DOG: Regression To The Mean

Fan, the mathematician knows exactly what I am talking about. There is an average level of play in the NFL. And given enough time ie. high enough number of samplings, each NFL team will gravitate towards it. It helps explain why teams don't win forever or lose forever. And yes I know Cleveland has been losing in what seems like forever and there is such a thing as Standard Deviation from the mean. But that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about what Bob "The Ol' Gunner" Prince used to call "Hidden Vigorish." He would say that the laws of hidden vigorish indicated that Willie Stargell was likely to hit safely in his next at bat because he had gone 0-18 in his current hitting slump. He stated it as "The longer you go without a hit, the closer you come to getting one." In other words, gravitation to the mean.

And that's what we have with the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers. This year's Stillers have now lost 5 games, all of them by less than a TD and 2 in OT. Last year's Stillers won many a close game with last minute heroics and defensive stands. Off the top of my head we beat San Diego, Cleveland (first game), all 3 Baltimore games, Dallas and the Cards in the Super Bowl by less than a TD and/or in OT. And there's probably more but I'm not taking the time to look it up.

What this means is that we are naturally gravitating or regressing to the mean. We are becoming a very average football team. And if things don't change in December, that's exactly what we'll be. A very average 8-8 or 9-7. Can't remember what coach coined the phrase, "We are who our record says we are." But that's the truth.

FAN: Miracle Needed

Well, our season won't officially be over if we lose today as I believe we were 7-5 after 12 games in 2005 and still won it all. However, I feel that if we lose, our chances of making the playoffs are shifted to about 33 percent. I'm hoping Ben is really going to play and they gave Dixon most of the snaps Friday as a red herring. Did I use that right? I don't care if I didn't. If Dixon plays, we are in serious trouble and will have to rely on the ground game. The thing is, the Ravens should be attacked thru the air. What a pickle. Is Mike Tomzak busy tonight?
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FAN: Green Jello

Because I know Stilladog didn't have any today...I took a picture of the famous family Green Jello salad complete with carrots and pineapple pieces. It's a tradition for it to be present at the big turkey day meal. I don't crave it during the year but I eat it for symbolic reasons. The Gen X'ers refuse to prepare the dish so one of the "elder" statesmen of the family usually brings it. It was Still A Dad's mom's go-to dessert dish for pot luck meals. Here's to you Grandma S. I can't remember if we made fun of it when she was alive, but we sure do now. I assume at some point one of us X'ers will break down and start making it for nostalgic reasons. Happy Thanksgiving!
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FAN: Make Room For Kids

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? I'm thankful that I'll be spending it with my daughter at my sister's house in NH. In fact 5 sets of parents will be there with their healthy children. Wouldn't it suck if your child was in the hospital for the holiday? Wouldn't it suck if your child was in the hospital period? I know mine likes to play Wizard 101 online and Stardoll and mess around with Alice and play her Wii and kick my tushie at every game she has and then beat me at some Nintendo DS game. She's not a "gamer" but she has game. Back in the day her dad was a gamer. Grew up on the originals. I was there to witness it all. I even have a standing coin-op in my game room. So, read this post and help out That's Church.com because a good thing is being done over there. Steel City Slant has already pledged $100 to the cause. A Paypal account is being set up on Monday and Mario Lemieux's organization is holding the money until the donations stop coming in or hit $10,000 which is the goal. If you are too lazy to read the post (you know who you are!) Ginny aka PittGirl at That's Church was trying to get Burghers to vote in a contest where the winning city would receive $10,000 for a gameroom for their Children's Hospital. Sadly, the Burghers lost. Ginny promised to organize a drive to raise the $10,000 to provide the room if they lost. So, game on. It will be state of the art and really cool for the sick kids, some of whom will never leave, to be able to head to the room and do some hardcore gaming. Give $5, $20, $50....or more. Make it hurt a little.

DOG: Judgement Day Awaits

Dog's Team!

It's taken me a few days since our ass-whipping at the hands of the KC Chiefs to collect my thoughts and make an an attempt at rationality in this post.





It's not Thanksgiving yet so I'm going to give the Stillers at least one more game before I throw in the towel on the season. But it's Judgement Day in Baltimore on Sunday night in so many ways.





