Courtesy CBSSports.com

If the NFL knows what’s good for itself, Rodger Goodell will make Eagles CB Rodgers-Cromartie pay a hefty little fine for his hit on Steelers QB Byron Leftwich.  The hit, which can be seen here on NFL.com, is reminiscent of a certain Steelers linebacker knocking Colt McCoy into the 2012 season.

The hit is certainly a moment that could have been missed by The Replacements, but fortunately, the zebras were on top of it.  By definition the hit is unnecessary roughness – Cromartie leaves his feet and puts his shoulder right into the chin of Leftwich.  The hit was called a late hit, which is the wrong call, but at least a penalty was called.  It gave the Steelers a first down and extended the drive.  Thankfully, Leftwich didn’t really seem shaken up from the play.  I find that a little funny considering how easily he tends to break from season to season.

Back to the punishment that should happen.  Rodgers-Cromartie felt that this hit was clean.  Dude, you speared yourself right into Leftwich’s chin.  If you had any better aim, you would have gone helmet to helmet.  Intent vs. actual contact has been a point of contention for many players and fans around the league.  But, there’s no doubting that Cromartie ‘broke the rules’ by playing some chin music with Lefty.

Fine?  You betcha.  Let’s say in the realm of six figures.  Suspension?  Doubtful.  It’s Rodgers-Cromartie’s first offense and the rules are pretty well laid out as far as the severity goes.  Bottom line, Goodell can’t let a hit like this pass even if it is the preseason.  I know it’s a Steelers player who took the hit – so Steeler Nation’s opinion is a bit influenced, and we also have a jaded pass with ‘illegal hits.’  But I want to know – what do you think?

Even Tomlin had some things to smile about last night. Either that or his dinner was still stuck in his teeth. Credit: Dale Zanine-US PRESSWIRE

There was some good, some bad and one big ugly to the Steelers preseason opener against the Eagles on Thursday night.  If you thought after last night’s comeback by the Eagles that the season is already at a loss – you need to get your head examined.  There was much to take away from a game like that – many things were learned and the coaches are sure to know where the focus needs to be for the next several weeks.  And let’s face it, it’s not like Todd Haley was going to show his full bag o’ tricks to a team that he will see later in the regular season.  Even Roethlisberger said that offense was a bit ‘vanilla.’

The best play of the night by far came from future rookie sensation, Chris Rainey.  His 57-yard touchdown from a swing pass was a great catch and run.  His returns were promising too.  This kid is going to go places while with the Steelers and it will be fun to watch.  The offense seemed effective but still needs to shake off the Red Zone blues – how about that 1st and Goal that resulted in 3 points? – and the defense showed some glimpses of what it might be capable of – especially Steve McLendon’s progression during the offseason.

There were some bad and ugly associated with the game to, as is to be expected in the preseason.  The Steelers’ rookie lineman had a bit of a rough night.  DeCastro was fairly quiet for most of the night, but Mike Adams got the brunt of the bad night blues.  Letting up 2.5 sacks – two of which were sack fumbles – Adams was slow to the edge and was beaten more than those two times.  He injured his right knee in the process of recovering a fumble, but reports say that it isn’t very serious.  Seems bad to me if a rookie lineman that’s expected to start can’t practice when he needs to.  The second and third team defenses allowed a comeback from a second and third team offense.  So, the older and slower and more done guys did better than the young’ins.

The ugly occurred when David Johnson suffered a major knee injury when Marcus Gilbert rolled up on his leg.  Ouch.  It looked bad and early reports are he could be done for the season.  So much for having a fullback.  Johnson looked promising as the 2011 season came to a close, and there have been bright spots early in the preseason training sessions – which is one reason why I think Tomlin may have announced that Johnson could be playing his dual role at TE/FB prior to the injury.  Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, and depending on how things shake out after Wesley Saunder’s suspension, this could be Johnson’s final game in a Steelers uniform.

Well Steeler Nation, you’ve read numerous articles.  You’ve watched the news.  You’ve gone back and perhaps looked at some replays of the game.  What are your opinions of Thursday’s game?  Is the offense starving for a Mike Wallace return?  Is Chris Rainey going to be the newest sensation on the Steelers?  What’s the over/under on Roethlisberger’s sack total for the season?  I wanna hear it from you.

Why is it so easy to hate these guys???

Sitting here watching the Penguins Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and seeing the Flyers currently coming back from being down AGAIN in this series (and looking good to taking a 3-0 series lead) I became curious about the all time series of the Pens v Flyers as well as the Steelers v Eagles.  Well my Steel City friends, it is not good.

