Discuss “Pittsburgh and its Steelers: civic pride or codependency?”

When the festivities end and the barricades are taken down in the South Side, it might be time to bar up the windows and lock the doors. That might seem to be an exaggeration, but after some statistical merrymaking, this apparent overstatement will morph into sound advice.

Sure, there is a charming characteristic to a city with a pervasive civic pride. Yet even when the bus exhaust puffs black and gold it can serve, at best, as only a smoggy cloud covering the lack of a civic essence. Pittsburgh, outside its sport franchises, actually has very little civic pride. If the city of Pittsburgh is a damaged piece of furniture, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and their beloved Steelers Nation, are the lacquered facade covering the blemishes.

Today, as...