{"id":904,"date":"2011-02-04T12:55:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T12:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two\/"},"modified":"2017-01-24T18:29:05","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T23:29:05","slug":"to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html","title":{"rendered":"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There&#8217;s Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_-GKMR8mFGBs\/TUwxcYNe-sI\/AAAAAAAABa0\/hp22fYBWVcE\/s1600\/steelers+praying.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"135\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_-GKMR8mFGBs\/TUwxcYNe-sI\/AAAAAAAABa0\/hp22fYBWVcE\/s200\/steelers+praying.jpg\" width=\"200\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: right\"><i><a href=\"http:\/\/yimcatholic.blogspot.com\/2011\/02\/for-all-saints-joseph-of-leonissa.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>My buddy <a href=\"http:\/\/yimcatholic.blogspot.com\/2009\/12\/to-be-frank-part-2-change-of-course.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Blaise Pascal<\/a> has this to say about sports,<\/p>\n<p><i>Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is the pleasure even of kings.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a baseball fan, so I watch professional football once or twice a year, usually. However, my family and I always watch <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/Resources\/Additional-Resources\/Why-the-Bowl-Is-Super-The-Forward-Pass-of-Dreams-Tim-Muldoon-02-01-2011.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">the Super Bowl<\/a>. And this year, I\u2019ll be pulling for the Pittsburgh Steelers.<br><a name=\"more\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><br>This is mainly for personal \u201cchildhood memory\u201d reasons. Franco Harris, one of my favorite players, and the <i>Immaculate Reception,<\/i>\u00a0for example.<\/p>\n<p>Terry Bradshaw connecting with Lynn Swan for catches like this. <\/p>\n<p>Vietnam veteran Rocky Bleier (#20) one of my favorites too, scrambling forward for yardage tenaciously, in this case for a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>And I can\u2019t forget John Stallworth.<\/p>\n<p>Glory Days! It turns out that the Steelers have a pretty well know contingent of Catholics in the organization from down on the the playing field all the way up to the owner\u2019s suite. Strong safety Troy Polamalu, for example, is a strong witness for the Faith. According to an article from the Catholic News Service <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholic.org\/national\/national_story.php?id=21277\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">back in 2006<\/a>, Troy,<\/p>\n<p><i>is not an NFL superstar who happens to be a man of faith. Rather, in his heart, he is simply \u201ca Christian with a passion for Jesus\u2026 Success in anything doesn\u2019t matter. As Mother Teresa said, God calls us not to be successful but to be faithful. My prayer is that I would glorify God no matter what, and not have success be the definition of it.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>NFL players who quote Mother Teresa? Who knew! One of the authors of that article, Gina Mazza Hillier comments that, \u201cthe entire Steelers organization is a blessing. The owners (The Rooney Family) are devout Catholics and the players are humble.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the same is true <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicsportsnet.com\/articles\/2011\/1\/31\/catholic-roots-run-deep-in-super-bowl\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">for the Green Bay Packers<\/a>. I can\u2019t say, because I don\u2019t have the same affinity for the Packers as I do for the Steelers, so I won\u2019t be looking into the matter. I do know that a couple of bishops <a href=\"http:\/\/cnsblog.wordpress.com\/2011\/02\/04\/game-on-pierogies-and-kielbasa-vs-brats-and-cheese\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">have a bet<\/a> (all proceeds of which will benefit Catholic Charities) on the outcome of the game this year.<\/p>\n<p>As Bishop David Zubik says,<\/p>\n<p><i>Have fun with the game, enjoy our Steelers, but don\u2019t let these things define us, don\u2019t let them become such a passion that we lose perspective.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Amen to that. Go Steelers!<\/p>\n<p><i><b>Update: <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicsportsnet.com\/articles\/2011\/1\/31\/catholic-roots-run-deep-in-super-bowl\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Catholic Roots Run Deep for Both Teams.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/6738513599344023043-1319468391792931176?l=yimcatholic.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa\u00a0\u00a0 My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports, Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is the pleasure even of kings. I\u2019m a baseball fan, so I watch professional football once or twice a year, usually. However, my family and I always [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There&#039;s Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa&nbsp;&nbsp;My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports,Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There&#039;s Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa&nbsp;&nbsp;My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports,Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Why I Am Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-04T12:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-24T23:29:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_-GKMR8mFGBs\/TUwxcYNe-sI\/AAAAAAAABa0\/hp22fYBWVcE\/s200\/steelers+praying.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html\",\"name\":\"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There's Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-04T12:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-24T23:29:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\"},\"description\":\"Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa&nbsp;&nbsp;My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports,Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There&#8217;s Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Am Catholic\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\",\"name\":\"Frank Weathers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frank Weathers\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There's Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)","description":"Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa&nbsp;&nbsp;My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports,Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There's Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)","og_description":"Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa&nbsp;&nbsp;My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports,Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html","og_site_name":"Why I Am Catholic","article_published_time":"2011-02-04T12:55:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-24T23:29:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_-GKMR8mFGBs\/TUwxcYNe-sI\/AAAAAAAABa0\/hp22fYBWVcE\/s200\/steelers+praying.jpg"}],"author":"Frank Weathers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Frank Weathers","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html","name":"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There's Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-04T12:55:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-24T23:29:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc"},"description":"Feast of St. Joseph of Leonissa&nbsp;&nbsp;My buddy Blaise Pascal has this to say about sports,Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/02\/to-pull-for-the-pittsburgh-steelers-theres-even-a-catholic-reason-or-two.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"To Pull for the Pittsburgh Steelers (There&#8217;s Even a Catholic Reason, or Two)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/","name":"Why I Am Catholic","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc","name":"Frank Weathers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Frank Weathers"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}