FAN: Cold Weather Super Bowl

I still read Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback just because I like to stay kind of up-to-date with the NFL during the off season. It gives me a little information besides the crawlers and headlines I read.

One thing he's been super negative about is the cold weather Super Bowl in New York or New Jersey. His main point that he keeps harping on - and it's everybody's point that doesn't like the idea - is that OMG it might be -20 and snowing and people paid $4000 for tickets and what will they DOOOOO for 4 hours out in the cold....

Are you effing kidding me? Really? You have to be effing kidding me, right? The Super Bowl is two weeks after Championship Weekend. So for the Conference Title Games you could be in Chicago, Green Bay, Buffalo, Cleveland..... Puhlease! How could 2 weeks make any difference in the world? It's a crap shoot you moron. New York fans don't know weather like Buffalo and Cleveland fans.

You know what it really means? Real fans instead of corporate idiots who don't know Brett Favre from Brett Michaels will be at the game. Buffalo season ticket holders go to 8 home games and probably 5 or 6 of them are in very cold weather. If you're "tough" enough to want to blow four large on tickets, you better be tough enough to sit outside in whatever weather could present itself.

The second game I went to at Heinz Field was with Still A Colt for a MNF game against the Colts. I was tailgating with the Genco crew and we started around 3 PM and it was 36 degrees. At 12:30 AM when we were crossing the river on the Gateway Clipper it was 20 degrees. That's 9.5 hours outside with the bulk of it below freezing. Were we cold? Yes. Were we dying? No! We were dressed for it.......and the beers didn't hurt either. Those were good times.

FAN: Based On What?

In their annual idiotic articles, both Peter King and Don Banks of SI picked the Patriots over the Steelers as their top teams. King has the Pats beating Pittsburgh in the playoffs and Banks has a ranking list with the Pats at #1 and the Steelers at #2. Stupid and worthless as these lists are, how does one pick a team to be the best when their QB hasn't taken a meaningful snap in so long? How many defensive players did they lose? Seymour, Bruschi, Vrabel, Harrison and Seau.....gone. It makes me laugh. Could they win the Super Bowl....YES. Anybody can win the Super Bowl. Does it make sense to pick them with Brady coming off his knee and all the losses? No. King is a homer who sucks from the teet of Belimort and Banks probably sucks from the teet of King (who has a nice set of man teets I must say). Do they honestly believe they are better, right now on paper or not, than the defending Super Bowl Champions who have lost very little meaningful talent? Puhlease. Here We Go.

Good Read On Tomlin

Great little section on Mike Tomlin today in Peter King's MMQB. It's about time he writes something worth reading for Steelers fans. What the heck kind of job was paying $70k right out of school 13 years ago? I wasn't making that kind of cheddar in 1995 and I was out of school for 4 years. I understand it was William & Mary but geez....$70k in '95 right out the door? Is somebody's memory wrong or am I stuck on only considering IT pay scales? I would think $70k out the door today is still a lot of money, let alone 13 years ago.

Branden Albert

Peter King, my favorite football writer (cough), put out an "informed mock draft" yesterday. He has the Stillers taking OL Branden Albert with their 1st round pick.....as do a lot of other draft "experts". We'll see. With the addition of Justin Hartwig and the signing of Max Starks - I hope to see blood and guts on the floor for the starting five to unfold in camp. I want Kemoeatu and Colon in there battling all these guys. In the end, I want the five best performers from camp to start....I don't care about names, I don't care about draft position, I don't care about history....I want the five hungriest guys to play. Amen.

Silverback Red-Assed

Hmmm. Hey Denmark, do you smell something rotting? I have mixed feelings about this. I want to attack it from many angles. First and foremost, Peter (Steelers Hater) King posted an article the other day calling the Steelers hypocritical for cutting Cedric Wilson and keeping James Harrison. Let me address that first. If he or anyone else is suggesting the Steelers cut Harrison for his alleged offense - they should have their heads examined. Pacman Jones got someone shot and the Titans didn't cut him. He was suspended for a year and the Titans didn't cut him. Ray Lewis was up for murder charges and the Ravens didn't cut him! You almost have to go to jail before a team will cut you. Look at Chris Henry. Yes, he finally got cut, but after 37 offenses. Here's the straight poop - Cedric Wilson is a marginal player. He didn't get cut just because he popped his girlfriend....terrible as that may be. He was on the chopping block already and then screwed up and they just dropped the guillotine sooner. He was on his way out, peeps - true that. Plus - this wasn't his first offense! The police recently had a standoff at his house over a domestic dispute. For King not to mention that is huge. Also, King is suggesting that the Cowboys trading for Pacman is a good idea, so is he condoning Pacman's behavior? I am not condoning ANYTHING and neither did Dan Rooney, but Jesus people, wake up. You cannot compare walking into a bar, walking straight up to a girl and punching her in the face - to busting down a door, breaking a cell phone and (insert choice of story here - One account was a slap - One account was putting a hand on the face and pushing). He should have never laid a finger on her, but just from reading the reports, it's not like walking into a bar and punching a woman in front of witnesses. All that being said, I'm betting the chick is driving around in a Hummer this time next week - because if Harrison didn't make promises and pay her off to drop the charges, maybe somebody else......did? No matter how this story ends, James Harrison - the mighty Silverback - should be red-assed embarrassed. He should also watch his step. The Steelers may believe in second chances, they won't believe in thirds though. If someone gets into an argument with somebody and it turns to blows and one person dies, I do not equate that with someone who hides in the bushes and stalks a stranger, killing them and hacking them up into little pieces. Wow, ok, that's not fair either, but there are different levels of assault.

