Roger Goodell is Smart, Not Nice

I am totally sick and tired of hearing about Roger Goodell's decision to allow the Patriots / Giants game to be simulcast on two other networks. Every sports writer and television wonk is praising him and he's everywhere this week saying the fans deserved to see the game. Mule Fritters! Under the contract, the other networks had to show the same exact commercials that NFL Network was showing! Hello?! They had a commercial for NFL Network at every break - complete with new commercials poking fun at cable companies for not carrying the network and splashing their website iwantnflnetwork.com at the bottom of every self-promoting spot. So please, can we stop pretending this was done out of the Goodness of Goodell's heart? The networks slept with their own Lex Luther in my opinion - high ratings for one night but knowing they were promoting the NFL Network which is a direct competitor. I don't want to make the NFL out to be the bad guy either because from what I've read, they are offering the cable companies a slew of free 30 second spots on telecasts where they are free to keep the money that is generated from them. If the NFL feels like it has the best product out there - why shouldn't they be able to create their own network and make more money off of their games than what they get if they sell the rights to the game to another network? Isn't it the same thing as Firestone tires opening their own stores to make more money off of their tires than the percentage they get from Pep Boys when they resell them? If it's not - then somebody will have to explain the difference to me. They have a product and they want to develop their own method of distribution. Last time I checked, that was legal.

What Happened To Our Defense?

I understand Ben, Troy and Hines didn't play today and they are three of our best players, but week after week, I am more and more upset by our defensive showing. When a 3rd string running back tears us apart like Mr. Ross did today, you have to wonder if it's our players, our player's psyche or our schemes? With the above players dinged and Aaron Smith, Marvel Smith and Willie Parker gone for the year, I really don't know how we will compete with Jacksonville next weekend. I can hear Jack Del Rio firing his troops up right now. If Musa Smith and company can hurt us - what will Fred Taylor and Jones-Drew do to us? If a rookie quarterback can drive the ball on us, what will the more seasoned Garrard do with even better receivers? If our coach is calling timeouts at 2:04 will he crack in his first playoff game? Should he have tried a second onside kick? Should he have challenged the catch in the endzone of the kickoff? He has not shown a keen ability yet at managing the "game time" decisions. I'm more than a little worried. I think we could have bounced Cleveland or Tennessee on talent alone. Jacksonville could very well come into our house as a slight favorite. I'm not giving up or turning negative - I'm speaking the truth. I'm worried. I think if you're not worried, your NFL IQ might not be as high as you think it is. I'm putting our chances of winning this game at 51%. Also, that 51% is based on Ben, Troy and Hines all playing. Some other thoughts:

I was looking for one bright spot today...one! I'm not sure I saw one. If I missed it, please fill me in. I guess you could say we covered kicks ok today.

I think Willie Reid will not make the team next year. With Rossum hurt, this was his time to get pissed off and show Steeler Nation why he was drafted so high. Well, you see how well that worked out. If he can't be a decent #5 receiver and we're forced to make Cedric Wilson field punts, cut him. Apparently we can add him to the list of good college receivers who can't play in the NFL.

Ike Taylor continues to aggravate me with his inability to catch.

Najeh Davenport looks like a different runner every week. He may be the most inconsistent player on the team. If he's not - who is? I have laid down the gauntlet.

Willie Colon and Keamoeatu are going to rack up a ton of penalties next year. Bank on it. I like a Steeler with a bad disposition, not one that has to push and shove every time they don't like the way they are handled.

I'm done complaining, more to follow this week.

Guest Post: Dog in Bowl Heaven

From Still A. Dog:

With nothing to do but eat fruit cake and watch college bowl games for the next week or so I thought I’d give you loyal readers (all 4 of you) some things to look for in the bowl games as they relate to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And with Fan out of touch until further notice, I can fill some dead space on the blog. So here we go…

Holiday Bowl 12/27/07
Texas DT Frank Okam 6’5” 325 vs. AZ State C Mike Pollack 6’4” 300. We definitely need a center and probably a defensive lineman as well. In this two-fer you get to watch both guys go against each other. Both should be day one if not first round picks.

Champs Sports Bowl 12/28/07
Boston College QB Matt Ryan – not because we’ll draft him (we got one worthless BC QB on the roster now, St. Pierre ) but because the Ravens are salivating over him.
Michigan State RB Jehuu Calucrick 6’0 260 – Closest thing to Jerome Bettis in this draft. But still far far away from Bettis’ talent. I’ve seen him look good and very average. Watch him for yourself and see what you think.

Alamo Bowl 12/29/07
Texas A&M FB Javorskie Lane 6’0 and Unlimited Weight division – Also looks like Bettis, but in short yardage situations only. A poor man’s Ron Dayne. Has a career in the NFL if he can lead block but he’s a short yardage back and that’s all.
Penn State LB Dan Connor 6’3 240 – Latest in a loooong line of quality LBs from Penn State . Not sure how interested we are in another LB, but this guy’s probably the best one who’ll be around when we draft.

Sun Bowl 12/31/07
South Florida CBs Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams. Both are good. Jenkins is better. I’m not real good with CBs (I thought Fred Smoot covered all the earth not already covered by water) but I like Jenkins and Williams is pretty darn good too. I would think these guys will both be gone by round 3.

South Florida LB Ben Moffit 6’2 240. If you want a LB here’s the guy I’d go for. You can make up your own mind, but he drops into pass coverage and kills QBs in the backfield with equal enthusiasm.

Insight.com Bowl 12/31/07
Only one guy to keep an eye on in this game. Indiana WR James Hardy 6’6” 220. Not as fast as many but gets open and can catch the ball. Has the size we are lacking at the WR position.

Fiesta Bowl 1/01/08
I would absolutely love to see the Steelers get both these guys.
Oklahoma OL (can play G or T) George “Duke” Robinson 6’5” 335 – He’s a monster. Can bulldoze an opponent in the run game and keep up with a speed rusher in the passing game. We need a guy like him bad.
West Virginia FB Owen Schmitt 6’3” 260 – Without a doubt the best FB at West Virginia since Jim Braxton (the blocking back for OJ in Buffalo ). He is the perfect replacement for Dan Kreider and is actually capable of carrying/catching the ball much more effectively than Kreider ever was. Dude broke like 8 facemasks in college. And who do you think springs Pat White and Steve Slaton for all those yards? Like to see him doing the same for Willie Parker. Should be available in the late second or third round. We need a guy like him badly too!

Rose Bowl 1/07/08
Lots of good players on both sides but watch Ohio State LB James Laurenitis. He’s only a junior but this guy can take over a football game. He can sometimes get lost in the crowd too. Plus his daddy was a pro wrestler on WWE.

So there. If you got nothing to do but watch bowl games, keep these guys in mind. Most likely you’ll see them all playing on Sundays soon. Comments and opinions welcome.

Merry Christmas, You're Dead

Nice. A Christmas trip to the San Francisco zoo turned deadly for 1 person yesterday. Can you imagine walking down a scenic pathway and then being attacked by a tiger? Named "Tatiana"? I'm guessing this tiger grew up in the hood with a name like that. Why isn't a tiger ever named "Steve"? Since it was in San Fran, I'm surprised it killed somebody. I can see a tiger from the DC zoo or the Detroit zoo killing someone, but you'd think maybe the tiger from San Fran would just jump out and give somebody a makeover or something. Maybe give them a quick mani-pedi? Oh well, this is sad and I hate to make light of it, but geez....we're not safe in a mall, school, Disney World, church....the zoo. Not sure what's left. I'm sure the victim's family doesn't want to hear this but at least it wasn't a child that died. Can you imagine if the thing jumped into a group of toddlers? That would be like me eating popcorn at the movies.

