The Pittsburgh Steelers chose their team captains for the 2012 season. The results are another illustration that in many ways this year is going to be a transition year for the team. Unlike in previous years when half the team wore the “C” only two players were chosen to be captains. Ben Roethlisberger and Brett Keisel.
Last year, the team had four captains, one on defense (James Farrior), one on special teams (Arnaz Battle) and two on offense (Hines Ward and Ben). Now that I think look at it, it seems kind of weird they chose one captain defense and special teams but two on offense last season. Makes you wonder if there was some political maneuverings at play there. The team famously stripped Ben of his captaincy the year following his shenanigans down in Georgia so I can see team officials “encouraging” the players to make Ben a captain even though deep down everybody knew Hines was their undisputed leader.
The selection of Diesel is also an interesting one. Farrior was clearly the defense’s leader on the field but he was never their biggest star. While he’s long gone, the stars still remain. With all due respect to the commanding presence of Keisel’s beard, one would’ve thought a mainstay like Troy Polamalu or James Harrison would’ve been named captain. I guess James is sort of a lead by example type and Troy is far too quiet to be obvious choices while guys like Lawrence Timmons or LaMarr Woodley don’t have the seniority to be named captain.
I realize I’m probably over-analyzing this since the main duty of a team captain is call heads or tails in the event a game goes into overtime. That being the case, the chief factor in picking a captain should probably be nice clear enunciation. After all, we wouldn’t want a repeat of the Jerome Bettis Thanksgiving Coin Toss incident. Although with these replacement officials handling the duties, I wouldn’t be surprised if we did.