Steelers linebacker: merit sucks

James Harrison, linebacker for the Superbowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, is going to skip his team’s traditional championship visit to the White House.

He doesn’t think it’s fair.

“I don’t feel the need to go, actually,” Harrison told Pittsburgh station WTAE-TV. “I don’t feel like it’s that big a deal to me.”

Harrison doesn’t believe the invitation is all that special, saying if the Steelers hadn’t beaten the Cardinals 27-23 with a last-minute rally, “He [Obama] would have invited Arizona.”

He’s exactly right, of course. President Obama is only inviting the Steelers because the Steelers won the Superbowl. If some other team had won the Superbowl, Obama would be inviting that team, and not the Steelers.

And what’s up with that?

Whatever happened to “doing away with the concept of better?” With praising effort, no matter the outcome?

Isn’t it probably the case that the Steelers won the Superbowl because they had greater talent than the other teams? So why should that – winning the football lottery – gain them any more praise than, say, Detroit or Kansas City, who were clearly the nerds of the NFL gym class?

Or, as President Obama might say, the Special Olympians of the NFL?

Good for Harrison, I say, for standing up for basic fairness. The world needs more guys like him.

Now, James, if you’ll please move your stuff out of the locker room so that I can play…

Via Memeorandum

UPDATE – Linked by Clever S. Logan, who is apparently a Steelers fan. Weird. I thought all them Alabama girls were either Tigers or Tide.