It seems with every season that passes the Pittsburgh Steelers are favored to be one of the better teams in the NFL and make a deep playoff run. Even in the down years, the respect is still given by the odds makers and their odds of making the playoffs are almost always pretty good.  See available NFL future odds.

Personally I have been a fan of the Steelers since the early 80′s, when I first started getting into the NFL. The team was not the best at the time, but history was on their side and my love affair with them started pretty early in life and continues today.

We all have our reasons for how we started rooting for the Steelers, though.

Here are five ways you know your favorite team is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

When Your Towels Are “Terrible”

You woke up one morning and went to the closet to get a towel to take a shower. When you open the door, though, you realize every single towel seems to be yellow.

You suddenly have the urge to pick up one of the towels and start whipping it in the air.

The Terrible Towel was devised by former Steelers’ radio announcer Myron Cope during the 1975 playoffs.

Ever since that time, the stadium could be seen full of fans waving their towels as they cheer for the black and gold.

History of Terrible Towel from Steelers.com

When Your Hair Looks Like This

So you grabbed your towel and see that all your shampoo was replaced with Head and Shoulders. Not thinking anything of it, you go along with your day.

You then look in the mirror and see your hair is now black, curly, and down your back.

Your voice has all of a sudden become soft spoken and there is the strange urge to confuse your opposition by running all over a field.

Troy Polamalu has been one of the best defensive backs in the NFL since being drafted by the Steelers in the first round and he will look to have a healthy 2013 season after playing in only seven games in 2012.

When Roger Goodell Fined You Just For Watching James Harrison Sack A QB

We’ve all sat there and screamed at the TV as the referees threw another roughing the passer flag at James Harrison. Whether you actually thought Harrison did in fact rough the quarterback, you knew that the NFL would be fining him at some point later that week.

The next day you get a letter in the mail and it says it’s from Roger Goodell.

Upon opening the letter you realize that it is actually a ticket for $10,500 per sack because you failed to overt your eyes from the quarterback being taken down during the game.

In case you weren’t already pissed about it, you then remember that Tom Brady was only fined $10,000 for cleating Ed Reed in the playoffs. Frank Gore was fined $10,500 for his socks being too low during the NFC Championship Game.

When Your Last Bus Ride Was on Feb. 5, 2006

Rashard Mendenhall gave a couple good seasons, though he did not prove to be worthy of getting a second contract from the Steelers. Before him, Willie Parker’s speed made him one of the most productive backs in the league before a broken leg in 2007.

Jerome Bettis, or the “Bus”, was the perfect fit for the Steelers and compiled over 10,000 rushing yards as a Steeler, and 13,622 overall.

Bettis was the epitome of a big back and loved running defenders over on his way to 91 career rushing touchdowns.

Every player in the NFL would love the opportunity to retire the way Bettis did by having a Super Bowl win be the last game they play.

When the “Bus” retired following the Steelers’ win in Super Bowl XL, I believe all public transportation ceased to exist and still doesn’t till this day.

When Six Just Isn’t Enough For You

The Pittsburgh Steelers currently lead the NFL with six Super Bowl Championships and have eight total appearances in the game.

Considering the fact that there are teams in the NFL that have never even been to the Super Bowl, you would think the team and fans would be satisfied.

Steelers’ fans, however, are always looking for the next ring.

Other teams may be satisfied with having a winning record or just making it into the playoffs, but Steelers’ fans always expect a championship.

Some may call us crazy for always being so optimistic, but the reality is that the team has only had one losing season since 2000 and eight playoff appearances in that span.

That being said the past doesn’t have anything to do with how well the 2013 Steelers are going to be. Even with many predicting a down year though, I still see them making a deep run into the playoffs and possibly adding another ring to the trophy case. 

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Post-Gazette — PIRATES

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He has one year left on his current contract but he is reportedly asking for too much money to extend him. He’s asking for $7 million a year, which is way too much for a Penguins team that already has almost $20 million per year going to Malkin and Sidney Crosby for the next nine seasons.