Merry Christmas!

To the regulars....Merry Christmas! I wanted to find an image that conveyed hope and joy. Instead, I found a picture of Hope & Joy. Peace, Merry Christmas and all that good stuff. I'm going to take a few days off so enjoy the pic for a while.

Global Warming

I'm currently reading Dan Rooney's autobiography (well, as told to....) and I came across an interesting nugget of information. The game time temperature of the 1972 AFC Championship Game against the Miami Dolphins in Pittsburgh was 72 degrees. It was warmer that day in Pittsburgh than it was in Miami. Do you think people were running around screaming about global warming back then? That was on New Year's Eve. If it reached 72 next week in the 'Burgh, that's all we'd hear about. Another thing I never realized, Roberto Clemente died the day after that loss. I'll talk about the book after I'm finished with it. So far, it's pretty good. Back to global warming, I don't deny it lock, stock and barrel, what do I know? It's just that I don't buy all the "doomsayers" about how bad it's going to be in the very near future. It's like Dennis Miller says - the global temperature of the Earth is about 1.5 degrees warmer now than it was 100 years ago. Are we then trusting that the good 'ol folks of 1907 were keeping a perfect record of the temperature? From what I understand they were still pooping outside in a wood hut built around a hole in the ground. It is possible that whomever was in charge of recording the temperatures for that day got a little confused between 84-86 since they didn't have digital thermometers that I'm aware of. Calm down....I'm just saying.

Stores Feed On Innumeracy

Like clockwork, Christmas seems to all of a sudden bring about cash registers that haven't been updated with sales prices. I had the same kind of trouble last year at about the same time. Today, I was out picking up a few last minute items and my wife and daughter went out as well but in a different direction. We met up for lunch at the local mall and went to Boscov's together. We looked in their Christmas department as my wife is looking to update some of our Christmas decorations. Everything was on sale. There was a big sign out front with an assortment of penguins and polar bears that stated all plush animals were 75% off. The penguins were awesome. They were all wearing ski hats, earmuffs and are well made of soft fabric on wire frames. We decided to buy a big, medium and small one. They were priced at $39.99, $19.99 and $9.99. We also picked up a metal art Christmas Tree with dangling jingle bells in a 60% off area for $9.99. We headed up to the counter where a manager was hanging out giving instructions to a clerk. He told her to do something and he would handle us....splendid. He rang up the tree and said "ok, that comes to $8..." I cut him off and told him it was $4. He told me it was 60% off and I agreed....that 40% of $9.99 was $4! He told me ever so politely that the item was $19.99, not $9.99. I showed him the price tag which clearly read $9.99. He apologized for the item ringing up incorrectly and said the program needed to be updated. Yup. You bet it does, Skippy. He takes the largest penguin and rings it and tells me it's $20. Nope. Sorry. Errrrnt. Wrong Answer. He said it was ringing at 50% off. I told him it was 75% off. He asked me where I got it that he had to go check the sign. Insert my famous loud "Sigh" here as I pointed it out to him. My daughter asked me what was going on and I explained to her that the store didn't update their software to match the merchandise on purpose and they were hoping that people weren't paying attention, or better yet, were too intimidated to question what they were told. I got a few chuckles from the people behind me. He came back, apologized again and corrected the large penguin. He was handing them off to the clerk who was now back to wrap and put in a bag. When he rang the medium one, he said "Ok, that's $5 off of that one"......Oh.....My.....Gawd. I told him $5 should be the price, not the percentage off. He thought about it a second and agreed and told me that he just said it wrong...it was a long day. You think? He got the little penguin perfect, but to be fair, he had some practice before he got to that one. I paid and then my daughter was buying a small nutcracker which he also got right. As we turned to walk away he said "is this your penguin?". The woman bagged the tree and the first two penguins but not the third one. He was so embarrassed - and with good reason! I'm not asking for perfection. I know it's the Holiday Season and they have new help at the registers. But for Grinch's sake, more things went wrong than right for us in a span of 5 minutes. I was kidding around somewhat about the pricing, but you have to wonder. Innumeracy is everywhere and I know it's more prevalent than illiteracy. Read the book or buy it for someone you know who that needs it! I'll lend you mine, I read it a long time ago as it's a good read for a math major.

Randy Rhoads

YouTube rocks. I forget what I was even looking for when a Jimi Hendrix tail showed up on the right. I clicked and watched about 3 Hendrix songs and then I saw a tail for Zakk Wylde playing Voodoo Child so I watched it. The tail from that had several Ozzy songs and a few Zakk vs. Randy Rhoads mixes where you could compare solos of the two guitarists cut into the same songs. While watching some of those, I found this really cool version of Crazy Train with Randy playing guitar. The solo is just freakin' incredible. This was Ozzy's chubby stage and damn if he doesn't look like Sean Aston of Rudy and The Lord Of The Rings fame. Looks like Ozzy was The Lord of the Rings for a while....onion rings. If they ever make an Ozzy movie, Aston sure could play younger Oz. I'm sure that's Aldridge on drums and I think it's Rudy Sarzo on bass who later played with Quiet Riot. I bet resident reader (Moor Cowbell) Kevin can confirm that. Enjoy. I wish we could get someone to lay the solo down for us so we could finish our recording of the song. Kevin, can you link what we have so far here? If he can, it's yours truly on drums and Moor Cowbell singing and playing lead with the exception of the solo. I forget who is playing bass. We did this all online, recording our parts individually and then Cowbell mixed it.

Rats

Well, the way our defense is playing, I don't think we can compete for the Super Bowl anyway - but Willie Parker being done for the season kind of puts another nail in the coffin. You might not want to believe that at first since Najeh had a good night, but he is too "hot and cold" for me. Maybe if Tomlin can get in his head and make him into an animal overnight.... Maybe he's a guy that needs to be "the man" and he couldn't do that behind Willie so now he'll shine? We'll soon see how tough he is playing against Baltimore in Baltimore. I just wish we had another back who has some speed. None of the other guys are burners, that's for sure. So, what did we learn tonight? Let's kick out some thoughts in no particular order.

I learned that the game (and a lot of other things) can be watched of www.channelsurfing.net even if it isn't on in your area. I'm going to continue to monitor this service to see if I still need to get Direct TV, although it's tough to curl up on the couch to watch a computer monitor. I have Verizon Fios for my phone and internet, but I can't get the TV because I need NFL Ticket to see my boys.

We cover about 1 out of 10 kicks the way a kick should be covered. The other 9 are like "oh shit....oh shit....get him...GET HIM.....shit!....". I'm getting sick of it. Bring back Chidi Owouma! I saw Anthony Smith running like he was a blocker for the ball carrier once instead of turning around and popping him. Did you see that? I backed up the DVR to confirm my suspicion and I was right. He is a raw talent that can hit. He needs to be taught so many other things.

My wife actually sat down tonight and watched 30 minutes of the game with me. First time this year she was there for the beginning of a game. It took her all of 6 minutes to ask "why can't they protect Ben?" When he got buried again 2 minutes after that question and we both "Ooooo'd" at the same time she was all like "he should be mad at them". Yeah. I wouldn't be buying the line Rolex watches for Christmas this year if I was him. I'd be buying them some steroids and/or HGH. The pressure continues to come from everywhere....up the middle...on the edge.... We don't have the ability to stop a pass rush and they refuse to max protect in certain situations. I guess Ben being 6'5" and well past 240 has something to do with that.

Rossum played well tonight minus the one muff. Ha Ha....I said "muff". He had a few decent runs after making the catch tonight.

