Catching up with some Pittsburgh Steelers related news I may have missed while digging myself out from Snowmageddon ’10.

Super Bowl X MVP and gubernatorial washout Lynn Swann has challenged The Bus to a ten pin smackdown at next year’s Super Bowl. Swann, serving as event host for the Fifth Annual NFL Charities Super Bowl Celebrity Bowling Classic, welcomed more than 40 ex-NFLers in Miami to a benefit for the NFL’s Youth Education Town (YET) initiative.  What is it with Steelers and bowling?  It can’t be a Pittsburgh thing because I haven’t been to McKnight Lanes in fifteen years.  Did our favorite rotund halfback accept the challenge from our Hall of Fame wide receiver?

Stay tuned!

Speaking of Hall of Famers, beloved Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau was finally selected for the Hall of Fame. Of course, he’s going in as a DB and not a coach but let’s not quibble over details.  After over fifty years of distinguished service to the NFL, nobody is more deserving.   Also making it is longtime Redskins All-Pro OG and Pitt legend Russ Grimm.   Hope this takes some of the sting off the whole “You’re the Steelers new head coach!  Oh wait, no you’re not!” thing, Russ.

Ben Roethlisberger is a dick, chapter 24. The New York Post ran this story about Big Ben leaving a Chicago night club.   Evidently, he dropped some cash on the ground, then gave a lady the stuck up jock treatment when she tried to return it.  Given Ben’s recent history, I don’t blame him for being leery of strange women.  Plus, he was probably fresh out of Rohypnol.

Ben Roethlisberger is awesome, chapter 5. Yahoo Sports has an article up proclaiming Big Ben a better QB than Peyton Manning.  Seriously.  I’m not going to get into this debate again since your opinion is going to be influenced by whether you’re a biased homer or a reasonable and realistic football fan.  I will say this, who cares if you’re the most clutch playoff performer in NFL history if YOU CAN’T GET YOUR DAMN TEAM TO THE POSTSEASON IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts returned home to a massive throng of… Eleven fans?   ELEVEN?  I guess they had better things to do, like cow-tipping or taking advantage of that free Grand Slam breakfast.  File this sad display away in your memory banks for the next time some uneducated moron claims Steeler Nation is filled with bandwagon jumpers.

The Steelers sign training camp fodder. First, they plucked LB Derrick Doggett from the CFL.  Doggett was a special teams ace for that Mickey Mouse league up north.  I don’t know why they bother since he’ll need to beat out James Harrison or that nincompoop Tomlin will cut him because he “doesn’t believe in keeping strictly special teams players on the main roster.”   They signed two more guys yesterday. Brandon London is a 6-4 WR who was a practice squadder with the Giants but spent 2009 out of football.  Limas Sweed had better spend the off-season playing with radioactive spiders.  They also signed former Pitt punter Adam Graessle, who kicked last year in the UFL.   Teams usually bring multiple Ps, Ks, and QBs to camp so they can practice against real life people.   Don’t worry, ladies, Dreamy Daniel Sepulveda isn’t on the chopping block.

Which reminds me, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Last year, I turned my blog over to one of our most frequent and insightful commenters, Robyn, and she delivered a great post on the animal magnetism (or lack thereof) of Skippy Reed.  If any of my hundreds of sassy female readers would like to give it a shot this year, drop me a line at this address or post in the comments below.

Finally, a plea to you, my dear readers. I don’t ask for much.  In fact, I give you countless hours of high quality entertainment for the bargain basement low price of free several times per week.  But now I am asking for something.   Sean over at Sean’s Ramblings is hosting his 2nd Annual Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament.   Last year, I was bounced in the Sweet Sixteen by the tournament’s eventual winner, PensBlog.  While I have no delusions of grandeur, I would like to improve upon last year’s performance.   So please, take a second to click this link, scroll down about a quarter of the way (to the Ironhead Heyward Division), and drop a vote or two or three for the most super duper spiffy Steelers blog on the interwebs.   Thank you.

2000

This marked the Steelers final season in Three Rivers Stadium.

The team began the year with the Kent Graham Experiment.  Graham, a journeyman backup quarterback who spent most of his career with the Giants, was inexplicably signed to a big money free agent deal to replace the struggling Kordell Stewart.  He had a mediocre start as the the Steelers were 0-3 under his leadership until getting injured.   Kordell replaced him and reeled off two straight wins before returning to the bench.   Somehow, the Steelers won the next two games despite Graham completing a grand total of 16 passes.