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.

Steeler Stats

Peter King listed Pittsburgh at #5 on his Fine Fifteen today. He then made a statement that is ridiculous: "Concentrate on the fact the Steelers are playing terrific, bone-crunching, Bear-like football". Bear-like? Bear-like? The Steelers have been one of if not the most physical team in the league since 1972. That's 35 years of kicking the shit out of people. Even in the years when they were 6-10 they still punished people. Bear-like? I sweat the man has a gripe with the Stillers and just prints stuff like that to tweak people like me. Oh well, Tubby McButterpants is probably just mad he didn't grow up in the cradle of football. On to some stats....

Total offense 7th. Least Penalized 3rd. Points 5th. Passing 10th. Rushing 2nd. Total Defense 4th. Pass Defense 3rd. Rush Defense 7th. Sacks 1st.

Good numbers all around. Remember, even though they didn't make the payoffs last year, they were one of only 4 teams to finish in the top 10 in both offense and defense. I'm smelling playoffs. I hope in a few weeks I'm smelling division title. Maybe by Halloween.

Peter King Surprises Me

By writing this today. He actually did the right thing and I didn't think he would. I still wouldn't be surprised if King called him and said something like "you know I have to grill you, right?".

Cheaties!

I went to SI.com tonight to see what all was written about the Patriot's spy scandal. Every writer for the NFL had a short story and Dr. Z had a long one. They all questioned a lot of things and condemned the practice with the exception of course of Peter King. His article just stated the facts and had no opinions or denouncements. Why? He's Bill's lap dog, that's why. He knows Belichick will cut him off from future endeavors. What a wuss.

Me, On King

I started this blog as a way to spew my Steeler rants and raves without emailing them out every time I felt the need...which got to be pretty often. Since I know some of you guys read Peter King as well, I thought I'd write a tribute article this week. Sort of like when a band named "Black Diamond" plays nothing but Kiss songs. And I know Still A Dog will protest and say that I should just stop reading......I can't. I'm like a west coast granola eating liberal who can't stop watching The O'Reilly Factor just so they have something to complain about. For every three or four 7-page articles I read...I take away 1 or 2 sentences that are actually worth my while. I know this...... as a TV commentator, he's not even a good magazine writer. So, if you read his MMQB and MMQB Tuesday Editions every week, you'll "get" the article. If you don't read him, this won't make a lot of sense to you but you still may find it amusing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New York

Tom Brady Brady Brady Brady Tom Brady Brady Brady Brady Tom Bill Tom Brady Brady Brady Belichick Brady Brady Godlike Tom Tom Tom Tom Tom Brady Brady Belichick Bill Tom Brady Peyton Peyton Brady Tom Manning Peyton Manning Manning Manning Cut That Meat Manning Peyton Peyton Brady Tom Belichick Manning Peyton Brady Moyahan Brady Tom Manning Peyton Tom Brady Peyton Manning Bill Belichick .

Me Dungy Peyton Called Brady Tom Peyton Me Called Tom Manning Peyton Archie Tom Pats Colts Colts Pats Tom Brady Peyton Manning Tom Colts Pats Chargers Tom Brady Manning Me Dungy LT Tom Peyton Manning Belichick Walsh Colts Pats Brady Chargers Brees Saints Katrina Brady Peyton Peyton Tom Belichick Me Dungy Tom Brady Hookers Brees Saints Manning Dungy Me Dungy Peyton Iraq McGuire manning Tom Brady Hookers Iraq McGuire IEDs Brady Manning Peyton Saints Dungy Suicide Katrina Brady Tom.

The Fine Fifteen
1. Pats
2. Colts
3. Red Sox
4. Pats (2nd String)
5. Chargers
6. Pats (Practice Squad)
7. Colts (2nd string)
8. Ravens
9. Chargers (2nd String)
10. Cowboys
11-15. Doesn't even matter

Quote of the Week I

"Peyton Manning can beat you with one hand, his left" - Peter King

Quote of the Week II

"Tom Brady hopping on one foot is a close second" - Peter King

Quote of the Week III

"Fools, The other 30 starting QBs, all of them. Bring me a donut." - Peter King

The Award Section

Offensive Player of the Week - Peyton Manning.

