10 – …because without our rejects, you wouldn’t even have a team!

9 – …or coaches!

8 – …because Larry Fitzgerald would rather play for us, anyway.

7 – …because, can you say, 5 titles versus 0??

6 – …because isn’t it going to be embarrassing enough losing on your first Super Bowl trip?

5 – …because how many cities do you have to play in before they decide to keep you?

4 – …because what’s a bird compared to our Men of Steel?

3 – …because you’re not really a fan unless you sit through 0 degree weather at a home game.

2 – …because we KNOW there’s a Steelers bar (or a dozen) in Arizona, but we can guarantee, there are no Cardinals bars here.

1 – …because even though all of the above is true, we’ll give you one thing: Your cheerleaders are way hotter than ours.

Lou’s career started in 1958, driving a coupe for his father. He began racing Coupes, Super Modifieds, and Sprints, becoming an instant success. I first observed the teenage driver in a Trevis built sprint car competeing with the super modifieds at the Greater Pittsburgh Speedway in Clinton PA in 1959. The young driver was part of the three car team of Gib Orr, Dale Johnson and Blaney. The cars were referred to as the “Three White Mice”. The team won a great deal of the races running against drivers like Dave Lundy, Bobby Adamson, Mac Clingan, Dean Mast, and Gus Linder.

He moved to the Modifieds in 1978. His first Modified was acquired by long time car owner Bill Thomas from legendary modified stock car driver and builder Dick Tobias of Lebanon. Blaney was a winner right out of the box aboard the car. He continued to drive Modifieds and Super Sprints until 1981, when his son and current NASCAR Nextel Cup star, Dave Blaney, started driving the sprint car.

His success in the modifieds is legendary but his best years were behind the wheel of his famous number 10 sprint car. The track championships are too numerous to mention, but the career highlight came in 1973. Driving for the Crash Brothers, Lou was running a three track circuit. Friday night was Lernerville, Saturday night Jennerstown, and Sunday night was Tri-City Speedway. Winning a point race on the last night of the season is thrilling enough, but Lou and Ted Wise were locked up in a last night battle at all three tracks, which sounds like a fantasy but true. And even more unbelievable, Lou Blaney managed to win all three track championships on that last night at each speedway.

Blaney is well-known for his Super Sprint exploits. He recorded over 200 Super Sprint wins from 1961 to 1980. In 1966 driving for Bill Thomas; Lou won the Williams Grove National Open, which at that time was the premier race for sprint cars in the entire country. He placed third to eventual two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock in the 1963 inaugural event. Three years later, Blaney won the National Open. It is probably the most cherished of his many victories.

In 1981, when he started driving the DIRT Modified full-time, Blaney finished second to Merv Treichler in the Schaefer International 200 for his best career finish in the world’s richest dirt track modified stock car race. Unexpectedly, Blaney’s red and white No. 10 ended up on the front cover of Stock Car Racing Magazine that winter, which earned him more notoriety.

Lou was a good athlete even before he started racing, as he was a standout basketball player at Hartford High School scoring 1200 points over his four year high school career. It was probably just a coincidence that Lou’s basketball uniform was number 10.

Late Model car owner Jook George, one night at Expo Speedway, convinced Lou to drive his late model #10. Jook chose the number because Blaney was his hero. It was the only time Blaney was ever in a late model.

Lou’s sons, Dale and Dave, have also had their share of sports headlines. Dale was a star basketball player at West Virginia University and got a tryout with the pros. Dale has developed into one of the premier sprint car drivers on the East Coast. Dave needs no introduction to racing fans, was a star in his own right in the World of Outlaw sprint circuit as well as his current deal with NASCAR Sprint Cup and the Nationwide Series.

Dave finished second at Syracuse, first in the sprint car segment, and repeated in the big modified show in 1989. It’s not very often a father and son will take two of the first five places in the biggest modified show in the country.

Lou Blaney was one of the few big winners that the fans have continued to cheer over the years. Big winners usually have had their share of boos from the crowd, which goes with long term success. Lou was always a quiet, reserved person who won his races with his head and right foot, and not with his mouth.

There have been many great drivers in the Tri State area, but it’s hard to say that any of them are any better than Lou Blaney. His rim riding style was smooth as it was in 1958. And his personality and sportsmanship have never been questioned.

Lou Blaney was inducted into the DIRT Motorsports Hall of Fame in Weedsport, N.Y. He was the first driver to be elected to the Hall of Fame from this region. Blaney’s victory list in the DIRT Modifieds is virtually untouchable. Lou was inducted into the Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Hall of Fame in 1997 along with Jack Freeman, Jean Lynch, and Mike Klapak.

He has victories at Sharon, Lernerville, Mercer, Raceway 7, Tri-City, Expo, Sportsman, Pittsburgh, and Hagerstown Speedway. Lou along with his sons Dave and Dale have ten titles and Lou is second all-time with 118 wins at Lernerville Speedway.

It’s been a long time, hundreds of feature wins, and numerous track championships since Lou climbed into his first race car, a Cadillac powered 1934 Chevrolet, in 1958. He has numerous track championships, and won Walt Wimer’s #1 Cochran Cavalcade Modified point championship sixteen times and four times in the Sprint Cars. A gentlemen and a champion that created many wonderful memories for the fans over five decades and a great reason to “remember when”.

TACOMA, Wash. – Debris flew into the grandstands at a monster truck show in Washington state, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring another spectator, witnesses and city officials said Saturday.

A red truck came apart while doing doughnuts during the freestyle competition of Friday night’s Monster Jam show, the witnesses said. Debris from the truck flew 30 to 50 feet over a safety barrier into the stands.

“Parts were falling off and a piece flew up and hit a little boy,” Christine Moe told King Television of Seattle.

Police Officer Mark Fulghum said officers serving as security at the Tacoma Dome investigated the accident.

“At this point, there’s nothing to indicate that there’s anything criminal,” Fulghum told The Associated Press on Saturday night. “Right now it looks like a tragic accident.”

The Pierce County medical examiner’s office identified the boy killed as Sebastian Hizey of Puyallup.

The boy’s father, Jessie Hizey, issued a statement to KIRO-TV on Saturday that said his son was hit in the head by a Frisbee-sized piece of metal, weighing between 7 and 12 pounds.

“I cannot get the images” out of my head, the father said.

The man who was injured was taken to a hospital Friday night, but Robert McNair-Huff, community relations manager for the city, said the man’s identity was not available Saturday.

Some spectators told the TV station they had to throw cups off the stands to get the attention of medics. The show continued after the two were hurt, and many spectators left.

“They just kept going,” Moe said. “We grabbed our kids and just bee-lined out of there.”

Laurie Deranleau, 32, a nurse from Westport, told The News Tribune, “Everybody sitting around thought they should have dropped the show and gave the family some respect. Nobody was paying attention to the show.”

The Tacoma Dome was continuing with four Monster Jam shows on Saturday and Sunday.

McNair-Huff said the promoter, Feld Motor sports, promised more inspections of trucks in the show and that the truck involved in the accident would be withdrawn.

“All of us at Feld Motor Sports are saddened by the accident that occurred last night at the Monster Jam Show in Tacoma when two of our customers were seriously injured,” the Aurora, Ill., company said in a statement Saturday to the AP. “Feld Motor Sports is looking into this tragic accident as the safety of all our customers is our top priority and this type of incident has never happened before in the history of Monster Jam events.”