The Pittsburgh Steelers make up the Gotham Rogues in The Dark Knight Rises

Y'know, if this was a Sunday during the NFL season and I was writing about the Pittsburgh Steelers, chances are it'd be about how many points one of their players might snag me in our fantasy league.  I'm a Chicago Bears fan, and have always seen the Steelers as sortof our AFC equivalent in terms of style and attitude. But this isn't the season yet, and really this revolves around the Pittsburgh shoot of The Dark Knight Rises.

Over the weekend saw Christopher Nolan locking up a good portion of the city to film the third leg of superhero trilogy, with thousands of people crowding into Heinz Stadium to play extras in a major scene taking place at Gotham Stadium. While the black and gold colors still fly high, these aren't the uniforms of the Steelers we'll be seeing in the film, instead these will make up the gear of the Gotham Rogues.

A handful of the Steelers most well known superstars will make up some of the Rogues' roster: QB and perpetual knucklehead Ben Roethlisberger, veteran WR Hines Ward, Ryan Clark, Willie Colon, James Farrior, Casey Hampton, Heath Miller, Maurkice Pouncey, Aaron Smith, Mike Wallace, and square jawed ex-coach Bill Cowher were all seen on set for the shoot. Some reports have also noted the presence of wild haired safety Troy Polamalu, as well. 

I'm getting flashbacks of The Last Boyscout's opening scene. It seems a little odd to have a football game taking place while Gotham is supposedly being run into the ground by all the criminal activity, but I'm guessing it'll be the centerpiece of some huge scheme perpetrated by Bane and the League of Assassins. However stuff like adding recognizable football players into the mix could have the effect of taking some people out of the story a little bit. We'll just have to wait and see how Nolan plays this thing out.

By the way, I'm predicting a 9-7 season for the black and gold. No playoffs! [CBS Pittsburgh]