In an offseason which will probably be fairly quiet until the draft in April, there’s been some recent injury news which should be of interest to fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In injury report #1, star WR Hines Ward underwent minor surgery to “clean up” some issues with his right shoulder.  Yes, you read that correctly.  His shoulder, not his knee.  Evidently the sprained MCL which he suffered in the AFC Championship beatdown of the Ravens will heal just fine on its own.  Which is actually not that surprising because other Steelers have had a similar injury and came back to play later in the same season without going under the knife.  Troy Polamalu and Willie Parker both suffered MCL sprains the past couple years and both returned after 6-8 weeks of rest.

Nevertheless, Hines deserves some sort of Iron Man Medal of Valor for trying to play in the Super Bowl.  If you remember the injuries to those other players, they needed every bit of two months or so to come back.  That he tried to play only 2 weeks after injuring it speaks volumes about the guy’s courage.  Sure he didn’t do much beyond the one big catch and the one nice 3rd down conversion but that shouldn’t diminish his toughness.

In injury report #2, we have QB Ben Roethlisberger.  There’s been buzz this week when Big Ben revealed to that quivering tub of lard Peter King that he played the Super Bowl with “broken ribs.” Actually, an MRI taken after the game allegedly found two small microfractures in his rib cage.  Now far be it for me to call Ben a liar but I have to take any injury talk concerning him with a grain of salt.  I’m sure his injuries are there, I just wonder if they’re always as severe as he makes them out to be.

If Ben did have serious rib issues before the game, then the Steelers are guilty of almost Belichickian-like deceit.  They listed Hines correctly although head coach Mike Tomlin was obviously fibbing when he said Ward was “practicing normally.”  More disturbing is the Roethlisberger situation. The injury report listed him as having “back” issues.  Back?  Then Tomlin denied the team even x-raying Ben.

Granted you don’t want to put a sign up in big flashing neon letters saying, “HURT QB HERE!  KNOCK HIM OUT OF GAME WITH ONE GOOD SPEAR!”   Still, it raises questions about their treatment of Ben.  We all remember back in Bill Cowher‘s last season when he put Ben in against Jacksonville less than 2 weeks after an appendectomy and not far off from the motorcycle fiasco.  Ben, who supposedly had a 100+ degree temperature, played like utter crap.  He didn’t look himself for a good month.  Earlier this year, Ben was taking a beating and at times looked to be struggling physically.  You really have to worry that the team isn’t putting its own interests ahead of their QB’s by running him out there when he’s hurting.

But you also have to wonder if Ben doesn’t put on a bit of a performance to enhance his Superman reputation.  For those scoring at home, this season alone he has complained of:

-A separated shoulder

-A sprained knee

-A torn ligament in this thumb

-sore lower back

-spinal concussion

-broken ribs

Dammit readers, I’m a blogger, not a doctor but looking at that list, it’s a little strange anybody could go out week after week and play at a high level suffering so many crippling ailments.  Or maybe he’s just the Mick Foley of the NFL.

History.

Last night, our country finally embraced the Rooney Rule on a national level when they elected Barack Obama the 44^th President of United States. As you can tell by the picture above, Dan Rooney is probably pretty happy about the result. Regardless of your political leanings, everyone should feel at least a little pride in the historic event which took place yesterday. When a man of mixed heritage, a man raised by his mother and grandmother, a man with such a diverse cultural background can rise to the level of President, it really says a lot about how far we’ve come as a society.

Of course, we all know who President-elect Obama has to thank for his victory.

The Pittsburgh Steelers.

By defeating the Washington Redskins on Monday night, Obama’s victory was all but guaranteed. Forget the polls. Forget Zogby. Forget CNN. The best indicator of who will win a Presidential election is the Redskins. For the last 30 years, with only one exception, the Redskin Rule has been 100% accurate in predicting the outcome. If the Skins win their last game before Election Day, the party in office stays in office. If they lose, the opposing party takes control. Therefore, by pulling out the win, the Steelers made it a lock for Barry O.

