Archive for February, 2011

My name is Brian Miller and I am the Director of NFL sites here at the FanSided Network.  Over the last several years, Chris Viola has been the only writer on this site.  Recently, Chris and FanSided parted company and I wanted to personally thank Chris for all his hard work and dedication to the site and to the network and to wish him well in his future covering the Steelers. To all of you Pittsburgh Steeler fans, we want to let you know that we are not abandoning the site and will have a new lead writer/editor in place [...]

First, let me apologize for my erratic posting schedule the past week or so.  I’ve been waylaid by the Avian Flu so haven’t felt much like posting as you may well imagine.  I’m starting to feel a bit better so I should get back to my Pittsburgh Steelers Report Cards and other stuff in short order. Anyway, in between trips to the bathroom, I saw on Friday that the Steelers placed the Franchise tag on LaMarr Woodley.  This is interesting for a few reasons.  Not the least of which is the salary cap implications.  Last season, Mister Woodley made $550,000.  [...]

With the season over, I find myself with a frightening lack of structure.  It was nice knowing every Monday I could recap the previous afternoon’s game and every Friday I could roll out Know Thy Enemy.  So in that vein, I’m starting a recurring feature whereby I look at every area of the Pittsburgh Steelers, evaluate their 2010 performance, and assess their outlook for 2011.  I’ll still post relevant Steelers news and talk a little about the ongoing labor strife but this will give us a little something to talk about from now until the draft. We’ll start by getting [...]

Don’t judge. I’ve finally managed to pull myself together enough to write about the Pittsburgh Steelers without having to blink back salty yet manly tears.  It’s time to lock memories of Super Bowl XLV in the same box as Super Bowl XXX and never speak of either again.  Rather let us turn our attention to next season.  Provided the greedy dickhead owners and high-living meathead jocks ever agree on a new collective bargaining agreement so we have a season. Let’s start with the coaching staff.  Pittsburgh West Arizona wasted no time trying to poach yet more assistants from our staff.   [...]

Super Bowl XXX was the first time the Pittsburgh Steelers lost a championship game in their illustrious history.  Their opponents were the Dallas Cowboys.  Troy Aikman was the victorious quarterback.  The Steelers started off slow in that game but mounted a furious comeback that was ultimately undone by one too many mistakes. Fifteen years later, the Steelers found themselves in Super Bowl XLV.  Ironically, it took place at Cowboys Stadium.  Troy Aikman was there calling the game.  And, once again, the Black and Gold staged a valiant comeback which was ultimately thwarted by too many miscues. You can only dig [...]

And so, the time has come at last… For the past two weeks, you’ve no doubt heard an endless parade of “experts” analyze the match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers from any number of angles.  From Ron Jaworski and his 172 hours of tape study to Shannon Sharpe mumbling something in his mush-mouth assassination of the English language, everybody has an opinion.  It’s paralysis of analysis to the nth degree.  When it comes time to determining the deciding factor in Super Bowl XLV, it comes down to one simple thing. Slippery balls. No, I’m not speaking of [...]

It’s ironic that the biggest “scandal” of Super Bowl XLV has been Ben Roethlisberger singing karaoke at a piano bar.  I put “scandal” in quotes because only a humongous tool would think Big Ben did anything wrong by enjoying a night out with his teammates.  And I say ironic because music seems to be Steeler Nation‘s second favorite pastime after watching the Pittsburgh Steelers. Every day for the past two weeks, my inbox has been deluged with odes to the most decorated franchise in NFL history. Of course, the most popular is Pittsburgh native Wiz Khalifa‘s “Black and Yellow.”  I’m [...]

Actually, it was a Captain and Diet Coke. Video of Ben Roethlisberger singing karaoke at a piano bar surfaced on rumor-mongering website TMZ yesterday.  Naturally, this became the lead story on SportsCenter and every other sports talk show on the planet.  I didn’t want to dignify this story by paying it any more attention than it deserved (which is none), especially since Pittsburgh Steelers beat writer Ed Bouchette did a pretty thorough job of eviscerating it in this morning’s P-G. However, since everybody from Ben to Mike Tomlin was asked about it, I felt I had to at least mention [...]

The number seven is Steeler Nation‘s new favorite numeral.  When the clock strikes midnight on Sunday (making it officially February 7th), number seven Ben Roethlisberger, in his seventh professional season, will have led the Pittsburgh Steelers to an unprecedented seventh Super Bowl championship. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I reached out to Monty over at the excellent Green Bay Packers website Total Packers.Com. Naturally, we agreed to exchange seven questions in anticipation of Super Bowl XLV.   My questions are in the little gray box with the quote marks, his answers in Green Bay Green. Your team has impressive wins [...]

Ben Roethlisberger held roughly his fifty-seventh Super Bowl XLV interview session yesterday afternoon.  A reporter from Dallas, after drying the tears from his eyes, asked Ben if it irked him that the Cowboys are called “America’s Team.”  Ah, Big D, keep grasping tightly at whatever straws you can in order to avoid the fact your team has become totally irrelevant because they haven’t won a damn thing in almost twenty years.  Ben’s response was perfect, noting people can proclaim themselves whatever they’d like but he knows there is no larger or more passionate fan base than Steeler Nation. Unfortunately, the [...]