John Steigerwald

Steigerwald, whose opinionated and often politically incorrect weekly sports column has run in Pittsburgh daily newspapers for 25 years, was the focus of much controversy[4] in 2011 after San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. In his column for the Washington Observer-Reporter Steigerwald wrote: "Maybe somebody can ask Stow, if he ever comes out of his coma, why he thought it was a good idea to wear Giants gear to a Dodgers’ home opener when there was a history of out-of-control drunkenness and arrests at that event going back several years." Steigerwald, who had commented many times in his column that adult fans should "grow up" and not wear replica jerseys to their teams' games, was accused by sports bloggers around the country of blaming Stow for the incident. He defended himself vigorously on national TV and in print, arguing that blog headlines like “Jerk in Pennsylvania says Giants Fan Deserved It” and “Pennsylvania Columnist Says Stow had it Coming” completely misrepresented what he wrote. He later admitted that his comments about Stow's beating "came across as flippant and insensitive" but wrote [5] "That was not my intent. If I had it to do over again, I would write it differently. I know what I felt in my heart when I wrote it and it was anger over what had happened to this guy over a stupid jersey."

Steigerwald is also a published author. His two books about growing up and covering sports in Pittsburgh, Just Watch the Game (2010) and Just Watch the Game Again (2011), were edited, updated, and combined into the ebook "Just Watch the Game" (2014).