Last week on a campaign swing through Pittsburgh, Senator John McCain discussed his fondness of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Under interrogation following his capture during the Vietnam War, Senator McCain claims that he gave the names of members of the 1967 Pittsburgh Steelers' Defensive Line. This claim seems innocent enough, but as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out:
...the Steelers of the late 1960s -- before the Steel Curtain and after the
retirement of Hall-of-Fame lineman Ernie Stautner -- were so unsuccessful, few
people outside their immediate families would claim knowing them.
When asked to recall the players names, unsurprisingly, Senator McCain couldn't remember Chuck Hinton, Ken Kortas, Ben McGee or Lloyd Voss.
In fact, the story seemed eerily familiar to those who read page 194 of Senator McCain's 1999 book, Faith of My Fathers. Except that the team, conference and even the side of the football had changed. In his book, Senator McCain's tail is that he gave the names of the Green Bay Packers' Offensive line.
So on his next trip to Jacksonville, FL, it can be expected that Senator McCain will keep with tradition and recall a story that involves the special teams of the 1967 Jacksonville Jaguars.
McCain, who said that the first thing he associates with the city of Pittsburgh is the Steelers, said, "I was a mediocre high school athlete and I loved and adored sports but the Steelers really made a huge impression on me, particularly in the early years." This claim could also be contested because the Steelers franchise had little success in their early days, not to mention the fact that the Steelers were not founded until 1933. Okay, so that might have been a stretch, but at least Senator McCain should've been able to recall future Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White in the Steelers back field.
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