Pittsburgh has a long history of athlete-endorsed food products. There were Louis Lipps‘ uber-delicious Lippsmacker cookies. Bubby Brister had the Bubby Bar. Not to be outdone, Mario Lemieux countered with his unfortunately named Mario Bun. I even remember Terry Bradshaw Peanut Butter. My mother claims it was the only PB I’d accept with my J back when I was a wee lad.

I’ve been a diehard Steelers fan a loooooong time.

City of Champions Cereal is the newest entry on that list. The box, featuring Hines Ward and Max Talbot on alternate sides, will be available exclusively at local Giant Eagle stores in mid November.  For the out-of-towners, you can also order this fine product directly from the PLB Sports website beginning November 9th.  Heck, order some Big Ben Beef Jerky while you’re at it.  You can never have enough beef jerky.

Now, let’s get down to the reason I’m giving PLB Sports this free publicity.  First, they’re a well-respected company probably most famous for producing Flutie Flakes.  And more importantly, they’re having a contest.  Everybody knows I love a contest.

Anyway, PLB Sports will be having a press conference on November 24th to promote City of Champions Cereal.  The are giving YOU a chance to attend this press conference.  Why is that a prize?

How about because both box boys, Hines and Max, will be at this press conference. Live and in person. And you are guaranteed to receive a box of cereal autographed by both of them!  In addition, Hines and Max have a reputation of being two of Pittsburgh’s nicest athletes so, time permitting of course, you’ll get a chance to have a few moments of face time with them after the press conference is over.

Unfortunately, there will be no guessing of a score to win this awesome opportunity.  PLB Sports is running the contest themselves, I am merely a humble messenger. If you’d like to enter, first make sure you’re either in Pittsburgh or able to get to the ‘Burgh on November 24th.  Mooch off your relatives if you have to, that’s what they’re here for.

All the official rules and legal mumbo jumbo can found here. Once you know you can make it, there are two ways to enter the contest.  You may enter both ways, but only ONCE each.

1. Send an email to info@plbsports.com with the headline (City of Champions Cereal). The entrant should write their name, age, telephone number, and how you found out about the Contest.

2. Follow PLB Sports on Twitter (@plbsports) and send them a reply which states “enter me in the contest #cityofchampions”

The contest will run from today until November 19th so get those entries in!  PLB has generously extended me the chance to cover the press conference so, work permitting, I may be there to fulfill my bloggy duties.  In fact, I feel a cold coming on as we speak.  Hope to see you there!

The Pittsburgh Steelers continued their dominance over the hapless Cleveland Browns on Sunday, handing them a 27-14 defeat. The ever-generous Steelers tried to hand the Browns a lot more than a loss, committing four turnovers and playing awful special teams. Our Black and Gold have developed a nasty habit of playing to the level of their opposition. These brief fits of stupidity hurt what was otherwise an outstanding effort on both sides of the ball.

Let’s start with the record-setting day by Ben Roethlisberger. Big Ben passed for 417 yards, only the fourth time in Steelers history a QB has surpassed four bills through the air.  He already had one of the other 400 yard games so he’s the first to do it twice.  Ben finished the day with two TD passes, which should’ve been three if Hines Ward hadn’t dropped a ball while doing a Stop-Drop-and-Roll demonstration in the end zone.  I wonder if the fan in the #86 jersey he gave the ball to gets an IOU since their souvenir is kinda worthless.

Hines did have a great game, amassing 159 yards, including a fantastic 52 yard deep catch and run for a TD. Not to be outdone, Santonio Holmes chipped in with 104 yards on only 5 catches. His day was highlighted by a 41 yard play where he caught a deep pass down near the sideline, then cut all the way across the field, leaving a pile of white jerseys in his wake. The offense ended up with an astounding 540 yards of output yesterday, the majority of which came from Bruce Arians‘ Flying Circus.

The running game, however, had some issues. Rashard Mendenhall got the majority of carries, finishing with 76 yards and a TD. Fast Willie Parker returned to action and it may have been a little too soon. FWP looked awful, running tentatively and having a lot of problems making his cuts. The announcers seemed to think his spiffy new Titanium Reinforced Twinkle Toe Shoes might be too cumbersome for him. I’ve seen Buster Browns cause some tragic wipe outs in the church parking lot so there may be something to that. However, the image of Parker bumbling and stumbling to the ground after catching a screen pass in the flat with nothing but 15 yards of green grass ahead of him is going to be hard to forget.

