Pittsburgh is a city known for its production of steel, and for its sports. All of the professional sports teams have had been very prominent at different points of existence, if you look at the Steelers in the 1970’s winning four Super Bowls, the Pirates in 70’s as well with two World Series Titles, and the Penguins in the early 1990’s with back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Winning championships means you have quality players that lead your team to those titles. There were players such as Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, Mario Lemieux, and Jaromir Jagr. You can make at case that at one point all of those athletes were once considered the face of Pittsburgh sports.
Fast forward to now, Pittsburgh sports fans are lucky enough to have superstars again in all three of our cities professional sports teams. In football we have Ben Roethlisberger, and Troy Polamalu; baseball there is Andrew McCutchen, and finally in hockey; Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are arguably the two best players in the world.
So out of all these superstars, who is the face of Pittsburgh sports today you ask. You can’t really go wrong with any of them, but leading the pack would have to be Crosby.
Crosby has been labeled has hockey’s next great thing since he was a young boy growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Penguins were fortunate enough to win the draft lottery the year Crosby was eligible for the draft, and picking him was a no-brainer. We as a city have been lucky enough to have some of the best players to ever play the game call our city home.
Being the face of an entire city is a big deal, and it’s an even bigger deal in a city like Pittsburgh because our fans are very religious and follow almost every game, practice, and other off the field things. So not everyone is fit for the job, but you best believe that Sidney can handle the pressure. He is the captain of the last championship team here in Pittsburgh.
There are some key factors into being called the face of the city though. You must produce in your sport while the game is being played, and be a good citizen during your down time. For Crosby, the one the ice stats speak for themselves. In eight season as a professional hockey player, he has played 460 games, piling up 235 goals to go with 419 assists. That doesn’t even include the other things he does while on the ice to help out his teammates.
Off the ice Crosby is a very charitable guy, and makes sure he lets the fans know that he appreciates them. Every summer the Penguin players go around town handing out tickets to the season ticket holders. They go from door to door, giving the people their tickets, and sticking around for photos and autographs. Even being the high-profile athlete that he is, Crosby still takes the time to participate even though he knows that at every house he goes to he is going to get swarmed by people. In 2009 he established the Sidney Crosby Foundation which improves the lives of sick or struggling kids. Also through his foundation, he donates new hockey equipment to minor hockey team back in his hometown. After winning the gold medal in the 2010 Olympics, he donated he winning to his foundation
Being the face of one of the best sports cities in the country, if not the best, is an honor that anyone would like to have. But it is easy to see why Crosby is the right choice to represent the city of Pittsburgh and its people. Just like the people that live in the city, Crosby works hard at his job to earn every dollar he deserves. And even after all of his hard work and effort he still finds time to go out of his way and help fans out and show that their support really means a lot to him. Not to mention that he is the face on the entire National Hockey League, to go along with being the face of Pittsburgh sports too.
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