15 albums: dreams of the colorblind

getting back to my list of my 15 favorite albums, here is perhaps the most obscure of all. but just because it is obscure doesn't mean it isn't awesome. trust me. it's awesome.

i first heard this album on casette tape when a guy named rob hanak with some connection to wheaton college gave me a dubbed copy in high school. i fell in love right from the first notes of 'blue sky morning.' i wore that tape out. so i researched and researched until i found a company out of illinois that was selling the cd. i bought it. i believe i have purchased at least 10 copies of this album since then, as gifts. when i was in college, i became an evangelist for the folky duo, telling everyone i knew about them, and lending cd's like a library. but it paid off, because soon grove city college became a sort of haven of harrod and funck fans, so the concert committee, which i was a part of, decided to try and bring them to campus. and they came! i invited everyone i knew, and they loved them. so we asked them again. and again. i know i saw them in the grove city area at least 5 times. but i digress.

all of this harrod and funck following started with a singular album, one collection of songs: dreams of the colorblind, an amazing collection of acoustic, jazz-influenced, harmony-laden tracks. now, let's get one thing straight: this is not the album you want to put on the ipod before your big wrestling match or something. this is not that music. however, if you want to sit with cup of coffee and reflect on your life; or if you want a soundtrack for a walk with an old friend; or if you want to feel your spirit rise a bit from the earth and ash of this world, then this is the album for you.

this may mean nothing to most of you, but it also may mean something significant to a few of you: the late great mark heard produced this little independent album. and it has his fingerprints all over it.

i can't find any harrod and funck stuff on you tube, but i found these tracks here that you can preview at least for a sample. my favorite tracks: nethy bridge, moment before the last, hand draws flowers, guessing game, worn out welcome...aww, forget it. all of them. it is the soundtrack of my four years at college.

thank you, jason harrod and brian funck, for making this music. it has helped form me into the person i am.

happy 8th birthday, max!

happy birthday to our beloved dog, max milinovich. if you've never met him, you should know that he's a english bulldog, a huge steeler fan, and an avid drooler. he suffers from narcolepsy. he weighs in at about 60 pounds, and can pack a pretty mean punch if you are standing between him and something that resembles food. other than that, though, he is a wimp to the greatest degree. he is scared of cats and squirrels. he just prefers to be left alone. and sleep.

today he turns 8, which is actually a pretty good lifetime for a bulldog, who are particularly prone to several different health issues (not that we haven't had our fair share of those with him). in the 7 years we've had him, he has definitely become an adored part of our family. as he is a frequent reader on the blog, please feel free to wish him a happy birthday in the comments section.

connected by ashes

i had a great ecumenical moment yesterday. i just hope that the pope isn't mad at me about it. i might have just landed myself on the vatican's "10 most wanted" list. let me tell you what happened.

yesterday afternoon, after a noontime ash wednesday service, i headed over to new brunswick to visit a teenager in the hospital. as he was in tutoring when i got there, i ended up spending a good bit of time with his mother and aunt. i realized that they would all like to experience the imposition of ashes for the beginning of their own lenten journeys, so i headed down to the chapel to see if the hospital had ashes. before i left the room they told me that the tvs in the rooms have a channel that shows the chapel, so i told them to look for me and i would make faces at them. unfortunately, when i found the chapel, someone was in there praying fervently, so i tried to wave and make faces as discreetly as possible. but there were no ashes there.

so i got directions to the chaplain's office and knocked on the door. no one answered so i opened the door and went in. there was a receptionist's desk on my left and a man sitting in a chair on my right. he looked like he was waiting for someone so i asked him if anyone was in the office. he said he didn't know, and as he noticed the ashes on my forehead, he proceeded to tell me that he was hoping to receive ashes before he went home for the day. as soon as he said this, i noticed some containers of ashes on the receptionist's desk, and so i said, "oh perfect! this is what i was looking for. i assume i can take one of these to a patient's room."

"oh, you mean, you're a priest?" he inquired in response.

"well, i'm a pastor. i'm a methodist minister. are you a..."

"i'm a roman catholic."

then there was this moment of indecision. i could tell he really wanted me to offer to impose the ashes for him, but i was weighing the possibility of being sought and destroyed by opus dei or something. while in this conundrum, i found myself speaking without really giving myself permission. "i mean, if you want, i could do this for y..."

