The Best Thing About Pittsburgh Football in 2019 was the Brawls

Football is done in Pittsburgh this decade. The Steelers missed the playoffs, and Pitt finished their season with a laughable win against the 6-6 Eastern Michigan Eagles (Why even have that bowl game honestly?). Each Pittsburgh football team was consistently inconsistent this season. After Ben Roethlisberger’s start to the season, the Steelers didn’t look like they had a chance to compete for a playoff spot anyway. And they most definitely had no shot with Mason Rudolph or Devlin Hodges. One of the most historic events to happen during the NFL season was Mason Rudolph getting absolutely whacked by Myles Garrett with his own helmet. By now, you’ve seen the incident. The NFL issued a total of $732,422 in fines to 33 different players who were involved. (I wish the NFL donated some of this money to me…) This came just weeks after Rudolph has knocked out cold by Earl Thomas.

I’m not bringing up the Rudolph/Garrett brawl to poke fun at the Cleveland Browns for being a joke of a franchise or because Freddie Kitchens was fired after one season. We can write an entirely new article talking about how much the Browns suck. I’m also not writing this article to brag about Pittsburgh defeating the Browns in Week 13 as payback. Ok, yeah, I just bragged. But honestly, I just want to bring up the fact that Pittsburgh teams have been involved in the most chaotic ejections this football season and we need to stop it!

I’m honestly not sure how many individuals watched the Quick Lane Bowl on Thursday night between the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Eastern Michigan Eagles. The Panthers won the game 34-30 but the fun part didn’t come until the end, just like the Rudolph/Garrett brawl. The game concluded with Eastern Michigan’s senior quarterback, Mike Glass III throwing two punches with just ten seconds to go in the game. The two punches were two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and an automatic ejection. Now, at this time, the Eagles were on their own 40 yard line, needing a touchdown to win the game. Glass, unhappy with how the game was going, got into a verbal argument with the Panthers defense, and threw several punches before getting thrown out of his final collegiate football game.

No… he didn’t just punch-slap the Pittsburgh defenders’ helmets and FYI I will seriously never understand why football players punch helmets like it actually does anything. Anyway, Glass accidentally punch-slapped the referee who was trying to prevent the brawl from escalating. Well, he actually grazed the referee but the referee flopped and played dead for a couple seconds. So there’s that. Still, the ejection was warranted. To be fair, Mike Glass III apologized less than an hour before getting ejected from the game while Myles Garret waited until the next day to issue an apology. Garrett acted so tough that he still insisted to the league that Mason Rudolph used racist language and that’s what drove him to do the unthinkable. However, his own teammates, playing right next to him, never heard that kind of talk on the field or heard him say anything in the locker room pleading his case. Garrett is a LIAR!

But really, I just want to know why Pittsburgh is so hated by the opposition!

Garrett swings helmets at the Steelers and Glass III throws punches at the Panthers (and refs). Pittsburgh is like the most wanted and targeted city in America. Just look at Antonio Brown. He was probably hit in the head a thousand times … a thousand too many to be quite frank. Oh and don’t forget that Le’Veon Bell sat out a year to be away from the Steelers just so he could then sign with the New York Jets! His head was likely targeted too many times too. For all of the hate Pittsburgh gets, I think it’s time to start a petition to stop the opposition from brawling against Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh maintains an urban culture where most people are down to earth. As the new year approaches, we can be hopeful that Pittsburgh stays out of the drama in 2020. Or not. It’s kinda fun(ny). But now the city of Pittsburgh looks like pushovers. That’s not so fun.