Hello Nate Washington! Way to squeeze the pigskin, baby!

Hello Ike Taylor!! Pick-6! After failing to stop most passes that came his way tonight, he latched onto one and took it home. Good job. Stopping Bruce is a tough assignment for anyone. DeShea played well too as Torry Holt was madder than a hornet most of the night.

I don't think Sean Mahan is the man at center that we thought he was. Look for other experiments next camp.

Troy Polamalu is an outstanding talent and it's tough to critique anything he does, but is it just me or does it seem like he whiffs more times than not when he dives headfirst into people's legs? Would he be better off staying on his feet and meeting the ball carrier and holding them up waiting for help rather than going low and missing? Maybe he should just get in their way and get low and take the blow or wait a second longer before exploding into them, but from what I see, he launches too early giving the ball carrier time to make a slight adjustment and get around him. I don't know. It's tough to say. It just seems like that on a lot of longer runs and yards after a catch, I see a "43" come flying into the screen only to exit the screen quickly as the ball is still being advanced.

Nice fake punt! Danny has an arm!

Dick LeBeau needs to come up with a scheme this week to sack whatever shitty quarterback the Ravens throw out there about 8 times. The defense needs some confidence. The Ravens offense should provide it. We need to relearn punishing a quarterback and this is the week to do it.

And lastly, what the heck with Deion and Marshall in the booth? Where was Collinsworth? I'm not a huge fan of Chris Collinsworth, but compared to most people available today, he's in the upper echelon of announcers....especially for color during games. Deion and Marshall would let Bryant make the call and then they would go silent. When they did talk, I had a hard time understanding every word they said. Neither has a career in announcing. I don't enjoy either of them on NFL Network type programming, let alone doing a live game. Deion still thinks it's all about him and Marshall is too vanilla. Bryant tried to ask questions and tried to get them to follow up comments they made with substance, but substance never came. I'm pretty sure I could have done a better job then Beavis or Butthead.

Steve Martin, Kindred Spirit

I remember watching this live when it first aired. Perfection. Since I was a youngster and purchased my first Steve Martin LP (which Still A Dad made me take back to National Record Mart due to langage) I was hooked. He's brilliant no matter what media he chooses to use. Who knew we wanted the same things for Christmas?

Edwards Is Hiding Something, In His PANTS!

This could be it.

This is what I said about John Edwards on February 10th, 2007.

"I get the same vibe from Edwards. No man is ever that happy. That is the damn creepiest smile I've ever seen. That's the kind of smile that sends the wife and 2.5 kids to bed behind the white picket fence and then gets online to check out the chat rooms for people with taser fetishes. Seriously, he looks like a cross between a used car salesman and a televangelist."

Do not dismiss how intuitive I am about people! I will not be ignored! That fake, sickening smile is a nervous smile. I've seen that smile on people I know. The comments following that blog article are hilarious. Most of them concern his poor wife with cancer. He's out banging hot tail and then holding her hand and crying on the talk shows. Listen, people cheat on their wives. It happens. However, when you're running for President, your wife has cancer and you're under the magnifying glass.....you might want to take it easy, Fonzie. Sure, fire back and talk about Rudy's marriages, but I believe all of that took place before he was put under the scope for his run at the oval office. Clinton was stupid and should have known he would get caught. Edwards is stupid and should have known he would get caught. This is 2007, not 1977. Everyone is a journalist and everyone has a camera. He is not a slave to the little people, he is a slave to the little dude with a helmet.

80's Goodness

Wow. A trip down memory lane. Look how young Sting & Bono were! Of course this is before both of them thought they were the most important person on the planet.

A Few Of My Least Favorite Things

While losses like the ones we've suffered recently used to drive me completely crazy and cause me to be of surly disposition - the older (and wiser) I get, I tend to be much more analytical instead of getting my panties in a bunch. There is zero chance that the Steelers will add a 6th ring this February. Zero. There's no use even entertaining those thoughts any longer. I was thinking after the first half against the Pats that we could trade blows with them and eventually punish the QB. I was wrong. You can't punish what you can't get to....and we can't get to the opposing QB to save our lives. So, after losing to the Pats, what could get us back on track better than a smack down of our old division mates, Jacksonville. They're a tough physical team but lead by a guy starting his first full season. To see the weather forecast for Sunday made me smile. How could any team come here and win in the snow? It doesn't happen. Usually when the Steeler's backs are up against the wall, they come out fighting. We never get "out-physical'd" two weeks in a row. Never. Not when we're supposedly in the mix for the Bowl. Right now, we can't do three things very well that are essential to any Super Bowl run. First and foremost, we can't protect our quarterback very well. Sean Mahan has been a huge disappointment so far to me. Jeff Hartings was a Pro Bowl center, even when he didn't make the Pro Bowl. A lot of times this year Ben has to move quickly from pressure right up the middle. It's disappointing to say the least. Marvel Smith is losing his edge as an end and there isn't a real answer on the other side. Faneca is leaving after the year which means it could get worse before it gets better. We can't touch the other quarterback on the other side of the ball. When we try and don't get there, our secondary gets picked apart. Maybe it's time to see what the youngsters can do form the OL position. Third (and not last) we got pushed around on defense again yesterday. Other teams are running on us late in the season when they couldn't early in the season. What's that tell me? We should have been better yesterday with Troy back, but we weren't. He had a few submarine tackles that saved yardage, but from him and especially Anthony Smith, I need to see more tackling...wrapping players up and actually tackling them. Smith was also exposed by the Pats and will now be taken deep the rest of the year and in the playoffs. Now that Jacksonville passed us for the 3rd seed and we're tied with Cleveland record-wise in our own division, it's not going to get any better. It's going to get worse. They smell the roses and we're trying to fight our way out of a funk. Playing a healthy Rams team away and the hated Ravens in Baltimore for a chance to knock us down another peg and end their season on a high note - I could see us losing the last two as easily as winning them. If we come out and reestablish what we do well and crush these next two teams, maybe we can go into the playoffs with some confidence. If we limp in, we might not even win a playoff game, let alone make a run for the Championship.