Pittsburgh can do a couple of things with Letang. They can try to trade him to a team such as Colorado for a top player like Gabriel Landeskog, but it’s highly unlikely they will do that. They could also trade him at the draft which is where a lot of big trades are happening these days. That’s when the Penguins traded Jordan Staal last June after failing to sign him to a long-term extension.

The Penguins could also sign him to maybe a three- of four-year extension instead of the five or six years he’s looking for. They would have to give him less money than he is actually worth on the market. I think the two sides will eventually come to a understanding and give Letang less money than what he’s asking for now.

All in all, these are the two likely scenarios for Letang. This will probably be a slow proccess for the Penguins and Letang. We will see what happens.

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The Steelers offseason winds up on Thursday morning with the final practice of minicamp, and after about two months the team has accomplished what Coach Mike Tomlin had set his sights on.

“Our goals have been simple and they are to lay a foundation for our football team here in 2013,” said Tomlin. “Obviously, our goals are what they are and that is to be World Champions. I think we’ve done a nice job in terms of laying a foundation, individually and collectively, towards that goal.”

Tomlin was realistic about what he has seen from some of the rookies in OTAs and minicamp, knowing the evaluation process will not begin until training camp when the pads come on.

“We could trick ourselves into believing something that would be untrue,” said Tomlin. “Football is a game that’s played in pads, so I’m not going to rush to judge or search for things to grasp onto at this time of year. They come here, they work hard and they’re legitimately humble. They’re taking the information being given to them from coaches and guys that have been a part of this thing. That’s a great place to begin.”

* * *

In other Pittsburgh Steelers News, safety Troy Polamalu remembers the days he relied on veterans to give him tips, and now he is returning the favor for some of the team’s young safeties, including rookie Shamarko Thomas,

“I learned a lot from other players,” said Polamalu. “He wants to learn the defense. I told him I would watch other safeties in the NFL and what they did and try to incorporate that into my game.”

Polamalu said the one thing he has to be careful of is being patient and not overwhelming them from the get-go.

“A lot of the times I try to point out too much too soon to a lot of the players,” said Polamalu. “It’s like trying to teach algebra to basic math. You’ve got to almost erase their career and what they’ve learned to this point and start anew with this defense.”

* * *

Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau stressed the importance of the defense creating more turnovers when he spoke on Wednesday, and Polamalu knows that there are ways they can achieve that, but the main thing is by taking advantage of opportunities that come their way.

“You have to be ball aware,” said Polamalu. “Everything stems from pressure and disguise. We have to pressure quarterbacks into making bad decisions by doing that. You’ve got to hit them and get at the quarterback. We have to get a better pass rush, we have to cover the one to three seconds better and let guys work that are blitzing. We have to win one-on-one matchups in order to do that.

“When it comes down to it, when we get opportunities we have to seize them. We got our hands on a lot of balls last year. Hopefully, we’ll be able to seize those opportunities this year.”

* * *

Tackle Mike Adams, who has been recovering from injuries suffered when he was stabbed in a robbery attempt, watched the team’s minicamp practice on Wednesday.

“We expect Mike to be here,” said Tomlin. “He had an appointment today. The appointment went well. He’s just continuing to take steps to get back out on the field.”

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Police spokeswoman Diane Richard says 26-year-old Dquay Means was arrested Monday on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and conspiracy. Police announced Monday that 25-year-old Michael Paranay had been arrested on the same charges. Both are from Pittsburgh.

Richard says a third suspect is still being sought.

The 23-year-old Adams was stabbed twice early Saturday during an attempted carjacking on the city’s South Side. He suffered non-life threatening wounds to the abdomen and forearm.

“He’s very blessed to be in the position he’s in, in that we expect a full recovery from him,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Monday. “I visited with him a couple days this weekend. He’s got great team support and family support. He realizes, of course, how fortunate that he is. We’re just glad that he’s going to be OK.”