Defensive Player of the Week - Tom Brady for allowing the Pats D to practice so well during the week against his brilliant performance as Chad Pennington.

Factoid That May Only Interest Me - I have a strange attraction to Tom Brady and somehow know I would feel safe in his arms if he ever held me.

5 Things I Think I Think

1. Peyton Manning Can Do No Wrong.
2. I'm fond of donuts.
3. Tom Brady is hot.
4. I want Bill Belichick to like me.
5. I can't see my feet.

Travel Note

Hotel Gym Cost Charge Air Aisle Gym Cost Aisle Seat Fat Gym Air Jet Coach Starbucks Hotel Aisle Screaming Kids Gym Hotel Planes Ticket Air Coffee Frappa Mocha Plane Air Hotel gym Charge Laptop Aisle Fat Ticket Coffee Shots Syrup Escorts Gym Coach 1st Class Starbucks Seattle Coffee Laptop Coach Starbucks Barista Peanuts Hotel Mary Beth Gym Treadmill Hotel Laptop Coffee Frappa Latta Grando Plane Aisle Fat Cell Phone Plane Escort Starbucks Coffee Gym Hotel Airport Security Coach Shoes Aisle Gym Treadmill Strip Search Hotel Gym laptop Girdle Seattle Coach Seats Aisle Fat Mocha.

No Lambert? No Ham?

Peter King from Sports Illustrated was given the task of listing 3 All-Star teams for SI.com. The first is a lineup of All-Time players, the second of current players and the third of future players. For the All-Time team, neither Ham or Lambert is to be found...not even as backups! The four starters are LT, Butkus, Nitschke and Ray Lewis. The backups are Bednarik, Harry Carson and Mike Singletary. You could write paragraphs about one versus the other...but don't tell me for one second that Harry Carson is better than Ham or Lambert. Lambert was also better than Singletary in the middle. It makes me mad to even think about it. Woodson and Blount are the two reserves in the defensive backfield to Deion Sanders, Lott, Lane and Baugh. Joe Greene starts but Mike Webster is missing. I know the entire team can't be Steelers, but Mel Hein at center? He was picked because he played both ways. So what? That's not what this was about! Was he a better center than Iron Mike? Worse, for the current team, Troy Polamalu is not on the list. Nor is he on the list for anyone younger than 28 for the future team!!! What is Peter King smoking? For the current team, he has Ed Reed and...(gulp) Kerry Rhodes starting in the middle. The backup is Bob Sanders. I dare Peter to ask any GM in the league to name the top 3 safeties and lay money on Troy not being one of the 3! My God. On the future team, it's Weddle and Landry in the middle. What a clueless butt of a monkey Peter is. I feel bad for him. He has Tomlin as the coach of the future, but dissing Troy like that? Watch the email flood Steeler Nation piles on his ass over night.

King Not So Annoying

During the past week Peter King has written quite a lot about our Stillers. He was at camp for a few days and even talked about stopping in at the Starbucks on Route 30 in Greensburg. I'm not sure there was a negative thing in any of the pieces I read. There was a comment that right now JP Losman looks better in Bills camp then Big Ben does in Latrobe...but it's only a week in. Highlights? He mentioned that the team got 70,000 submissions for the "name the mascot" contest and that 12,000 fans showed up for a scrimmage. He gushed over Lamarr Woodley much the same way Still A Dog has been. He thinks he will be starting on Day 1 over the tight end. Does that mean Timmons won't start? Does that mean our scouting department really rocks to get that much for a middle round #2? Does that mean Silverback is going back....to the bench? I wouldn't mind if we started 2 new linebackers, but I'm not sure who would start in the middle or who would sit. He praised Kevin Colbert as well for drafting so well over the years since he's been here. He talked about Joe Greene watching practice by himself smoking a cigar up on the hill. All-in-all, the worst thing he said was that the food the cafeteria sold was a B-. He did mention that Ben was totally behind Tomlin and Hines Ward was not happy with the practice schedule. Guess what Hines? Tomlin is quoted as saying the team needs a tough exterior shell and they will get it by practicing hard. Cool. Maybe if they practiced a little more last year instead of staring at their shiny new rings..........