Squirrel Proof My Ass

You know what? I hate squirrels. Are they cute? Yes. Do we feed them peanuts off of the back patio? Yes. Are they a nuisance? YES! I've taken a liking to bird feeders and bird houses the older I get. We have a garden area that I have a ton of feeders and houses in, and I can't keep the damn squirrels out of anything that is labeled "Squirrel Proof". I paid a lot of money for a 4 pronged wrought iron shepherd's hook at Home Depot and then I mail ordered a Squirrel Baffle which is a wide long tube with a dead end that you slip onto a pole. Thing is, most heavy shepherd's hooks have a forked bottom which will not allow you to slip the baffle on. I had to buy an inferior pole to use the thing on and the hanging arm doesn't reach out far enough to keep the feeder away from the baffle. Sigh. For the 4-pronged jobbie I bought one of those big plastic saucers but it was made for hanging from a hook before a feeder, not for stopping the climbing of the pole. So, I drilled a hole through the pole, threaded it with an insulation hanger, bent the hanger and put the disk above the hanger. Great, except that the damn squirrels jump from my very short rock wall to the top of the saucer and then quickly (because it's like a see-saw) grab the pole and continue on their way to my expensive food. I'll fix them. I bought a tubed feeder that has a cage around it to keep the squirrels away from the food. I watch helplessly from the windows as they jump from the ground to the bird bath to the cage and then hang on the cage for up to 30 minutes eating away upside down. Sigh. I have 6 squirrel feeders in retrospect. While Christmas shopping at Target last weekend, I picked up another "squirrel proof" feeder. This one is really cool as you can see in the picture. It's a globed cage to allow smaller birds in to feed while keeping those pesky tree rats out. On this one the cage is far enough away from the food that they won't hang on it and just reach in. HA! I thought I would hang this one by our big window to allow the two cats to watch the birds feed. I needed a new feeder to replace the plastic Finch feeder that was there. Why was? Because I found it behind some bushes with all of the eating holes chewed off. Seems that squirrels need a bigger opening to feed than the slit that the Finches need. Damn squirrels. Ha! This will show them. They will bow to the beauty and clever design of this elegant feeder purchased from the local aisles of the one they call "Target". Wrong. I got a call today while I was out from my laughing wife. She told me I had trapped a squirrel and it couldn't get out. What did I want to name it? Well, then he's stupid I said, because what goes in must come out....it's simple physics. She grabbed the camera and got the proof before the cute little demon figured his way out. I'm going to send this picture to the manufacturer and tell him about a few upgrades he needs. I've heard greased poles don't work. I've heard .357's do....but I'm not a killer. I see this as a challenge and if you don't know me, I'm tenacious. You see, I'm currently reading nut labels to see which nuts have the most fat. That's right - I'm going to fatten that bastard up until he won't fit inside anymore. PS - the cats like the squirrels more than the birds. I think they envy their freedom. I'm afraid to travel for Christmas for fear of coming home and finding six squirrels sitting at my bar, playing my drums, drinking my vodka, smoking cigars and having their way with my tied-up cats.....who are just stupid enough to be talked into opening the door "just for a second" for one of the tailed devils begging to use the bathroom or something.

Child Killers Rejoice!

This sickens me. We need to implement a policy like Texas is trying to pass. If there is no doubt you are guilty, like one or more honorable witnesses actually saw the crime or there is DNA - then stop the appeals and just pull the trigger, flip the switch or inject the SOB. The world will be a better place without these animals. WHat I can't understand is who are these people that care so much about these criminals? Don't they have other things to be doing instead of making sure these beasts don't die? I mean, really?

Drunk In Public

This is a beautiful thing. I think he thinks he did a really good job. My good friend Big-W (I hear he's going by Pimp-W these days) once did something like this at a now defunct club in the general Philly area called Pulsations. My boy loves his 70's music and can do a spot-on dance routine while lip syncing to The Stones' "Start Me Up" that would make you laugh your ass off. The irony was that you wouldn't catch him dead dancing at any other time. To him "real guys don't dance" and if they did, they might be "fruits". Man, I miss hanging out with him! Back in the early early 90's when a few real dance clubs were still around where people dressed up and went out before the invasion of the flannel shirts - we used to go to this place occasionally. It had 7 or 8 different bars, flashing lights everywhere, hired dancers in cages and stuff and dance platforms on hydrolics or something that rose out of the floor above the dance floor with scantily clad dancers on them. People would hop up on them as they slowly made their ascent. I was there with a group of friends and we were ready to go and searching for Big-W. He was nowhere to be found. He drove up from Virginia where he was working before moving back to the general Pittsburgh area. We looked outside, in the John, behind bars...in dark corners.....and then my other boy Vailler started laughing so hard he couldn't stop.....and if you know Vailler, you know the infectious laugh that I'm talking about. All he could do was point. Pimp Daddy W was on top of one of the platforms in the air with 2-3 ladies and he was up there doing his 70's dance with his Robert Plant hair looking like he owned the joint. He had one move....and he was busting it. The rest of us just stood there watching, laughing and enjoying the moment. He was on fire....and he was ours.

Can't Beat The Reaper

You can beat your eggs,

You can beat the clock,

You can beat the buzzer,

You can beat your meat,

You can beat the competition,

You can beat the average,

You can beat box,

You can beat batter,

You can beat the rain,

You can beat the traffic,

You can even beat Tina....

But you CANNOT beat Death.

Murphy's Law

So, tonight on my way home from work, I decided to stop by Toys R' Us to pick up an item or two. The stores are much less crowded at 4:30 PM on a weeknight than on a weekend this close to Christmas. I got the three items that I wanted and headed to the checkout area. They had two main lines operating and the service desk was taking customers as well. The line I was closest to had one customer in it, so I got behind the obvious holiday shopper. It was a lady who was getting on in years, probably a grandmother. Her cart was full but mostly of big items, not that many things, but they took up a bunch of space. The smiling checker scanned her items as two more people got in line behind me. She gave a total of $236. She then asked the still sweet older lady if she would like to save 10% by signing up for a store credit card. Ugh! I was thinking "please say no, please say no, please say no" and she said "no". The checker asked her if she was sure because it would save her $23.60. Wait for it...............after 10 good seconds of thinking, she agreed. Inside, I cursed. It was a good cuss, but I can't remember it right now. The girl asked her for her driver's license. To most people, this could be accomplished rather quickly. To grandma, it took what seemed like 3 minutes. The checker took it and started to enter some stuff. I turned to the people behind me to give them the pained "half-smile raised eyebrows face" to let them know I was irritated. They weren't there. They bolted to the service line and looked to be almost done. After the girl entered the info from the license, she asked the woman another question or two that she answered. She then directed her to the electronic pad that you use to sign your name when paying with a credit card. Great. This should be fun. Technophobe at the wheel! As I contemplated moving lines myself, the other two seemed to be occupied with people that were too smart to get behind this woman. I thought to myself, "it's Christmas...be patient....be like Ben....what would Jesus do?....Jesus would wait for this nice lady to purchase her gifts....". After she poked and prodded at the screen with the stylus, she then turned to the checker (who was crossing her arms at this point) and said something about "social security number". The checker asked her to repeat herself and she said that she wasn't going to give them her social security number. Oh boy. The checker now had to call the manager and I couldn't help but let out a loud "sigh". It's in my nature. Ask Still A Dad. Ask Still A Dog. Ask Still A Wife! The checker told her what I already knew, without a Social Security number, she wasn't getting approved for the card. Given this choice, she now had to think for another 10 seconds. "No, I don't want to do it then". At this point, I'm thinking "Good, push your cart away and let me check out" but I forgot that if she wasn't putting this on her new card, she was still going to have to pay for it somehow! "$236 please", the checker repeated. I started to wonder if Jesus would grab her by the back of her hair and pull her backwards to the ground in one quick, sweeping motion? She pulled out another card and paid the total. I am willing to bet that a total of 12-14 other customers checked out completely in the other two lines while I waited behind someone who doesn't know shit about obtaining a credit card. Every fiber in my body was telling me to switch lanes at every step of this story. The thing is, I've seen this movie before....I know how it ends. Had I moved to another line, magically the old hag in this line would have sailed through the moment I left while the new person in front of me dropped dead of an apparent heart attack or worse yet, tried to pay for an iPod using pennies. I was semi-patient. I made the checker crack up after the woman strolled away without a care in the world, oblivious to the fact that she held people up. I wonder how many times she has handed a credit card over to a waiter or waitress to pay a check? Could it be that she just flat out forgot her Social Security number? We'll never know. As I went to my car to put my stuff in the trunk I noticed her doing the same thing. She looked to be having trouble with a large box and keeping her cart from rolling away as she used both hands on the box. I started to walk over towards her and she looked up and smiled at me as I extended my hands toward her. By now, I think somebody has probably heard her either screaming or beating on the inside of the trunk and let her out. Merry Frickin' Christmas. Ok, Ok, I did see her in the parking lot but she wasn't having any trouble. I just couldn't resist the imagery. It made me smile and it comforted me.

Smith Done For The Year?

