http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10038/1033866-87.stm

You will call me at some point this weekend and you will say most excitedly "GUESS WHAT BETTINA. THE BROWNS BEAT THE STEELERS." Then you will proudly tell me how many times Big Ben got sacked. And smugly announce how you really don't think the Steelers are good any more and they can kiss the playoffs goodbye.

YOU'RE RIGHT YOU'RE RIGHT YOU'RE RIGHT

And then you will talk about how great the Browns are even though everyone knows that's not true and I will have to "mmm-hmm" for 15 minutes in feigned agreement while silently gritting my teeth.

Since I have created this conversation publicly on the internet can we please not have it in real life?

Love,
Your Daughter.

From kdka.com:

yeah it's hard to see what's going on hereBefore the Steelers and the Bengals took the field, there was a special reunion between a football great and the young man he teamed up with 30 years ago to make an award-winning commercial.

Mean Joe Greene is a retired Steelers legend and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Tommy Okon is a 40-year-old father of four.

But Okon was just 9-years-old when he filmed the now famous Coca-Cola commercial with Greene. In a gesture of kindness the boy offered the battered football player a Coca-Cola on his way to the locker room. And in return Greene tossed the kid his number 75 jersey.

"I had a reputation of being a mean guy, I wasn't," said Greene before Sunday's ceremony. "After the commercial, because of the camaraderie - the relationship I had with the kid - it changed. I was being referred to in some quarters as 'Nice Joe Greene.'"

Okon says they started a friendship that's still alive today.

"The first day when we were supposed to be filming we weren't because they were doing a lot of work to the scene and I was bugging Joe - throw a football or whatever - and my mom was pulling me away," said Okon. "He said, 'He's okay, let him hang out.' From that day on, he's been real good to me and we've stayed in touch."

The two have occasionally had meetings over the years, and Okon is now married and sharing the experience with his family.

"It's exciting for the kids; I think they're excited to see their daddy on TV doing the Super Bowl commercials," said Okon's wife, Kristin.

I'm not going to give a link to the commercial because if you're on this site you have seen it before and are probably intelligent enough to find it on the internet if you want to see it again. Instead, I found two really cute clips of Joe Greene interviews from this past February.

Here's a cute interview of Joe Greene talking about the commercial:

His comments on the Troy remake:

It's nice to know he's still a huge Steelers fan :)

So I can't decide if this Sunday will be cute or crass. I guess if we win I'm not gonna care either way? Johnny Lee, fellow CMU alum, sent me this article from the TimesOnline:

All the Steelers will don their throwback uniforms Sunday night. But that might not be the most eye-catching thing they wear. Some of them will have some pink in their wardrobe.

To show their support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, several players will wear pink cleats, wristbands or gloves when they take on the San Diego Chargers.

“Pink with black and gold, now that will be a different look,” said wide receiver Hines Ward, who wore his pinks cleats at Wednesday’s practice. said. “But, I’m all for it.

“It’s for a good cause. It’s great that players throughout the National Football League are showing their support.”

Steelers expected to wear some pink include Ward, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Santonio Holmes, running back Willie Parker and free safety Ryan Clark.

I will forgive this since this is for breast cancer and not fashion and because the Steelers believe in good causes. Remember a couple of years ago when the entire NFL had pink sweat towels with the Gatorade logo all over them? It was like someone accidentally washed those things with Kurt Warner's dirty Cardinals undies.

This Sunday I will be formally inducted into my Thirties. Jeff Reed, I will consider it a personal present to me if you dont eff it up. <3

Example of ugly pink NFL merch:

Nobody outside of the US cares about football, esp because outside of the US the word FOOTBALL means an entirely different sport. A sport that mainly involves a ball played with feet. But I digress...

So I really only know about the G20 with all of its formal/informal events from what the media tells me. I was very disappointed when I woke up this morning to learn that some protesters are taking pleasure in breaking windows and trashing the streets of this great city.

But this news snippet from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette made me smile:

A little before 9 p.m. hundreds of people were gathered on Schenley Plaza, the closest they could get to Phipps Conservatory where the heads of state convened for dinner. With the heavy police and protestor presence, things felt dicey until one familiar chant at least momentarily broke the tension: "Bill Peduto: great moment in Pittsburgh - someone just started a Here We Go Steelers cheer and everyone (almost everyone) joined in"

STEELERS CHANT at one of the biggest international forums. Beautiful.

Furthermore, this article describes how Pittsburgh hospitals are more than prepared for these protests:

Allegheny General staff doesn’t expect the [onflux of patients from the] G-20 summit to be “any worse than a Steelers game.”