"really? that would be great. thank you so much."

he seemed really happy about that. i didn't tell him that he might have just landed himself some extra time in purgatory or something. i'm really not familiar with the rules here. i simply took the ashes and put them on his forehead, like i did several other people yesterday. our differences didn't really matter in that moment. we were both just human beings. broken, fallible human beings, trying to recognize our own mortality; trying to start this journey toward life and light from the shadows; trying to allow the grit of ash to get us started off on the right foot. both of us. the white protestant united methodist pastor and the black roman catholic man. both marked by ash. both of us alive. both of us broken. both of us bound by hope in the One who invites all of us to the feast.

ash wednesday: 2009

"ash wednesday, 2009"

mixed media collage on book board

gregory a. milinovich

i hope you have a truly blessed ash wednesday today; one in which you tangibly touch your own brokenness and mortality as you begin this paschal journey towards wholeness and eternal life. grace and peace to you.

greg.

thoughts at the beginning of lent

i am currently in the process of facilitating a tuesday night discussion group based on the tv's the simpsons, a show which i absolutely love. each week we watch an episode and then discuss it in terms of what it has to say to us, as well as what it might be saying about us. in the episode we watched last week one scene finds bart and lisa in their sunday school class. the teacher is describing just how awful hell will be, and then tells them the children that there is really only one way to avoid eternal damnation, and that is to abide by the ten commandments, which she says are, "ten simple rules that are easy to follow."

part of our discussion centered around this teacher's dismissive denial of the reality of the difficulty of living a disciplined, obedient life. in reality it is hard to follow the law sometimes, and perhaps even harder to follow Christ's law of loving God and others. there are, of course, times when it comes easier than others, but often it is very hard work. but in our class we also talked about how this sunday school teacher in the simpsons might actually be a caricature of us. in other words, we need to ask ourselves, "am i guilty of making the christian faith look like something easy and effortless? do i so want people to see my joy that i deny them the truth of my own struggle? do i project a faith that is forced and fake?"

of course, it's not just the church. it's culture, too. look, for example, at the fear of death that is so rampant in our culture (and in our churches). we buy every product, every surgery, every diet, everything we can to cover up the effects of aging. every wrinkle and spot gets hidden. our elderly and ill we marginalize away into the far corners of nursing homes. we idolize and glorify youth and vigor and strength. all in an effort to perpetuate one of the oldest lies going, "you will not surely die" (genesis 3:4).

you see, as humans, we've become pretty good at hiding what we know to be true deep down inside us and ignoring that truth as we busy ourselves with other things. we'd rather work tirelessly to hide the effects of our own aging than deal with our own mortality. we'd rather put on a happy smile and make christianity look like a giant game of candyland than be honest with our neighbors about our doubts, fears and struggles.

which is why i love ash wednesday. i mean, i know that today is fat tuesday, so i should be probably be writing about pancakes or something, but i just can't. i need to remember again the deep importance of ash wednesday, with all its gritty greyness. ash wednesday, the beginning of not only the 40 days of lent, but also of the entire paschal cycle, ending with pentecost, is a day of reconnecting to reality. it is true for each one of us that tragedy eventually comes to our lives in one way or another. when it does, we all have our ways of handling it. we cry and mourn and go through all the rituals associated with it. in the ancient hebrew culture, the custom was to tear you clothes - a symbol of brokenness. and God must certainly understand our pain in times of grief, and our need to turn to God for answers or assurance or aid. but ash wednesday reminds us that God doesn't want us to just turn to God in times of trouble, when tragedy strikes. "tear your hearts, not your garments" God says to us in Joel 2:13. in other words, don't just react when tragedy strikes. don't wait to face your own mortality. deal with your own brokenness now.

and that is, at least for me, the great value of ash wednesday. it forces us to deal with our brokenness now. we get ashes put on our body as a reminder that we, too, will one day be a pile of ash. we get ashes put on our body as a reminder that, just like ash, we too are not whole, broken by life. we get ashes put on our body as a reminder that we ought to be honest with one another about our own brokenness rather than trying to cover it up and hiding it with spiritual make up and pernicious lies. i don't want to be the simpsons sunday school teacher who says with a nice smile, "christianity is easy! look at me. i'm happy, and things are wonderful. why aren't you happy, too?" this only serves to make people feel like they aren't cut out for the whole faith thing because life, for them, is too hard. instead, i want to be someone who is comfortable in my own mortal skin; who knows my own propensity for death; who lives a life that truly models the audacity of hope in redemption by being honest about my own fears and failures. i want to be real, and to really connect with others. i want my ashes to be visible all the time, perhaps most importantly to myself. and i want to believe with all my heart that the ashes aren't the end of the story -that somehow what is broken is made whole again in the end (lord, help my unbelief).

