Pledging Support?

What is this crap?

The Steelers for sale? Family in turmoil?

OK, I've had most of today to digest this... this... well... I don't know what you can call it. I call it sensational journalism from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to the front page of The Wall Street Journal, it's all just... wrong!

Since I've now had the better part of a day to sit on this and think things over I can say that my limited understanding is that the lesser-role-playing Rooney brothers (everyone but Dan) want out of the football business to focus on their gambling. It's nice to say that they are just doing what's mandated by the NFL by severing any gambling interests with a team but, let's face it, gambling has always been part of the Rooneys' background from when The Chief, himself (no, not me, the real, original, one-and-only one) founded the team. No, what they are doing is saying that since they've not had any real say or influence on operations, they want to take their money elsewhere. Fine.

The problem is not that they want to sell the team... any of the brothers would be fine with Dan and Art II taking over full ownership (which, by the way, the league mandates that the principle owner have no less than a 30% share - a percentage that no one has within the organization); no, the problem is that the other brothers want (and, perhaps, rightfully so) fair market value for their shares. Because of this, they secretly had Goldman Sachs estimate the worth of the franchise and they posted it anywhere between $800,000 and $1.2 Billion! Dan and Art II cannot afford that much and the problem is, the league also stipulates that no owner is permitted to carry that much debt - a debt they would have to assume.

Let's leave out the third party as they're really not germain to my point here and that is: Why don't we, as members of the Steeler Nation, pledge our support? Really. If we really do love the Steelers and the Rooney family as owners, why not? Heck, $5 per fan would go a long way to aiding Dan and Art II in raising the needed capital to buy the remaining shares from their brothers.

Is this crazy? Maybe it is. But then again, maybe waving gold dish towels around is crazy. Maybe being slave to the radio for 35 years listening to a raspy-voiced Jewish sports announcer yell "yoi" and "double yoi" is crazy. Maybe taking those dishtowels to London, Iraq, on the Space Shuttle, with Presidential candidates, at the Vatican, on a fighter jet, or on Russell Crowe's head, is crazy...

...then again, maybe not.

I'm hardly the one to organize such an effort but I'll be the first one to get the ball rolling by pledging my $5 right now!

Let's remember, Steelers fans, we're talking about a family that gave us this franchise and ran it right; a family that even through the hassles of getting a new stadium, would be the last family to threaten to move the organization; a family that would never be another Art Modell or Al Davis.

Long live Steeler Nation. And long live the Rooney ownership - exclusively Rooney ownership of our beloved team.