Who Gets Invited to Kenny Pickett's Wedding?

As seen everywhere on Pittsburgh Steelers fan sites and social media, quarterback Kenny Pickett got married over the weekend. Congratulations to Kenny and his bride Amy! Kenny Pickett signed a contract for $14 million including a $7 million signing bonus, so money probably wasn't an issue for his nuptials and reception. For the sake of this blog post though, let’s say that the Picketts had a generous though not unlimited budget. So who in the Steelers organization makes the guest list? Full disclosure: It’s very possible that the wedding guest list was posted online, but I haven’t seen it and don’t plan on searching for it. This post is all about speculation.

A starting NFL quarterback is generally considered the leader of the team. As a team leader, Pickett may have wanted to include as many members of the team at the wedding as possible. I think it would have made perfect sense to invite the entire Steelers offensive line. You want them to be on your good side. However, did Pickett include offensive tackle Broderick Jones, the first round draft pick from the University of Georgia who just signed his rookie contract last week? Probably not since invitations likely went out before the April 2023 NFL draft. What about the coaching staff? I feel like it would be a big deal if Pickett didn't invite coach Mike Tomlin or offensive coordinator Matt Canada. 

What about the rest of the team? Maybe Pickett decided that he would only invite veteran offensive players. If that's the case, do you have to invite both sets of Watt and Heyward brothers? Seems like you would want to have Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt at your wedding, but if you invite them, you have to include Minkah Fitzpatrick, Tyson Alualu, etc. The numbers on this guest list are going to add up quickly.

So who would you include or who misses the cut?

Photo by John Bacolo - Gabelli Studio and shared in People Magazine. (The money from People Magazine to have access to these pictures could likely pay for several additional tables at the wedding!)

Sean: A Professional Journalist?

Although I'm not a professional journalist, I like to think that I abide by journalistic standards, I'm not just going to write a blog post to spread unconfirmed rumors or gossip.* I give credit when quoting other articles or using photos taken by someone else. Sure, I received a cease and desist notice from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette years ago for using one of their photos, but I did give the photographer and newspaper credit before removing the picture from my blog.

I mention this because I entered the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' annual journalism contest earlier this year in the blog/online news category. The general guidelines state that work entered must be of local interest or about the workings of Washington, D.C. and the greater DC metro region. Since I write about a wide variety of topics, including many about Pittsburgh, I entered my May 2022 post about the end of the Celebrate Fairfax festival, which was the largest annual festival in Northern Virginia but is now extinct.

SPJ announced the winners at the recent Dateline Awards held at the National Press Club. Since I was not one of the three finalists, I did not attend the ceremony/dinner. I later learned that the winner was WTOP.com. Although I knew that I entered a category in an open division, to quote John McEnroe, YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!

WTOP is a radio station and institution in DC. The station delivers local news and gives traffic and weather updates every 10 minutes 24/7. The website is a companion to the radio station and probably has dozens of employees between writers, editors, photographers, web designers, marketing staff, and more. How can Sean's Ramblings compete with that? The answer: it can't. 

It was nice thinking that I could be in the same category and room as professional journalists, but I guess I really haven't reached that level. Yet. Now if I can just get a media pass to a Washington Nationals game or the Oscars or Emmys, maybe one day I could be considered a professional journalist. 

* Please don't look at my previous 3,300 blog posts to see if this is accurate. If I did write a post spreading unconfirmed rumors, it was probably in an attempt to be funny and was not intended to be serious.

My Kohl's Victory

I visited Kohl's recently and purchased a short-sleeve button-down shirt for $24 and a pair of shorts for $29.99. Not the most exciting thing you'll read online today, but I rarely buy clothes, and these purchases made sense. Later that day, I received a 20% off coupon in the mail from Kohl's. Between the coupon and my wife not being a fan of the shirt I bought (I already had one that looks similar), I went back to Kohl's a few days later and returned both the shirt and shorts. I then repurchased the shorts, which were on sale for a lower price. With the 20% coupon, the cost of the shorts was $19.99, a savings of $10 in only a few days. I then bought a nice "dress shirt," something I badly need since some of my long-sleeve button-down shirts are older than my recent 6th grade graduate, for $27.99.

The total was $47.98 before tax, and Kohl's had a promotion where you get $10 Kohl's cash for every $50 spent. I went back through the store trying to find something useful for slightly more than $2. It was like going shopping on Wheel of Fortune. (Why did they always have ceramic animals?)

I found a bath towel for $3.99 (after the 20% off coupon) and earned the $10 Kohl's cash. So now, I have a new pair of shorts for $10 less than originally purchased, a new towel, a new shirt, and $10 off our next Kohl's trip, which will be soon to get clothes for the kids for camp. Good job, me!

Friday Video: River Iris

One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is The Tony Kornheiser Show. As a former Washington Post columnist and co-host of ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, much of the show is about sports, but Tony also discusses random things about his life and in the Washington DC area. The podcast also features original music, and a recent episode included Passenger Seat by River Iris. I love the guitar riff that starts the song. Just a great song to listen to while driving! 

Friday Video: 6 Underground

I went down a rabbit hole on YouTube recently of 90s alternative songs with female lead singers. There are some really amazing songs that definitely take me back. 6 Underground, this smash by Sneaker Pimps, has been in my head for weeks, so I thought I would share it today. 

Don't think 'cos I understand, I care.

And with that, enjoy your weekend!

Neighborhood News

This is somewhat of a follow-up blog post. Several months ago, I complained about my community management company announcing the removal of steps in my neighborhood. Although several of us tried to fight it, we failed. Apparently, the stairs were a liability issue and too expensive to fix to bring up to code. So instead of doing nothing, our community is going to have to pay somewhere around $2000 (though I don't know the exact cost) for the removal of the stairs and the addition of more mulch and plants. I really hope we have money in the budget for this since I don’t want our fees going up next year. Here are the steps before and now without the steps.

I guess it looks nice, but I’d rather have stairs. While the stairs were removed last week, we had a bigger issue a few days ago. Between 9:00 and 10:00 AM someone broke into two cars right near where the stairs used to end on the main street. There were several other break-ins around the same time in the neighborhood too. Very surprising that this occurred so brazenly in the middle of the day since there are almost always cars driving by and people walking.

I really want to blame the neighborhood management company for this. Maybe the person/people who broke into the cars wouldn't have done this if they saw the awkward stairs rather than the nice new mulch and plants!