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Dunlap: Steelers Fans Aren't Going Anywhere

PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) - Save it.

You aren't going anywhere.

You're just grandstanding. A bunch of look-at-me types, I tell ya.

All talk, no action.

And if by the off chance you do go, you'll be back --- and it won't take long. Heck, probably at precisely 1 p.m. this coming Sunday you will be back if I know you. And if there's one thing I know, it's Pittsburghers.

At the longest, it will take you until the next playoff game to jump back on board --- and, again, that's if you go anywhere in the first place, which I seriously and earnestly doubt you will.

In the wake of many of the Steelers electing to stay in the tunnel for the national anthem before Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears, I have heard all the hollow threats. I have heard your angst and cries of "I'm done" in about 10 million different ways you have presented them.

"I've watched my final Steelers game!" one fan tweeted to me.

"The Steelers are all dead to me except Villanueva!" barked some hacked-off caller to our show on Monday.

"I've been a Steelers fan for 40 years and I'm done forever, I swear to God," texted a listener to The Fan Morning Show.

I saw the internet videos of some fans burning their Steelers jerseys and memorabilia.

I just chuckle.

Know why? You will be back. You can't help yourself.

And I have news for the few people who called The Fan Morning Show on Monday insisting they were turning in their season tickets --- there are hundreds (if not thousands, ever seen the waiting list?) of people who will gladly take them off your hands.

Steelers football isn't a religion in western Pennsylvania, it is the religion in these parts. It is the one true binding agent that has remained for generations.

There is a tremendous chance, no matter what you say, you can't quit it.

There is an even better chance, no matter what you say, it will continue to thrive and prosper like very few entities in the region ever have or could.

So, all your talk is just, well, talk. Hollow gumflapping of the highest order is all it is.

The funniest part is that it is all talk I have heard before.

You said you were going to quit watching when Big Ben got in his Big mess down in Georgia. You came back or never left.

You said you were done when James Harrison found himself in the middle of a sticky domestic situation involving a baptism or something. You came back or never left.

Remember how you were done when Joey Porter got in a mess on the South Side or how you signed off, for good, when Cedrick Wilson and the county SWAT team needed to come together to figure out a disagreement? Yeah, you sure quit the Steelers then, huh?

How about that time when Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount decided to (allegedly) hotbox that ride on McKnight Road and were already flying high before they got to the airport? You bellowed that the league was full of thugs and you were done. OK, sure you left, huh? Turned in all your Steelers stuff that day, right? Yep, I bet you did.

What about when Antonio Brown kept doing his best Gene Kelly after touchdowns and you screamed and screamed and shouted about how he gets paid to play football and not dance. You swore off football, you declared that was the end, right? How'd that work out for you?

Or, remember when Brown decided to flash private locker room moments to the world on Facebook and you wanted him traded? When you said he was a pariah and the team would be better off without him. You claimed enough was enough and you were done with the Steelers.

Sure. You sure quit then. Riiiiiiiigggggght. Was your Terrible Towel in your right hand or left hand when you watched the game against the Bears on Sunday?

I thought I heard you yelp something about how, if the Steelers took Martavis Bryant back, you were finished with the franchise?

He's back and you are still around, building your Sundays around them, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

So go ahead and keep hollering about some boycott or refusal to consume the Steelers because of the situation around the anthem on Sunday.

Tell me all about how that was truly the last straw.

I'll just remind you that kickoff is 1 p.m. this coming Sunday against the Ravens. Because you'll be there watching.

You've always been there and always will be.

You can't ---- and won't ---- quit the Steelers. No matter what you say.

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