Lost amidst the hoopla of the Ben Roethlisberger lawsuit was some genuinely great news for one of the finest Pittsburgh Steelers of all time.

Rod Woodson, a ten year starter at cornerback for the Steelers, was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Woodson is the career leader in interceptions returned for touchdown.  He also holds the record for most career interception return yardage.  Deion who?   Woodson was the 1993 NFL Defensive Player of The Year for yet another Steeler defense ranked 1st overall in the league, an 11 time Pro Bowler, and was named to the NFL’s 75th anniversary team back in 1994 while he was still playing.  Rod was the Steelers 1987 1st round draft pick (10th overall) out of Purdue.  He played fantastic cornerback while here and distinguished himself as a dynamic return man.  Also, Woodson’s All-Star Grill down at Station Square had some of the best hamburgers you’ve ever tasted.

Perhaps Woodson’s greatest moment as a Steeler occurred in 1995.  Ironically, that was also the beginning of the end of his career in the Black and Gold.  Week one against the Detroit Lions, Woodson squared to tackle RB Barry Sanders.  Sanders juked him out of his jock (which he did to pretty much everybody) and when Rod planted his foot to change direction, it got caught in the artificial turf at Three Rivers Stadium.  He tore his ACL to hell and needed immediate reconstructive surgery.  The Steelers rallied, managing to make it all the way to Super Bowl XXX that season.  Miraculously, Woodson managed to rehab his knee sufficiently to play nickelback in the soul-crushing loss to the Dallas Cowboys.  Yes, he tore his ACL and come back to play in the same season.

Woodson’s speed was unbelievable as he’d routinely let wide receivers go past him to play the run or fool the quarterback into thinking his man was open and then he’d come out of nowhere to close on the receiver when he saw where the ball was going.  Unfortunately, players seldom heal completely from an ACL tear so when he tried doing this the next year, he didn’t have that same freaky closing speed and would get beat on bombs.  The Steelers wanted to move him to safety but he allegedly refused, resulting in a not so pleasant divorce.  Sadly, we had to watch as one of our greatest players and probably the best pure athlete to ever don the Black and Gold leave for the 49ers, Ravens (where he helped them win a Super Bowl.  You’re welcome, Ratbirds), and finally the Raiders.

Regardless of where his career ended or the bad feelings he may have had over how his departure from Pittsburgh was handled, Rod has always stated he remains a Steeler at heart.  He’s made peace with the Rooneys and talked openly of the admiration he has for both them and his original team.  In fact, he said in several interviews that if a player had to pick one team jersey/helmet to wear on their Hall of Fame bust, he’d pick the Steelers.

You can watch his entire Hall of Fame induction speech here.

Congratulations, Rod.  Your #26 jersey still hangs proudly in my closet.  And now your name hangs proudly among the greatest players to ever play the game.  Steeler Nation thanks you for the memories.

Happy New Year!

Now that we’ve kissed 2008 goodbye, let’s take a look at what we have coming up in 2009. The proverbial Infinite Monkeys who dream up the NFL schedules have seen fit to release next year’s slate of victims for your Pittsburgh Steelers. Take a look:

Home: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Tennessee Titans, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings

Away: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions

A few thoughts leap to mind. First, I think we have a legit shot at going 16-0. I realize teams can improve or degrade one year to the next but on paper that’s a really easy schedule. Plus, let’s be realistic. Detroit, Kansas City, and Oakland need far more help than one good draft can provide. Speaking of the Lions, anybody want to bet that game ends up being their annual Thanksgiving showcase? Hopefully this time we won’t take them to overtime or if we do the ref knows how to run a coin toss.

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.

Now, being the attention-seeking buffoon that Chad is, he can’t simply follow his plan and fade from the limelight for one measly year.   Nope.  Since he’s not catching TDs, he needed some other gimmick to make people notice him.   So what did he do?

He legally changed his last name to “Ocho Cinco.”  Unfortunately, the NFL hasn’t let him wear it on the back of his uniform just yet because they have a deal with Reebok who doesn’t want to eat the cost of thousands hundreds dozens of obsolete jerseys.  Really, is Bengal paraphernalia that in demand?   How much money would they truly be losing if they gave them all to poor kids in Zimbabwe?  The only people who’d care to buy a Cincinnati jersey are people who live in Cincinnati and even then they’d be embarassed to wear it.

In any case, since the name change hasn’t been officially sanctioned by the NFL yet, there is still time to come up with something better.  I mean, there has to be a catchier nickname than your uniform number, right?   So, Mr. Cinco, I humbly propose the following alternate names for your consideration: