, just call something.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like, like in those cases when it's like pretty obvious, it's like, okay, let's get why are we even doing this?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_05: And then when it's 50-50, it's like you're still kind of like, why are we doing this?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's like whatever call you have, you could argue either way.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I don't know.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_05: It's just I guess if I had money riding on it, I'd be a lot more upset about it.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_05: But I especially if it's not the Steelers.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_05: Just the word the most was still the Jesse James catch.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_05: That that that's just like the catch or no catch, and then they ruled it one way, one week, and another way the other week, and then it's literally that's a catch.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't care what you know Riviera or Ruviera or whatever his name is said, you know, that was a catch.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I just I still boggles my mind that got overturned.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_05: But it's just like too TV loves it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, oh, we're part of the game now, and like all those years, like there was no instant replay, like there's a still where mistakes are still made with instant replay, but they just like whined and whined and whined for years about not having instant replay, just so desperate to be a part of the game.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, dude, just show the game.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: There was a season, it was uh so so what happened in the NFL, they had instant replay in the 80s, and then I I want to say it was like 1991, it went away because uh it was taking forever, it wasn't really working, and this was back in the days of like low definition TV, you didn't always have the best replay, and they didn't have it for about maybe seven or eight years, and and it was a season, I believe it was the 1998 season.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was the Phil Lockett call, and then the one where that got Dennis Erickson fired from the Seahawks, where Vinnie Testaverdi got called in at the three.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So Vinny Vinnie Testavardi like landed at like the two-yard line, and they called it a touchdown and the and that knocked the Seahawks out of the playoffs, and uh and like Steve said, got their coach fired.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: That was also the same season that they blew the coin toss in the Steelers Thanksgiving Day game, and although instant replay went and fixed that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Gary Rice fumbled.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: There was some incident where Gary Rice fumbled in the playoffs, and they just I remember that too.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, his knee was not down, right?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Packers would have won that game if they would have called that right.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So they that that's what happened.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: There were all these, there was just a slew of bad calls.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: The NFL is a super reactionary league.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when a bunch of things happen at once or when the media decides they want to make a big deal about something.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about this on the show before, right?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: About Bounty Gate, how you know that was a big deal, even though the Ravens had threatened the Steelers with a bounty the year before, or um overtime rules.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about that before, right?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on what's being made a big deal of at the time.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so that year there was a lot of, oh my gosh, look at all these bad calls, and the pressure was on to bring it back, and it's been back ever since.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_05: For better or worse.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I think it's affected the rules, and some of the other stuff I'm gonna complain about is directly definitely related to TV replay and high death TV.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_05: Because like that Jesse James catch never gets if there's not high def TV, that that's a catch.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_05: So um besides, you know, also another like we'll stick on TV here, like TV announcers just being ridiculous.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I know everybody loves Tony Romo, but I don't know if it's just me or like he's worn out his welcome with me.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_05: Like, he's just it's just like, oh, let's see what happens next.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_05: Like, Tony, yeah, it's like that Kansas City game, like where I I think it was Kansas City and Buffalo in that playoff game.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_05: It was just like, oh, let's see what happens next.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: Like, who cares, Tony?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_05: Like, like, big deal.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: You can read a defense.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, I don't think anybody's ever said, oh, Tony Romo's announcing a game.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_05: I'm going to watch now the you know, who's two terrible teams?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: The Detroit Lions versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, because Tony Romo's announcing that game.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, come on.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_05: And they wouldn't give him that game anyway, because they always give him the better games than that.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: But so that's that's an old one, Steve.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's one that my parents complained about.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so that that one has been going on for generations.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we we talked about that way back in our episode we did about the 80s Steelers.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: How you know back then people used to turn off the TV and turn on the uh the Myron Cope and Jack Fleming on the radio because it used to sync up back then, it doesn't anymore.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do that now with the uh the signal delay.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: I agree with you.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't imagine watching a game that I don't want to watch because Fill in the Blank is announcing.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_05: Joe Namath.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: I remember making fun of Joe Namath.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: If this was a grinds my gears from 1988, I would have told you that Joe Namath announcing games was would have been one of mine back then.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and again, that's the thing.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: You always kinda although I I will say I it it it's annoying, but there's something I don't know what the word is, there's something kind of fun about having your announcers that you it's almost like having the heel in wrestling to root against, you know?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_05: Like you need need that bad guy to just make it, yeah.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_05: Especially if your team wins and then they have to like kind of eat crow.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like uh yeah, that really does make it kind of fun.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_05: But um uh we're gonna Mr.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_05: Bob Costus is kind of gonna fall into this category.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I think that's a person who takes himself way too seriously.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, dude, you you announce baseball games, it's like you're good at it, but once again, I've never turned into tuned into the World Series to, oh, let's hear what Bob Costas has to say about this.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just it and another thing, and I think I don't know if Bob Costas started this or who started it, but like just injecting politics into sports in general.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I think people turn on sports as an escape from reality.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_05: If you want to watch the news, like, especially with cable news, like you can turn on your choice of cable news channel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and get all the news and politics you could ever want to see.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_05: You can go on the internet and do that, anything you want.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_05: Do we really, really, really need to find out what your views on gun control or whatever, abortion, pick your hot button issue today, you know, the inflation.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_05: Uh gee, I wonder what um, you know, I don't know, pick it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_05: I wonder what Joe Buck's view on the uh you know Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_05: You know, who cares?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, no offense to the poor people in Ukraine, but that doesn't really matter what his viewpoints are, or uh I I don't know.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_05: I mean in it's just this seems like it's not the if this was like you know, Joe Buck was on CNN and he was on like a panel show talking about it, then I think I'd be okay with it.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_05: But like when it's in like sports, like if Bob Coss is in sports, we're here to watch baseball, not hear your viewpoints on all these other things.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's one that annoys a lot of people.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, some people I think it just annoys them if the person doesn't share their view.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes you'll see that where I don't like I don't you know, stay in your lane because I don't like your view.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I I tend to agree with you that I just would rather just man, you you're inundated with that stuff all the time.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Go on social media, turn on the news, do anything.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're inundated with all this divisiveness and stuff like that.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you're right, sports is an escape.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I want to I want to watch a game because it's fun.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's something outside of that.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And certainly athletes and coaches and everybody are entitled to their view point, just like the rest of us.