Steelers Morning Huddle 6/21/13

December 30, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu (43) runs onto the field during player introductions against the Cleveland Browns during the first quarter at Heinz Field. The Pittsburgh Steelers won 24-10. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Happy Friday Steeler Nation and Happy First Day of Summer.   Since we have Steeler fans all over, the weather may or may  not be conducive to outdoor activities, but I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Here is some of the news tidbits I thought you might find interesting.

How Would You Assess Underrated and Overrated Steelers?

Dave Dameshek of NFL Network decided to stir the off-season football pot and speculate on which players deserve the labels of overrated and underrated.  The tweet they sent to advertise the article might have incited a riot in some areas:

Based on the number of Polamalu jerseys I have seen during my travels around this country, “them’s fightin’ words.”

However, this article wasn’t specifically focused on Polamalu.  It started with listing 5 underrated players:  L.C. Greenwood, Lynn Chandnois, Jon Kolb, Aaron Smith, and Larry Brown.  The article gives a paragraph with each player to explain how the writer came to his conclusions.  The overrated players are:  Troy Polamalu, Mike Wallace, “The offensive linemen from the four Super Bowl teams in the 70s-80s,” Cliff Stout and Mark Malone, and end with “NOT Lynn Swann.”  I have to say that the article irritated me once I got to the overrated part because the author’s bias really seemed to come out and I felt he lost his objectivity once he started naming groups of people.  He says the offensive line for the four Super Bowls in the 70s should be considered overrated because they used performance enhancing products.  I’m really uninformed about PED use during the 1970s and if was wide spread or just a few people.  So, I think I have to disagree with using today’s thought process about PEDs (which I agree with) and putting that on players from a different generation.  I have to think about this one some more.  What does everyone else think?

Optimism About the Offensive Line

Ryan Petrovich, of iSportsWeb, looks at the five potential starters for the Steelers offensive line and suggests the starting line has a lot of potential.  He assesses the one drawback as a familiar one:  lack of depth.  If there are injuries (and when aren’t there?), the Steelers will be in trouble.  He calls Maurkice Pouncey the heart of the offensive line and I think that is pretty accurate.  He has grown into a leadership role on team even though I still think of him as a young player because he is only going into his fourth season in the league.  Pouncey has formed a good relationship with Roethlisberger and that means alot to things working cohesively on the line.  I didn’t find anything in the article that surprised me, but it’s a good run down on the potential starters.  I hope the Steelers address the depth issue, but with the roster limitations, I’m not sure how to really do it beyond stacking the practice squad.

How Do You Know You Are A Steelers Fan?

The Bleacher Report put together a 5-slide presentation on how you know you are a Steelers fan.  It’s a light-hearted poke at Terrible Towels, Polamalu flowing locks, you stopped riding the Bus when Bettis retired, and ends with “When Six Isn’t Enough For You.”  I was afraid to look at it because I thought it would be dripping with sarcasm and Steeler-hate, but it was a good chuckle.  The towels in my bathroom aren’t yellow, but I did own more than one until I passed the other one on to my son, who despite his father’s best efforts to make him a Cowboy fan, intelligently chose the Steelers.

Art Rooney would like to see Pittsburgh host the NFL draf?

The titles are a bit misleading on some of the tweets and articles being posted.  According to an interview with Bob Labriola who post articles for Steelers Digest on Steelers.com, Mr. Rooney responded to a question/discussion in the vein of “What if the NFL draft starts moving around to different cities?”  Rooney said he would be happy for Pittsburgh to be in the mix to host one.  The articles are making it sound like Mr. Rooney is actively seeking to bring the NFL draft to Pittsburgh.  That simply doesn’t not seem to be the case based on how I read the transcript of the interview:

"Sure, I’d like to see the draft move around (to other cities), and I would love to see it come to Pittsburgh some time,” said Rooney. “It’s a great event and attracts tremendous fan interest. It would be a fun event for Pittsburgh to host, and I think our city could do a great job with it.”"

Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review also gives his perspective on Mr. Rooney’s discussion.  What are people trying to stir up this trouble?  Is there so little going on that they have to go with this?  Puh-leaze.

What did I miss?  What did I get wrong?

That’s it for me today.  Let me know what you think!