Mike Tomlin said at his press conference today that end Aaron Smith may have to have season ending surgery on a torn bicep. Ouch! That would mean Eason and Travis Kirschke would have to step up, much like Chris Hoke did a few years ago. Not sure if any ends are on the practice squad (or the street for that matter) but another injury to a key starter is not what we need heading into the Jacksonville game and the playoffs. Maybe Tomlin can get Woodley into the game more to help pass rush? Who knows how this will shake out? Hopefully we'll get better news later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Europe Anyone?

This is pretty cool. An orchestra fronted by cellos banging out "The Final Countdown" by Europe.

Today's Spin

Well, it certainly would have helped to have Troy Polamalu in the lineup today as the deep middle of the field got mauled, but every team has injuries this time and year and you have to overcome them. If you want to take the glass half full approach, you could say that at worst - this game could only change our playoff seed from 3 to 4 and if we beat Jacksonville next week, we'll still probably end up being the 3 seed and this game didn't affect our season too much. If you want to take the glass half empty approach, you would say that mentally, if we have to face the Patriots again in the playoffs, it will be in our heads that we got beat by more than 2 TDs. If you need to spin it in your head again to the full side.....maybe you can convince yourself that we played it close for 39 minutes and had our heart ripped out by the double lateral that maybe Troy could have covered. Of course, the half empty glass is screaming that they threw on almost every down and we didn't sack Brady once. It was a great gameplan by the Pats. Our defense is super aggressive and the second the first play-action stayed in Brady's hands....I knew it was a TD from the length of time it took to develop at that point. You just have to wonder if the double lateral play was only put in the gameplan because of Anthony Smith? Also, for Christmas, could somebody please get Ike Taylor a pair of hands that aren't made of granite? Thank You. The first half was very exciting to watch and I enjoyed it tremendously. The second....."meh". Ten years ago this loss would have bothered me a lot more than it did today. My glass is still half full. Smith was a hair away from knocking that ball down. What if he did? Football is a game of inches and momentum. It can change on a dime. Congrats to the Pats, see you in the playoffs.

J Peezey

I read several Steeler blogs and just a lot about the NFL in general and it kills me to read people saying things like "Porter left the Steelers and now he has a chance to be on the worst team in the history of the NFL". Only half of that is true. Remember folks, the Stillers CUT Joey, he didn't leave. Upon being cut, he also said:

"The organization has always been good to me," Porter said in a television interview. "It was a great run in Pittsburgh. I have no problem with them at all. I think it was a tough decision that they had to make, and it was one they had to make and they did it in the right way."

When he made the 75th anniversary team, he was Boo'd when they showed his clips at the game. He said next to winning the Super Bowl it was his highest honor. He is such a fierce competitor, can you imagine how hard it is for him to fall asleep every night knowing how bad the Dolphins are? Wow. That would be like Britney Spears being on top of the world one day as a pop icon and then falling from her perch and landing as a circus sideshow.........oh, wait a minute....that happened as well. Anyway, you get the point. I can't help but think that somewhere today at around 4:00, Peezey is going to wish he was still in Black-n-Gold prowling the onfield warmups screaming at Tom Brady that he's going to do very bad things to his mother. Peezey plays the villain well, but while some guys really are villains, I see Joey more in the Chad Johnson role - he knows it's a character he's portraying and that the home fans eat it up with butter on top. I feel bad for him. Do I like James Harrison? Hell, yeah. Was Joey going downhill the last few years? A little. We have to keep our linebacking corp young and we've been recycling them pretty well since the day Hardy Nickerson left. With four capable starters already, we have two superb draft picks waiting in the wings....both potentially replacements for Silverback. He may not start half as long as Joey did or he could start for the next five years. It's weird that as they suit up to play the biggest measuring stick game they've played yet this year - I'm thinking about Peezey. Maybe I'm wondering who will step up today and fire the team up to the level that Joey would? Maybe I'm wondering if we get down 10 or 14 points early, who will be stalking the sidelines and telling people to not drop their heads and fight. With Polamalu likely out again and not being the vocal leader anyway, it will be interesting to see who plays cheerleader the most today. We got rid of Joey's penchant for personal fouls but did we get more than we bargained for in Anthony Smith? We're going to learn a ton about this team today. We will definitely know sometime around 7:30 PM whether this team can win it all again this year. Let's hope some '72 Dolphin's angels are out there with us.

Slanted #53 Mummy

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Slanted #52

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Is His Mouth Open?

I swear he opens his mouth. Just buy the poor little guy another turtle!

Better Than Thriller

Remember the viral video of an entire wedding party doing the dance from Thriller? Well, even though that was very complicated and probably took tons of practice (plus keeping all those people quiet about the surprise) - I like this one better! Maybe just because I like to kick it old school.

Tomlin Rules

This is not Michigan versus Appalachian State.

The Truth Comes Out

Anyone that's ever been to our house knows that Casey is his momma's boy. Just say his name or talk to him like a baby and you have a friend for life who will talk back to you. Today, as my wife and I were finishing up lunch, we looked up and this is what we saw. Apparently, Casey was upstairs and an experiment was performed to see if American Girl's doll clothing would fit him. It does. Now for the weird part, he likes it. Our deceased most awesome cat ever, Lloyd, would not even wear a collar. Any attempt to put anything on him was met with one response - fall over and not move until the offending garment or accessory was removed from his person...er, body. Casey's beautiful pink shaw was removed for fear he needed to use the litter box. He whimpered around and knocked his head into his "mommy's" legs until she put it back on him. He then proceeded to "prance" around the house to show Hershey...who was not jealous at all. In fact, if I could read his pea brain mind, Hershey was thinking "oh...well that explains a lot." Why couldn't the doll have a shaw in earth tones? That would make it marginally better. Hey, I still love him. So he likes female clothing, who doesn't every once-in-a-while? We're going to leave it on as we're expecting two families to roll through here pretty soon. I'm taking princess and two of her friends to the movies today to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. She and I saw Enchanted last weekend and we thought we'd liven up this week's party with a few friends. Nothing better than treating three kids to the movies and watching their eyes light up at the counter when I tell them they can get whatever they want....I'm guessing the movie and snacks will set me back a cool $50-$60. However, pumpkin pants will be good and worn out after an afternoon of playing and I will get the family room all to myself to watch the Stillers tonight! Priceless!

Metric Schmetric

I pulled homework duty the other night. One of the assignments was to study for a science test. I grabbed the flash cards that the teacher uses and began to run through them with my 3rd grade daughter. The subject matter was impressive for 3rd grade and I'm 100% sure I wasn't learning stuff like that at that age. It had a lot to do with water and it's different states and how it changes between states. There were also some questions about displacement and tools used for displacement which brought us to several items that use liters and milliliters. I'm getting older and my memory isn't perfect, but I think I remember being told about the metric system and how it was going to rule the world back in about 4th grade. The reason I remember that is because we broke up into groups and wrote the equivalent metric measurements of some very standard English measurements. I clearly remember rolling a metric wheel up and down the hallway and jotting my findings down. That was like, I don't know, 1977? It's now 2007. It took 30 years to get to, what? In 30 years, the only thing we've fully adopted is the 2 liter soda! 30 years! 30. How many metric years is that? They changed the PA Turnpike exits a few years ago to go from sequential numbering to the MILE marker of the exit....not the kilometer marker. Can we please end the facade that we're ever going to change to the metric system? Maybe this is why the terrorists hate us? We refuse to conform. I don't want a 355 ml Diet Coke.I want 12 oz. I don't want Ben Roethlisberger to have a 274.32 meter passing day. I want 300 yards! You get the idea. Isn't it about time to just give up? If we travel abroad, we'll use a conversion table or our iPods or something....but we will never compute this stuff in our heads or know it outright. Look how many other things have changed in the last 30 years and we haven't advanced the stupid metric system one centimeter. Obviously, we either didn't really want to, or we really wanted to and the idiots running the country at the time in the Dept of Education didn't know how to implement it successfully. Either way, I think it's funny that they're still trying to cram little bits and pieces into kids' lives. If they would incorporate metrics into Wii and PS3 games....then maybe the kids would learn something about it.

