re: Kordell Stewart wrote really interesting piece(long) about his experience in Pittsburgh

Barry Foster

There are literally people on Twitter demanding Brady do something like this because he probably voted for Trump in 2016.

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Yankees are the worst

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Yankees are racist as hell and they do not have a whole lot of interaction with African Americans but want to throw shade on the south

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90 precent of steelers fans that go to games dont live in western /southwestern PA.

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Fixed

I am a proud native of western PA. It courses through my veins. We have a very strong civic pride up there. I miss it dearly. My family, seeing downtown Pittsburgh magically appear as you come out of the Fort Pitt tubes, downtown Pittsburgh at night, the Duquense Incline up Mt.Washington, the natural, gorgeous beauty, I miss it all, however.....

Pittsburgh is one of the most racist cities and W.PA one of the most racist areas of the country. Overt racism, not like it is here in the South. Just flat out in the open. I had family that was racist. My uncle(God Rest his soul) being the worst. He hated blacks. And it was something that thankfully didn't carryover to his 2 kids, my two closest first cousins. But his daughter(we are 5 months apart) had a little girl(his granddaughter back in 2001. She is mixed. He refused to accept her for the first few months of her life. Until my aunt, his wife, finally convinced him to hold her. And when my Aunt put Tamara in his lap, all those feelings of hate and animosity just melted away, almost instantly. Those 2 were absolutely inseparable up until the time my uncle died in March of 2003. I truly believe that loving her was his penance.

My dad(RIP), my uncle's youngest brother, was much the same way. There is a picture of him holding my daughter, his granddaughter, at Thanksgiving 2015 when she was 5 months old in his chair when we were visiting him at his place in Butler County(30 miles north of Pittsburgh). My daughter is adopted and black. That picture is on Lexi's bookshelf. And I truly believe that him holding her and loving her like he did was also his penance for his hateful ways. I lost him in June of '18. But I saw him change his views in much the way that his brother, my uncle did.

To bring it back around, Pittsburgh has some very bigoted and racist assholes(still not on the level of Boston) and that is one thing that I am ashamed of about my hometown. The bigotry.

Kordell was treated like absolute shite. He has a right to be bitter.

Being from Pittsburgh; I remember those rumors and that time in the city. So I’ll clear a couple of things up.

#1 - Pittsburgh and Philly are amazingly racist towns. Philly more so than Pittsburgh, but they’re both bad.

#2 - Kordell Stewart was an incredibly mediocre QB. It’s actually funny to read the revisionist history about his time there. If he as skilled as everyone is now claiming, why did the Bears bench him after 6 games and cut him after one season? He wasn’t that old, he just wasn’t good. Reference his playoff appearances, the 1997 AFC championship game was truly a disaster. Flat out he wasn’t an accurate passer. The next time he hits someone in stride may be the first time. Actually, second. I remember one pass that he had on a slant that was dead on. That’s how inaccurate he was, I actually remember the one time he got it right, because it was so rare.

This is a guy who got beat out by Tommy Maddox, who was fresh off the trash heap of the XFL.

#3 - The gay rumors. Yes he was detained once in Pittsburgh, never booked and released after an hour or two. The gay rumors came from that he was detained in Schenley Park late at night, a known gay hangout at the time. He was detained for not moving his parked car when a cop flashed his lights to get the car to move. Is he gay, I don’t know, don’t care. But the circumstances at the time is that if that’s where you are and that’s what you’re doing; well there’s not many other reasons to be there at that time. So the rumors came from the police, that’s probably legitimate.

#4 - The guy was a huge drama queen, maybe worse than Big Ben. We’re talking about a guy who would cry on the sideline when the game was going bad. We’re not talking about big AFC championship losses, just mid-season games. He’d follow those up with teary-eyed press conferences. Also remember, that he was not a particularly well liked teammate or locker room leader.

#5 - He disliked the town from the beginning. The guy was always talking about how he wasn’t treated right in the town and seemed to have a dislike from the city from day one. It's not like he tried to forge a relationship with the city himself. He’s certainly not the first black player the Steelers have had, not the first black QB they had. The town embraces people that embrace the town. Jerome Bettis is a saint there, same with Hines Ward and they played the same time as Kordell. They chose to embrace the city, he chose to insult it at every press conference he held.

#6 - Pittsburgh is ruthless with QBs. Terry Bradshaw didn’t come back to the city for 20 years after he retired. He was done with it. Kordell got no worse treatment. Actually he had the benefit of apologists in the media that no other QB in that town ever had. He was legitimately more protected than any other Steeler player I can remember.


This article is pretty much a microcosm of his time in Pittsburgh. He’d underperform, complain about the town, complain about his treatment there, complain about the game plan (actually legitimate sometimes) the media would write a story about how it wasn’t his fault. And they’d do it all again the next week. Wash, rinse, repeat.

He left in 2002. Two years later the Steelers went 14-1 with the same roster that Stewart had, except a rookie QB and a great safety. The next year after that, they were holding the Lombardi trophy. That pretty much says it all to me.

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#1 - Pittsburgh and Philly are amazingly racist towns. Philly more so than Pittsburgh, but they’re both bad.

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Yep. 100% true. And it's funny b/c Pittsburgh/everything west of the Alleghenies might as well be in a different country. Pittsburgh is the Midwest.

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Kordell Stewart was an incredibly mediocre QB.

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True. Still doesn't absolve the treatment he got though. Which leads me to....

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Pittsburgh is ruthless with QBs

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The truest thing ever written on this board. It's been better w/Ben but he still has his share of haters.

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Schenley Park

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Yeah, its like Piedmont Park after dark here in Atlanta.

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He’s certainly not the first black player the Steelers have had, not the first black QB they had. The town embraces people that embrace the town. Jerome Bettis is a saint there, same with Hines Ward

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And Joe Greene. That goes back to the point I made in my post that Pittsburgh has an intense civic pride and with it we are by nature, very territorial and protective of our town.

South Hills. Went to Upper St, Clair high school. And no, my family didn’t own a helicopter. Though that would have been nice!

Dads family is from Mt. Washington and my moms is from Pitcairn / McKeesport.

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Morton’s steakhouse.

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I’ve eaten at the one in Pittsburgh. It’s aight.