12/22/24
July 18, 2006
18 ex-Steelers have died since 2000: Maybe the title of the Bad News Bears should have been Bad News Steelers. No matter how you look at it, this is an odd coincidence.
posted by commander cody to football at 11:29 AM - 29 comments
That seems too high to be a coincidence. I wonder how many of the 18 were guests at Ray Lewis' house? IIRC Courson was trying to save his dog when the tree fell on him.
posted by vito90 at 12:07 PM on July 18, 2006
Glad I'm a Philly fan for the first time in a long time. "Concrete" Charlie is still kickin' right?
posted by GoBirds at 12:16 PM on July 18, 2006
I didn't realize there were so many! Steve Courson was cutting down a tree and tried to save his dog from getting killed by the tree's falling. David Little should have had a spotting partner, sad. Perhaps the saddest of all was Mike Webster, dying in his car broke and alone after a long battle with depression and some self medicating for said depression. I believe it was suicide. The article mentions possible steroid use could be contributed to some of the deaths. Of this I would say "probably." But the Steelers aren"t alone there. Maybe the configuration of the 3 rivers in Pittsburgh creates a "Burmuda Triangle" effect.
posted by steelergirl at 12:19 PM on July 18, 2006
Maybe it's Bradshaw killing them off? That way when anyone wants to do a sports show about the old Steelers they have to hire him for it! :-)
posted by commander cody at 12:33 PM on July 18, 2006
What's even more freakishly coincidental is how close Big Ben was to death just last month. and since I love a good conspiracy theory, I'm with commander cody ... Bradshaw is behind it all ;)
posted by Spitztengle at 01:00 PM on July 18, 2006
Does Greg Maddux have 18 alibis?
posted by The_Black_Hand at 01:14 PM on July 18, 2006
Greg Maddux? Did you mean Tommy Maddux?
posted by scully at 01:30 PM on July 18, 2006
Does Greg Maddux have 18 alibis? Do YOU want to be the person that asks him that question?
posted by BullpenPro at 01:56 PM on July 18, 2006
Should we send out 18 sympathy cards now too?
posted by commander cody at 02:02 PM on July 18, 2006
18 steelers have died? I think tommy's kids need their asses kicked again.
posted by disengagelfe at 02:08 PM on July 18, 2006
This reminds me of the classic Seinfeld episode with former MLBer Keith Hernandez. Meeting him for the first time in the locker room of a health club, George pipes up and says, "You know Keith, what I've always wondered, with all these ball clubs flying around all season don't you think there would be a plane crash? ... 26 teams, 162 games a season, you'd think eventually an entire team would get wiped out."
posted by L.N. Smithee at 02:20 PM on July 18, 2006
Antifreeze? I thought that only worked on dogs and cats!
posted by volfire at 03:19 PM on July 18, 2006
Gee and I was debating whether to sign with the Steelers or the Dolphins. Since the weather is better and the mortality rate is lower, the Dolphins look like the best choice. Unless of course getting to Superbowls is important, must be a risk reward thing.
posted by Atheist at 03:29 PM on July 18, 2006
Maybe they were members of The Warren Commission. Damn that Lee Harvey Oswald!
posted by mjkredliner at 03:53 PM on July 18, 2006
This reminds me of the classic Seinfeld episode with former MLBer Keith Hernandez. Meeting him for the first time in the locker room of a health club, George pipes up and says, "You know Keith, what I've always wondered, with all these ball clubs flying around all season don't you think there would be a plane crash? ... 26 teams, 162 games a season, you'd think eventually an entire team would get wiped out." Yeah I know...I mean that has to be a tribute to the charter jets that teams pay millions for to fly their players around, because the law of averages speaks against this trend... Although I just keep thinking of this movie when I hear about airplanes (too bad I couldn't find a picture)
posted by chemwizBsquared at 03:57 PM on July 18, 2006
If I were Jerome Bettis I would come back for one more year. And then ask to be traded. I don't think Bradshaw could be behind this.I think he could do it, but he couldn't keep his mouth shut about it.
posted by CB900 at 04:05 PM on July 18, 2006
Please, let's not discuss Terry Bradshaw. I watched this stupid movie last weekend. The partial nudity they speak of is his. I'm still not right.
posted by tselson at 04:24 PM on July 18, 2006
You may never be right again. But it could have been worse, it could have been Kathy Bates.
posted by CB900 at 05:12 PM on July 18, 2006
Thanks alot tselson, now I have this image of Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw, nude, stuck in my head. I KNOW I will never the same.
posted by CB900 at 05:21 PM on July 18, 2006
Bet most of these dead players also played for other teams at some point. Maybe it says more about turnover on Pittsburgh team than anything else. Wonder if there are any stats on how many different players played for each team during 70s and 80s.
posted by graymatters at 05:56 PM on July 18, 2006
You know they did take steroids in the 70's no pun intended I have a story about an ex-steeler in BATAVIA ILLINOIS BY the last name of baker he was a long snapper in the 70's me and my boys were snapping footballs so we could kick fg's over a soccer goal in the early 80's and this guy comes out to help us out its ex-steeler baker with his super bowl ring on he definetely taught us to do it right but none of us ever went on to be a snapper either way we did go on to play hs football steroids kidding aside as much as we loved the steelers of the 70's they still might be made of mistakes one way or another
posted by luther70 at 06:14 PM on July 18, 2006
Is there so much as a pause in that monstrosity? And where the fuck is the pun? I WAS PROMISED PUNS!
posted by lilnemo at 06:17 PM on July 18, 2006
luther, buy a comma, jeez
posted by yankee0758 at 06:26 PM on July 18, 2006
He's just balancing out one of ,,,,, those members,,,, to coin a fraze.
posted by yerfatma at 06:45 PM on July 18, 2006
Holy shit. They should breed.
posted by lilnemo at 06:47 PM on July 18, 2006
I understand your pain linnemo. Heck with a sentence that huge there should have been a setting, static characters, rising and falling action, a dramatic conclusion, and an abundance of puns.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:36 PM on July 18, 2006
That punless story about a Pittsburgh gridironer left me "Steeler-eyed." Get it?
posted by The_Black_Hand at 07:59 PM on July 18, 2006
He's just balancing out one of ,,,,, those members,,,, Just play along, lilnemo. It's like that time we ordered the military to sterilize male fruit flies. Look at the big picture.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 08:01 PM on July 18, 2006
That is odd. I guess it is just one of those odd coincidences that no one can really expalin, except for the people that post comments in this blog.