as you begin your season of lent and thing about what disciplines you might pursue during these 40 days as a way of returning and being restored in your relationship with God, i pray that you will get comfortable with your own ashes - your own death - and allow that to make you a more honest, authentic and genuine person.

gracepeace,

greg.

15 albums: a rush of blood to the head

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next on my list is an album by coldplay, their 2002 album a rush of blood to the head. this is much more mainstream than anything on my list so far, so many of you have heard of this, i hope. in fact, some of you are probably thinking that i've gone and 'sold out' or something, picking an album as pop-oriented as this one, but i just can't help it. ever since i first heard coldplay, on mtv of all places, singing 'yellow,' i was mesmerized. there is just something about this british band that lures me in everytime. shannon and i saw them in concert this fall and i wrote about it here. so, if you are a coldplay hater, sorry. but i am most certainly not. in spite of their mass appeal, i am a fan.

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interestingly enough, this album doesn't even contain any of my top three favorite coldplay songs ("fix you," "yellow" and "viva la vida," in that order), but it is the album that i first got my hands on and the one that initiated my love affair with this music. and so i choose it. one of my top 15 albums of all time. a rush of blood to the head. enjoy this video to the song "the scientist."

the music

"the music"

paper collage

gregory a. milinovich

here's a collage i made yesterday. i've had the idea for it bouncing around in my head for awhile, but used my day off yesterday as a chance to finally nail it down. i love it when i have time on a day off to collage. it is so rewarding for me. hope you have a great friday. peace.

consult your physician

i seriously need to get off my duff and get some physical exercise. at least that was what i was thinking yesterday, in a moment of weakness. so i found out that our comcast on demand has some exercise programs that you can try. having heard some good things about it, i thought i'd try bob's biggest loser workout. all i can say about that is that with every step i take today, my legs are calling out unspeakable curses on bob and his 'jumping lunges.' i want to throw dumbells at my tv and overly dramatic words at bob. exercise. blech.

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as i started the workout yesterday, i noticed that it started off with these words: "please consult your doctor before beginning this or any exercise program."

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as i began lunging my way into sore-muscle-hell, i was thinking about how that warning is like the warning on the side of the cigarette package. i know that it is there in case you've got some pre-existing condition that would make exercise dangerous, but it's like it is saying, "caution: exercise may be dangerous for your health," and that made me laugh. so i began to imagine how that conversation with my doctor might go...

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the scene begins with me sitting nervously on the edge of the bed/seat thing in the doctor's office. doctors purposely make you wait in these rooms to raise your blood pressure. you see me sitting there, swinging my legs, trying to keep my posture erect so i don't look quite so fat in the middle. finallly, the doctor enters...

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doc: good morning, greg. how are you doing?

me: (with strained voice from holding in my gut) good. and you?

doc: great. so what brings you here today?

me: well, i was thinking i might start an exercise program, but the program told me that i should consult you before i start.

doc: (while looking in my ears and mouth, listening to my heart, etc.) wow, i'm so glad you did. this could have been very bad. if you had started to exercise you might have actually started losing weight and getting in shape! and we wouldn't want that!

me: yeah, i know. that's what i was thinking. that's why i thought i'd check with you first.

doc: you see, that's the problem with all these "exercise programs" and so on: they just want to try to make you healthier. its ridiculous, really.

me: so, is there something i should be doing instead.

doc: (scribbling some things on my chart) yeah, i think you should just stick with your routine of eating too much and not exercising. that seems to be working pretty well for you. i'll write you a prescription for a super-sized quarter pounder meal at mcdonalds, and you should be right back on track. i'm just really glad you followed the warning on the exercise program and decided to do the right thing. i wish all my patients were as careful. just schedule another appointment in a few months and we'll follow up to make sure you're still staying at your ideal overweight. keep up the good work.

me: thanks.