Equally hard to forget will be the miscues by our offense. Ben Roethlisberger, despite his virtuoso passing performance, had some turnover issues. He mishandled a snap, leading to a turnover. He also threw a terrible interception into TRIPLE coverage. But his sins were nothing compared to those committed by our Dynamic Duo. Late in the third quarter, Arians tried to kill the clock with some running plays. Give the man credit for learning from past mistakes. Unfortunately, his faith was rewarded with Willie Parker fumbling the ball away like it was coated with AstroGlide. On the next possession, they handed the rock to Mendy, who proceeded to carry it looser than a sorority girl after a Jager bomb, leading to another fumble.

This lead to the humorous situation at the end of the game when the Steelers took the ball on their 1 yard line following a Ryan Clark pick. Who did Mike Tomlin call on to close the game out?  Who had the unwavering faith of our Super Bowl winning coach?  Was it FWP, our highly paid superstar? Was it Mendenhall, our highly paid first round draft pick?

Of course not! It was third down back Mewelde Moore!

Speaking of turnovers, the Steelers D also caused a smorgasbord of miscues by Browns. Troy Polamalu got a “Welcome Back” pick thrown right to him. Troy’s return shored up the secondary a bit, although he seemed to be noticeably slower than usual. The Steelers linebackers, lead by Lawrence Timmons, harassed poor Anderson all day. Timmons, it should be noted, had a dominant performance, recording 2 sacks and causing 2 fumbles. When QB Derek Anderson did manage to get a pass off, it didn’t matter since the entire Browns receiving corps seemed to be infected with Sweeditis.

There was much debate in the comments section over what to do about replacing injured DE Aaron Smith. The Steelers answer appears to be a heavy dose of Travis Kirschke with a sprinkle of Nick Eason. Those of you pining for some Ziggy Hood will be disappointed to know his crust hasn’t risen or something because he didn’t take the field at all. The plan seems to be Kirschke plays in the base defense while Eason comes in on obvious passing downs. They looked decent enough although next week will be the real test.

The defense limited the Browns to a little less than 200 yards of total offense. Two turnovers, two sacks, and numerous pressures all amounted to a pretty good effort on that side of the ball. They only gave up 7 points so it’s nice to see the stinginess coming back to Blitzburgh. If not for Joshua Cribbs‘ 98 yard kickoff return TD, this game would’ve been the blowout we all hoped for.  Speaking of which, it was sad to see the Steelers run up the White Flag on special teams after that fiasco, squib kicking the rest of the game.

So what did we learn this week? Not much, I’m afraid. The Browns are a wretched awful team that would be lucky to win the Arena Bowl.  Next week, we face Brett Favre and his undefeated Fighting Wranglers Minnesota Vikings. If you wanted a measuring stick to gauge exactly where this team is at this year, that will be it. If they can find a way to clean up this week’s sloppiness while managing to keep the explosiveness on both sides of the ball, the sun may be coming out in Steeler Nation.

On the surface, one wouldn’t think Detroit and Pittsburgh have much in common. After all, Pittsburgh was recently named America’s #1 sports city. Detroit came in 10th. Let’s be honest, SportingNews is just confirming what we’ve known all along.

As football fans, comparing our two cities is like comparing Star Wars to BioDome. In 2008, the Detroit Lions had the worst season in NFL history. They went oh-for the entire year, losing every game. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers had about as good a season as there’s ever been. They survived the toughest regular season schedule any team faced in the last 30 years, then went on to win Super Bowl XLIII for their unprecedented sixth championship.

Now, I’m sure you expect me to belittle the Lions. To mock them for being such a pitiful franchise. To shake my head in disgust at their lousy ownership and inept management. I’m sure you’re even wondering why a proud city would even bother to support such a lowly team.

And that’s when I say the magic words: Pittsburgh Pirates.

Despite our many successes, the Pittsburgh sports fan knows the stench of failure all too well. While our two other professional teams set the bar for being world class, we have the Pirates to keep us humble. Pittsburgh baseball fans know what it’s like for a once great franchise to suffer the slings and arrows of lousy ownership and inept management. And we know that despite the embarrassment, we stay loyal.

Coming into this season, the Lions were mired in a 19-game losing streak. The team has won just a single playoff game in 51 seasons.  To think Pittsburghers still mourn losing that Wild Card game to the Jaguars. Despite their level of futility, Detroit sold out its opener at Ford Field, capacity 65,000.