The Flyers lead the all time series against the Pens 141-89-30 (W/L/T).  The Cryin’ Flyers always seem to be a thorn in the side of the Pens.  And now, with the acquisition of Jagr the hatred runs even more deeply.  The Pens have the final laugh with having more Stanley Cups, 3-2.  Doesn’t make watching this series any easier.  There’s been a ton of scrapping and fighting during this first period – even Sid the Kid dropped the gloves.

The Steelers history with the Eagles isn’t really any better.  The Eagles have a large edge over the all time series 46-27-3.  The rivalry is almost non-existant because the separation by conferences.  It’s still easy to despise the Eagles – they still come from Philly and have people like Andy Reid and Michael Vick as representations from the City of Douchebag Brotherly Love.  Again, Pittsburgh fans can walk away feeling the ultimate high by having 6 Super Bowl championships to the Eagles’ zero (although to the Eagles’ credit they have three national titles prior to the merger).

So I’m going to give you all a chance out there to release your venom.  What is it about both these Philly teams that get your blood boiling?

Roger Goodell's idea of a clean hit

And the feeling is mutual, I would imagine.

On Monday, Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro linebacker James Harrison received some bad news.  His appeal of the ridiculous fines levied against him was denied.  Shocking.  I, for one, totally see the fairness in fining James a cool $75,000 for laying out Mohamed Massaquoi with a clean hit but not fining Kurt Coleman (for stretchering out Austin Collie) or James Sanders (for cheapshotting Hines Ward) a single penny for their filthy actions.

According to NFL justice, James would be 67% less dirty (and richer) if he just just pulled up and sucker-punched his opponent like a cowardly little bitch…

Yesterday, the NFL slapped the Silverback with another $25,000 deduction from his paycheck.  Who didn’t see this coming?  He somehow escaped last week’s uncalled for personal foul for “landing with full body weight” on Oakland’s Jason Campbell.   The Ginger Dictator must’ve been distracted with planning his Thanksgiving feast.

But breaks are short-lived when it comes to the NFL’s persecution of the Black and Gold.  This week’s laughable personal foul for hitting Ryan Fitzpatrick square in the chest with a form perfect tackle did not escape their notice.  In fact, when the flag was thrown, I immediately pictured Goodell and his lackey in charge of punishments pumping their fists and high-fiving each other because they got another chance to stick it to the Steelers.

And stick it they did.  Right up the back door.  Without lube.  For those keeping score at home, James Harrison’s badassery has now set him back $125,000.  No other player, not even lowlife thugs who get into UFC-style brawls, have been fined even half that amount.

Instead of pointless meetings with Ginger or appealing unfair fines, James should just write a check for $180,000 and ask the league if a brother can get a discount for early payment.

Tuesday was a busy day for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He took on the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal in a football challenge for the new show Shaq vs. A few hours later, his lawyers released a salvo of emails pertaining to the ongoing civil lawsuit against him.  Andrea McNulty has some ‘splainin’ to do.

The woman who has accused Ben of raping her in a Reno hotel room in July 2008 seemingly suffered no ill effects from the traumatic event.  She fired off a number of text and email messages in the days immediately after the alleged assault, then spoke highly of Ben for months afterward.  All that’s missing is a Twitter update recounting Ben’s post-coital snack of choice (My money’s on ham n’ cheese Hot Pocket).  Read her messages for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

I won’t belabor the article by repeating it here. I think the evidence speaks for itself in this case. I will say that I found two of her emails particularly disturbing. The first being her telling her fictional online boyfriend that, “Ben said he would take me to this place he has in Wyoming and they horseback into this fishing hole and camp.”

At least now we know the cowboy hat isn’t just for show. Did Ben really invite her up to his fishing hole?  What kind of pick up line is that?  Or do you think she just made that up to get her Fake Boyfriend jealous?  I can never figure out how the devious female mind works.  And hasn’t she ever heard you’re supposed to save a horse and ride a cowboy? Where’s PETA on this? Probably over in Philly, protesting Michael Vick while trying to duck the rocks thrown by the mouth-breathers who follow that team.

The second disturbing thing was this email, written about 20 hours after her alleged rape. “I am really excited because we are all going to see Journey tonight and that will be sooooo much fun. Speaking of which, I need to head over to a dinner with [Mr. Roethlisberger] and a few others before heading out. I will be back and working until at least 3am again.”

She likes Journey? I love Journey. I’ve seen them in concert four times because Journey is awesome. I cannot tell you how profoundly disturbing it is to know some petty money-grubbing nutjob and I both have a weakness for 70′s power ballads.  If I find out she has Death Cab on her IPod, I’ll officially give up music forever.