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but, to be honest, the conversation would probably go more like this:

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me: good morning, doc.

doc: what can i do for you?

me: i was going to exercise but it told me i should consult with you first.

doc: o god, yes. by all means, exercise. in fact, leave my office right this instant and begin exercising. and don't stop until you lose that heart-condition around your midsection. don't waste any more time consulting with me, unless you run here carrying weights. seriously. and it wouldn't hurt you to eat a few less potato chips, too. don't worry about consulting me on that, either, okay? just take half the time you spend eating and use it to exercise, and you should be fine. now stop at the nurses station on the way out and tell them you won't be back here until you've dumped that barrel around your torso.

15 albums: time out

so i've been getting some complaints that many of my readers haven't heard of most of my 15 albums. deal with it. if you want to read about what everyone is listening to, check out the home of teen magazine, or rolling stone (teen magazine for adults). but if you want to know what moves me, then keep reading. and, i promise, there will be at least a couple more that you've heard of.

today's album (5th on the list) is the dave brubeck quartet's time out. considered by many jazz aficionados as a bit too accessible, or pop, this album is nonetheless nothing short of a work of amazing art. designed as an experiment with different time signatures (hence the name), and reluctantly released by columbia records, the record had fantastic popular success, with the song "take five" rising to number 5 on the pop music charts. regardless if you look down your nose at this or not, this album has become an important part of the history of jazz.

for me, personally, i found out about it about 10 years ago, and have been in love with it ever since. i have sucked up every brubeck recording i can get my hands (an ears) on. paul desmond's sax and joe morello's drums, along with brubeck's piano is a bit of heaven for me. i have listened to this album so many times i can sing most of the solos to you. enjoy this live clip of the quartet playing "take five" in 1961.

presidential...um...stuff

here's a bit of presidential trivia for your president's day "day after."

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two and a half years ago, it was reported that when george w. bush traveled to austria, a special portable toilet was flown in with him for his use while in that country. apparently, the secret service was concerned that if president bush were to use the public plumbing, someone might tap into the system and steal his poo, which might help them discern top secret information about the president's health. so the president performed his private payment in a personal potty, from which the poo/pee was collected and sent back to the u.s. for proper - and covert - disposal.

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the secret service had good reason for their poop protection. the flushed feces of other world leaders has been secretly siphoned before, in an effort to determine the real health situations of those leaders. one can never be too careful, i guess. still, would you want to be the security guard on detail for w.'s poop? guarding a little brown box all the way from austria?

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it's a crazy world, people. a crazy world.

15 albums: good dog bad dog

this is another album that i fell in love with in college. i had never heard of the cincinnati-based band over the rhine until my friend nate introduced them to me right around the time that this album first came out. the first time i heard it, i knew i was in love. my heart pounded a little faster and i got a bit clammy. it was like the curtain had been pulled back a little and i was seeing something that had previously been hidden. songs like poughkeepsie and latter days spoke deeply to me. and not just the first time. thirteen or fourteen years later i am still moved by this music. still in awe of her voice. still affected by the poetry.

i have become an avid follower of otr, having seen them in concert now at least 10 times and owning all their albums. but this one, good dog bad dog, is sort of my first love when it comes to this band. enjoy the song below.

four loves

thanks to my friend greg for getting this to me...."the love for equals is a human thing---of friend for friend, brother for brother. it is to love what is loving and lovely. the world smiles.
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the love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing---the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. this is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
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the love for the more fortunate is a rare thing---to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. the world is always bewildered by its saints.
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and then there is the love for the enemy---love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. the tortured's love for the torturer. this is God's love. it conquers the world."

-frederick buechner, the magnificent defeat

happy valentine's day, 2009

here's what jack told shannon today:

"mommy, i love you more than a t-rex loves to eat meat. which is like a stegosaurus."

that's a whole lotta love.

have a great valentine's day. hope its full of lots of love.

jack's valentines

here are some of jack's scooby doo valentines, which he will give to his friends tomorrow at school. i mean, i know its not a big deal, he's only four years old. but hey, its a big deal! he's only four years old! and he wrote his name himself on all those valentines! and put on the scooby stickers. just thought i'd share this precious moment from toddler-hood. happy valentine's day.