Not long ago, the Pirates clinched their 17th straight losing season. That’s longer than any other franchise in any major sport in North American history. Think about how utterly incompetent you have to be to go 17 years without winning one more game than you lost. It boggles the mind. Toward the end of the season, the Bucs were mired in a slump where they would win only 3 times during a 20 game stretch. And yet, on a seasonable Saturday night during the final homestand of the year, 38,000 fans crammed into PNC Park.

Okay, they were probably there for the Foreigner concert but just go with it.

The point is that no matter how rotten your team is, and believe me both these teams are rotten, you can’t change who you root for. Well, you can, but those people are fair-weather asshats. The people of Detroit grew up Lions fans and continue to support their team even in the face of certain doom. Pittsburghers, even though we’re the City of Champions, still have room in their hearts for those bumbling idiots of the diamond.

After all, we still have our other teams to root for. Pittsburgh has their Penguins and Steelers. Detroit has their Red Wings and Tigers. Which reminds me, even though the Tigers were in the World Series as recently as three years ago, we even share some baseball-related pain. Both cities know what it feels like to watch a Jim Leyland managed team completely self-destruct in a do-or-die playoff game.

Watching this video sends a shiver down my spine.  It makes Al Pacino’s “one more inch” speech from Any Given Sunday seem lame by comparison.

That fiery orator is Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown.  He’s a member of the Lucky Genes Club as his father was legendary NFL coach Paul Brown.  Hopes were high that some of his father’s genius was passed down to his son when Mike assumed control of the team in 1991.  Unfortunately, despite Mike’s charismatic leadership, the Bungles have only managed to accumulate 102 wins against 188 losses.

The Bengals were featured on HBO’s documentary/reality series Hard Knocks.  We were given the chance to witness the inner workings of an NFL franchise from the first day of training camp up through the start of the regular season.  This gave us the opportunity to witness behind-the-scenes moments like Mike Brown addressing his players.  I don’t know about you but his words sure inspired me.

My favorite part was when he said their terrible season, “Left us open to criticism from the media, who mocked us.“   What criticism?   Oh, he probably means things like, “Mike Brown drafts worse than Al Davis.”   Or “Trojan provides more protection for Carson Palmer than Mike Brown.”

No doubt thanks to Mike’s inspirational pep talks, the Bengals seem to have an air of confidence about them.  Chad Johnson Dick Ochocinco has vowed to make our cornerbacks kiss his baby or da baby or something about a baby.  Not to be outdone, our superstar wide receiver Hines Ward has vowed that he’d gladly obliterate LB Keith Rivers‘ jaw once again, despite Herr Goodell (Sieg Heil!) passing more rules to pussify the game.  Cincy comes in to this Sunday’s game at 1-1, the same record as your World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.  Not to put too much emphasis on such an early season game but division games are crucial at any time of the year and after last week’s debacle in the Windy City, the Steelers really need to right the ship before they need an pep talk of their own from Ambassador Rooney.

The Black-Eyed Peas took center stage at Point State Park to begin a fantastic 2009 Kickoff Concert. Unfortunately, I was busy hosting a dozen freeloaders friends at my home so I could not attend the festivities. By the way, if anybody went and managed to take some good shots of Fergie, feel free to post a link. After the singing was done, the Pittsburgh Steelers began the NFL season with a fantastic 13-10 overtime defeat of the Tennesee Titans.

Last season ended with the stalwart Steeler defense rising up to stonewall their opponent and give Ben Roethlisberger the chance to engineer a thrilling last second victory. How’d this season start? With the stalwart Steeler defense rising up to stonewall their opponent and give Ben Roethlisberger the chance to engineer a thrilling last second victory.

Wash rinse repeat.

The first half of the game saw the Steeler offense do a great impression of the Detroit Lions. After the 1st quarter, they had TWO yards of total offense. Ben contributed to the misery with one horrendous INT and two sacks where he lost a billion yards because he clutches on to the football like it’s a girl in a cowboy hat. With less than five minutes until halftime, the grand total had risen to a paltry 34 yards. At about the two minute warning, Big Ben finally woke up in time to lead the team down the field, connecting with Santonio Holmes to cap a 79 yard touchdown drive.

Up until that point the only things keeping the Steelers in the game were luck and Troy Polamalu. Allow me to recap the first half defensive effort by the Steelers. Polamalu with a tackle. Polamalu with another tackle. Polamalu with a personal foul. Polamalu with a pass defense. Polamalu with a tackle. Sensing a pattern?