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, like you said, when you're watching ESPN or something, you're just watching it because you're trying to escape that stuff.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if if you wanted to watch people yell at each other and debate the the hot items of the day, then there's plenty of other places for that.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and it like kind of goes back to like the whole anthem thing.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: Like, why do we and I actually did some research on this?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_05: Like, why like my viewpoint here here's here's a controversial one.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_05: Let's just get rid of the national anthem before any sporting event.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_05: Just just go why why do we need to do it?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_05: This is along with my they should just level the rain for us so it can be eliminated as a topic of conversation.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_05: That would probably be less popular.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_05: But um it but what happened was I guess it started in uh 1918 after World War I.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_05: Uh some team in uh Chicago, it was the Red Sox and the Cubs, and uh the Cubs started playing, they just spontaneously played in the seventh inning stretch a uh the Starspangle Banner, which I don't think was technically the national anthem even at that point.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think it had become it yet.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like we didn't have a national anthem at that point, so it just kind of like went from there and then it got more popular when World War II and then it kind of went away again after World War II and then it came back like in like the sixties and it's kind of been around ever since since the sixties.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_05: So I mean I I don't know.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_05: I just I only know the words the Canadian national anthem because I've gone to so many hockey games.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I got I guess I guess it's educating me on that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, if you got that going on, and you got to see lots of cool pictures of Canada on the little jumbo tron before the game, or that I mean are are are you ready to sing the Canadian national anthem, Tim?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Or I actually know the words also.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I will not sing it.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was gonna say actually, Steve, that um to your point, if to bring this back to Pittsburgh sports history, the the there hasn't there haven't been a whole lot of um that I can think of off the top of my head, a whole lot of Pittsburgh sports figures that have delved real deeply into you know hot political takes or things like that.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and the the only one I could really think of that even caused a stir was the Steelers uh whole national anthem thing in Chicago, which ironically they were trying not to cause a stir by staying in the tunnel and not taking a position on that whole thing, and then it ended up causing a stir because then Villanueva like did his own thing, right?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: He stepped out a few steps, and yeah, we we talked about that in our soap opera season episode, but um you know, even it's funny, it's things are so divisive now, even when you're trying to stay out of it, like they were then, you end up getting, you know, causing some kind of controversy.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I would not, you know, I I agree with you.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: If if well right now it seems like that's faded.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't seem like that's a a thing anymore where people kneel or their people even talk about it because you know we have other stuff to get upset about now.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, those 15 minutes past that we were so passionate about it.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're super passionate about something else.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but I agree with you.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't at the time I I wondered why do you even need to play it, you know, or why do you need to bring the players out?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: There was a time when the NFL, um, not long before that, the players used to be in the locker room during that.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well, here in the article from USA Today, it said uh Pete Rossell actually, which would have been before that, because I do remember them staying Pete Rossell had a policy that players stand at attention during the anthem, because I remember this, I remember them doing this with helmets tucked under their arms, and they were not to talk, chew gum, or move their feet.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: So they actually the NFL actually did have a policy, and I think somebody started wanted to protest or something, and they said, fine, just stay in the locker room then.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I know the NBA did something like that, somebody didn't want to uh be involved in the national, and they said, well, just stay in the locker room then and come out after it's over.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you don't have to participate in it.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_05: So I I it's just it's like like why do we even do it?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I mean, they always say to honor America, it's like, okay, that's great, but I mean, I I don't know.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I don't understand like the logic behind that.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I like they said here too, like, I guess before movies they would do that.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_05: They would play the could you imagine going to like a movie?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, I'm uh I'm here to see like pick a movie, I don't know, Gremlins 2, you know, and for these rise for the national anthem.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_05: Or I'll try to what would he feel worse movie?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_05: I don't even know.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_05: I can't your Jaws three.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_05: Before we see a bunch of people getting eaten by Jaws, please put your hand over the heart and rise and listen to our national anthem.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_05: Well, uh but I it's just it's just odd.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's just odds.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_05: So uh going back to like announcers that are annoying, Joe Buck.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_05: Remember when Joe Buck got upset over Randy Moss?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_05: Pan he did not moon people, he pantomimed mooning people.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_05: Like Joe Buck, but that was just over the line.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like literally, we did not see any of Randy Moss's posterior, but just because he pantomimed showing it, that was over the line for for good old Joe there.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that's happened with Pittsburgh sports figures too.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like um, I remember the the NBC's and um NBC's reaction to Tyler Palko.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, he was so bleeping proud of his team.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_05: Well you ruined that, yeah.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um why why does the end of like like you're going along, right?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_05: So a football game used to start at one o'clock, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_05: And they start at one, and most of the time they're over by four.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_05: So you're cruising along, it's like halftime at two, and like by like you know, two thirty it starts back up, and by like three fifteen, you get to the end of the third quarter.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_05: Why does it take from 3.15 p.m.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_05: to 4.30 to play 15 minutes of football?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_05: Why does it take 45 minutes to play 15 minutes?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_05: So this goes into my end of games taking forever, or just games and forever, like in general.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I think I was watching Utah.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_05: Don't ask me why, I was watching Utah versus Dallas, I think, in the NBA playoffs just recently.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_05: And like they literally were showing commercials, it was like literally five minutes of commercials, and they come back and like who's the big player for Donkovich for Dallas, like drives the court in like 10 seconds, like gets fouled, puts up a shot, and then like apparently I didn't know this is how much I watch NBA basketball.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_05: You can challenge like foul foul calls.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_05: Can you believe you can challenge foul calls?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_05: So, like, you literally had 20 seconds, if that no, because the shot clock's 24 seconds in the NBA.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_05: So they literally had seven seconds of action after 10 minutes of commercial, had a replay, and they went back to commercial for I turned it off after that minute.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I'm not gonna watch like 15 minutes of commercials to watch seven seconds of NBA exciting, it's fantastic.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_05: So, I mean, that's definitely that's just and that's everything.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: Like baseball, like the eighth and nine innings, like baseball's slow enough, but then it seems like the eighth and nine innings take forever.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_05: But there are two, like I would say the exceptions to that are kind of hockey and soccer.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_05: Like soccer seems to move through, like, there's not as many stoppages, although they're starting to get there with like some of the video reviews.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_05: And hockey too, like they just it seems to move along.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_05: I I don't know.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_05: I mean you go to you actually go to the games.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_05: Does it seem like the fourth quarter lasts forever, or is that just just me?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it it it's yeah, it seems like that um it I I don't know.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's something there's something about like hey, the game's about to end.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've always I've always been um kind of interested in this idea.