We concluded a couple of years ago that sports and politics don’t mix.  People follow sports to get away from the crap that otherwise frustrates them, and thus it’s very risky (in our view) for anyone connected to the sports world to take a front-and-center position in support of (or in opposition to) any candidate for office.

But it happens.  And it happened on Thursday, when Steelers chairman Dan Rooney made the short drive to Wheeling, West Virginia (yours truly’s hometown . . . as if anyone gives a crap) and stumped for Barack Obama.

“He has integrity and is motivated to bringing young people into the process,” Rooney said of Obama, according to the Wheeling Intelligencer, a newspaper that I used to fling in the general direction of the front porches of 64 homes every morning in the late ’70s. 

“You get a chance once in every 50 years to elect someone with the leadership of Barack Obama,” Rooney said.

Though it’s the first time Rooney ever has endorsed a candidate for office (other than his son, Jim), it might have been prudent to pass.  Rooney’s Steelers are a mainstay in Pittsburgh, which is a key city in a state that Obama wasn’t able to claim in last month’s Democratic primary. 

We doubt that this will affect the Steelers’ standing in the hearts of the team’s fans, but it’s the kind of thing that could get the strongly pro-Clinton and pro-McCain crowd fired up, possibly to the point that its becomes a factor in their football allegiances.

And Rooney’s decision to take his support for Obama on the road to West Virginia is specifically questionable, since Obama’s chances of beating Clinton here next week or carry West Virginia in the fall are slim (unless Hillary is Obama’s running mate).

 Anyway, do sports and politics mix?  Or is it best to separate the two?  Let’s hear what you think, PFT Planet.