15 albums: vitalogy

next on my list of the 15 best albums of my life, is pearl jam's vitalogy. you need to understand that i have this whole love/hate relationship with pearl jam that has been an ongoing affair ever since i first heard "alive" in high school. i love vedder's voice. i love the guitar work. i love the drums. i love the way i can so easily get lost. i love the aggression. i love the social conscience. however, i'm not a fan of the antagonism towards religion and the sometimes inflammatory political rhetoric. still, of all the 'grunge' bands from seattle and the early '90's, pearl jam has proven to be the most enduring. while i like every album they've ever put out, vitalogy for me has the best collection of songs that i really love. plus, in a synergistic way, this album represents something more than just the sum of the songs. listening to the album (minus a couple of the tracks) is a spiritual experience for me. tracks like "not for you" and "corduroy" and "immortality" just speak to my soul. but my favorite tracks are what i call the "man" songs: "nothingman" and "better man," the latter of which you can listen to below.

any thoughts out there on pearl jam? do you love or hate them? or this album? my second fave pj album is no code, and my all time favorite pearl jam song is "yellow ledbetter."

15 albums: illinoise

sufjan stevens' (pronounced soof-yawn) album come on feel the illinoise! is next on my list. this album changed some things for me in terms of how i listen to and enjoy music, and not really in a way that i can describe. this music is pretty much anti-cool when it comes to instrumentation and production. to be very clear: this is the opposite of whatever your local "hot 99" fm radio station is playing. rather than phat beats, here you've got full orchestra. rather than sweet samples and sultry sexual innuendo, you've got sweeping string sections. his official site over at asthmatic kitty records says that he has "a preoccupation with epic concepts," and i would argue that this carries over into his music as well. the music feels huge. enormous. busy. if folk music is the sound of a troubadour, then sufjan's music is sound of the city, which is appropriate, since he currently resides in brooklyn. its complicated and complex, but not chaos. and its completely refreshing. his 5 disc-set christmas album is incredible, too, as is his other state-themed recording, michigan.

here is his song "chicago" from the album. enjoy.

caption contest: fierce dog

okay, dazzle me with your wit. write a caption for this photo.

15 albums: pink moon

let's get one thing straight. in general i hate those email lists where you are supposed to write 25 things about yourself and then send it to ten people who then do the same thing. actually, hate is too soft a word. if you get a big pot, start with 4 quarts of water, add a whole box of loathing, stir in a bunch of hate and despising, that's closer to what i meant to say. so, if you are on facebook, or you have an email account, and you get those "write 150 random things about yourself and send it to 300 other people or else your soul will deal with eternal suffering" kind of things, DO NOT SEND IT TO ME. because if you do, it will be lost in some digital wasteland somewhere.

that being said, i was recently sent one that asked me to name my top 15 albums of all time: the ones that moved me and woke me up and caused me to remember a feeling i never even remembered feeling before. now, as i said above, i normally ignore these things, but since it had to do with music, i read it. and, believe it or not, i was actually moved to give it a try, probably because it asked for 15 instead of the standard 10. i find that limiting anything to my top ten is just too difficult. but 15 felt a bit more workable. so i gave it a try. and one by one, i want to share those albums with you, for your perusal, discussion and whatever other reaction you might have. i am presenting them in no particular order, as that would be nearly impossible for me. so let us start here:

pink moon, by nick drake. it was released this month, 37 years ago. i discovered it when this guy named nate shared it with me in college. i remember listening to it and thinking that i had just discovered a miracle drug. i didn't know if it could cure cancer, but i knew that it could cure what was ailing my soul at any given time during (and ever since) my college years. drake was a rather reclusive young british man in the late '60s and early '70s. he recorded three albums in his lifetime before his untimely death. in recent years his fairly obscure music has become a bit more mainstream as it has been used in movies, shows and even volkswagen commercials.

i love pink moon because it is so sparse and somewhat haunting. it feels like drake knows how to speak a language of lonliness and longing, a language that we have all felt deep in our gut. only a very few have been able to find a way to put this language into words or music or color, but i think drake accomplishes this on this short album. some may find it depressing, i suppose, but i find it familiar. i find it to be incurably human in a raw and uncalculated way. and, amidst so much contrived and over-produced art in the music industry, this naked authenticity is still incredibly fresh after 37 years.

here's a video with some stills of nick drake and some art set to the title track from the album. use the comments to tell me what you think of nick drake. discuss.