Stewart was given his job back and finished out the year as starter.   The team went 9-7, ending their streak of three consecutive losing seasons.  Thanks to a decent defense led by Joey Porter and Jason Gildon and 1,350 rushing yards from Jerome Bettis, old Three Rivers went out a winner.

2001

The Steelers welcomed Heinz Field by going 13-3 and hosting the AFC Championship Game.  2001 was Slash’s final shining moment in the Black and Gold.   After almost losing his job the year before, he managed to conjure up the days when he was the most exciting player in the NFL.

When the year was over, Kordell would pass for 3,100 yards, rush for 500, and score 19 total touchdowns.   Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress each had 1,000 yard seasons receiving.  They were aided by the Bus, who would have his final 1,000 yard season, and Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, one of the many heir apparents the Steelers tried to find for Bettis.

The Steelers bounced the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens out of the playoffs in the first round.  Thus began a decade long trend of the Steelers torturing the poor Ratbirds in games that actually meant something.  In the Championship game, the Steelers knocked a spunky youngster named Tom Brady out of the game.   Drew Bledsoe came off the bench to toss a TD pass that would eventually be the difference in the game.

2002

The previous year saw WWE owner Vince McMahon think to himself, “Hmmm, I’m great at marketing oiled up meatheads in teeny tiny swimming trunks fake fighting with each other.  I know!  I’ll start a football league!” The XFL was an abject failure and went away after one season.  However, the league MVP, Tommy Maddox, went on to sign with the Steelers.

Maddox was a first round draft pick of the Denver Broncos way back in 1992.  They planned to make him the successor to John Elway.   Except Elway pulled a Favre and refused to retire.   Good for Denver, because he ended up winning two Super Bowls late in his career.  Maddox was considered a washout and was actually selling insurance for a living when Vinnie Mac gave him a call.

Stewart began the season as starter but played terribly.  After losing the first two games and looking bad while squeaking by the Browns in OT, Bill Cowher had seen enough.  He pulled Kordell in favor of Maddox marking the end of Slash’s career in Pittsburgh.  Maddox lead the team to a 10-5-1 record (yes, a tie).

Elsewhere, Bettis was struggling with injuries as his days as the primary back were rapidly coming to an end.   West Virginia product Amos Zereoue stepped in to do a nice job in his absence.  It would be the lone highlight of Zereoue’s NFL career.  Believe it or not, today he’s a chef at a fancy restaurant which bears his name.

The Steelers managed to win the AFC North that year.      In the first round, they played the Cleveland Browns in one of the best playoff games ever.  The Browns were up 24-14 in the fourth quarter and all they had to do was run out the clock.  However, the Browns had an offensive coordinator by the name of Bruce Arians.  Foolishly chucking the ball 40+ times gave the Steelers time to explode for 22 points in pulling off a 36-33 victory.

In the next round, they faced the late Steve McNair and his Tennesee Titans.  This game will forever be known as The Joe Nedney Game.  The teams battled into overtime where Nedney missed a 30 yard field goal but Steelers CB Dewayne Washington brushed up against his calf trying to block it.  Nedney hit the turf, rolling around like he just got decked by Chuck Liddell. The refs threw a flag, giving Nedney a second chance to win the game.

2003

File ’03 under “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”   The Steelers had a weak running attack with Bettis battling injuries and age while newly anointed starter Zereoue quickly flamed out.  So what did they decide to do?

AIR IT OUT!

This was the year of the Tommy Gun Offense.  The Steelers let Maddox throw early and throw often.  He ended up with 3,500 yards passing but a terrible 18/17 TD-to-INT ratio.   And the team finished a miserable 6-10.

Although there was hope on the horizon in the form of a wild haired human missile out of USC who spent most of the year on special teams because he had trouble figuring out the Steelers’ complicated defense.

2004

The Steelers parlayed the misery of ’03 into a first round draft pick by the name of Ben Roethlisberger.  While everybody was fighting over Eli Manning and Philip Rivers, the Steelers sat back and waited for Big Ben to fall into their laps.  For those wondering where I got the name of my site, there was a great NFL end of season commercial showing two actors playing Steeler fans.  They were watching the draft and after Ben’s name was called one fan asks, “Roethlis…who?“  to which the other answers sarcastically, “Nice pick, Cowher!”

Man, how different does Ben look?

