Antonio Brown exchanges jerseys with the Chiefs' Marcus Peters Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Steelers

Kovacevic: Steelers aren't likable? Anyone care to elaborate on that?

Oct 17, 2017 • 12:00 am

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Steelers are really good. They’re 4-2. Only two NFL teams, the Chiefs and Eagles, have a better record. And the Chiefs are now roadkill.

The Steelers’ defense is really good. They rank No. 7 overall, No. 1 against the pass. This is thanks primarily to a younger core that could grow together in Pittsburgh for years to come.

The Steelers’ running game is really good. It might be the league’s best if accounting for the slow start everyone knew Le’Veon Bell would have. As it is, it’s good enough that he trampled Kansas City’s proud defense to the point that Andy Reid could only say afterward, “They ran when they wanted to run.”

The Steelers’ passing game hasn't been anywhere near as good as it should be, but that’s the one shortcoming you’d have accepted upon entering this season, if only because it’s got by far the best chance of being corrected. Antonio Brown is the league’s best receiver, still and all. The franchise quarterback might be bouncing back. It’s a problem, but it’s the ideal problem.

Oh, and the Steelers are comprised of really, really good people, by and large.

Yeah, I’m going there.

I’ve got no idea what’s gotten into seemingly the better portion of this franchise’s fanbase of late, but wow, it’s become maybe the most joyless bunch in all of professional sports, at least judging from my gauge of the Internet, radio and the like. And no, this isn’t the norm. It hasn’t been like this. Not ever that I can recall. It’s as if some of the team's own fans actually perk up when they lose, if only because it further feeds whatever anger they’d felt the previous week or month or even a year if we rewind back to Foxborough.

The football stuff speaks for itself: If you don’t think this is a really good football team, then I’ve got no meaningful counter for that other than that facts are facts.

But this mounting concept that these Steelers are unlikable -- and that's the term people are casually using -- I’m damned comfortable addressing that.

Let’s start with this: Who exactly isn’t likable and why?

Don’t generalize. Don’t tiptoe. Speak up.

Is it Cam Heyward, one of our community’s great humanitarians, who was taught to carry on the Steelers Way by Brett Keisel and the late Dan Rooney himself?

Please say it's Cam. Pretty please.

Is it Ramon Foster, one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve had the pleasure to know?

If so, hurry up and tell the people in his native Tennessee he helps each summer. They deserve to know how unlikable he is.

How about Maurkice Pouncey?

Let’s push it a little here. He and his brother once wore dumb caps, and everyone remembers that. But does that undo his being the central, most beloved, most welcoming figure in the room? Or all the passion he exhibits for the Steelers, even when he’s been hurt?

How about Ryan Shazier?

He’s Carnell Lake smart, Troy Polamalu wild. He’s a joy to be around.

Is Stephon Tuitt your target?

Try spending five — no, two — minutes with the kid. He’ll have you swooning.

Artie Burns, Sean Davis?

They exude class and character, even as relative children in the NFL.

Mike Hilton, who won a job in camp while repeatedly jabbing Mike Tomlin from the field about how “I’m too small, right? Too small! Yeah, too small!”

I could do this all day, but I can hear the cherrypicked comebacks already, so I’ll cut right to them.

James Harrison?

No, he isn’t likable, but that’s the persona. It never stops. He never strays from it. And if you cheered what you witnessed Sunday, you probably already understand that a 39-year-old still doing that in the NFL has got to be wired a little differently. He sure is.

Mike Mitchell?

He’s got some of that persona thing going, too. But this is a guy I’ve gotten to know. We haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, to put it mildly, but a mutual respect has formed. He now has a better understanding of this job, and I have a better understanding of his level of commitment to his job, how seriously he takes it and, above all, how seriously he makes sure these new kids in the secondary take it.

If you don’t like Mitch because he wears a bandana when introduced, then you don’t like Ike Taylor, either. And, in the event you don’t recall, it’s an actual impossibility to dislike Ike:

Ike Taylor and Dan Rooney. - AP

Who else?