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: That you know there was a playoff game, the Steelers were playing the Jaguars in Mike Tomlin's first season, and they were down by 18 points in the fourth quarter, and they actually came back to take the lead and then they ended up losing.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: But that fourth quarter was it felt like it was a whole another game at that point.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always interesting that when they get into the fourth quarter, it seems like every play not only takes longer, but like is more uh uh uh is executed better.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not you know what I mean?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and I mean, if it taken on Pittsburgh example, look at that Kansas City Buffalo playoff game where what did they have thirteen seconds and jerk in on the field and scored a field?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_05: I've never I've never seen that before in like thir that's like basketball.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's like yeah, I it's like I've When you have that kind of stuff happen, then it's like I I feel like maybe it's it's that it just makes the games longer.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: But if you if you watch old timey games from like the seventies, if you watch like the uh the end of some of the Steelware Super Bowls against Dallas where they were trying to come back at the end, you know, there there's not a ton of you know, there's there might be like some Hail Marys, but there's not a ton of precise um, you know, get the ball out of bounds, like hit a quick ten-yard out, then get out of bounds, then hit another quick ten yards and call a timeout.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: It it's just kind of like a desperation, well, try your best to score.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And now I feel like it's so precise and so um I I don't know, it's very different now.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe that contributes to it as well.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_05: I think too, like sometimes like your I know your brain does as it's like evolved like that, like your perception of time in a crisis.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, if something, if like you're driving a car and somebody swerves in your lane and you have to swerve out of the way, it seems like it takes forever for all that to happen where it happened in like five seconds.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't know if there's some of like our perception of how time is is kind of being messed with because your brain slows everything down to process it, but a little psychology.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_05: See, you knew you'd get psychology on on the Pittsburgh sports memories.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's actually a really interesting point.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: It would be interesting to like real real clock every other quarter of a close game.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: You'd have to do it obviously for a close game, but like in real time, how long did the first, second, and third quarter take versus in real time, how long did the fourth quarter take?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_05: I I can't I can't tell you how many times it's like you look at the clock and it's like three, three fifteen, and it's like, oh, okay, we're going to the fourth quarter.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, this one's gonna be over by like 330, 345.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, oh, uh, it's 430.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_05: We're just wrapping this up.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_05: Well, um, how about the season just being insanely too long?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_05: Who would be uh I I who would be your guess like the worst, who would be your worst offender of your season being way too long, Tim?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if I if I I obviously baseball would be a a prime candidate there with 162 games, is that what they play in baseball?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:16
  unknown: Yeah.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's a long one.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I think especially because the pirates are so often out of it by June, that you just I mean, at that point, I mean it's almost depressing to f if you think about how many months over the last uh 40 years that the Pirates have played with nothing on the line.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like they have they have played thousands and thousands and thousands of games that meant nothing to anyone.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: So to me, that's that's too long.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hockey, hockey's a little long tattoo, but at least in hockey, there's still a chance that you might have a shot at the playoffs, even if you're bad, somewhat late in the season, because and probably because there's so many playoff teams.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe maybe the number of playoff teams in hockey helps balance it out, and I think they're trying to do that now in baseball.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but but to me, baseball's the longest.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously it's the longest by number of games, but it feels the longest too.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it goes from April to November.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_05: That's insane.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_05: Like, that's what three.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_05: Is that seven?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_05: Most of the year.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, no, three plus eight is eleven, so that's eight months out of the year.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: That's over half the year.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_05: And like I to your point, I always thought hockey was like you can get rid of the first month of the season in hockey and it really wouldn't matter.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_05: But like, I guess too, like, I've always heard like somebody to say like by Christmas, if you're like the in hockey, like the uh playoff, if you're in playoff position by then, you're probably gonna make the playoffs, like it's like a real high percentage.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_05: Basketball ain't much better.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_05: And football started to like oh my goodness, it goes to February.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_05: Like, like when they do like today was the day of the Immaculate Reception, it's like week 16.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, oh wow, they were playing the you know divisional round of the playoffs.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's like, ah man, and it's just football's just starting to even drag, like 17, 17 weeks of football is like probably way too much.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Steelers the when they when they played Baltimore that last game of the season in 2021, last last year, that was middle of January for the last regular season game, which is crazy.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was the AFC championship game not long ago.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was the middle of January.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, it's it's gotten much, much longer.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_05: So now their seasons are way too long.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk you know, what about officials?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_05: Who doesn't want to like those guys?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_05: Like celebrity umpires, if you remember, like I know every I don't think Angel Hernandez is like a celebrity.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_05: I think he just like people don't like him because he's not a very good umpire.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_05: But like Joe West, Joe West was definitely like, ooh, look at me kind of umpire.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like if you remember Joe West, like he would just throw people out of games for no reason.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_05: But um, here we're gonna have some uh some uh officials here from the past that you may or may not remember.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_05: Here you go.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_05: Here's like three minutes of Ed Hockley over-explaining things.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: My flag was being returned to me.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: It was lost back to me, hit the ground.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_04: When that happened, the clock operator thought there was a penalty.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_04: and stopped the clock.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_04: The clock should have continued to run.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: There should be uh 12 seconds taken off the clock, so it should be 124.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_04: Take the play clock down 12 seconds as well.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: The ball before the ball was the pass was completed, the ball was being touched by the defender who was out of bounds.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: Therefore, the loose ball before the completion was touching a player who was out of bounds.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_04: So they therefore, by rule, that's an incomplete pass.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, no timeouts are charged.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_04: They deem with the ball being moved to reverse and replay.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: There must be clear, uncontroverted uncontroverted evidence that the ruling on the field was wrong.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: In other words, you have to be certain.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: Here, the ruling on the field stands.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: It is a touchdown.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_04: But unfortunately, my conduct penalty will be enforced on the kickoff.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Here's that occupation.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_04: So there's an illegal motion by the offense number 80.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_04: Never got set before the snap.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_04: That foul went under a minute, causes the ball to be blown dead before the snap.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_04: Therefore, the offside on the defense did not occur.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: The clock was the time of the snap.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: The clock should be reset to 44 seconds.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's what it was at the time of the snap.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_04: The illegal motion is time.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: One minute requires a ten-second runoff.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: Therefore, the clock goes to 24, and then reset the clock to 14 seconds.