Anyway, Maddox was supposed to play the year while Ben sat and learned.  Unfortunately, he was hurt in the second game of the season, a loss to the Ratbirds.   Ben stepped in and reeled off fifteen straight victories.  Among those wins were back-to-back triumphs over undefeated teams, first ending the Patriots 18 game winning streak then humbling the Iggles.

Ben was supported by a rejuvenated running game.  The Steelers signed their last big name free agent by luring Duce Staley from the Eagles.  Staley had 830 yards on the season while the Bus added another 941 plus 13 TDS.  The Steelers also benefitted by rehiring Dick LeBeau, who had left the team earlier in the decade to become head coach of the Bengals.   With LeBeau as defensive coordinator and the ground game clicking, the Steelers made it to another AFC Championship game where they were defeated by Peepin’ Bill Belichick and his Spycam loving Patriots.

The loss was followed by a pair of good byes.  Burress, an uber-talented headcase, departed via free agency.   The Steelers shed no tears over that development.   Tears did fall when Myron Cope, the voice of Steeler Nation for 35 years, announced his retirement.  There’ll never be another one like you, Cope.

Since the Bus was shown the door, I’ve done my best to avoid the Sunday Night Football pregame show. Bob Costas is an annoying little Hobbit while Keith Olbermann has a smug arrogance that makes me want to punch him in the face. And don’t even get me started on Rodney Harrison. I’m perfectly happy to tune in about five minutes before game time, pause to enjoy Faith Hill in hooker boots, then go make a sandwich until kickoff.

Of course, this strategy backfired this week when SNF actually presented something newsworthy during their show. The Hobbit sat down with Hines Ward and asked him about Ben Roethlisberger sitting out with a concussion. Normally, you’d expect to hear the typical jock speak about rallying around your fallen leader or other assorted sports cliches. However this time, things didn’t go according to script.

Hines Ward did everything short of stating his quarterback had a small penis in a shocking display of team disharmony. In fact, by stating the locker room was divided “50-50″ on whether Ben should play, he dragged the entire team into controversy. In the past 24 hours, Hines has backed off his statements slightly, trying to frame his comments as being caught off-guard by the fact Ben practiced normally all week only to blindside everybody with post-concussion symptoms on Saturday morning. But Hines Ward is an intelligent man and I have no doubt he knew EXACTLY what he was saying when he called out his quarterback in front of a national audience.

Predictably, I’m noticing backlash against Hines. The local media, which is nothing more than a public relations tool for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has rushed to Ben’s defense. It also seems the majority of the fanbase, typically enamored with the “star quarterback,” are displeased with Hines.  I’ve heard words like “selfish” or “prima donna” being used in reference to Ward which frankly angers me.  This is the man who played in the Super Bowl with a partially torn MCL and who has never whined about not getting thrown the ball nor done anything except repeat his desire to win.  If that makes him a prima donna, maybe the Steelers need more of them so they wouldn’t be in the situation their in.

About a month ago, ESPN did an in-depth profile of Big Ben. In that piece, they reveal the fact he wasn’t popular with his teammates for a long time.  This may be new information to the national media but anybody who obsessively follows the Steelers knew this a long time ago.  Rookie QB Mark Sanchez is a captain on the Jets while Ben wasn’t named an offensive captain until his fourth season here.   In 2007, he made the Pro Bowl yet his teammates voted James Harrison (who only had 8 sacks that year) the Team MVP.  The only problem with the piece is the disconnect between Ben and the rest of the team evidently still exists to a degree.

Look, I like Big Ben.  I think he’s a great quarterback and I’m thrilled that we have him.  But at the same time, I understand where his teammates could be annoyed by him.  His constant injuries are ridiculous.  You don’t think Hines Ward or any number of defensive players suit up each week while nursing injuries that would keep us normal people in bed for a week?  Yet, Ben always seems to find a way to get the news out that his pinky is jammed or his ankle is sprained or his knee is twisted or whatever the Ouchie Of The Week seems to be.  He’s a Drama Queen and it’s an annoying character flaw for anybody, especially a pro athlete.   And it gives him, or more accurately his starry-eyed supporters in the media, a convenient excuse for when he makes mistakes.

