Pittsburgh's role model

Friday night gave us a stark reminder of the differences between Pittsburgh's two greatest athletes.

On one side, the star quarterback of the football team is practicing on the South Side about a month after following a wasted girl into a single commode bathroom. The unsavory details have already been exposed, so there's no need to expand upon them here.

A couple miles away at the Mellon Arena, you have the captain of our hockey team pulling off an usual hat trick: Scoring a goal, making an unbelievable save and passing the puck on his knees to a teammate for the game-winning goal.

Make no mistake about which player Pittsburghers most align themselves with today.

Football will probably always be king in this region, but Sidney Crosby has officially taken the mantle as this city's brightest star. Since arriving in Pittsburgh five years ago, he has been gracious to both the fans and media. And, oh by the way, he's the best player in hockey.

We used to identify ourselves by our football team, but it's becoming increasingly evident that we might want to reconsider. The Steelers players continue to get into legal trouble and their supposed leader, Ben Roethlisberger, disgraced his team and the city with his disgusting behavior in Georgia. Do you notice how that doesn't happen with Sid the Kid? That's a funny nickname, considering he acts like more of a man than Roethlisberger.

The past month has been an eye-opening experience for even the most ardent Pittsburgh fans, myself included. Both the Steelers and Penguins are winning championships. The difference between both teams are their leaders.

And Sidney Crosby showed once again Friday night why he's the face of Pittsburgh.