Tomlin estimated that Adams will be cleared to resume football activities in six to eight weeks.

No attorneys for Means and Paranay were listed on court papers. There was no answer at a phone listing for Paranay and a listing for Means couldn’t be found.

Preliminary hearings are scheduled for June 12 and 13.

Adams’ teammates say the late-night assault should serve as a warning about the dangers of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, even if you are 6-foot-7 and 345-pounds like Adams.

“There ain’t nobody who’s too big,” Steelers linebacker Larry Foote said. “Once you’ve got a weapon involved, everybody’s the same size then.”

Foote added he thinks the incident should serve as a wakeup call for players to “be aware of their surroundings” and avoid questionable areas at night.

“I would say that nothing ever good happens after 12 o’clock,” Foote said. “But you should be able to be safe. You shouldn’t be alone, and stuff happens. This is the type of world we live in today.”

Adams is penciled in as the starting right tackle but will be spelled by second-year lineman Kelvin Beachum while he rehabs.

It’s not exactly the way Beachum wanted to get back to his old job. Beachum started five games at right tackle at the end of the 2012 season when Adams was sidelined with an ankle injury. The Steelers plan to use him as a utility lineman this year and even have him taking snaps at center.

He’s currently on hiatus from that job, however, as he handles Adams’ usual post. The two are good friends and Beachum allowed he was shaken by the crime.

“It’s been difficult this week with him not here,” Beachum said.

Center Maurkice Pouncey spent time with Adams in the hospital and called the near-miss a “blessing.”

“Even Mike said that the angel was with him that day,” Pouncey said, “and everybody knows he was a really blessed kid to stay alive.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Babies in jerseys, men with letters on their chests and women with fake beards — not only because it’s the Stanley Cup, but because it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In addition to a sold-out crowd at Consol Energy Center on Monday night, about 6,000 more fans set up chairs, coolers and even couches to watch the game outdoors on a big screen across the street from the arena.

While the Boston Bruins defeated the Penguins, 6-1, and took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, disappointed Pittsburgh fans said they weren’t hopeless as the teams head to Boston for Game 3 on Wednesday.

“Hockey is a game of momentum,” said John Rehrer, who is visiting family in Claysville. “The Pens just have to win the next one in Boston.”

Chris Kubik, 39, of Beaver County called himself a diehard fan but said the team wasn’t playing as it should.

“Pittsburgh Penguins [Goalie Tomas] Vokoun should not be blamed for this game; I would have started with him,” he said. “I was optimistic before the game, but after few minutes I realized it was going to be a repeat of the first game.”

While some fans streamed out of the “Fan Zone” after the second period with Boston up by three goals, other fans stuck it out.

Among the few still managing a smile after the second was 1-year-old Gianna Rilogio, who sat on her dad’s lap, decked out in a Penguins hoodie and a “Me and My Dad Love the Penguins” shirt.

“We call her ‘Geno,’ ” mom Heather Radziewicz said, a nod to Evgeni “Geno” Malkin, whose No. 71 jersey dad Jason Rilogio was wearing.

Also among the youngest in the crowd, nearly 6-month-old Payton Kaiser hadn’t missed a playoff game yet.

“People are screaming all around her, and she just sits here and smiles,” her mother, Christine Nagle, 29, said before the game started.

Ms. Nagle said Payton, who sported a “Let’s go Pens” onesie under a Marc-Andre Fleury jersey, usually sleeps through the second period. For each game, the Mount Washington family dons the same gear: dad Ricky Kaiser, 26, in a “Beau Knows” T-shirt and mom in her Malkin jersey.

And then there’s grandma: The 87-71 Dynamic Duo shirt she wears hasn’t been washed since the lockout ended.

Lynn Nagle, also of Mount Washington, has been a fan since the ’70s, and said this particular T-shirt has gotten the same treatment since she got it.

It smells, she said, “but I just love the Pens.”