Oh, yeah, how about the quarterback?

In terms of a hard-to-reach personality, no one on the roster is more distant, more guarded than Ben Roethlisberger. In that sense, he’s hard to like, if literally applied, because he won’t allow it. There have been times in our professional dealings I’ve felt there was a real breakthrough, notably after that awful loss in London a couple years ago. But it was never sustained. The next time, he could look straight through me. Or anyone.

He’s obviously got the history, too, and I’m sure that’s got him disliked to this day by many.

But, in the same breath, I also never, ever hear anyone mention Ben as an example of this being some unlikable team.

So it can’t be him, right?

Le’Veon Bell?

Please. He’s an overgrown, harmless child who raps in his free time, punches goalposts after touchdowns.

Please, please don’t tell me Le’Veon’s it. Rapping doesn’t make someone unlikable. It’s music. It’s modern music, modern culture, modern expression. If it's him rapping, then you’ve got nothing on him. Nothing at all.

Is it about him wanting to be paid like the NFL’s best running back — which he is — and subsequently rapping about it?

Wow, I sure hope not. He’s entitled to his money, he’s entitled to his music and culture, and he’s very entitled to express himself as he sees fit. Just as you are. Just as we all are. And his particular expression is as fun and imaginative as it gets.

What about AB?

I could revisit water coolers and temper tantrums, his Facebook Live fiasco, his mugging for the masses, his alternating persona and all else, or I could simply ask this: What’s he actually done to hurt anyone other than himself with his occasional idiocy?

I don’t like him much at all anymore. I’ve written that. He’s changed a lot. He’s the wide receiver diva personified, and he’s become so distant NASA couldn’t find him. But again: What’s he actually done to me or you?

His job is to be the best in the world at what he does. He’s exactly that and more. He’s the last guy off the field every evening in Latrobe, and he makes sure all the other receivers hang with him. He makes everyone better. He makes his quarterback better. He makes the Steelers better.

If he wants to be a weirdo along the way, that has close to zero impact on me. And I can’t imagine why it would anyone.

Martavis Bryant’s the hot new trend, of course, so I saved him for last.

This kid’s got the idiocy part down pat. And I’m not telling you anything I haven’t shared with him. He’s kind, he’s gentle, he’s humble enough ... but his idiocy is rooted, in part, in listening to a whole lot of stupidity around him. He doesn’t know how to tune it out. He doesn’t know how to reject it. And yeah, he’s an adult, so he should know better, but that doesn’t alter the reality.

I’m going to try to word this delicately, but everything I’ve heard over this weekend powerfully suggests Martavis got himself yanked around by people using him to make themselves some short-term cash. That ticks me off, nearly as much at the athlete as at those doing the yanking.

You want to dislike Martavis?

Be my guest, but that would be a lot more accurately channeled elsewhere.

Come on, who else?

Anyone?

Oh, right. Alejandro Villanueva. Utterly reprehensible human being. Not at all worthy of playing for our favorite football team that used to be a lot more likable.

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WHAT’S BREWING

• My busy afternoon begins with a speaking engagement at Point Park University at 1 p.m. It’s for the school’s Center for Sports Media and Marketing, and I’m looking forward to it. The one three years ago was wonderful.

• Right after that, from 3-6 p.m., I’ve got a full radio show on 105.9 the X, filling in for Mark Madden. I think I’m just going to yell at people for three hours, which wouldn’t leave room for guests, obviously. Here’s how to listen online.

• Katie Brown and Sara Civian will both be in New York for Penguins-Rangers tonight.

• Rob Ullman’s got a new cartoon this morning. He’s so good. I don’t think I say that often enough.

• Penn State fans: Audrey Snyder’s got Midweek Reader tomorrow. You’re in for a long-form treat.

STEELERS TODAY

• Event: Mike Tomlin press conference

• Location: Rooney Sports Complex

• Time: Noon

• Our coverage: Mark Kaboly

PENGUINS TODAY

• Event: Game vs. Rangers

• Location: Madison Square Garden

• Time: 7:08 p.m.