So last night was the first chance I’ve had this football season to sit down and watch the Steelers uninterrupted - the children in bed, my wife going through the Sunday circulars, me with a cold one from my new favorite thing in the entire world.

And then Ben Roethlisberger looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights and I switched it off at halftime with Denver handily in control, 21-7.

I see the Steelers wound up making a game of it before ultimately losing. And it was the usual thing, this time under a new coach; one of the best running teams in the league against one of the worst rushing defenses decided to… keep the ball in the air most of the night. With the predictable results.

Annoying. Stressful.  As if I need any more of that.

Last year the little girl was born in early October and with a new baby, I really didn’t have a chance to sit and watch the Steelers as I used to. I’ve been a Steeler fan since age 7, when we lived in Pittsburgh and the team won the first of its four ’70s Super Bowls. During the ’80s I kind of tuned out because the team was so bad - you try keeping the faith when your quarterback is Bubby Brister - but ever since the 1992 season, when Bill Cowher took the reins, I’ve watched or taped every game, or every game that was on. I certainly know bigger Steeler fans, but as fans of any team will tell you, it gets in your blood. It got in mine.

But something changes two seasons ago when the team won the Super Bowl. The playoff run in particular was too stressful (you remember, of course, the game in which the Bus fumbled at Indy’s goal line and only a prescient tackle by Big Ben saved the day). And then the Super Bowl itself; we had people over that night, and I was pacing; a few beers and I still couldn’t cool down.

“I’m not having fun,” I told one guest. “I can’t enjoy this. It’s too stressful.”

And so they won and it was great, but something sort of snapped. I don’t need that kind of stress. And so last year - when the team went 8-8, a total letdown after the Super Bowl season - the fact I didn’t really watch a lot of the games was a good thing. I had a new baby to deal with, along with a 5-year-old son; life was complicated enough without spending every Sunday evening, and much of Monday, annoyed because the Stillers stunk it up over the weekend.

And so now, the team is a little better. But I’m having trouble getting back on that horse. Do I want to get back on that horse? Do I need the aggravation? No; but you can’t just turn it off. Though sometimes I wish you could.