Perhaps one of the only other fans more comfortable than Gianna, whose playpen was set up between her parents’ folding chairs, was Josh Ray, 27, of Wexford, who came in carrying a full-sized couch; @IceBurghsCouch, that is.

During the series against the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh’s mascot Iceburgh left his John Hancock on the couch — and the following, both in person and on Twitter, began.

Pittsburgh Penguins’ CEO David Morehouse left his mark on a cushion, and fans armed with a black permanent marker have signed it from top to bottom.

Two hockey sticks are stuck near the arms, giving it a winged look, and the creme-colored couch even has a cooler buried in the springs under the middle seat. During colder games, as many as seven people have huddled on the couch.

Mr. Ray said he dreams of seeing the couch in a Stanley Cup parade.

Rows and rows in front of Iceburgh’s Couch, father and son Anthony Cagnacci Sr. and Jr., both of Wilmerding, showed up around 2 p.m. to get front row seats.

Their game-day set up is complete with a mock Stanley cup — from the bottom up: a water bottle, ice cream jug, butter and sour cream containers and bowl, all held together with aluminum tape — to be raised when the Pens scored, albeit only once against Boston.

Through each series, they’ve sat in the same prime spot for every game, but the father-son duo said they don’t have any playoff superstitions. And no, Anthony Jr.’s beard isn’t a playoff beard.

Anthony Sr. was one of four men who each drew a letter of P-E-N-S onto their chests.

John Keller, 20, of Mount Oliver had the “P” emblazoned on him, but beneath the thick letter, a tan lined a previous “P” that had been from the Islanders’ series.

On his right forearm, an even more permanent sign of his commitment to the team: a Pens logo surrounded by the years they’ve taken the Cup.

He’s already picked out the spot for 2013 to be tattooed, he said.

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Michel Briere

One player who was there for some of the team’s early successes, when they reached the playoffs in 1970, was Michel Briere, a French-Canadian who, although only chosen at 26th in the 1969 draft, would play some superb hockey in a Penguins uniform.

Briere would have been a godsend today for anyone reviewing odds at www.wageronsports.com/wagering-strategy/nhl-hockey. The Montreal-born center, whose speed of body and mind more than compensated for his slight physique. In the 1969/70 season, in which the Penguins would reach the second round of the playoffs, Briere scored 12 goals and made 32 assists, his 44 points placing him third in the team’s overall scoring chart for that season. Anyone making the kind of bet US bookies would have offered on this player was sure to be delighted during that season.

Tragedy would strike soon, however, when the young Canadian was involved in a car crash on May 15, 1970, on the way to his hometown of Malartic. He would undergo four operations on his brain by the legendary surgeon Dr Claude Bertrand, but would eventually pass away in March 1971. His number 21 jersey was never worn again, and was officially retired by the Penguins in 2001. Players such as Sidney Crosby, who have been hospitalized with injury recently, should look to the life of Briere as inspiration for making their own comeback.

Mario Lemieux    

Another French-Canadian whose number has been retired is Mario Lemieux. He was drafted in 1984, when the Penguins were awarded first pick, so poor had they been in the preceding season. The then 19-year-old went on to score 100 points in his first season, enough to win him the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. Anyone laying a wager on hockey that year would have made money from his performances.

The 1987/88 season saw Lemieux pick up his first MVP award, helping to drive the Penguins to their first winning record in nine years. In 1991, he would help the club to a Stanley Cup title, despite being hampered by a back injury for much of the campaign. He ranks second only to Mike Bossy in the NHL’s all-time goals per game average, having notched 0.754 goals per game. Another Stanley Cup would follow in 1992.

Lemieux is now the principal owner of the club, having bought them out of bankruptcy in 1999. He remains the only person to have won the Stanley Cup as player and owner, following the club’s victory in 2009.

Recent big wins over the likes of the Ottawa Senators have shown that the glory days could well be on the way for the men from the Steel City, under the ownership of Lemieux. The betting odds are certainly shifting in their favor.