First of all the team seems utterly lethargic ever since the win on Monday Night Football in Denver. No energy, no ambition, no sense of urgency, no motivation. Something is clearly wrong. And I sense (speculate) that something ill is brewing internally. Furthermore, my suspicion is that it relates to a disagreement between some members of the coaching staff and the players, particularly the veteran players many of whom have two Super Bowl rings. Perhaps it is discontent with Ligashesky, coach of coverage units who have given up what 5 KO return TDs and 1 punt return TD in 10 games? Or strong disagreement with how Bruce Arians puts together a game plan and tactically calls plays? My guess is both.





Arians continues to call plays in total grab-bag fashion. It's as though the Magic 8-Ball is giving him the plays. Our OT possession in KC felt like a monkey was in charge. Mendenhall for 7, Mendenhall for 3, Mendenhall for 9. So it's 3rd and 2 about 1 yard outside of Reeds FG range and I just know Mendenhall is going to blast into the line and either make the first down or get it close enough to either go for it on 4th or kick the FG. But nope. Moore, our slowest back, is in the game instead. And to try what? A sweep right. One of the few running plays (outside of a reverse) in the playbook where there is potential to lose yardage!!





Coaches are not putting our players in position to succeed. Sometimes the players are to blame with poor execution. But they need to be in position so that perfect execution is not always required.





So what else we got? Well Jell-o Head Ben gets his umpteenth concussion yet is still going to play in Baltimore. What difference does it make? Between in-game concussions and kissing a Chrysler at 30mph he isn't going to see 40 anyway. Might as well let him play football while he can, right? Besides it's not like we have anyone we can count on as a backup. I love Dennis Dixon but the Ravens would love to see him play more than me. And has it gotten so bad the name of Tyler Palko has been mentioned? He sucked at Pitt and he sucks now. If Tyler Palko ever suits up in a Steeler uniform for a game, it is a guaranteed sign that the Apocalypse has begun.





But we also still have Troy out. And Kemo is going to miss at least 3-4 weeks now. We have got some stepping up to do all over the place. From Tomlin on down to the 53rd man there needs to be a collective effort this week or else we bag the season. The Bengals might tank, but they won't tank bad enough for us to win the division unless we beat Baltimore now.





It's a big challenge for Mike Tomlin. He's great at spinning his words at press conferences. Let's see what he can do when the chips are down. I can't wait to see because I still believe.

FAN: Inventions

Why is it that we can put a man on the moon, but we can't make a fountain soda dispenser that doesn't spray syrup and water like we're trying to reach the far corners of our lawn with it? The damn things also continue to run far too long after releasing the dispense lever! The easy answer is to not use them, but my God man, build a better freaking mousetrap!
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FAN: Trap Game

This is the kind of game I hate. We lost to the Bungles last week and are feeling down. Troy is out and our record without him resembles the Lions of Detroit. We're playing at Kansas City which is a tough place to play even when their teams aren't that strong. Larry Johnson is gone so we don't have to gameplan for him. I have no idea what to make of today's game.

It's way too easy to say we should manhandle this team as the current World Champions. This is a yardstick game for me. I want to see character and resolve. Determination. Business-like. I want to surgically take this team apart and take away their will. I don't want a 4th quarter panic and an ugly win, although make no mistake about it, we need to win - ugly or not. A loss today will put them in a chase for a wildcard as they would most likely be off the bubble with a loss. It's good to play a team KC after last week. If they have any desire at all to repeat this year, the ass kicking should begin today. Enjoy the game.
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FAN: Mall Santa Too Early

We went out to dinner last night and then headed to the mall to pickup a few things. We had dinner at a German restaurant and I was the only one who ordered something authentic. I had a sausage sampler which had one veal, one pork and one beef "link". They were so big I "Brat" some home. Poor joke, sorry. German potato salad and spaetzle rounded out the meal which started off with a roasted red pepper filled with goat cheese and drizzled with vinegar. To top it off we shared a slice of black forest cake and fresh cream that was the size of a cinder block. Yum. I asked the waiter and he confirmed that they buy some of their menu items from the German farm that I took Stilladog to when he last visitied. Cool, but I digress. What's stuck in my craw is that last night was Novemeber 21st and Santa was at the mall already. I know for years stores start decorating the second Halloween is over and one store we were in two weeks ago was already rockin' Christmas tunes, but usually you don't see the big guy until after Thanksgiving. I was kind of bummed out. When I met up with Mrs. Fan and Still A Stroke to go to the car I siad something about it and they told me he was out last week when they ran over to get something. Still A Stroke no longer believes so it makes it a little bit easier on us this year, but when the little kids have to put up with seeing Santa 6 or 7 weeks before the big day - I think it's too long. You can't stay excited that long. Marketers can have the airwaves and the storefronts. I'm just saying it was 56 degrees here last night at 8 pm. I was wearing shorts in the mall. To see Santa? Really? It just felt, well, wrong.