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that's that's Ed Hockley over-explaining a bunch of things.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like, can you tell he's a lawyer, Tim?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: He's actually retired.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_05: The retired Ed Hockley wasn't that bad of an official, actually, but he just I some of his explanations were helpful.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_05: These were probably some of the worst examples.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like the one, like the subtract 12, add two, yeah, one, divide by zero.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, yeah, so let's do uh you know, pi r squared.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, come on, Ed.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's just football.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_05: We don't want a math lesson.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was that was pretty entertaining.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_05: That's kind of like, you know, we really don't pay to see the officials, but another good example.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_05: Here we go.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if anybody like I know I remember this guy vaguely, and this is actually from Super Bowl 30, so I'm sorry if I like trigger anyone.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: Houston goes on the lead, it's inside the three.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Line down, but it's on the tide from the linesman with Kevin Green Jim Turley.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: And Mason Lee Kansas takes the name coming to Mason says Pittsburgh.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: The Cowboys will take the plenary.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's a first down if they get indeed it's against Pittsburgh.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be a first and goal.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_04: Hop some number 91 on the defense.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: That penalty is declined.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: Huston.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_05: There's the Red Cashin patented.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_05: First.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_05: Is Red Cashin still alive?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know, but I completely forgot about that guy.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you're right, I probably I probably tried to block out the fact that he he was the one that called Super Bowl 30 and that the Stewarters were getting penalties.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: That was in the first half, too, of that game.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: After Larry Brown's interception.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: First half! Yeah, exactly.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_05: But uh who else we got here?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we got one more person, I think.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_05: Wanna play okay here I went with hockey.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: This is kind of newer.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_05: Wes McAuley.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_05: They're reviewing a goal to see if it crossed the line.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_05: And Wes McCauley just like pretends he's Ryan Seacrest, apparently.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_05: I think there's a Rangers' goal, too.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_05: They were debating, and this is in New York, so it was determined that the puck completely crossed the coal line.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_05: So, like, that was completely unnecessary, West McCaulay.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_05: He like he was like completely crossed the goal.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like, really.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's that one's kind of new with hockey because that that um referees having a microphone in hockey, that's a fairly newer uh thing, right?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the football, that's been you know years and years, but hockey they they used to just make calls with their arms and you wouldn't hear from them.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: And now with replay and everything, they give them a mic, even with penalties, they announce penalties now.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's I don't know when that started, Steve, but it's I want to say it's in the last five or ten years.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's enough of uh officials.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, like you said, you know, just kind of call the game and you know, do we really need to hear from you?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_05: And it's I guess some of the explanations are necessary, but people used you have to know.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_05: Remember, now this is old.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_05: Remember, you used to have to know all the signals of the officials if you wanted to know.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_05: Because they didn't, like you said, they didn't have a microphone, you had to know holding and touchdown and offsides, and like even in baseball, like what the right hand is always strike and the little they normally don't say anything for ball, but you know, if they signal with their right hand, you know it's a strike if you don't hear 'em, call it.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_05: Or like really ring somebody up, you know.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_05: But you know, and then hockey too, they had slashing, like you said, they had the hand signals.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: So my favorite baseball umpire was Lieutenant Frank Drevan.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Strike?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: He waits, he throws the pass, and it's intercepted!
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: Good Ballado at the 40.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: 35-30.
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• 33:39
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• 33:45
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• 33:50
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• 34:04
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• 34:08
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• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Find it on Amazon or see the link in the show description of this episode, and thanks for supporting the podcast.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um how about like off-the-field stuff, like how stupid stuff.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_05: This is mainly like NCAA kind of silliness.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like taking away wins because of something that happens off the field.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_05: Like an example would be like Michigan in like what they they lost their final four.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_05: Like, remember that time like the Fab Five won all those national championships?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_05: Well, erase it from your memory because it didn't happen.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_05: They weren't the best team in college.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know who really won.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_05: I I guess the runner-up, whoever they beat in the championship game, really won the basketball championship that year.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_05: Because what?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_05: Because like what Chris Weber took money or something stupid.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just like it's like, who cares?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_05: They still won.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_05: If you want to penalize them, penalize them going forward.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_05: How does like taking away their championship really affect like are you going to go into my brain and like somehow suck that memory out?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've never I've never understood that.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Joe, even Joe Paterno, who you know you and I have no love for, but but like he still won those games, and I don't know that like that stuff really all that, you know, um and that was way more horrific than anything Michigan did.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_05: But like I don't understand how that punishes them.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, ah, you don't have 400 wins now.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_05: Two oh no, he only lost what he lost 200 of his wins.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and people people around here got very upset about it, uh, that are Penn State fans.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's like, yeah, like to your point, it's like, okay, but he won, like anything he won and you celebrated, he still won.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like you said, you'd have to you'd have to get the little men in black zapper thing, and and like you said, go erase everybody's memories because they still remember that happening.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I I've yeah, I've never really understood that either.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, if if you're gonna impose sanctions, do it on the the future team or whatever.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like if if if you think a school committed an egregious penalty, then say, okay, there you're we're taking away your scholarships, or you're not eligible for bowl games or the NCAA basketball tournament or whatever, right?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Punish them that way if you feel like they need to be punished, but you can't erase the past.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's silly.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_05: Um going back to like uh obsessively changing the rules every year, I've complained about that.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_05: Like have I proposed like my like I think they should have like in every sport to go to this, like they should have like a four-year like just like review of the rules, like every four years, or just pick like a number of years where you can only review and change like a set amount of rules every four years or uh whatever time limit that is.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_05: That that way, because like at least baseball used to be good about that, they didn't change the rules very much.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_05: But then like even baseball's fallen into that the last couple years.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_05: They just oh my goodness, like now what extra innings you start with a guy on second.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_05: Is this what is this like tournament softball?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, come on.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's just that's just dumb.