The Pittsburgh Steelers have elected their team captains for the upcoming season. The four captains are Ben Roethlisberger, Ryan Clark, Brett Keisel, and Maurkice Pouncey. Ben and Pouncer obviously represent the offense while Clark and Keis stand for the D. The Steelers usuallly have a special teams representative but for whatever reason it appears they won’t this season. Perhaps when they play less shitty they’ll be granted a seat at the big boy table.
There are no real surprises among the captains. Ben is now a veteran and undisputed leader of the offense. The Diesel appears to be a respected locker room voice. Clark, well, that probably should’ve been Troy’s slot but Clark is such a self-important loudmouth that a quiet, humble man like Troy figured it wasn’t worth fighting over. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.
Then we have Pouncey. The coaches expect him to provide guidance and leadership to their young offensive line so I imagine the players voted for him with that in mind. However, I’m not 100% sold on Pouncey’s place as a leader. The “Free Hernandez” hat he wore at his birthday party and a Rolling Stone article on Aaron Hernandez which detailed Pouncey’s job as Hernandez’s “babysitter” while at college (where he was involved in all manner of antisocial activities – including, allegedly, a nightclub shooting) don’t speak well of his leadership skills. Neither does the fact another ex Florida teammate, Chris Rainey, who lived with the Pounceys in high school, was cut over the winter for being a budding sociopath.
If this is the kind of “leadership” the Steelers players crave, well, no wonder the locker room was broken last year.