Troy was a one man wrecking crew. He had his nose in almost every play the Titans ran, highlighted by a spectacular one-handed interception which prevented a FG and possibly a TD. Despite Troy’s heroics, the Titans blew two golden opportunities by badly shanking one FG and having another blocked by Aaron Smith. It was on that play where Polamalu had his knee bent at an ugly angle, sending him to the locker room with what appears to be a serious injury.

The Titans answered the Steelers TD with one of their own less than a minute later. QB Kerry Collins led them the length of the field on three lousy plays. I’d like to blame the D but it looked like Troy’s injury sent the Steelers secondary into mass confusion. Ryan Clark and Face Me Ike were each caught way out of position and beaten badly on consecutive plays. Will.i.am Gay, who gets his nickname from the fella pictured above wearing the ginormous hat as my tribute to his performance at the Super Bowl Victory Parade, had a solid effort in his first game as a full-time starter.

The second half was a puntfest as neither offense managed to accomplish much. The Steelers were particularly bad when it came to running the ball. They finished the game with 23 carries for 36 yards. That’s a 1.6 average. ONE AND A HALF FREAKIN’ YARDS PER CARRY!?!?  Jerome Bettis could do better than that and he’s been eating donuts, lobbying politicians to support shady casino barons, and flirting with Tiki Barber for the last three years!

In this case, failure has many fathers. The offensive line performed shockingly well at pass protection, surrendering 4 sacks, two of which were Ben’s fault and one which was the result of a jailbreak blitz. However, they can’t run block to save their lives. I’ve seen bigger holes on I-79. Fast Willie Parker (13 carries for 19 yards) clearly has no confidence in them because instead of making cutbacks, he just dives forward as soon as he spots a glimmer of space. Rashard Mendenhall (4 for 6) showed absolutely nothing. Frank The Tank Summers, our shiny new FB, totally whiffed on almost every block he was supposed to make. He played positively CAREYDAVISESQUE! Our longest run was 8 freakin’ yards and the short yardage situation was so bad that after failing 3 out of 4 times to make a 1st down, they resorted to using the shotgun to pick it up.

Look, do the Steelers have the offensive weapons to be a passing oriented offense? Yes. Holmes (9 catches 131 yards) and Hines Ward (8 for 103) each had a huge game while TE Heath Miller and rookie Mike Wallace chipped in with some big catches. Shaun McDonald didn’t take the field and Limas Sweed wasn’t thrown at but both are more than capable of being valuable contributors as well. This team can absolutely throw the ball with any team in the league. But no team, NO TEAM, is going to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender if they only rush for 35 yards per game or fail to pick up 3rd and shorts on a regular basis.

Titans K Rob Bironas finally managed to boot a 45 yard FG late in the 4th quarter. The Steelers answered with a nice drive which stalled when Mewelde Moore got stuffed twice trying to convert a 3rd and 1. Yes, they were so desperate they turned to Double M as their short yardage specialist. *Deepbreath* The resulting Skippy Reed boot tied the score at 10-10.

Reverting to classic form, the mighty Steelers D got the ball back to set the stage for yet another of Ben’s thrilling last second comebacks. However, Hines committed one of the most boneheaded blunders in years when he caught a 30 yard strike over the middle and instead of going down in chip-shot FG range, he decided to zig-zag through an army of Titans all pawing at the football like it was a bachelor party at Club Erotica. Sure enough, the ball popped loose and Who? Stephen Tulloch pounced on it. Hines spent the remainder of the game looking like a fat kid that was told he couldn’t have ice cream for dessert.

Thankfully, fate was on the Steelers side as they won the coin toss. Against a clearly exhausted Titan defense, Ben once again led the team deep into Titan territory.  This time the rookie Wallace made the key catch to put them into position for a game-winning Skippy FG. Ben finished 33-43 for 363 yards (1 TD 2 INT), making a lot of fantasy owners really sorry they didn’t start him this week. (DAMN!) I know we expect a lot of Big Ben and we’re all getting spoiled by his comebacks but isn’t asking for two in the same game just a little bit greedy?

The Pittsburgher in me likes to see the glass as half full.  I guess that’s why I can’t shake the feeling that what we saw last night were some ominous warning signs about the rocky road ahead.  The good news is, we’re 1-0 with 15 weeks left to straighten out any issues with our defending Super Bowl champs.  The bad news is, by all rights, we should be 0-1.