FAN: Man or Woman

I gave blood today. I've been giving pretty regularly for the past 10 years or so. It makes me feel good the rest of the day, like I did my good deed. It always amazes me that the questions continue to change. I used to get a kick out of the verbal question "Have you ever paid for sex or traded sex for drugs, even once?" or something to that effect. I used to say "Does buying my wife dinner count?" and I would get a polite chuckle. That question has since been moved to the open laptop portion of the questioning. I just gave back in May and I swear I had a new question today. It was asked verbally too...not part of the laptop questioning...which made me think it was new as well. The question? "Were you born a male or a female?" Howard Stern has been talking a lot about Chaz Bono lately and I almost laughed when the woman asked me. I wanted to be witty with her but I could tell I was dealing with Ms. Blood herself so I better not be a wise acre, lest I find myself booted out.

DOG: Wait Until Thanksgiving

After yesterday's debacle at Heinz Field and other similar occurrences throughout NFL stadiums I am reminded of why I always say, "You never know what you have until Thanksgiving."

Really what I'm saying is that you don't have a clear picture of what kind of team you have until at least all the bye weeks are finished and every team has more than ten games under their belt. So let's not be so quick to evaluate.

What do we have in the Stillers? It's still not clear. Can we beat a quality opponent without Polamalu in the lineup? Can we cover a kickoff return... ever? Will we be able to win enough games to make the playoffs? Nobody knows for sure, not even Mike Tomlin.

In my mind I think I'll have a pretty good idea after we play the Ravens in Baltimore. By then too, we'll know if the Bengals will collapse against the rest of the league. But they sure didn't against last years AFC Championship Game finalists, going 4-0 against them. Will the Ravens make a run? Before we head into December we should know what to expect. But not before. It's all about managing expectations.

Around the league it's all the same. Look at the Giants. They did more in their bye week to contend for a division title than if they'd have played a game. At 5-4 they find themselves a game out of first place in the NFC East, one game back of Dallas who they play in 3 weeks and have already beaten in Dallas!

Three weeks ago the Broncos were riding high at 6-0 with a 3 game lead over the Chargers in the AFC West. Now they are reeling after losing 3 straight and find themselves tied with San Diego going into their showdown for the division lead this coming weekend. The Chargers, who I ridiculed after the first month of the season, now look like the team so many folks picked in the preseason to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.

What it boils down to is that anybody sitting at 7-5 or better after 12 weeks has to be taken seriously as a title contender. I would venture to say that an 8-4 or 7-5 team at that point has a better shot at winning the Super Bowl than either the Saints or Colts who are cruising through the schedule at 9-0 right now.

So be patient. Stay the course with Mike Tomlin. We'll either step up or step off in the next couple weeks. There's plenty of work to do. You know it, I know it, and Tomlin knows it. But until Thanksgiving weekend is over let's not make too many preemptive judgements. After you've flushed the last of your digested holiday turkey into the nearest sewage system then, as Tomlin is prone to say, "We can evaluate the body of work to date."

FAN: They Ride

I hardly have an opinion on the game yesterday. I would rather watch paint dry then to rehash the game. There were many things I didn't particularly like. I wasn't even going to post - but it's still killing me. Why did they have to go for so much so soon when they started their last possession? Is it just me thinking that? I've seen Ben in this situation countless times before and he typically has to get in rhythm before throwing deepish. You live off WR screens all year where you can usually get out of bounds any time you want and you shy away from them here? I don't know, maybe in the big picture they did what Cincy wasn't expecting them to do in this situation, but I thought they should have started off shorter and getting Ben in rhythm.

I also thought throwing a challenge flag in the first series would have been a good idea. Typically I don't like using them early but I thought it was very apparent he didn't get two feet down. It would have forced them to punt and taken 3 points off the scoreboard.

