Oct 31, 2015 5 min read

The Pittsburgh Penguins made ABC World News Tonight on Friday.

It had nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with a moronic fan who stole a puck intended for a little kid.

In case you missed it, Dan Bylsma, back in town as the coach of the Buffalo Sabres, took a puck that had landed on the bench and flipped it over the glass to an eight-year-old kid, Trey Dopson of Cecil, who was waiting in the aisle with his hands stretched out.

A guy, who appeared to be in his 50s or 60s, intercepted the puck and put it in his pocket.

As it turned out, he did the kid and the Penguins a favor. The Penguins had their mascot, Iceburgh, visit his seat and give him a puck, a stick and a Sidney Crosby jersey. That’s the part of the story that ABC focused on and it was great PR for the Penguins.

Giving the kid the gifts was a great idea but the Penguins should also have had the puck thief ejected.

It’s too bad the fans sitting near him didn’t get in his face and gently encourage him to give the puck to the kid.

Maybe they would have if he had been wearing a Flyers jersey.

• A lot of attention was paid to the size of the crowd at Heinz Field for Pitt’s game with North Carolina Thursday night. It doesn’t matter what the official attendance was because people stopped believing the number Pitt puts out a long time ago, but there were lots of empty seats.

There were people suggesting before the game that Pitt should pack the stadium because of the Panthers’ 6-1 record, the fact North Carolina was also 6-1 and it was a key game in the ACC Coastal Division. That’s because there are people – including some in the media – who think that there are more than a thousand people in Western Pennsylvania who care who wins the ACC Coastal Division.

It’s about what it’s always about — advance sales.

The Pitt- North Carolina game on a Thursday night was not going to generate a buzz that would cause 20,000 people to change their plans and head for Heinz Field.

Pitt draws bigger crowds than Pitt deserves.

The team has been mediocre at best for most of the last 30 years.

It doesn’t draw from the entire state the way Penn State and Ohio State do. In a market this size, only a couple of years in the Top 10 will produce big crowds at Heinz Field.

Or Penn State.

Or West Virginia.

Or Notre Dame.

Coach Pat Narduzzi seems to have re-energized the program and has it going in the right direction. He should know that the crowds aren’t going to remind him of his days at Michigan State unless he does a lot of winning.

Pitt has always been near the top in attendance among city schools and a program consistently in the Top 10 would probably put them at the top.

• Now that Andrew McCutchen has won the Roberto Clemente Award, he should use the fact he plays for the Pirates to become a loud advocate for retiring the No. 21 from Major League Baseball.

• Ben Roethlisberger is going to be restricted today against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Steelers better hope that he’s not so restricted that he can’t move in the pocket because, if that’s the case, then he’s back to being an injury waiting to happen.

• Nothing gets me thinking about baseball like a crisp Sunday in November.

• Three quarterbacks have 14 touchdown passes or more and two interceptions or less. Their names are Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Andy Dalton.

• The Broncos are 6-0. Peyton Manning has seven touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. Now that the Texans have released future Hall of Famer Ryan Mallet, Manning’s 72.5 passer rating is the lowest in the NFL.

Peyton is the son of the quarterback with the worst won-loss record in NFL history, Archie Manning, who was 35-101-3. He has 185 wins. Two more and he passes Bret Favre for the most in NFL history. Archie might have been better than both Peyton and Eli Manning. He played on some really bad teams.

• Have to give credit to Trey Dopson’s father, Dave, who said that he told his son, “The initial act of kindness by Coach Bylsma was the most important issue.”

That’s called taking the high road.

The puck-stealing moron still got off too easy.

• Does anybody not believe the “escort” who says she was paid to entertain University of Louisville basketball recruits? Does anybody think that Louisville is the only school that has done this?

• Going into Saturday night’s game against his former team in Toronto, Phil Kessel was on pace to score 32 goals. He scored 25 last season and 37 in 2013-14.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.