Bryant Gumble = Smart Guy

Oh, this is rich. Watching the Packers play the Cowboys tonight gave me a good laugh. First of all, the hoopla surrounding another regular season game is crazy. They had a countdown to kickoff when I turned the game on at 8:00 PM. They were trying to make it out to be a mini playoff game. Mr. NFL Network, Rich Eisen, claimed that the winner of the game would "virtually be playing every playoff game at home up till the Super Bowl". If they are both 10-1 and this is the 12th game, there are still 4 weeks left. The winner of this game could easily go 2-2 couldn't they? To say "virtually" there is very misleading. Anyway, on to Bryant. Gumbel looks at Collinsworth leading up to kickoff and says "Cris, the Packers are near the top of the league in passing and dead last in running, how are they getting it done?"

I swear I heard crickets.

Collinsworth: "umm, with their passing game."

What else is he supposed to say????????? So, here's the best part. I think every time I've mentioned Bryant Gumbel on this site - I've made a comment about him being more white than half of my friends. I searched Google images to find a recent picture of him to use here and the one I posted is from HBO's site (my lawyer says to put here that I'll take the photo down if HBO requests it). When I right-clicked on the picture to save it, the name of the image came up:

bryant_gumbel_white_bg

No kidding!!! Bryant Gumbel White Black Guy!!!! Oh, that means white background? Crap. White Black Guy is much funnier.

Hilarious Corporate Memo

You know you work at a large company when you get corporate emails every morning. The one we received this morning made me laugh out loud for several minutes. I had people on the floor rolling with my mockery of the memo. It started innocent enough - letting you know that you could not have a real Christmas tree in your area, remember to turn out Christmas lights if you put any up in your area, etc. Further down the bulleted list, I found this gem (and no, I'm not making this up).

"Click here to see how you can ensure your work area is free from any danger zones or who to call if you spill coffee or other liquids in the building..."

So, am I to assume that if I knock my Diet Coke off my desk tomorrow morning, instead of going to the men's room to get paper towels and returning to clean it up myself.....I should instead click on the above link and - what? "Don't touch it sir, we'll be right up!!!!". Lights will blink, sirens will wail.... three guys in hazmat suits will show up with a Shop-Vac 11 minutes later to evacuate the premises and proceed with their soda remediation. Good Grief. Who writes these things? Seriously? Is the list almost together and the author walks out and gathers a few colleagues around and says "I feel this is missing something....but what?" The list is looked over by everyone and nobody adds anything, until Bert takes a look. Bert is a grizzled veteran of large company stupid corporate announcements. "You missed one, kid" he bellows as he takes the list from the group and gives it the once over. "Nobody knows what this list is missing?" he snarled. "Your ineptitude sickens me. Harrelson, don't you remember what happened in December 1978?" Silence. "Damnit people! Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it! Beverage spills! You completely forgot the procedure for beverage spills! And mention "coffee" by name. You know how many carpets are ruined by average Joe's trying to clean up their own coffee spills? That's right, hang your heads. Hang them....... Jessica, get the required verbiage on there and get this out. Ok people, back to work - BACK TO WORK - we're done here."

Word.

Brilliant article. The best I've read on Sean Taylor's murder to this point. Thanks, Still A Dog.

Another by PTI's Mike Wilbon.

I'm Bringin' Silver Back

As requested by Still A Dog (and rightly so), here is the link to Pro Bowl voting. James Harrison is listed for Outside Linebackers. Let's get him in. Spread the link!

Soaked

I live close to 300 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Everyone knows I'm a die hard fan. You wouldn't believe the amount of email and questions I received at work today about the field. True, it was bad and I said during the game it was an embarrassment, but there were legitimate reasons for the conditions. If you know the reasons, you can accept them and still make fun of the field. However, if you don't bother to find out why the field was like that - educate yourself before you open your pie hole. I felt like dropping the 6th person who asked me today about the field with a swift right cross. It seems like most people who talked about it today had no idea about the use this weekend and the fact that it was the first complete resodding (is that a word?) in 7 years. So, there I am ragging on it last night, and then I felt defensive today with a bunch of Iggles, Giants and Redskins fans ragging on it. It's like teasing the loser in your crew. You can tease him. Your boys can tease him. But if somebody outside the group takes a shot at him - it's hat turnin' around time. I think right now...in the bowels of Heinz Field...Art Rooney II is standing over the head grounds keeper with 2 very large executioner type guys with pillow cases on their heads with cut eye holes holding clubs and maces standing behind him saying something like "so guys, the field will be ready for next week's nationally televised game.....right?"

Good Gravy

I am so embarrassed about the condition of Heinz Field tonight. Doesn't it rain in other cities? Why is our field always one of the worst in the NFL? It's a brand new stadium. I understand Pitt plays 5 games there. I just can't figure out why they can't get it right.

The second quarter is only half over and I've now seen the Peyton Manning Sony commercial 3 times. T-H-R-E-E times. You know what Peyton...I use it to hit the Mute button.

Why is Larry Foote doing Joey's kick after tackles? Shouldn't they be boys?

I don't think we're going to learn anything about our team tonight, win or lose. The field is so bad, it's like they're playing on skates and the field is made of marbles.

My Friends At CitiBank

I had the family out for Thanksgiving and let the mail accumulate over the weekend. Today when I went through it, there were two pieces of mail from CitiBank, the corporate giant that recently purchased my mortgage. Not knowing if one was the bill was or not, I opened each instead of tearing them up because they looked like junk mail. The first was an offer to save me roughly $60,000 by having me send mortgage payments every 2 weeks instead of monthly. Well, isn't that nice? They note that it will help me pay off my mortgage 5 years faster than only sending in money every month. The idea is that you actually send in the equivalent of 13 monthly payments over 52 weeks. Hey, that's nice of them, they want me to pay off my mortgage early. That's OK, I'd rather not do it their way. I'll send in extra every time I make a payment as opposed to being locked into making their scheduled payments. Ok, let's see what's in envelope number two. Hmmm, they want me to be able to pay all my bills and they have a way to save me $300-$500 a month. How? By extending my mortgage out to 40 years. Yes, I'm serious. How can the mortgage industry approve of this? Do you know what this is going to lead to? Much like people driving around in cars they really can't afford, this is just going to allow people to buy more house, even those who can't afford it. Hopefully the rule will be that you have to qualify for a 30-year mortgage, pay for it for a few years, and then you will be allowed to convert it to 40 if you want. Maybe they need a better CRM product that won't market to me to both shorten and prolong my mortgage at the same time. Idiots.

Patriots: Beatable

No, that picture isn't a sighting of the elusive Bigfoot. It is however, a sighting of some sorts. The Patriots are now in sight for every team left on it's schedule. If you listened to the talking heads leading up to the Eagles game last night, they had no shot, no chance in the world to win. Peter King is the one leading the trumpets. You may as well not even play the games - to him, it's not about who will beat them, just about who will give them a good game. Everyone laughed last night and basically called the game an exhibition. To Costas and smarmy Olbermann, the "exhibition season continues tonight....". All the sports writers are trying to outdo themselves with superlatives when talking about the Pats. It's insane. Can we stop the nonsense now? This is the NFL. On any given Sunday, somebody that was supposed to win, loses. I know they're good, Chrissy Twocoats, and they are playing better than any team in the league so far this season....but I'm not ready to crown them SB champs yet let alone the best team that ever stepped onto the field. The injury bug has bitten the Colts, could the Pats be next? They barely beat a team with a losing record, my God, the league has never seen a team like this before! Give me a break.....and I don't care if it's Tom's leg or Randy's.

