I meant to post this last Friday but with StergerGate breaking, I wanted to register my outrage over Brett Favre’s penis in a timely fashion.  Selection number two in Steelers Book Club was sent to me by the fine folks over at Wiley Publishing.   The title is NFL Unplugged: The Brutal, Brilliant World of Professional Football by Anthony Gargano.

Did you watch the HBO series Hard Knocks?  Do you like movies such as Any Given Sunday? If the nitty gritty behind the scenes world of the NFL is your cup of tea, then this is the book for you.   Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask is in this no-hold-barred expose of life in the NFL.

Gargano is a sports radio talk show host in Philadelphia.  Even if you didn’t know that, you could figure it out from the way the book is written.  His stories will be fascinating to any NFL fan as long as you are not bothered by profanity or excessive crudeness.  Hey, these are football players we’re talking about.  Like any talk show host, his style is to be completely over the top.  But his position did allow him access to a number of professional athletes, most notably Bill Romanowski, Mark Schlereth, Kevin Long, Kyle Turley, John Gruden, Hugh Douglas, Jon Runyan, and Michael Strahan.  These gentlemen (and others) pull no punches when telling war stories about the life of a professional football player.

It ain’t for the faint of heart.

Now, being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I’m sure you’re asking “What’s in it for me?”  Well, there’s a surprising amount of coverage given to Steelers players and coaches.  Gargano was at Super Bowl XLIII and provides an inside perspective of that game, particularly a memorable exchange between Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner.   He also talks at length about the greatest coach of the past thirty years, the legendary Bill Cowher.

One of the best sections is devoted to head injuries.  You’ll be shocked to read about how prevalent they are and the extremely serious consequences they hold.  Players seem to enjoy talking about their “battle scars” and some of the stories about their injuries and what they did to play through them will make make your skin crawl while also giving you a whole new appreciation for what these modern day gladiators put themselves through on a weekly basis.

After reading this book, an 18 game season will seem like a really really bad idea.

Speaking of injuries, the best chapter of the book recounts the story of Jerry Olsavsky.  For newer Steeler fans, the legend of Jerry O is required reading.   When I was at CMU in the mid-90s, my roommate had a Jerry O jersey and he wasn’t the only one as his blue-collar work ethic made him something of a cult hero.  An undersized linebacker with average athletic ability but a ton of heart, Olsavsky battled the odds (and a catastrophic injury) to play nine years with the Black and Gold.

Everything in the book isn’t as serious, however.   Gargano devotes plenty of space to the lighter side of football such as the hilarious trash talking that goes on in the trenches or some of the silly moments in the locker room which bond teammates together.  If you ever wanted to know why the guys on ESPN refer to Mark Schlereth as “Stink,” you’ll find out here.  For those who are interested in all the behind the scenes stuff which goes on every Sunday (and the Mondays through Saturdays in between) this fascinating book is a must read.  The stories aren’t always pleasant and aren’t always nice but you’ll never be bored.

Wiley’s website has excerpts for you to read (pdf format) and you can order the book directly from them by clicking here. Or you can buy it off Amazon in either hardcover or for the tech geeks (like me!) order an e-book copy for your Kindle, iPad, or other e-reading device by clicking here.

Welcome to Nice Pick, Cowher version 2.0!

For my longtime readers, I’m sure some of you were wondering if you came to the right place. Worry not, under the shiny new exterior this is the same NPC you’ve come to know and love. The fine folks over at the Fansided Network just decided it was time to upgrade to a little fancier, a little more professional look. I think it’s great and I hope that you agree.

You may have also noticed in the upper right corner that the Network is associated not only with the Yardbarker family but by extension FoxSports.com and MSN. This is a good thing for all of us as increased attention brings increased opportunities not only to work with the NFL but their sponsor companies. So if you thought I had some pretty cool contests before, just you wait. And, for the record, I do not get paid to write this blog. Every penny from the various ads and sponsors you see goes to paying the server costs and technical support which keeps this site up and running.