Speaking of history, those who don’t learn from it are doomed to repeat it. Two seasons ago, the Steelers were defending Super Bowl champs but QB Ben Roethlisberger ran afoul of a Gray Hair on the Seventh Street Bridge while on his motorbike. Then, the last week of preseason, he was felled by an emergency appendectomy. Replaced by Charlie Batch for the season opener against Miami, the Steelers won easily while Batch had an outstanding game. It was his last action of the season as Ben came back the following week against Jacksonville. He muddled through a terrible performance where neither team scored a TD, ending with a 9-0 loss. He played pretty poorly for several weeks, including in a loss to the hapless Raiders, a team which would only win 2 games all year.

After the loss to the Jags, disturbing rumors surfaced. Some said Ben played the game with a 100 degree temperature. Others said his stitches were so fresh that one of the sacks had caused them to pop. There were other rumblings that the head trauma from the accident had caused a sort of punch drunk effect where Ben was unable to think and react as quickly as before. The question became why was Coach Bill Cowher starting him?

I’m not privy to behind the scenes info so I don’t know exactly what was true and what wasn’t. But I do know Ben didn’t seem right. And not being right cost us at least one probably two games. You know how many games we missed the playoffs by that year? ONE.

That brings us to this year. The press is reporting the MRI on Ben’s injured right shoulder showed no significant change from past weeks. If that’s true, how was he playing before yet couldn’t on Monday night? Are they saying that he’s constantly playing through this excruciating pain, except that one time when it became a little more excruciating? Why would you take a valuable player like Roethlisberger, a player you invested close to $100 million in, and potentially threaten his health and longevity by allowing him to play when he’s seriously hurt?

Not to mention the fact that current coach Mike Tomlin can spin things however he likes but the injury IS affecting Ben’s play. Our offense wasn’t this bad last year under the same set of coaches so you can’t lay the blame entirely on them. I applaud Big Ben’s toughness and desire to help his team but if you’re playing with a crippling injury and it’s affecting your game, you’re actually hindering more than helping.

That’s why I’m hoping Tomlin learns from history and starts Byron Leftwich this Sunday in Indianapolis. The Steeler might get a bye (if they make the playoffs) but otherwise there are no more breaks from here to the end of the season. Ben clearly needs some time off and rest to get his body somewhat back together and this week is just as good as any. You want him ready to go for important games like division match-ups or against Dallas. This week is the perfect week to give him some rest as it’s at home against a rather mediocre Indy team that Leftwich knows very well after playing them twice every year when he was in Jacksonville.

I don’t want to lose games we should easily win because our quarterback is a functioning cripple. I also don’t want him to prove his toughness by playing through a nagging injury that eventually turns into a big huge season ending injury. We need Ben for the stretch run and we need him for the playoffs. But for this week, he needs to ride the bench.

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The natives are restless in Big D.

After losing three out of their last four games, the Dallas Cowboy players aren’t the only ones pointing fingers and pushing the panic button on their season. Their fans are growing increasing unhappy with the underperformance of a team which featured no less than 11 Pro Bowlers last year. Fair or not, a good deal of their venom is directed toward head coach Wade Phillips. Their collective voices are crying out for one man to save them:

Bill Cowher.

Of course, every team with a head coaching vacancy, and even a few without one, set their sights on Coach Cowher. Two years ago, the Giants stumbled down the stretch but managed to squeak into the playoffs where they got dumped by the Philadelphia Eagles. The next day, the New York Post ran the headline “We Want Bill.” Last year, the hot rumor was Romeo Crennel was on his way out and Cowher was going to be installed as head coach and G.M. of the Cleveland Browns. But they had a surprisingly strong season and Romeo received a contract extension instead, although the way this year is going that might not last.