Who knows. I'm just glad I'm not still 25 working in an office full of raging Eagles fans. A loss like this would have stayed with me through Wednesday easily. I think I let this one go emotionally at around 4:25 PM yesterday.

Note to Jeff "Skippy Skeeve" Reed: The next time one of your kicks is being returned and it's a no-brainer that the return man is going to be within 5 yards of you within the next three seconds.......do one of two things......either A. lay down and roll towards the ball carrier angling yourself to either pin him to the sideline or force him back to a trailing player or B. pick the spot on the field you think he will be in within the next three seconds and hit the dirt making like a snow angel. You can cover far more real estate while waving your arms and legs than you can standing up and spinning in a 360. M-kay? Why the Special Teams coach can't spend 10 minutes at every practice teaching these guys how to break down a ball carrier is beyond me. You don't have to tackle him! Break him down! Slow him down or force him out of bounds you flaming idiot. Remember when Norm Johnson killed that return man? Wow. Give me 25% of that effort you baffoon.

FAN: Hitler or Saddam

So here we go again.... another NFL week acting like the Colts and Patriots are the only two teams playing. I get really sick of it. Manning is on the cover of SI so Peter King can suck from his teet. Picking who I want to win this game is easy, the Pats. Should the Steelers make the AFC Championship game and it's not a home game which is a very likely scenario, I'd much rather play at New England than go to the sissy, sterile, noise added dome. As for actually rooting for the Pats to win, ain't gonna happen. I hesitate to even watch the game because the idiot announcers are already in a thesaurus this morning frantically scribbling down other words for awesome, phenominal, perfect, elite, gay ......etc.

DOG: What Are You Listening To Now? #12

Thanksgiving is coming up and it's time to share your listening pleasures with your family when they come over (or you go over) to dine on turkey and all the stuff that's usually served. And you need to savor the moment and all the food... even the green jello with carrots if necessary. And give thanks for all the many blessings you have, including the fact that you haven't had to go to the family funerals of any of the folks seated at the table. 'Cause someday you will, or they'll be going to yours.

So if you aren't entertained by whatever football is on the tube, scare the living daylights out of them with what you've been listening to! Since I'll be going somewhere that it's best if I just keep my mouth shut, give my thanks, and go outside to play with the resident dog, the best I can do is give you some stuff to check out.

Here's what the Dog's been listening to and giving thanks for finding:

Honorable Mention:

Dr. Hector & The Groove Injectors - Vital Signs.

Otis Grand - Nothing Else Matters

King Biscuit Boy - Official Music

10. A whole bunch of Nighthawks albums from the late 70s & early-mid 80s from when Jimmy Thackery played guitar for them. Probably my choice among these is a live album from the PsycheDelly in Bethesda, MD. It has covers of J. Geils' Whammer Jammer and Little Feat's Tripe Face Boogie. A couple of my all-time favorite tunes.

9. Sonny Criss - Mr. Blues Pour Flirter (Jazz in Paris) from 1963. Sonny Criss was such an outstanding alto sax player it boggles my mind. Perfect tone. Perfect note selection. I have a number of his albums and they're all good but this might be the best one.

8. Todd Wolfe Band - Stripped Down At The Bang Palace. Todd Wolfe used to be the guitar player for Sheryl Crowe (cause Sheryl sure can't play for shit) until he decided to make music he liked to play and started his own band. Again I have a few of his albums and this would have to be considered his best effort to date. Either that or the Live @ Manny's Carwash album which is more pure blues than this one.

7. James Cotton - Live At Antone's Nightclub. All blues classics performed live by classic blues men. Matt"Guitar" Murphy & Luther Tucker on guitar, Pinetop Perkins on piano, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums, Calvin Jones on bass, and of course "Mr. Superharp" James Cotton on blues harp. This was recorded in 1988 before Cotton's throat cancer and subsequent surgery which left him able to speak gruffly but not sing.

6. Papa Don McMinn - Home Blues. Don McMinn heads the house band at The Rum Boogie club which is at the corner of Beale Street & Highway 61 in Memphis, TN. If you're ever in Memphis do yourself a favor and go check him out.

5. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Live. This is one of Mrs. Dog's favorites for right now. Big band swing, blues and boogie. A terrific representation of their music and a good place to start if you're ever motivated to check them out.

