Stop Breaking My Heart, Steelers

Actually, I'm dealing quite well with Sunday's loss. My intensity for football is due mostly to the contracted nature of the season- you have to pack six games of caring into one week, if you want to compare it to baseball, three or four games for basketball and hockey.

I'll say this right now; if Big Ben plays a full season, the Steelers are 9-1. There's no way they lose to Jacksonville or Baltimore. And we'll see just how good the Steelers are next Monday night, when they play the unbeaten Colts.

Anyway, the point of this post was that I think I've settled on a Steelers bar. I used to go to Durkins in Lincoln Park, but frankly the place is pretty inaccessible by car, and it's freaking huge. So this week I met Dalla, Ean, and Tom at The Dark Horse in Wrigleyville, which is ultra-convenient, and was pleasantly surprised. It's a small place with cheap beer and an owner/bartender who hails from our old college neighborhood of Oakland.

The place was filled, and I mean filled, with former Pittsburghers. Just about everyone there used to call the Steel City home, and that was a nice feeling. That's not a put-down to non-Pittsburgh Steeler fans, it's just an affirmation of how wonderful it can be to hear a Yunzer dialect that isn't a joke.

So, I lost a game, but gained a bar. I'll take that, especially with Ben coming back next week.