Baron Batch Out For the Year, Who Cares?

Steeler’s rookie running back Baron Batch was injured in Wednesday's practice, and has torn his ACL, meaning he'll be out for the season. My question to "yinz" is "who cares?” Who cares that a 7th round pick, that wasn't even guaranteed to make the team is out for the year? I don't. Wasn't like he was going to take carries away from Rashard Mendenhall, who despite his annoying tweets, is actually one of the best running backs in the league.

Was Batch going to get more playing time of Mewelde Moore? Again I don't think so. My guess is that Batch was going to make the practice squad. I've seen people tweeting and posting stuff that they are praying for Batch and they hope he comes back next year and gets to play. I even see people concerned about the running back situation. Why? Again, Mendenhall is the real deal, and the Steeler's offense still revolves around Ben Roethlisberger.

Steeler nation confuses me sometimes. I hear Steeler fans boo Big Ben, their star, two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, and they cheer and pray for a guy like Baron Batch. Why is that? Is it an underdog thing? Is it because Batch was undersized and drafted in the 7th round? Does the fact that his last name is Batch have anything to do with it?

Take a look at this article written on bleacherreport.com, where you can see my work as a featured columnist, http://bleacherreport.com/articles/797255-pittsburgh-steelers-baron-batch-most-popular-seventh-round-pick-ever.

Since then I've asked people why Batch is so popular. I've gotten responses such as "he's a great pass-blocking running back" and "He showed great effort". 

Oh he's showed this in practice. In practice. We're talking about practice! Do it in a game, do it against another team, do it when it counts and maybe I'll drink the kool-aide. Until then cry me a river.