4. Gov't Mule - By A Thread. This is the new album by the Mule. The first 5 tracks are worth the price of the album. Particularly 'Broke Down On The Brazos' which features guest Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.

3. Debbie Davies - Holdin' Court. This is a brand new release from Debbie Davies. It's an all instrumental blues album and it's terrific. She may not know room 234 is on the second floor of a hotel, but she damn well can play!

2. Johnny Nicholas & The Texas All-Stars - Rockin' My Blues To Sleep. Texas/Louisiana Blues & Dance Hall Favorites. I was unfamiliar with the music of Johnny Nicholas until very recently but this stuff is right up my alley! One to be thankful that I ran across for sure.

And at #1 this time around we have a tie...

At 1b. we've got Larry Carlton - Sapphire Blue. Wow is this a quality recording. Carlton is absolutely great on this one. It's way better than I imagined when I picked it up. It's from 2004 and it's a great example of guitar jazz in the new century.

At 1a it's Brad Paisley - Play: The Guitar Album. I cannot tell you how good this album is. Words do not do it justice. And accordingly there's vocals on only 4 tracks. The top pickers from all over Nashville (Steve Wariner, Vince Gill, Albert Lee, Mark O'Connor etc.) join in too as do BB King and Buck Owens. It's not your usual Brad Paisley country album that's for damn sure. Unrestrained by the record company machine, he cuts loose on stuff he just likes to play. There's tributes to his guitar heroes sprinkled throughout including Eric Johnson, Les Paul, and Dick Dale. And songs as diverse as their titles indicate 'What A Friend We Have in Jesus' and 'Cluster Pluck.' You got to hear this one.

So what are you listening to? Taylor "Flavor of the Month" Swift, like everybody else?

FAN: Veterans Day

I can't believe I had to work today. I thought I always used to get Veteran's Day off. Some of the ridiculous things we get off for and we don't get this off. It's a slap in the face to the boys. Everyone should stay home and watch Saving Private Ryan followed by Black Hawk Down. This goes out to my three deceased great uncles who all served in the second world war....Stilladog's father Carl, "Chew" and "Boke". My other great uncle, Chick, served as well but saw no action. My cousin Doug was an Army Ranger in the 80's. Last but certainly not least, Still A Dad served in the Air Force as an MP in Japan. Veterans kick major ass. Hoo-Rah.

DOG: Lil Evil Strikes Twice

Tyrone "Lil Evil" Carter

With Ryan Clark sitting due to his Sickle Cell condition at high altitudes, Tyrone Carter stepped up in his place pulling in 2 ints., one going for a pick-6 to destroy the Denver Broncos.

Lil' Evil Carter exemplifies why the Stillers will be in the Championship hunt all season no matter what big evil may befall them. Depth, my friends, depth. There is no team in the NFL who can plug replacement players in for starters and have less drop in quality play than the Stillers. Fox for Timmons, Carter for Clark (and earlier for Polamalu), Kirschke for Smith and then Eason/Hood for Kirschke. Almost universally across the board this is true. The depth at RB is amazing. Of course nobody can replace a player with the unique skills of Roethlisberger or Polamalu. But we have quality subs at their spots. And remember it was Joey Porter getting ejected for picking a pre-game fight with the Cleveland Browns that gave us our first glimpse of the Silverback in action! Injuries sometimes create opportunities.

I hope we can avoid any more serious injuries. But we are better equipped than most to weather the storm.

So it's back home to Pittsburgh where we must duplicate last night's effort against the Bengals. If the Broncos were pretenders (and we proved that they were) it's about time for the tents to fold on Cincinnati too. They have already stayed too long at the fair. A Bengals collapse is overdue and we're just the ones to kick off that party! Here We Go!

DOG: Caption This Picture IV

Hey, my steak smells like fish!

Now that, folks, is a "rare" piece of meat. In the name of fair play from Caption This Picture III, go ahead and caption this one!