Unstoppable

I swear while I was watching the Patriots play the Eagles tonight...during the first quarter there was a commercial featuring Eli Manning with the tag line "Unstoppable". Ummmm, hey Eli, even your Dork brother doesn't do commercials where they call him things like, oh, I don't know..."Unstoppable" maybe?

Half Marathon Photos

Can You Say....

Trophy Wife? , She looks too young to be his daughter! Good for him.

Clooney Looney?

I can't get my arms around this story. George Clooney makes between $15-$20 million dollars per film. He recently gave $25,000 to a fund to help the writer's strike. Huh? That's like giving a whale a Tic-Tac for bad breath. It's insane.....and then to promote that fact instead of doing it anonymously? David Letterman and John Stewart are paying their staff's salary out of their own pockets. That takes balls. $25 large from a dude making that kind of coin is an embarassment. Maybe almost getting your ass kicked by Fabio messes with your decision making process?

MTV Mid East?

MTV wants to expand into the Middle East. Great. You know, those nut jobs already think we're satan's spawn. What's going to happen when they see their first Akon video? Or Spring Break special? Maybe the government (ours!) is paying them to expand in hopes of making the US look cool to young Arabs and Muslims. I think it's just going to fuel their anger. Does MTV still play Creed? God I hope not. They make me want to kill people....wait until the terrorists here that crap!

2007 Philadelphia Marathon Experience

Well, my unofficial time of 2:22 that I posted earlier was wrong. I actually finished at 2:25:24. What happened was I had my watch set to stop timing if I drop below a certain pace so when I crossed the finish line and walked to get my medal and food, it wasn't timing anyway. I do that so when I run the neighborhood the clock stops when I have to wait for traffic to cross the street. Anyway, I'm calling the experience a complete success this year. Not only did I improve my time by around 15 minutes, I did it at a heavier weight as I'm carrying about 12 more pounds then I had last year. The geeky fitness scale that I have says that my body fat is the same percentage at this weight that it was at the lighter weight so at least I know only a portion of it is flabbity flab! Overall I finished 3,157 out of 4,325 runners or better than 27% of the field. At last year's half marathon I finished better than only 9% of the field. Also, last year's run was a half only. It's extremely safe to assume that I moved up considerably due to the fact more hardcore runners were in the full marathon as opposed to the half. I don't think 15 minutes would move me up that far. I finished better than 16% of males this year and last year it was only 5%. For my gender age class, I beat 19% of the field. Last year I only finished better than 3% (Yikes!) in that category. It would be interesting to see if I went back and put this time into the 12,000 runner field of last year how it would fare instead of this field of 4,300. I might do that.

The experience on the whole was fantastic, although I could have had more sleep. I picked up my stuff at the expo around 3:00 PM and got to The Latham where I stayed around 4:00. After an hour or so of doing nothing I went to my favorite Italian place in the city, Pietra's on Walnut, and ordered something very boring that isn't even on the menu..Penne with olive oil. I had some of their kickass bread with oil and tried to hydrate with as much water as I could drink. I sat at the bar and noticed a few other party of 1's at the bar eating pasta and drinking water. I could have went to the pasta party, but since I worked in the city for 5 years and knew my way around, I figured why pay $25 and walk over a mile when my favorite place was right around the corner? Anyway, when I was half done a dude came and sat next to me who ordered pasta and water. He looked like a runner and when he checked his watch it was an Ironman so I asked him about the race. As it turned out, he was staying at The Latham as well so we split a cab in the morning to head down to the race because we were 1.6 miles away from the start. Mike from NC....thanks for paying for the cab! You left me with enough money to hail one on the long walk back after I went about 6 blocks. Mike was running the full marathon and hoped to finish around 3:30. I watched the radar until about 10 PM and then headed to bed thinking it was going to rain. 5 AM came fast. We were leaving around 6:15 and I needed time to eat and let it settle a tad before running. In the end it barely spit enough rain to feel on your face a few times. The lines for the porta-potties were crazy. We got there around 6:30 and I feel like I spent 25 minutes in line, just getting to the starting point before they played the obligatory Rocky Theme. The first 2 miles were very crazy as they merged the 15,000 marathon runners with the 4,300 half runners after the Parkway. It was crowded until we started up past the zoo - then it thinned out. The best place for crowds was South Street, it was nuts. It really pumps you up to hear the crowd cheering and making noise, especially since we were WAY behind the leaders at that point. Another good point before heading out of Center City was a row of Frat houses, I'm guessing Drexel's. Those dudes were out banging on pots and pans and playing upbeat music. Someone said they were surprised they were up - I said "are you kidding? they never went to bed!". I had a gel around mile 6-7 and only stopped for liquid twice. Still A Dad and I did a 10 miler 2 weeks ago and never took a sip. I had a little water around mile 5 and some Gatorade around mile 9 I guess. My mouth was really dry because I screwed up. I've been running with gum for about 2 years now and even though I packed all my stuff the night before and sat everything out, my gum was underneath something and I forgot it this morning. I was so into taking everything in I didn't notice I didn't have it until about 2 minutes before the race started. I felt pretty strong at the halfway point and never really had a moment when I was questioning my decision to run. I had a queasy stomach and walked for about 20 seconds at around mile 12.25. How could I stop and walk at that point? Because they looped us 3/4 of the way around Eakins over where the race started and we had to run past at least 100....maybe more...no kidding...Porta-Potties. Yes, the habit runners are most famous for before going out for their morning "runs" was now staring us in the face as an obstacle. I was feeling slightly off my game stomach-wise anyway and when that first whiff hit me.....whew..... You know how when you're sick any little smell can set you off? Well, run 12 miles in the cold damp weather and then run past 100+ johns with their vented louvers all facing you and the wind blowing. It ain't pretty and it's something they may want to think about next year.
This year I remembered to raise my arms as I crossed the finish and it was hectic there as well. Loud music, lines for pictures, lines for medals and a line for Smokin' Joe Frazier. I skipped everything but the medal. Then, in a tent that had enough food to feed a small country, I grabbed only a soft pretzel and a bottle of water and started to walk back to the hotel. What a bad idea that was. I grabbed the first cab I saw after I cleared the craziness of the area. I didn't even get my cool foil cape robe!! I wasn't that cold. I grew up near Pittsburgh for goodness sake. Standing in line for the john this morning people were bouncing up and down and wearing gear like it was the arctic. It was hovering around 39 for the start I read. I was in shorts and just taking it all in. What an experience. Things I'll remember? A guy passed me in a leisure suit, lime green. I looked at the girl next to me and I said "Did we just get passed by a guy wearing a leisure suit?" A guy with 1 leg passed me as well. He had one of those space age legs that the sprinters use. I passed him around mile 12 as he was walking, but God bless him. Another guy had a backpack on, with a t-shirt over that that had so much writing on it you couldnt read anything...and he was wearing socks...no shoes. I passed him, thank God. When my elevator opened this morning, a guy was in drag with a princess crown on. What is wrong with these people? Are they simply mocking the rest of us. Finishing is so easy for me...watch this. The only other thing I don't get is the people with these utility belts like Batman. I have a race number belt with a small wallet on it that holds something the size of a band-aid. I don't even have anything against the fuel belts of which I saw a ton of. Although I don't know why you need to carry all that water when it is provided every other mile or so unless you drink a lot when you run. What I'm talking about is these people who have belts with 37 compartments on them. I swear I passed a woman and she was ready for any situation that presented itself. She had 6 bottles of water (fuel belt style), enough gel to feed 1000 runners, compartments with what I guess were first aid type things, a car battery, 2 books, a gun (even though we weren't going into North Philly), a compass, a GPS, bear trap...you get the idea. I think it was more "Hey, look at my cool belt" than functional. But, to each his or her own I guess. Off to bed. My legs are H-E-A-V-Y. It was cool but kind of a lonely experience. When everyone else is running in pairs or groups and hugging family at the end of the race - you kind of wish you had someone there with you........Still A Dad.........you feel me? Next year! :)