Don’t misunderstand.  I’m not saying we should get rid of him.  I’m not saying he’s a bum.  I’m not saying we could’ve won those two Super Bowls without him.  But what I am saying, and what I think goes to the root of this team disharmony, is that Ben gets a disproportionate share of the credit.  He’s a good quarterback and he is extremely good in clutch situations but anybody who seriously tries to argue he’s as good as (or better than) Peyton Manning or Tom Brady is insane.  Watch either of those guys, watch the throws they make, and you have to be a blind homer (or Bruce Arians) to think they have comparable passing skills.  Ben came in and had a great first couple seasons because he had a great running game with the Bus and FWP to take pressure off him.  Last year, he pulled out a lot of great comebacks but we were only in position to come back because of our defense.  Not to mention he has one future Hall of Fame receiver and two other Pro Bowl caliber targets (Holmes and Miller) to throw at.

How do you think he’d fare with Andre Hastings and Charles Johnson?

I understand concussions are a serious matter.  I realize that Ben needs to be concerned for his long term health and make sure he’s not the NFL’s version of Muhammad Ali in twenty years.  At the same time, I feel Hines Ward is getting a bad rap in this whole deal.  Should he have aired dirty team laundry in public?  No.  But at the same time, this man has sacrificed more than we’ll probably ever know (since he doesn’t have P.R. agents reporters announcing his every injury) because he wants to WIN.  So before everybody jumps on the “Hines is a bad guy” bandwagon, I hope they take the time to look at things from his point of view.

Looks like Terry Bradshaw can’t believe it either.

In the wake of the Pittsburgh Steelers crushing defeat by the Cincinnati Bengals this past Sunday, Steeler Nation is awash in a sea of negativity. The Steelers are 6-3 and in good shape for a playoff berth yet the general feeling is that Sunday’s loss basically ended the season. While I advise you to put away the knives and remove your belts and shoelaces, I’d be less than truthful if I didn’t admit to believing the doomsayers speak a bit of truth. Two teams in 43 years have won the Super Bowl as a Wild Card and, let’s face it, anything less than a repeat makes this year a failure.

Over the past couple days, there’s been good news, bad news, and so-so news out of the Black and Gold.

In the good news category, Mike Tomlin is clearly upset with our shitacular special teams and has set about making changes. He sent a clear message to others on that unit by cutting backup LB Arnold Harrison. In a way, I feel sorry that Harrison is the fall guy for our kickoff fiascos as he’s been on the team since 2005, battling his way back from a torn right ACL in 2006 and then tearing his left in 2008. They’ve signed Donovan Woods off the practice squad to replace him. Woods is supposedly a good special teams player but we’ll have to see about that. Personally, I think they need to bite the bullet and put starters like Brett Keisel or Lawrence Timmons out on coverage. Tomlin has also indicated Mike Wallace will see more action returning punts as preseason sensation Stefan Logan has been a bust so far.

In so-so news, Troy Polamalu is listed as “questionable” for Sunday’s game. Considering Tomlin is a filthy liar, I wouldn’t put much stock in anything he says regarding injuries. For what it’s worth, they’re saying this injury was a PCL strain, not a re-aggravation of the MCL sprain that kept Troy out earlier this season. Regardless of how much faith you put in these medical reports, it seems likely Troy will play again in 2009.  Although his reckless style of play has to make you wonder how long he’ll be back before he’s injured again. One thing is for certain, the Steelers would be insane to let him play in this week’s demolition of the hapless Chiefs.

Finally, in the bad news, all this talk of injured knees and lousy special teams has covered for a truly terrible performance by our offense. Ben Roethlisberger has owned up to playing a bad game but I think he was put in position to fail. He threw 40 passes, was sacked 4 times, and scrambled out of danger twice. For those keeping score, that’s 46 throws against a measly 18 runs. I’m sorry but that is abysmal playcalling. When you look at our three biggest wins of the year (San Diego, Denver, and Minnesota), Rashard Mendenhall had over 150 yards in two of them. The Minnesota game was decided by a pair of Pick Sixes.

In other words, anybody who tries to argue Bruce Arians’ Flying Circus is working this season has not been watching these games. Yes, Ben is an excellent quarterback. Yes, we have good receivers. However, we are not the Patriots or the Colts. The Steelers simply cannot win at a high level by putting the ball in Ben’s hands and saying, “Here, do it all by yourself.” Arians needs to be called out for his game plans and made to realize we are winning in spite of him, not because of him. Until some balance is returned to this offense, I foresee some frustrating days ahead.

Frustrating for me. Frustrating for you. And frustrating for Terry Bradshaw.

I don’t want to like Chad Johnson.  But sometimes, I can’t help it.

