Amen, Derek Anderson

Derek Anderson said it. "They don't deserve a winner." I LOVE IT! Thank you Derek Anderson for calling out the idiot fans from the mistake on the lake. And can you blame him? They cheered when he got hurt. They cheered when their former pro-bowl, starting QB got hurt. Does it get any more classless than that? Well, I assure you, if anyone can tell us its Browns fans. In '01 a game against the Jax Jags was stopped for over a half hour with less than a minute left in the game because Cleveland fans were throwing debris, mainly beer bottles (big surprise) onto the field. They were unhappy about an overturned call. So you would think they would be throwing stuff at the refs, right? Nope, not browns fans. They let it fly onto both sidelines, yes BOTH. That includes their own, classic Cleveland move. Their coach actually hurt his knee avoiding a bottle as both teams tried to avoid the barrage and finally get to the locker room. At the end of the last game at Cleveland Stadium, the fans tore out rows of seats. Makes sense if you want a souvenir, but not if you set them on fire. Bet that team was happy to move to Baltimore. I think that is part of the problem. You're so angry because ever since '99 you feel like the team you've been watching is like a hamster your dad secretly stuck in the cage after he accidentally killed your real one. You wish you were the Ravens and its understandable. They have become Pittsburgh's real arch rival because our games against you have been about as competitive as bulldozer vs. tulip. It's not even worth hating you anymore because we almost feel sorry for you, until one of you starts speaking, then we hate you again. It's been 11 years now though, get over it and accept the team you are now. The really, really bad team you are now. I would think fans that are so used to losing would deal with it a lot better by now. You say you're just like Steeler fans. We're all loud-mouth morons that hate each other, but that's about it. We're loud because we're good, you're loud because... I actually have no idea why. Sure, you beat us last year when you were 2-11. Congrats, we know it was your Super Bowl. On the other hand we have two real ones, and we were led there by a guy you passed up in the draft. Yeah, maybe passing on Big Ben to take Kellen Winslow Jr. with the sixth pick wasn't the best front office move ever. Another thing I love is how any person from Ohio can turn any sports argument into one about either Ohio State football or LeBron. I can't tell you how many times a Steelers/Browns argument has turned into "Yeah, well Ohio State would kill Pitt." Um, yeah.... and? Or, "You don't even have an NBA team." Newsflash, we hate the NBA. We don't care. And although you rate your college and pro teams on the same level, we don't. We love Steeler football, and we love beating you just about more than anything. I gotta stop this, my Pittsburgh pride is getting me all fired up. I'm going to go get some Primanti's and an Iron. Just know that if Derek Anderson does end up starting for someone this year, I hope he does roll you, just like everyone else does. Ill be cheering for him as hard as I would for the Steelers.... Almost.

Let Em Scrap

For the past three days, the hockey talk around here has been centered around Matty Cooke and his knock out shot on Marc Savard of the Bruins. Whether you think it was a clean hit or a dirty one, one thing is for sure, it was a legal one. And that is word straight from the NHL. There is definitely still a chance he will be suspended because it was a total blind sider, and if you ask me or anyone else who watches hockey regularly, it was at least a little bit dirty. It's hockey, it's fast, it's rough, sometimes people get hurt. My real topic for today, however, are the people who keep saying the game is too violent and it should be more like the Olympics where shots to the head and fighting will get you the boot. These people sound like idiots to me honestly. Are they even familiar with the NHL or did they watch three or four Olympic games and become experts. "But the Olympics was so exciting." they say "with none of that fighting and other garbage." That's because it was the best of the best all condensed onto a few teams. The talent in the NHL is so much more diluted than that and that is why you have role players, just like Matt Cooke. Just about every player in the Olympics was a top five player on their NHL team, maybe even top three. The fourth line on team Canada is slightly better than the fourth line of the Phoenix Coyotes (and by slightly I mean ridiculously). This is why we have to face the fact that the NHL can never, and will never, be like Olympic hockey. Matt Cooke is a hitter and an agitator. He is there to torment the other teams' best players all night long. And we love him, for the same reasons we hate guys like Hartnell and Jarkko. Same goes for fighters, its their job. Eric Godard is here for one reason, and its not his wide open skating ability I assure you. He is there to drop the gloves and throw with anyone who takes a run at one of our big guns. Fighting in the NHL is why he has a job and if the NHL ever got rid of it they would be making a huge mistake. There is nothing wrong with letting the boys police themselves a little. Drop the gloves and handle it, then take five in the sin bin and its over. Not to mention the fact that fans LOVE it. I don't know about you, but I don't leave the room to get another beer if a fight breaks out. In fact, I usually get more excited than if we score. Also, it's not like fighting is something new. Remember Marty McSorley in the 80s and 90s skating around daring someone to touch The Great One in L.A. and then doing the same for Jagr in the Burgh. His job was to make anyone who took a shot at his team's star regret it immediately. And the worst part of all this is that its not even the callers on these radio shows that are saying this nonsense, its the actual hosts. I can't believe they can't differentiate between NHL and Olympic hockey. I mean if you want to cut the NHL down to about five or six teams then we can play just like the Olympics. I bet not too many cities would be happy about that. Sorry people, you just have to accept that its part of the game and it always will be. Fighting is here to stay and if you don't like it I hear there's going to be a tourney in Russia in about four years that you might enjoy.