FAN: Kevin Smith At Philly's Merriam

This isn't my photo and I don't even think it's from last night, but he did change into a bathrobe at some point in the show. Smith came out right at 8:00 and had me in stitches right up until 11:05. The theater had a hard out of 11:00 so he was limited to 3 hours. I've heard he can go on-and-on for hours without stopping. There were still 15 people in line when he ended the show last night. My stomach hurt from laughing. Smith's appeal to me is crazy. He is without a doubt one of my favorite story tellers of all time. I've seen all the movies several times each and own them all. I listen to every podcast. I read the blog. I don't Twitter...... He has an uncanny ability to take any question and make the response entertaining. He can talk any sailor under the gutter yet his IQ probably surpasses the CEOs who ruined the stock market. I can sum up the funniest bit of the night in one sentence: Kevin tells a story of how Bruce Willis cannot be directed. That's eleven words. It took 20 minutes to tell the story. I wish it took 40. I was laughing so hard. I'm not sure I've ever laughed harder. It would be interesting to tally the curses. Some of the things he talks about with his parents are just wrong....but side splittingly funny. He opened telling the very touching sotry of his Dad's last night before he died....how perfect it was..... The way he is able to talk about it is very healthy. Since most of the audience has the same tastes in television and movies, when he says "do you remember that scene in... it was like that" you look around and 95% of the crowd are nodding. His Dad died the night of his last Q&A in Philadelphia and it's the first time he's been back for a Q&A since. A great opening and it just got better from there. Kevin is like asparagus. You either love him or you don't. Rarely any middle ground. I love him. I love some of his movies much more than others - but what he does best is tell stories. If he could bottle that shit, I'd buy a case a week. Go see him, buy his "An Evening With" dvds or go YouTube some of his Q&A stuff. It's classic.

FAN: Dad Scores Again

Still A Stroke had a fun Wednesday night as I was able to score four Miley Cyrus tickets for her new tour. I bought them right after the presale started and got row 10 right off the side of the stage on the first level. This is a shot of the catwalk off of the front of the stage, not of the video screen behind the stage. When she came out on the catwalk, they had a really good view. She took her friend and her mom and had a blast. I would have most likely went, but I had Kevin Smith tickets for last night and didn't feel like back-to-back concerts. Do I like Miley? Meh. I would have been looking at the moms....lol. As Miley's age increases, her clothing decreases. She tries to say all the right things, but it's hard to push Jesus when you're dressing like Jezebele. Seriously, I don't care in the least how she dresses. You can't expect her to be 20 and still dress to the liking of 7 year olds, but isn't she still 16 or something. Towards the end of the concert she got on a motorcycle that "took off" and came right past their seats as you can see here. Stoke claims she made eye contact and exchanged waves. I'm sure everyone in that area has the same story, but it's cute and I'm glad she had a good time.

DOG: Caption This Picture III

Weenies & Ham!

Is there really any doubt from what part of the pig this slice of ham was cut?

FAN: Right On The Numbers

Dog's post about jersey selection is spot on. While we were walking out, I said with absolute authority that there is no chance that another team in the league has as many different numbers worn as the Steelers. No chance. Zip. If we went to every home game this year and recorded every jersey worn by a fan, no team could come close...especially if the criteria was that there had to be at least 5 at any one game to count. A quick rundown of the all-time roster by jersey would reveal the following possibilities...most of which we saw last week:

3 - Jeff Reed (saw a few myself!)
7 - Roethlisberger (a good 20%)
8 - Maddox shouldn't count but they do exist
10 - I still saw Slash jerseys but most are now Holmes. This should count as 2.
12 - Bradshaw
14 - O'Donnel shouldn't count either, but they are still out there. He did go to a Super Bowl.
20 -Bleier
24 - Ike Taylor
26 - Woodson
29 - Foster
31 - Shell
32 - Franco
33 - Hoge
34 - Mendenhall, Andy Russells have to be 0ut there as well!
36 - Bettis
37 - Lake - Borderline
39 - Parker
43 - Polamalu
47 - Blount
51 - Farrior
52 - Webster
55 - Porter
56 - Woodley
58 - Lambert
59 - Ham
66 -Faneca, I saw them
68 - Greenwood
75 - Green
76 - Lipscomb, I saw one....I went with one!!!!
82 - Stallworth
83 - Miller current, Lipps - they exist
86 - Ward
88 - Swann
92 - Harrison
94 - Timmons
95 - Lloyd
98 - Hampton
99 - Keisel

That's 38 numbers. If you take away the recent ex players like Maddox, Slash, Faneca and O'Donnel you have 34. If you take away some current players who won't be long in our memories like Parker, Reed, Farrior...etc, you still have 27-28 legitimate jersey choices right now. It's crazy.