T-R-A-P Trap Trap Trap

Well, good morning Mr. Jet Fan, A 'S' B. You must be feeling pretty good right about now. I was pretty confident in picking the Steelers over the Jets, but that's why they play the game. Not many good thoughts about this game, mostly bad stuff. Some of the few good things were the crowd. The Jets fans should be ashamed of themselves allowing Steeler Nation to take over their stadium like that. That was like half a home game, but it didn't help. I know I saw a million things I wanted to make note of here, but I'm so dehydrated delirious tired, I'm not going to remember them all. I just wish if we were going to lose games, they would be to NFC teams. I hope a week off wasn't lost by losing to a stinking rookie QB. I'm sure their heads weren't in this for first half and they didn't even wake up after the flea-flicker. Random thoughts from the game:

I completely saw Eason miss a block on a kickoff that I'm positive I could have made. All he had to do was get in the way. He didn't.

Willie Parker looked tired to me today. No burst. When he can't dominate the league's 31st best rushing defense, we're in trouble. No bounce to the outside today at all. Nothing. Plus, he went down easier than an 11th grade slut.

Najeh Davenport didn't do much better. True, he got the short yards when we needed them, but other times he looked completely baffled as to what to do.

What in the Mother Hubbard is wrong with our offensive line on pass coverage this year? Did Ben sleep with one of their wives? Two of their wives? C'mon dudes. As Ben goes, we go. He was slippery early, but then something changed and he got smothered a few times.

Nate Washington better learn how to squeeze a football and make a tough catch 50% of the time or he should be cut. On a bobble, you can see Hines Ward never taking his eye off the ball and fighting to get it back under control. The second Nate realizes he's not going to catch it cleanly, it looks like he gives up. Toughen up!

Good job by Jeff Reed today. I can't say the same for Dan. That last punt lost the game. No distance. No hang time. Dude caught it on a full run.

What's wrong with Phil Simms' logic going into halftime? Nance questioned why they didn't throw a Hail Mary. Phil said Ben couldn't reach the endzone from there so what's the point? Couldn't he throw it to the 10 or 15 and get a pass interference call? I was under the impression that the half nor the game can end on a defensive penalty. Am I wrong?

Spaeth caught a ball that wasn't a TD. Go figure.

Thomas Jones ate us for lunch....or dinner since it was a 4:00 start. My man broke a lot of arm tackles today.

And, I'll save the biggest criticism for last.....I know Pittgirl of The Burgh Blog won't like hearing this, but if she watched every play of the game she won't be able to disagree....Troy Polamalu had a bad game, nay, a very bad game - in my humble opinion. I saw the following several times today: a flash of yellow and flowing hair....and then a Jet running with the ball. Troy needs to play more under control in my opinion. Yes, his reckless abandon can be helpful in some situations, but more often that not today, he made the first move instead of reacting to what the ballcarrier or receiver was going to do. He left his designated area too soon on some plays as well. Rod Woodson did stuff like that early in his career as well. It pays off about 15% of the time. The other 85%, something bad usually happens. When Troy watches the tape this week, he isn't going to like what he sees.

If you would have told me prior to week 1 that we would be 7-3 after 10 weeks, I would have been very happy with that. As I sit here tonight, I'm not. This game was winnable and it was a weak opponent. Arizona's front 7 shut us down completely. Denver got up for us. In retrospect, we could easily be 9-1.

My Jeff Reed Moment

Well, I never thought I'd be taking a picture of myself on the cell phone in a hotel bathroom, but I thought I needed to capture the moment for posterity's sake. I was too tired to stand in the line to get my photo in front of the flag after the race this morning. I'll post a recap later in the day as I'm trying to get out of the city in time to watch the Stillers.....just the facts:

No rain. Superb Low 40's temps. Unofficial time of 2:22. I'll have to wait and see what my chip time was. I forgot to turn off my watch when I hit the finish line because I was too busy doing my best Rocky impersonation with my hands above my head. If that time holds up, it will be about 18 minutes faster than last year. Not too shabby for an old guy I guess. I'm off to get my car........enjoy the game!

At What Price, Benny?

The Wikipedia entry on Ben has it in black-n-white: On August 4, 2004 Roethlisberger signed a six-year contract worth $22.26 million in salaries and bonuses, with an additional $17.73 million available via incentives. With Romo, Bulger and Palmer breaking the banks - What is Ben going to command when his contract is up in 2009? That was a trick question. He's never going to make it to the end of his contract. Obviously the Steelers need to tear up that contract after this season and make him a Steeler for the next 10 years or so. That won't happen either, but maybe reworking the remaining 2 and adding 4-6 more will. In all fairness to Ben, without even being a homer myself, if you were starting an NFL franchise today, meaning taking the age of players into consideration - who would you take above him? Of course you could say Peyton Manning, but he's played 6 more years than Ben. Of course you could say Tom Brady, but he's also played 4 more years than Ben. For the sake of arguement, we'll take those two guys out of the equation. Let's look at the remaining starting QBs to see how many we would take over Benny. I'm not even going to mention the fellas that don't have a shot. I'll only go thru the people that somebody might make a case for. I'll use NFL.com's list in alpha order:

Derek Anderson - sorry dude, not enough experience.

Drew Brees - Ben is bigger, stronger, has a bigger arm and is much more nimble in the pocket and throws better on the run. Next.

Marc Bulger - in my opinion, he's only good at one thing: getting the ball out quickly and accurately to his receivers. He has no intangibles and isn't good at hanging in there and reading over the defense. He basically knows were he's going on "hut".

Jay Cutler - I don't think we've seen enough of him yet. Simple as that. Asked to predict the future? I'd say Ben has the better career, hands down.

Matt Hasselbeck - I don't dislike him and he's a good, solid qb. However, ask 32 GMs right now who they would rather have, and 80% or more are going to pick Ben.

Leinhart and Losman -Leinhart has the reputation but hasn't set the world on fire. He will be better than Losman and might get really good with the receivers he has, but he's a year or two away right now.

Eli - No way. I can't think of one thing that Eli does better than Ben.

McNabb - McNo.

Carson Palmer - the only real competition in my opinion. Based on their play this year, you have to go with Ben. Based on the Super Bowl ring, don't you have to go with Ben? Some might say Palmer is the better pure passer, but I think when you take everything into consideration including toughness and elusiveness - Ben is the pick here as well.

Philip Rivers - ummmm, no.

Tony Romo - too early to tell. Ben has the pedigree, 3 outstanding years and a ring. Romo has a lot of dates with a lot of hotties and a big contract.

Palmer got $118 million over 9 years until 2014. I'm assuming that contract will be Ben's benchmark. Romo got what, $67 million for 6 years with $30 million guaranteed. Wow. Ben's people can't wait to start negotiating.