Jean Pronovost    

Anyone checking the NHL odds on betting sites, wanting to know how to wager on hockey, would do well to examine the career of Jean Pronovost. This former right wing played for the Penguins between 1968 and 1978, and scored 40 goals in a season four times during that period. He was also the first Penguin to score 100 points in a season, and to notch 50 goals.

 Joe Mullen    

Anyone who laid a wager on NHL games during the Penguins’ glory days of the early 1990s will know about Joe Mullen. This forward, known for his gentlemanly conduct, played in three NHL All-Star Games, and was also the first Penguin to register consecutive four-goal games, during the 1991/92 season.

Bryan Trottier

Any list of the greatest Penguins would not be complete without Bryan Trottier though. Another Canadian hero, anyone wondering how to bet on sports during his career would have made money by betting on Trottier’s ability to score goals. The Penguins’ two Stanley Cup titles in the early 1990s were his fifth and sixth career championships. Of Native American descent, this star played international hockey for both his native Canada and the USA.

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Don’t bring up that few “if any” come back from a peroneal nerve injury, let alone an NFL linebacker. He’s not interested in hearing about that.

And surely don’t suggest sitting out another season. That’s just not an option in his mind.

Spence, the Steelers third-round pick in 2012, is convinced that he is going to make his NFL debut this year after suffering a horrific right knee injury during the final preseason game of his rookie season. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament, causing peroneal nerve damage.

“I know, I know,”€ Spence said when reminded that not many people return from an injury like his. “I know I am going to beat the odds. I am not going to worry about that. The progress that I have made, the doctor said that I already beat the odds.”

Spence continues to proceed with caution nine months after the injury that took him months to have the nerve to watch on tape. He has yet to take the field during any of the Steelers OTAs through the first two weeks and likely won’t be participating in the final two weeks either.

“My plan is to make it back for the season,”€ Spence said. “I am still preparing and attacking this OTA as I am going to play this year. I am going to continue to get better and am looking forward to the season”

A return this year just might be wishful thinking for the athletic linebacker who the Steelers figured would be pushing veteran Larry Foote for the starting inside linebacker spot.

Linebacker coach Keith Butler said last month that “it will be miraculous if he does come back (this year); it will be miraculous if he comes back next year.”

Butler wasn’t being dramatic; he was speaking the truth.

Players recover from multiple torn ligaments all the time to go on to have successful pro football careers. But according Dr. David Geier, an orthopedic surgeon and director of Medical University of South Carolina sports medicine, few, if any, who have suffered peroneal nerve damage make it back.

“I probably do four of five knee dislocation surgeries a year, and the ones who have peroneal nerve injuries I have never seen one come back,”€ Geier said. “I can’t think of any who have been documented to have a peroneal nerve injury and returned. For me, I would just be trying to have a normal life, but playing at an elite level after something like this is difficult.”

Peroneal nerve injuries occur when multiple ligaments are torn and the leg stretches the outside of the knee, compromising the nerve that controls the upward movement of the foot and toes.

Geier said that patients with peroneal damage end up requiring a nerve graft procedure that typically would be performed six months after the initially injury. Spence said he hasn’t had that surgery.

“Nerve injuries are typically slow to heal anyways, so it is going to take a long time for those muscles to work again,”€ Geier said. “That’s the problem with any nerve injury. But a stretch injury to that nerve just doesn’t come back like other nerves.”

Spence said he has been running and can do “pretty much anything” right now but set no timetable for his return other than to say that he expects to return sometime during the season.

“You always want to play it safe, but if I am good enough to go, I am going to go,” Spence said.” If not, I would probably wait and take things slow. I can trust myself to do what I know I can do.”

The Steelers have the luxury to wait for Spence after re-signing Foote and Stevenson Sylvester while continuing to develop first-year player Marshall McFadden and rookie sixth-round pick Vince Williams.

“I really do (hope he comes back) because this kid is a great kid,”€ Butler said.

By Mark Kaboly

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