In a related matter, some of you may have noticed that you now have to log in to leave a comment. I regret having to make this change but this site is something I do in my free time for fun. As I said, I do not get paid to write it nor do you pay to read it. Just like you wouldn’t stumble into somebody’s house, loudly tell them how much their furniture and food suck, then vomit on their carpet, you don’t have a right to come to my site and unleash a string of profanity at me simply because you don’t like something I wrote. Disagreement is fine but too many people have no concept of POLITE discussion. So now if we can’t all behave like adults, I will suspend or permanently remove their commenting privileges.

Thoughtful comments, in support OR disagreement with me or other posters, are welcome. But insults, name-calling, or general trolling directed at me or other commenters will not be tolerated. I appreciate everybody who takes the time to leave a comment, especially those of you who are “regulars,” and I hope to create a site where everybody can state their opinion without fear of being shouted down by people hurling schoolyard insults.

In the meantime, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy the new design and thank you for supporting me with your readership. Let’s Go Steelers!

How awesome is that commercial?  I’ve watched it four times in the past hour and still wanna see it again.  Something had to make up for that ridiculous Ben Roethlisberger auditions for ”American Idol” ad which aired last season.   The greatness of Troy Polamalu aside, I’m not prepared to declare it the best Steeler-related commercial ever however.  No, not Mean Joe giving the kid his jersey either.   My favorite will always be, you guessed it, “Nice pick, Cowah!”

Watching Steeler commercials on a continuous loop must mean only one thing:  BYE WEEK.   Yes, this is that one week a year us Pittsburghers dread, the Steelerless Sunday.  I was going to do a run down of the week’s games and offer some of my always insightful analysis but then I realized “who cares about other teams?”  I’m sure football fanatics and degenerate gamblers are salivating over the sexy Miami Dolphins-Houston Texans match-up but I can’t really muster up any interest.  When you’re used to drinking fine champagne, a can of PBR doesn’t entice you (although it works wonders on coeds from Pitt, frat boys must save a bundle on roofies).

Anyway, before I resume my regularly scheduled posting habits next week, I thought I’d just post a few a news items of interest to tide Steeler Nation over until then.

–Gene Collier, who I believe has been a columnist since I was in 3rd grade, wrote about Santonio Holmes’ hometown. Readers of this blog know I covered the story and posted an awesome video on this subject THREE MONTHS AGO.  Way to stay hip and current Post-Gazette.  Seriously, though, watch the video (and comment).  It’s one of the best segments I’ve ever seen.

–Speaking of Santonio, the reason for his sudden disappearance last week was evidently because he got kicked in the junk. Of course, you have to read between the lines in the always family friendly P-G.  Landed on someone’s shoe = kicked.  Lower abdominal region = junk.  If anybody saw the pictures of Holmes taken this summer by his girlfriend groupie ho, you’d know what a major catastrophe this could’ve been.

–Also in junk-related news, did anybody hear about Browns TE Kellen Winslow being sent to the hospital for “undisclosed reasons?” Turns out the undisclosed reasons were swollen testicles. They really better start Brady Quinn because now his boredom is affecting the whole team.

–Mister Woodley is not pleased.  I implored you to vote for a Steeler Sweep in the weekly NFL awards and we did not get the job done.   Big Ben won Offensive Player of the Week and Mike Tomlin won Coach of the Week but LaMarr Woodley came up short in his bid for the Defensive Award. He will no doubt take his anger out on the Cincinnati Bungles next weekend.  By the way, check out the list of past Defensive winners.  Mister Woodley and Troy won back-to-back weeks one and two and then J-Peezy (Joey Porter) took it in week three.  Blitzburgh defense is truly a wonderful thing.

–James Harrison was fined $20,000 for suggesting the officials should be fined for their atrocious performance in the Jacksonville game.  Hines Ward was also slapped with a $5,000 fine for unnecessary roughness in the Baltimore game.  The rub?  He was never flagged for unnecessary roughness.  So evidently Roger “See No Evil” Goodell can see evil and can even see evil on videotape but it has to be three weeks after it occurred and when the officials who are standing two feet from the plays saw nothing at all.

Have a good weekend, or at least as good as it can be without a glorious Steeler victory, and I’ll be back next week with my regularly scheduled smack talk.