Thursday night at the Consol Energy Center the Pittsburgh Penguins will have a chance to win the Stanley Cup by beating the San Jose Sharks and during the game, I doubt any pictures of any Cleveland Browns players will be shown on the video scoreboard above the ice with the goal being to elicit boos from the fans in attendance.
I lead off with that opening statement because last night during Game 3 of the NBA Finals the fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers were prodded to boo the Golden State Warriors with a picture of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on the video scoreboard above the floor and that was documented in the tweet below that’s making the rounds Thursday morning on Twitter. This is certainly quite comical. Would it not make more sense to show a picture of a frowning Steph Curry instead? I guess not.
Wednesday night’s showing of Roethlisberger on a Cleveland scoreboard certainly wasn’t the first as the Cavaliers did the same thing last year during the NBA Finals that ultimately culminated with them losing the series to Golden State. Being as that brilliant idea has yet to bring any kind of championship to the city of Cleveland, perhaps it’s time to come up with a new rally creator. I wonder if Cleveland fans have ever seen the videos that are shown at Heinz Field late in games that are back-dropped by the Styx song “Renegade.” Those videos feature the Steelers own defensive players making incredible plays and bone-jarring hits and the crowd goes absolutely nuts during them. Now THAT is how you fire up a crowd. It might just be me, but I just don’t think a picture of Lebron James or Joe Haden would have the same effect.
The city of Cleveland has now gone more than 50 years without a major sports championship and being as the city of Pittsburgh is now on the verge of claiming their 12th since 1971, you can clearly see why fans of the Cavaliers, Browns and Indians are easily provoked by the mere image of any Pittsburgh professional sports player. It’s jealousy at its finest. You see, fans in Pittsburgh don’t need pictures of Cleveland professional sports players on a video scoreboard to entertain or motivate them as they get enough of that by watching players from that Ohio city continue to disappoint their fans with their play on the gridiron, diamond and hardwood.
Stay classy, Cleveland, and good luck the rest of the way with the Warriors. Pittsburgh sport fans might just catch the rest of that series as long as it doesn’t coincide with what will likely be another championship parade in the streets of the Steel City this weekend.
