About this blog

You might say I was born to be a Steelers fan. Late December 1978 - mere days before an important NFL Playoff game - I came into the world in a way that I envision happened something like this:

-Cue "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project

Announcer: At Outside Linebacker, weighing in at 10 lbs, 13 oz and measuring 24 inches tall, from Western Pennsylvania.... Todd Ellis!

There might have even been some baby powder thrown in the air, LeBron-style.

Seriously, the nurses gave me a hand-painted Terry Bradshaw ornament because I was so big, I should have suited up that week to help my team. Not that they needed it, as they went on to win yet another NFL Championship. Like I said - born to be a Steelers fan.

Fast forward a few decades...

Last night culminated a long two weeks. The Steelers lost Super Bowl XLV to the Green Bay Packers. After a week of heckling from people I haven't spoken to in years and two weeks of getting more and more homesick for being around "my fans" rather than being stuck in Upstate NY in no-persons-land, I endured a night of sitting on the same couch as a woman whom I had never before met that just kept pushing and needling and taking shots that were getting increasingly personal. I faked a stomach bug so I didn't completely lose it in front of colleagues and friends. I entertained thoughts of how quickly I could find a new job back in Pittsburgh so that this never happened again. I went home depressed and embarrassed - that a game could bring so many of us to so base a level as to render meaningless, even for a moment, the real tragedies in life. Tragedies that are so numerous and current that if we think for a moment, we should all be embarrassed that we ever let them slip our minds. I went home and realized that sports was not the pleasant diversion I was pretending it was... it is a stressor, and a big one at that. The first step is admitting that I have a problem. I don't say that lightly or to kid.

It's time for a change.

While I don't know how I am going to pull it off, my goal is to go off-the-grid with sports for the next year. No Sportscenter. No games on TV. I'll allow myself the occasional visit to the Baseball HOF since I'm still a member there for the year, but otherwise, I want to remember who I am without the antagonism and anger of being a fan. And I plan to use this time to explore the theme of how sports has infiltrated so much of our lives. I'm hoping that, by standing on the outside, I can see things more clearly, question some priorities for myself and our society, and share insights as they come. I'm going "off-the gridiron", I'm hoping you'll join me and that it'll be worth your while. But even if this is nothing more than my personal journal, it'll be worth it.