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_05: Like football, we've complained about the football over time so much ad nauseum.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_05: That is because poor Brett Favre didn't get to touch the ball one time, and you know, even hockey, like I know people enjoy the three-on-three, but that's not even like real hockey.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: I'd rather I'd rather see like non-sudden death like five-on-five hockey and then go to a shootout like soccer does.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I don't know.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_05: I just I know uh three on three, it really isn't hockey at that point.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's just I don't know what it is, but it it's it's definitely weird.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I I actually like the three-on-three, so I I won't say anything about that one, but but I I agree with you about it.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, if you wanted to well, you just like it because it's more act I don't know, it's just like not hockey at that point.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's a gimmick, but it's fun to watch.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I guess they don't have it in the playoffs.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like if it's so great, you can put it in the playoffs.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, both teams get a point already when they're in overtime for hockey, so it's just for that extra point.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of okay with that because of that reason.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I I think with role changes, again, to just kind of center this back on Pittsburgh.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: The the the thing that's frustrated me is all the reactionary role changes over the years, very few of them have benefited the Steelers.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: So just top top top of my head stuff, you know, the overtime roles are a great example.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we talked about this before, so I won't beat it to death.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: But Tommy Maddox didn't get to touch the ball in overtime against the Titans in the playoffs.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody cared.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Brett Favre didn't get to touch the ball, we had a change of roles.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Ben Rothesberger didn't get to touch the ball after Tim Tebow scored a touchdown.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't change the rules, but Josh Allen didn't get to touch the ball.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, we had to change the rules.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Heinz Ward blocked somebody, got a change of roles.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mel Blunt uh uh trucks people at the line of scrimmage got a change of rules.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it it just feels like the Steelers never or any Pittsburgh team really ever benefits from these rule changes, and it's always either reactionary to something they did or too late of a reaction.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing going back to your earlier in the episode that I can think of is the Jesse James thing, because after that season they did modify the cat's role finally.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that was one thing that at least But that was like that was like the third time that happened.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_05: Like it was Bryant and uh who was uh Calvin Johnson.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_05: Calvin Johnson, yeah.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it it was getting ridiculous at that point.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was, and but you know, uh that's probably the one time I can think of when they had a reactionary role change that actually either benefited the Steelers, maybe the coin toss thing too, because they did change the coin toss role to that you had to call it before it was in the air because of the what happened on Thanksgiving.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh although that wasn't really I mean the neither before or after that had anything like that ever happened.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know that that was really a big deal.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: But um but yeah, most of the time those role changes are just reactionary, like you said.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: The one year remember they had um you could review pass interference, and that ended up burning the Steelers.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: They were playing Seattle at Heinz Field in 2019, and that cost them huge in that game because they challenged pass interference.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the that that that kind of stuff just always seems to burn Pittsburgh teams.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: And again, that might just be my brain remembering that that way, and I don't have any hard evidence to back that up.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I I'm with you.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that you know you shouldn't take some time, think about how you want to do things rather than just react to whatever the moment says.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_05: It keeps the sport the same, too.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's like you're you're like like I said, you change eight rules a year for five years, you've changed 40 rules.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_05: You aren't even playing the same sport you played five years ago.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_05: Whereas if you could only change, like, let's say they pick, okay, you can change 10 rules every four years, at least, you know, and then okay, in four years, oh, those we didn't like this rule that got changed.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you live with it for four years, and then you just change it back or modify it.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't know.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_05: I just think it would be eliminate some of the just knee-jerk reaction stuff that that's going on.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um, also like in stuff that like uh like coaches take advantage of the rules, like and the two biggest well, I'd say the biggest defender of this is Bill Belichick, just absolutely like torturing like now.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, him and Mike Vrabel did that stupid waste of time at the end of third quarter thing, like where they were taking like intentional uh what'd they take?
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_05: Like, um they were punting and the waste like yeah, they took two, like you could take two but not three, because then it became a personal foul and they would stop the clock.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_05: So he took two to run out the clock, and it was just like, okay, this is dumb.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_05: And like Vrabel did it, and it was funny because like Belichick didn't was like he he he, and then Vrabel did it to him, and it got all mad.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm sure they've changed that rule, like because Belichick's on the rules committee.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I'm sure you know he's he's changed it.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_05: Um also remember when Belichick played games with the eligible tackles against the Ravens in a playoff game.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_05: Like they didn't know who was eligible.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_05: It was just funny because like like I didn't know who to root for.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's like it's annoying that Belichick did that, but then he did it to the Ravens was hilarious.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_05: And then I think they ended up like they ended up losing that game.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_05: Like the Patriots ended up losing that game anyway, didn't they?
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_05: No, they won.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_05: And it was Did they win that one?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was largely because of that.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: They were down by 14 and they came back because of him bending the rules.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that's you know, that's that's Belichick, he just always finds loopholes.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_05: Football has so many rules to begin with, it's just it gets insane.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um, how about like football?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_05: Like we're talking about the seasons being too long.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like football preseason, like preseason in most sports is a waste of time.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_05: But I I think like spring training and baseball, maybe the pitchers need that, but I can't imagine of anybody else in baseball needing that.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_05: But football preseason, what a waste of time.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my goodness.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_05: And they make the season ticket holders pay for those games.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_05: You have to pay for those.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_05: Is it two games now or four?
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_05: They went to two, right?
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because they added a game.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_05: Or is three?
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_05: Three.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_05: Three.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that's ridiculous.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_05: And NHL has preseason games too, which they're even a bigger joke, but I mean, who's the goof?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_05: I've I've gone to them, so but I mean I guess it's nice if you don't can't afford a regular season NHL game, but I I'm not even like if you thought the regular season in NHL was a joke, boy, go to an NHL preseason game.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_05: It's even worse.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um like college football, like I here's a kind of a college football category.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_05: Like college football teams, like they don't have a preseason, so it kind of plays into this.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_05: So they would always play like, okay, we're gonna play like a lower division team.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's fine and well if you think you need like a warm-up game, but like I noticed this now has crept in like since like once again they've expanded their season to 12 games.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_05: Like for some reason in like late November, all of a sudden Alabama's playing Samford for no reason.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_05: It's like why?