Everybody wants Bill Cowher. Why shouldn’t they? In 15 years here in Pittsburgh, he only missed the playoffs five times. He’s won 150 games and is in the top five of all time with a 62% win percentage. Not to mention the two Super Bowl appearances and one victory. When retreads who never accomplished anything like Denny Green keep getting shot after shot, it’s pretty obvious why Bill would be the most highly sought after coach in decades.

So I can’t blame Dallas for wanting him. But I can tell them it isn’t going to happen.

Cowher left Pittsburgh for two reasons: burn-out and money. Some people think it’s just the latter but that’s not true. Jerome Bettis called Cowher’s retirement the season before because he had confessed to the Bus that after the Super Bowl he was tired and wanted to spend time with his family. This was before contract extension talks had began with the Steelers so money was not an issue. It did become a problem after the season when it became clear that his desire to be the highest paid coach in the NFL wasn’t going to happen in Pittsburgh.

Dallas owner Jerry Jones only lure to snag Cowher would be money. Big giant piles of it. If getting the fattest paycheck he can is Bill’s only goal then Dallas could very well be in the running. But there is nothing to indicate that is the case. In fact, all evidence points to the opposite.

Prior to the 2007 season, Wayne Huizenga offered Bill Cowher basically the deal he gave Bill Parcells to coach and run the Miami Dolphins organization. Cowher turned him down, ostensibly because he wanted to spend time with his family. Being close to home is important to him, one reason why Washington, Carolina, and Atlanta were the jobs most frequently associated with him. Speaking of Atlanta, that brings us to this offseason. Falcons owner Arthur Blank offered Bill a blank check to take over that troubled franchise. Again, he turned them down. The Redskins also had a coaching vacancy and you better believe Danny Snyder would’ve opened his wallet for Bill if given the opportunity. Obviously if money were the issue, Cowher has had ample chances to, as the kids say, make the chedda.

Which brings us to the main reason why you won’t see The Chin roaming the field in the Lone Star state. Control. Bill Cowher is as headstrong a coach as you’ll find. He’s extremely demanding and extremely controlling. He’s far more Bill Parcells than Wade Phillips and everybody knows Parcells got fed up and left. If you want a caretaker to just make in-game decisions, then Cowher is not your guy.

Director of Player Personnel Tom Donohoe was run out of town because he butted heads with Coach Cowher. In Cowher’s first training camp, Huey Richardson, who had been the 15^th overall pick in the NFL Draft the previous season, demonstrated a total lack of football ability so Cowher cut him. One of the big issues during his last couple seasons was the increased authority of Dan Rooney’s son, Art III, in the organization. Where Dan leaves the team to his coaches, Art III is supposedly more involved which rubbed Bill the wrong way. In his farewell press conference, the heat between them was obvious as he specifically praised working with Dan but ignored Art, who was standing right next to him.

For this reason alone, I can’t possibly see how he’d get along with the Cowboys’ obnoxious overbearing doofus of an owner. If anybody missed HBO’s “Hard Knocks” show this year, I’ll give you a quick synopsis: Jerry Jones evaluating players. Jerry Jones making draft decisions. Jerry Jones at training camp. Jerry Jones meeting with coaches to discuss game plans. Jerry Jones giving his players motivational speeches in the locker room. See the problem yet?

Not to mention, Cowher likes blue collar hard edge football players. He hates prima donnas and crybabies. Before the AFC Championship game where San Diego upset the heavily favored Steelers, a bunch of players planned out a Super Bowl Shuffle type video. When we lost because we took our eye off the ball, Cowher was very upset with the players to the point he ran the ringleader of the video, Brentson Buckner, off the team. Wonder how he’d react to Tony Romo taking his bimbo to Cabo? One reason why they made no effort to retain Plaxico Burress was because Cowher had enough of his big mouth, criminal antics, and tendency to miss games over every broken fingernail. I’m sure he’d love T.O.

If Bill Cowher returns to the NFL, it’ll be in a situation similar to Mike Holmgren in Seattle. Total control over a team without any meddlesome input from an owner. And that will not happen in Dallas. So, sorry Cowboy fans, but NO BILL FOR YOU!