El Yeah!

I don't care who you are, you have to love the re-signing of Antwaan Randle El. They call him a bust in Washington, I call him an x-factor type player who they tried to use as a regular old wide receiver, which he surely is not. In Washington he was basically nothing but an overpaid punt returner. In Pittsburgh, he is Slash 2.0. The guy does it all and we love him for it. This signing along with the pick up of Arnaz Battle pretty much phases out Limas Sweed, of whom I am one of the few who still believe he's talented. If Limas gets his head together he can be a productive NFL receiver. It just looks like its not going to be in the black and gold. Anyway, back to the fact. Look at these names and imagine the combinations of receivers we can have on the field at the same time: Hines, Santonio, Mike Wallace, Randle El, and Battle, who was also a college quarterback and similar to Randle El in versatility. You are going to be looking at possibly three guys on the field who can chuck it all at the same time. How do you gameplan for three quarterbacks on the field? This is assuming Big Ben is wearing the pads on Sundays and not an orange jumpsuit. Of course with the signing of El comes another little target for Ben, who has yearned for a big guy to throw to, but I think it adds so much guess work in regards of how to defend us. This also adds a lot to the return game as Steph Logan will almost surely remain on kickoff return as he was better last season at it than El ever was. But you have to think 82 will be back there on punts. And if necessary, Battle is a return man too. I don't know if it will actually happen, but I think if used properly it could revolutionize offensive football, just as the wildcat basically has no quarterback, we could be rolling three deep. I know we're fans of smash mouth and we know that Mendenhall can bang it with the best of them, but you gotta admit it's fun to think about the potential three ring circus that could break out on the Heinz Field turf. In my head I'm seeing double reverses and some of those old tricks from back in the early 2000s. I am hoping that the higher ups in the organization did this because they remembered what worked. You can tell me about last year's offensive stats all you want, we didn't win football games like we did in the years prior. I hope it was a good move and a step back in the right direction, but one thing is certain when it comes to Steelers fans. If it works, they're geniuses and if it doesn't, they're idiots.

I'll have a Roethlisberger... hold the sex charge

Well this is blog number one, which means there's a good chance no one will be reading it, but it comes at ANOTHER controversial time in the Pittsburgh sports scene. Big Ben has yet again been accused of taking liberties with a young lady, who of course may or may not be telling the truth. But on my way home from work today I was listening to a popular sports talk radio show host, (you should know who, because there is only one popular one in town), and he raised a good question... Have our straight edge, we wont take any crap, image conscious Steelers gradually lost control of the players? Among the recent arrests were Skippy Reed going UFC on a Sheetz paper towel dispenser, among however many other disorderlies he's piled up. But hey you gotta admit it is kinda cool to have a kicker who gets all drunked up as long as hes splitting the uprights on sunday. Plus a little disorderly conduct is nothing compared to domestic abuse and rape, a couple of the Steelers favorites apparently. There was the Najeh Davenport closet pooper incident, which does have a level of hilarity to it until you get arrested. Cedric Wilson was another on the domestic abuse wagon. As well as Santonio Holmes, formerly of "Cheech and Santonio." But back to Big Ben. Guilty or not is yet to be proven, but an old saying goes where there's smoke, there's fire... and this is the second time smoke has come from the same place. I just don't see how he can lack the common sense to avoid the situation. I mean he's 28 years old and hanging out in college bars til 2:30 in the morning, where girls as young as 18 are allowed in but wear bracelets to say that they're underage. There are so many things that can go wrong in that situation where girls are flocking to you in a bar when you are a person of his fame and stature. If you didn't figure it out the first time Ben, you are a target, whether you do anything wrong or not. Is it a lapse of judgement or is it something more? Does he have the same sense of entitlement that Tiger Woods referred to? Is it possible that Big Ben just doesn't care about the rules, or that they don't apply to him? It's hard to say and we will probably never know because it is highly likely that this will either be plea bargained down (see Ray Lewis, same lawyer) or settled out of court. Whatever happens, I think it's obvious the Steelers need to do something about this and attempt to at least calm down his lifestyle a little. The team only has one business objective and that is to win football games, which Roethlisberger has been pretty damn good at, so they need to ensure that he is on the field and not in jail. He either has to tone it down or they have to tone it down for him. He brought the Steelers two Super Bowls and now two sexual assault charges. And those hurt his great quarterback image whether they are true or not. And the fact is we'll probably never know because he hired a lawyer who got a double murder down to an obstruction of justice charge, and i know there aren't too many people who believe Ray Ray didn't have something to do with it.