Bill Cowher was born in Crafton, Pennsylvania. He coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 15 consecutive seasons with an overall win-loss record of 161-99-1. He led the Steelers to two AFC Championships ('95, '05), and brought home that one for the thumb in 2005 with the Super Bowl XL victory. With a pretty solid reputation established in the city of Pittsburgh, Cowher retired from coaching after the Super Bowl win. He then decided to reside in Raleigh, North Carolina where he has been living since - a whopping four years.
Fine.
But when he was shown on national television sounding the "hurricane horn" with Carolina's mascot by his side cheering him on before the start of Game 4 in the Eastern conference finals, it hit a big nerve. Despite the fact that the hoaky horn was silenced for the season quickly when the Penguins swept the Hurricanes, Cowher disgraced himself. Decked out in red - literally head to toe when his face turned the color of a tomato as he began cranking the arm to sound the horn, with his chin still sticking out farther than his nose and a grin stretched across his face, watching him actually, publicly, cheer for his "hometown" , or more like "current residence" was more annoying than Subway's Five Dollar Foot Long commercial, or Detroit's octopus tossing antics.
Now, living in Raleigh, if he wants to be a stickler for fitting in with the crowd and cheer for the sports team of the city he is living in, fine. Especially because being a Pittsburgh sports fan is very much a love-hate, hit-or-miss situation for the most part when dappling in other sports markets. If Cowher felt the need to embrace the pride of the only professional sports team of his residency, whatever. But I would prefer he do it in the comfort of his home. Not to the tune of some 19,000 hockey fans. Not to mention the millions of people watching the game on television.
Get your priorities straight Cowher.
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