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_05: Why are we you like if you want to play that game in the first two weeks of your season, I I guess, just as a tune-up, like that's just a pure money maker because they know people they'll make people buy season tickets for that, and the people in the SEC where it just means more.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_05: Like, how does a game against Sanford just mean more?
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_05: I mean especially late, like late in the season.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_05: That's but I mean you could lose to those opponents.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, Pitt's only done it once.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I there's been other teams that have been lost, like and then they stopped playing like the teams like North Dakota State or Appalachian State that were good.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like they don't they don't play those teams anymore because they're too good.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_05: We have to find a team that's really bad.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing Pitt never lost any of those games.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_05: So they've only lost one.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they have lost no, they've lost a couple.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: They lost to Youngstown State.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_05: No, that that's the only time they've ever lost.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: Bowling Green.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: They lost to Bowling Green.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_05: That's not that's a that's a Division I school.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I meant the they the the tune-up game.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying they lost the tune-up game.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that I I think a pure tune-up game is like when you play like Youngstown State or Delaware or like you know what I mean, North Dakota State.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_05: Like I guess Appalachian State is in Division I now.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: They moved up.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think it I think a tune-up game is anybody that's out of conference that's not power five.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's meant to be a tune-up game.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I I don't know.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, but I always thought those I I don't know what those teams are.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_05: They're like in limbo.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_05: Like, because like the lower, like the North Dakota States and those teams can go in and get well now with the transfer rules, like because you don't have to used to be you didn't have to sit out a year if you went to those schools.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_05: So now that you don't have to sit out a year at all, I I maybe it's the talent gap isn't gonna be like because it used to be like like you said, like those bowling greens, those teams are way worse than the top teams in that division one double A or whatever they FCS or whatever they call it.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_05: I guess FCS, right?
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_05: So like that, those teams I always thought were way better, like those top teams, because they could always get the top recruits, like the guy that was sitting the bench in Florida because like they had Tim Tebow or something.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_05: He would go to like you know one of those schools and not sit out a year, and you'd end up with like a really good player, especially a quarterback.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: You could you could probably do a whole episode on college football grinding gears.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well, here's another good one.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_05: How about this?
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_05: How about college football just refuses to have a playoff?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_05: They just they will not have it, they're not gonna do it, it's never gonna happen.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's just like they have this like whatever half rear-ended system that they have now.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I don't even know what this system is.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: It's like they're still voting on people to go to this playoff.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like, why do we need to vote?
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_05: You have everybody's pretty much in a conference, and if you want to have you, you want to have some sort of eight-team playoff with one at-large bid just in case one of the independents is good enough to make it.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_05: You want all your voting there?
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_05: You get to vote on one team.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yay, you can still have your committee.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_05: You could, it's so easy to do.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_05: And it's like, whoa, the Sunbelt, well, then why does the Sunbelt play Division I college football?
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_05: Either you are or you aren't.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I I think I've complained about that before, but it's it's ridiculous.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a great question.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're we're recording this uh uh in 2022.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Last season, the 2021 season, did did the University of Pittsburgh football team win a championship?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_05: Well, they at least won the ACC championship, and that's legit.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_05: You can't that wasn't voted on, that was decided on the field.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_05: So is that a championship?
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_05: So if you're counting championship, I counts as a conference championship.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what what were they eligible for other than that?
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: Pitt Pitt and um Lake Forest and the ACC were never eligible for the college football playoff.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well that's what I'm saying.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: So did Pitt win a championship?
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because what what were they eligible for?
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that's all you can do.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, but it's just stupid.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's a stupid setup.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_05: There's too many to meet teams in the FBS division.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_05: That that that FBS I've said before, you could split up into three divisions and it would be better.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_05: It would it would be a better like because like why like I'm sure somebody won the Sun Belt and somebody wearing the what is it, the Mountain West, what what did they win?
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_05: You know, who won the who won those conferences, right?
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they weren't eligible for the same championship that Alabama and Georgia were eligible for.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: But but that's just my point.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you you they deem that certain conferences are eligible and certain conferences aren't.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because Clemson wasn't as competitive last year, middle of the season, it was deemed that the ACC wasn't eligible for the college football playoff.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: Even when Wake Forest was undefeated, they weren't eligible for the college football playoff.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: They were like 11th in the votes or whatever.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: So if the if they deem that your conference isn't eligible, then you've won the only championship that you're eligible for.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that's a championship.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: In our last episode, our last episode, we talked about the 1902 Pirates won the National League pennant.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that's all you could win.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_05: You couldn't, you they didn't play the American League yet.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, there was no World Series at the point.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is that not a championship?
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because they weren't eligible to play anything after that.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_05: I guess it's the same kind of question, I guess, really.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_01: So and and and that's dumb.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: So in 1902, I get that because it was 1902, but now major college football, you know, you shouldn't have that.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_05: They can't take a train.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_05: They can't have Pitt take a train or whatever.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's ridiculous that there's just not you're voting on a champion.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's dumb.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: So to me, to me, the 2021 Pitt team won a championship because they were not eligible to play in anything other than what they played in, and they won it.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's a championship to me.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_05: Who who is it who claimed the championship the one year?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_05: Was that UCF?
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_05: They're like, yeah, we're champions too.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_05: Why not?
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_05: Uh they went undefeated.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think you you vote for it.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: People vote for it.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why not?
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's no there's no official anything that says somebody's a champion.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just pun, it's subjective.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's a subjective thing.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you might as well just claim your own.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: I would do that if I were Pitt.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'd put up a banner.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_05: Well, they'll put up ACC champions, I'm sure.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: I would just put up National Championship 2021.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: Why not?
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not kidding about that.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, that'd be embarrassing.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: To reinforce your point.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's a joke.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_05: Here's another thing that grinds my gears.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_05: Since we ground our gears pretty good there, uh college conferences realignment and conferences in general.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's just because I'm a pit fan and they were always an independent.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_05: I just it if the ACC went away tomorrow, would you miss them, Tim?
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_05: Would you miss that big Pit Wake Forest rivalry?
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, would it would anyone really care if Pitt played Duke in football ever again?
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_05: Heck in basketball, would they even care?