steelers coach on the importance of fatherhood

really busy today, but i wanted to share this little article about fatherhood written by none other than mike tomlin, coach of the pittsburgh steelers. its a great reminder of the importance of being a good father.

my two sons

i know with all of the steelers stuff lately, some of you have been missing pictures of the kids. here they are a couple of weeks ago before church. notice the hands in the pockets. who teaches them this stuff?

and these are some fun i had with some pictures over at faceinhole. you can just put a picture of anyone into all these templates, and you can get some very funny results. this one is shrek and the wrestler below is cade. hope it makes you laugh as much as it made me laugh. have a great friday!

the end of a season

do you see what that is? a plain white box. yup. nothing special. nothing exciting.

that's my family room right now. for the last several weeks its been alive with color (well, two colors, mostly: black and gold), and full of excitement. its been dotted with steelers banners, steelers blankets, steelers figures, steelers glasses, steelers silverware, steelers playing cards, even steelers cereal boxes. but today, as per my wife's instructions, i took it all down. now it is an empty canvas, a hollow grave-like reminder that football season is over. the barren walls mock me with their foot after foot of merchandise-less emptiness: "ha! football season is over! now you have to wait until next year to cover us again with hines and ben and troy and towels that are terrible."

alright walls. i see how it is. you win for now. but i'll be back next year.

still, the emptiness is much sweeter when your team was the one who didn't finish with a loss. oh, you didn't hear? the steelers are superbowl champions for the sixth time! take that, you undecorated walls.

now, i know that many of my readers couldn't be happier that football season is over, because you're tired of coming here to my blog only to find more stuff about the steelers ("a letter to coach tomlin, greg? really? i didn't know you were that guy!). and so, i am pleased to tell you that, after this one, there probably won't be many steeler posts for awhile. for those of you who stuck with me through the last several black and gold weeks, thanks. for those of you who enjoyed all the steeler mania, i'm glad you were along for the ride. there will be more to talk about come contract and draft time.

and so, to close out this season, enjoy these pics from the superbowl.

jack's 4th birthday, part 2

this sunday was not only the superbowl, but also part 2 of jackson's birthday party, complete with a second shark cake made by shannon. here are a couple views of the cake itself.

we let jack put the candles into the shark cake, and this is where they ended up.

and the shark cake itself was red, as in bloody, and here you can see the birthday boy digging in. it is so great to be able to celebrate the big days in your children's lives with family who loves you. we are blessed indeed.

blessed to be a steelers fan

the pittsburgh steelers are the champions of the world. the superbowl winners. the holders of the shiny vince lombardi trophy. for the sixth time.

this morning i feel emotional exhaustion. i feel elation. i feel shock. but most of all, i feel blessed. i mean, i am so darn blessed to be a pittsburgh steelers fan. do you realize that this franchise has won four championships in my lifetime?!? fifteen of the nfl's 32 teams have never won a superbowl. ever. and the steelers have won 6.

when the steelers won superbowl XL in 2006, i tried to really soak it up and appreciate it because i figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. and now, three years later i find myself in the unbelievable position of enjoying it again. wow. i am a lucky fan. bob costas put it this way: "(the steelers are) the model franchise in all of american sports."

"the steelers are like no other professional sports franchise, " says gene wojciechowski in his espn article here. wojciechowski and costas are gushing a bit, perhaps, but they are right. i mean, dan rooney gives his players his cell phone number, just in case they want to talk. are you kidding me? are we talking about a small high school team here, or an nfl team? most franchises don't work this way.

from the top to the bottom, the steelers are a classy organization. they're not perfect, to be sure, but no system or institution or organization is. but they have somehow found a way to run their organization with class, and to expect class all the way through the system. after winning the game, big ben roethlisberger shook kurt warner's hand and said, "it was an honor to play against you." after his incredible game winning interception against the ravens two weeks ago, when asked about being the best safety in the game today, troy polamalu said something about how he is so blessed and just gets lucky sometimes. that kind of humility is both modeled by the rooney's and by coach tomlin, and it is drafted. the steelers look for good football players who are also good men. i love that about my team, and would cherish it even if we were 8-8 and finished out of the playoffs. but we didn't. we won our division. we won our playoff games. and we won the superbowl. our 6th. i am a blessed fan.