This year, HBO featured the Cincinnati Bengals on their Hard Knocks series.  The show was pretty much mind-numbingly with two exceptions.  The first being whenever owner Mike Brown or his equally clueless daughter (who, inexplicably, negotiates contracts) were demonstrating how ineptly they run their franchise.  The other was whenever Ochocinco had his weekly spotlight, such as in the clip above. I defy anybody to watch that and tell me he doesn’t come across as one of those rare athletes who is legitimately funny and entertaining like Shaquille O’Neal.

I don’t want to like Chad Johnson.  But sometimes, I can’t help it.

Recently, I was offered the chance to review a copy of Chad’s new book, Ochocinco What Life and Football Have Thrown My Way.  I agreed because I needed to know if I was losing my mind.  I needed to know if the Chad on Hard Knocks was an optical illusion or a figment of my imagination. As a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I needed my hate back.

The book begins with a highly detailed description of Ocho’s luxurious Florida mansion.  Then it began describing all the expensive cars parked in the driveway of this luxurious Florida mansion.  Now, I don’t begrudge anybody their success but when you go out of your way to stress exactly how well off you are, it either means you’re extremely shallow or have a small penis.  I began to regret my decision to review this book.

After a few pages devoted to his fleet of high-priced automobiles, Chad mentioned the car he has up in Cincy. It happens to be a Dodge Charger painted to look like the General Lee.  Of course, it says “General Ochocinco” across the top but let’s give a brother a break. That’s exactly what I would buy if I could run, jump, catch, and do the Riverdance. It’s still really cool. And just like that, I was sucked right back in.

I don’t want to like Chad Johnson.  But sometimes, I can’t help it.

The rest of the book is a unique combination of a biography and The World According to Chad.  At 272 pages, they easily could have lopped about thirty pages off that total.  Chad has a tendency to chew his cabbage not just twice but six or seven times.  Some things, such as the rumor he punched a coach during halftime of the 2005 Steelers-Bengals playoff game, must really bother him because he bring it up in order to deny it almost every chapter.

Which brings me to the best part of the book.  Even though it’s Chad’s story, he invited others to present their points of view.  Some might add that to the category of “padding” but I thought it made for the most interesting reading.  For example, another of Ocho’s frequent protests is he doesn’t want to hurt/offend anybody, he just wants to have fun.  This is why he’s so proud of his elaborate touchdown celebrations (in fact, he devotes an entire chapter to them), including the one where he put on a “Future Hall of Famer” cape.  Well, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis didn’t appreciate that antic one bit and I commend Chad for printing his no punches pulled rebuttal.

Actually, in many ways Lewis is as much the star of this book as his star receiver.  You may not have heard but earlier this week, Chad was planning to send a case of mustard to the Steelers.  Lewis got wind of  it and put the kibosh on his plan, because you don’t step on Superman’s cape and you don’t piss off the Steelers D.  Anyway, the book is full of stories similar to that, with Ocho playing the mischievous kid and Marvin channeling Cliff Huxtable  Those two should really have their own sitcom.

At this point, I’m sure some of you are wondering why a Steelers fan, perhaps one still not won over by Ochocinco’s personality, would be interested in this book.  For one, Chad has a lot of choice criticisms of the Bengals organization (this was written back when he was desperately trying to get traded).  Most notable are his comments regarding the decision to fire Dick LeBeau, who was their head coach early in his career.  Secondly, Chad shares a lot of observations about the NFL in general, including several Steelers.  His spirited defense of the “NFL’s Dirtiest Player” Hines Ward may surprise you.  He also has a number of great Joey Porter quotes for those of us who miss seeing Peezy in the Black and Gold.

No mentions of Ike Taylor, though.  I guess it makes sense, since yet another of his beaten horses is nobody can cover him (ever) and he’s always open (always).  He rationalizes his poor season last year by claiming the Bengals QBs were told not to throw him the ball as punishment for trying to get traded.  I guess that’s one way of looking at things but I still would’ve liked to see him explain why Face Me Ike always seems to shut him down.  Hey, there’s no shame in being stopped by the Steelers.

Whatever you think about Ochocinco, this book won’t do much to change those feelings one way or the other.  Every chapter, you get a brief glimpse of the real Chad, the funny likable personable guy you saw in that video clip.  The Chad who had a long hard road to the NFL from humble beginnings raised by his grandmomma in Liberty City, Florida.  When you’re raised the same place they set a Grand Theft Auto game, you know you’ve come far.  It’s just too bad he feels the need to switch back into the Ochocinco character so frequently.

Still, I can’t help liking Chad Johnson.  But I still want him to suck against the Steelers.