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_05: You know, wouldn't you rather Pitt played Georgetown or Penn State or West Virginia than Duke and North Carolina?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_05: I would.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_05: I would.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_05: That's just me.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_05: But no, no, no.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_05: We gotta be in the ACC.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I wouldn't even care.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_05: You could say about the Big Ten.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_05: If if Pitt never played Iowa or Northwestern or Ohio State ever again, I wouldn't I'd rather play Penn State Notre Dame in West Virginia than any of those other like random schools from any of those other conferences.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_05: I'd rather play Miami every year.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_05: Like, well, we already do, but you know what I mean?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_05: It's just uh it's just I'm so tired of conferences.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_05: They need to go away.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_05: They've ruined college football.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_05: Like the compet the combination of TV and college conferences have ruined college football.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_05: They really have.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, I I couldn't agree more.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Pitt versus Duke or Pitt versus NC State or Pitt versus all these other ACC schools, there's no even if they were in the Big Ten, Tim, who would care if they played Indiana?
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think the fact that we don't play Penn State in West Virginia anymore, uh well we they still play Notre Dame every fairly regularly, but the fact that they don't play Penn State in West Virginia hardly at all, that that just that's ruined a lot of the fun of what college football was for Pitt fans.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_05: So uh it's something that we'll probably agree on, uh grinding our gears here.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh baseball not having a salary cap.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_05: But I think the bigger problem now is baseball not having a salary floor.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_05: I think that's the bigger issue, really.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_05: Like you can basically put a team on the field for like you know, minimum wage, why don't you just pay everybody nine dollars an hour?
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_05: And you could really make a lot of money.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_05: I shouldn't give Bob Nutting any ideas.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say, doesn't it pretty much already do that?
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, salary, not like, and I don't understand like how you don't like sell that.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_05: I think I've come said this before.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_05: Like, if I'm like Bob Nutting and I seriously want to be competitive instead of just making money, but I think you would still I think you would make more money by being competitive than just being the joke you are.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_05: Like honestly, pitch the mediocre players, we're gonna get a salary floor, you're gonna get a raise, you know, and that's gonna benefit you more than you know, all the big name free agents that just get their we're gonna get a salary cap, but we're gonna get a salary floor.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_05: And if you get enough of those people to vote, I I think majority rules in the baseball union world, so there's more of those mediocre to lower tier players than there are Garrett Coles and Justin Verlanders of the of the world, right?
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean Yeah, that's a good point.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: You you'd you'd have more numbers for sure, but for some reason they can't do that.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they just went through this this last offseason.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_05: And they didn't they didn't fix anything.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: No, they didn't, and they didn't even propose a salary cap or floor.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_01: So nobody nobody wants that they're happy with uh the Red Sox and Yankees and Dodgers always being in the playoffs and teams like the the Pirates and other small market teams never really having much of a chance.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now I I do guarantee you that if they did have a salary cap and salary floor, that the pirates would still mess it up because of the current ownership, but at least you you know you'd have a fighting chance.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so moving on to the fans.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_05: Uh what about fan behavior, Tim?
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_05: We you've gone to Steeler Games, you know how it is.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_05: Like, how many times have you seen fighting at the games?
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's literally a sporting event.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_05: And my like like and I I know like the Pit West Virginia thing can get pretty heated, but oh my goodness, it was crazy.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like, just like I've seen fights at like like people that are normally like reasonable, like just lose their mind and want to fight like 20 fans from an opposing team.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_05: Like, is this that serious to you?
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_05: Like, like, man, don't you have anything else in your life to care about?
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, no offense.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I guess you know, I do a podcast, so I think I care a lot about sports, but I don't think I've ever like really been in a situation.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, there's been a situation like the Michigan State one year was at Pitt and they were annoying.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_05: Their fans are annoying, just mainly because their team has never won anything.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_05: You've never won anything ever.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_05: Like, when's their national last national championship?
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like the 60s or 40s, and their fans are just totally obnoxious.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_05: But that's about as close as I've got.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_05: Even the West Virginia fans, I understand the West Virginia fans, and Penn State fans just think they're like they have like some weird sense of like, I don't know, like morality that I don't understand.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_05: But like the West Virginia fans, I understand the slight because everybody kind of looks down on them because they're from West Virginia.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_05: So I get that, but like I just I I even like as much as the Michigan State fans annoyed me, I did not want to fight any of them.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_05: I just didn't want to.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it the the answer to your question of um why people care so much, it's it's uh a chemical that's called alcohol.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that's that's usually lower inhibitions, yeah.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right, that's usually what fuels those kinds of things at sporting events.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and you're right, fans can be very annoying.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh West Virginia fans, Penn State fans, uh uh Dallas Cowboy fans, not that the Steelers play the Cowboys all that often at home, but when they do, Dallas fans are just the most uh just the most obnoxious.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you're right, to get to the point of like wanting to fight somebody, uh that again, that's that's really alcohol fueled most of the time.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_05: So, what about running out on the field?
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_05: Have you ever felt the need to run out on the field and interject yourself into the game?
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_05: Because I I just don't think a trip to prison and you know getting some sort of misdemeanor crime is really worth it.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_05: It's so bad.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_05: And like, doesn't does Philadelphia still have their own little jail?
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_05: I think at the new stadium, remember the vet have I think the new stadium and they have a like a judge there and everything who has to work the Eagles games to like you know sentence all the people that are fighting.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_05: It's like that's the most Philadelphia thing ever.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: It is, but certainly uh we've had some not so great behavior here as well.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_05: I I I wonder if like in the jail cells it has like a little Eagles logo and the judge wears like a like uh like what he wears like a Nick Foles jersey, you know?
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like guilty, guilty of disorderly conduct.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_05: Nice.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_05: What's the score of the game, Your Honor?
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_05: The Eagles are losing, and you're going to jail.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_05: So um uh what's something we just did that I guess we're gonna grind our gears about ourselves here.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_05: Uh people complaining about the ownership of the team.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_05: We just complained about Bob Nutting kind of for like five minutes.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_05: Well more about like baseball, not having a salary cap or floor.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_05: But just remember, like, I remember like there was a protest like we're gonna go in the game, pay our ticket, and then leave.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_05: How does that affect Bob Nutting at all?
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_05: He's still got your money, you moron.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_05: Like, if you want to do something, stand outside, don't buy a ticket and protest.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I guess he still gets money from you paying for parking, but I maybe not.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_05: I guess the city gets that, right?
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_05: I I don't know.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't know.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_05: It's just that never made much sense to me, like complaining about the team and then going to the game or watching watching said game.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's like when people burn their jerseys, you know.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: People burn their Steeler jerseys when the Steelers signed Michael Vick.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, you already bought that.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's not hurting the team at all.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_01: Just means that you when you're over this, again, uh like I said earlier in the episode, you know, and and I and again, I'm not uh faulting people for getting upset over Michael Vick or the national anthem.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_01: My point just being that we tend to get very worked up about things, and then 20 minutes later something else comes along and we've forgotten about it.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_01: So once you've burned your jersey and now you're upset about something else and you're back to being a Steeler fan, now you have to go buy another jersey and you've just given the team more money, so it's not really helping.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's uh it's like fan ADD.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_05: How about this one?
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, this it does like now.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_05: My dad was definitely the anti this.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_05: This definitely bothered my dad.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_05: And leaving early to beat the traffic, and now I understand like there are like I've had to do it at games like there's an emergency or something, and you know, somebody got sick, or you just have somewhere else to be, you know, you're not gonna make it for the whole game.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_05: Normally, that's like if it's a regular season game, or maybe it's a game that's not super important, I'll give you that one, right?
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_05: Or let's say your team is getting blown out 30 to nothing in the first half by a quarterback named Mason Rudolph.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_05: You have my permission to leave.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_05: Not that you needed it, but like I know you have said this too.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_05: Like, it's like the Super Bowl, like when you went to the Detroit Super Bowl, like people are like, it's the middle of the fourth quarter.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, all right, time to leave.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_05: Or like the AFC championship game, the Steelers are down by three.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_05: All right, we're out of here.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_05: See you later.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_05: Uh see you later.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_05: Paid all that money to get a ticket in the stands, and I'm gonna leave.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's just I I don't know if that's just a Pittsburgh thing or just that's all sports in general, but who does that?
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I like I could see like, like I said, a regular, but like if you went paid all that money to go to the Super Bowl, or you're like at a playoff game, unless it's like 20 to nothing or something, I I think you gotta stay to the end, don't you?
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm I'm always amazed that uh that people do that in big games.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, I'm I can see the regular season game and and and if it's if it's sort of close but not that close.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I it is frustrating if you leave a little later, you're sitting just sitting there forever while thousands of people all take their cars out at the same time.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah, it's it's some people, it's just way overboard, like you said.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_05: But it's just you're already there, like clear your calendar, just take the time and the hour in the parking lot.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like I've seen some people, even after the game, they'll just go and just sit in their car and have a couple more before hopefully they're not driving, or just sit around and talk about the game, or well, we really stink.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_05: Or wow, did you get your free Coke for staying to the second half?
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_05: That was such an amazing idea by our athletic director to offer us that after we're getting not that I'm bitter about that or anything.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_05: Uh and we talked about this in uh I know in another episode, but Pitt Football sharing Heinz Field.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_05: I I really like I don't even know if an on-campus stadium is the answer, but I know Heinz Field isn't, because it's just way too big for Pitts fan base.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_05: They really need a 30,000 seat stadium and like just to get rid of like the Penn State and West Virginia fans at bare minimum, and Notre Dame fans.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_05: Just so at least it's just people that want to be there.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_05: But I mean would you care, Tam, if they got a smaller stadium?
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_05: I I you gotta say that at least the smaller stadium would help.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, smaller and on campus would be nice.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um I think it wouldn't even have to be on campus.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_05: I think just smaller would be would help.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I agree.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I we talked so we talked about this in our episode about um false narratives.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people people said that that kind of ruined the program or or decreased the fan base, and I made the argument that it really didn't.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean that it's not you know annoying or something that wouldn't be nice to have as a fan.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I I totally agree.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_01: I would rather have it that way.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it I don't think it's destroyed the program by any means, but it it certainly would be a lot nicer to have something that's smaller and on campus or closer to campus, maybe.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_05: Well, even even if you're gonna stay in Heinz Field, break out the tarps, man.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_05: Let's tarp off some seats and make you know, because I'm just it's just like you know, you're not you're making the money from TV anyway.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_05: Those seats don't matter.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_05: It's I mean they do.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you're gonna, but at the same time, I'd rather you know the Penn State and Notre Dame and West Virginia fans can watch over home like everybody else.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know something really petty that grinds my gears about that, Steve, that you might not have on your list, and I apologize if I'm stealing one.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, go for it.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's the fact that because they share a stadium, they never paint the end zones or the logo in the middle of the field anymore.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: They do if at the end, they did last year.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_05: When the pit's done.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_05: No, if it's like the whippy old because they'll replace the sod halfway through the season.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_05: And normally they try to time that after pit's done and the whippy's are done.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like right around Thanksgiving when the grass dies, anyway.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_05: So Pitt, I know one year put their logo there just to do it, and then because they're ripping up the field and putting new grass in anyway, then they could put the Steelers logo in.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so very rare occurrences, but most of the time you have the word you have the word, the generic word Pittsburgh in one end zone, and then you have these diagonal lines in the other end zone.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_05: But it works for both teams.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's and that's why they do it, which is annoying.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_05: Like I think maybe they have steel panthers or pan pan steelers.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_05: Uh maybe they have panthers in one end zone and steelers in the other.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they would never do that either because it would it would be a blight for both teams.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I just miss that.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_01: I when Heinz Field was brand spanking new, they used to always do that.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_01: Even even if they had games in the same week and they would they would paint the end zones.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure that's a lot of work and there's cost to that.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I I just liked how it looked.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, very petty reason, but uh that's a that's a petty grind my gear thing for me with them sharing a stadium.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_05: Well, uh that's all my uh complaints for today.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm sure I'll have more as I get older in crotchetier.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_05: But um, I think I I feel better.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_05: Do you feel better?
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_05: That was very uh, what do they call it?
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh relief, relieving uh you don't need to do yoga or go to a spot cleansing breath.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_01: Just need to do a podcast episode.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for tuning in.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_05: And if there's anything uh else that uh you're you're complaining about or didn't agree with us, uh let us know and uh at our website, sports memories, or on Twitter, uh Twitter.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for tuning in.