Mike Tomlin In Sports Illustrated

Peter King finally wrote something about the Steelers that I wasn't shaking my head at and disagreeing with every other sentence. He wrote the NFL feature story this week in SI and it's about Mike Tomlin taking over for the Steelers. The article is called "Third Man In" and it's a pretty good read. Some things to note: Tomlin has but three photos in his office and 2 of them are meat and potato type plays being made by Steelers. One is a gang tackle against the run and the other is Whaaneca opening a huge hole on offense....the other is a closeup of the trenches right before the snap when the Steelers last played the Vikings. Another cool thing that he does is after practice during the classroom session he puts up a paper on the board saying "The News" and he calls people out who did not give 100% on every play. He's already called out Big Ben and Hines Ward for their performances in a practice. He wants you playing to the whistle on every play and this is his motivator.....staying off "The News". I love it. I only wish it was made public after each game! Also, he benched Fred Smoot last year for not playing full tilt and in retrospect, Smoot admits it was good for him and that he needed it - and that it made him a better player and a better man. Rooney asked him about the Smoot incident during his interview - he loved it that the man had convictions and stuck to them. I think we're going to fall in love with Mike Tomlin and I think cutting Porter set the tone that this was now indeed his team. Michael Silver added a side story about Grimmy and Whiz and how they are getting along in the desert. It touches briefly on them being picked over. After reading both stories, it makes it even more clear that the Rooney family wanted a fresh start and they couldn't get it with either of the assistants. Can you see Grimm or Whiz benching a team leader? Not that they would be taken lightly - but having an assistant move up could be compared to having a substitute teacher take over a class in mid year. Maybe if the Steelers went deep into the playoffs last year or won it all again they could have had Whiz or Grimm take over. I think the 8-8 hangover season demanded a shakeup and a shakeup is what they got. Even the fact that Tomlin wears a whistle on the sideline is cool to me. It seems like he's an old-school throwback and I never really realized last year just how good the Vikings run defense was. I'm not a fan of those types of stats as situational stats and averages are more impressive to me - but there is no doubt they were better with him leading them. Man, I can't wait for camp to start.

Cowher on HBO = Yawn

Well, almost as expected, the piece that King raved about was guiltless self-promotion. He was at Cowher's house (which they didn't show) and they went into a tape room and as Bill pontificated on what might happen, they then ran that exact scenario on Madden '06. It was a 5 minute piece and no time to get into any depth whatsoever. Regarding Dog's last comment, maybe they did get into depth but then it was edited out due to lack of total understanding! Anway - Cowher predicts the Bears are not afraid of Dallas Clark deep over the middle because that is Urlacher's territory and he can cover it. Other gems? They will chip Freeney to slow him down by bringing someone over in motion right before the snap. Not much else to chew on as I didn't think the piece on air equalled what King described in his article. I think the piece got edited down. The show was busy last night as they had Bill Walsh on who was only given weeks to live after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Walsh was defiant in defending the west coast offense by pointing out if you run on 1st down and get 4 yards you are applauded for "establishing the run" and "setting the tone". His question to these critics? What's wrong with passing for 4 or 5 yards on first down? Who knows. I know it's nice to have a physical running game when you are trying to run out the clock with a lead. I also know when it's 3rd and 3 or 4 defenses have to respect the run if you can run. He was then called the greatest Super Bowl coach of all time. Hmmmm, seems to me he won 3 and Chuck Noll won 4.

Cowher on HBO

Peter King sits down with Bill Cowher to watch tape of the Bears and Colts on this week's Inside The NFL on HBO. It airs for the first time tomorrow night. King goes on to say in his web column that Cowher is very excited and animated while discussing the potential X's and O's matchup that Dallas Clark presents. He feels that Cowher looks well rested and from talking to him - that he may stay out of coaching for 2 years instead of 1. Interesting. He also notes that Bill does such a good job explaining the plays, that a tv analyst position could be in his future. I hope not next year. I hope he takes the full year to himself. King also goes into the Tomlin hiring and thinks the Rooneys were on the fence and went with him because of his youth and upside.

Bill Belichick Did Not Invent Football

Thanks to my bro-in-law for forwarding this article to me as I asked my sister yesterday for any local articles pertaining to it. Watch the link on YouTube mentioned in the article. I saw this happen live and was disgusted that the announcers really didn't say much about it. I mean, wtf? After he shoved the camera at the first guy and hugged Mangini - watch how he departs. The cameras stopped rolling but he looked like he was going to clear a path the same way he got to Mangini. I respect the guy as a coach and if you play him in the Super Bowl you will probably lose because with 2 weeks to prepare he is almost unbeatable - but I get so sick of his superior attitude towards the press. Like this article states - without the press - there wouldn't be anyone to sing his "praises" - and yes, I used a religious word on purpose since the man thinks he's godlike. Here is the most telling thing about Bill Belichick and don't ever let his fans forget it - in Cleveland as a head coach he was 36-44 which included a 5-11 final season. The things that make him good now are an owner that cares about winning and a Hall Of Fame quarterback. I don't care how good a coach is, without the right players at key positions - they've got nothing. When Brady is no longer a Patriot, we'll see how well Bill does - and I hope the media gets so far up his ass that they come out his mouth. Thing is, he'll probably retire so he doesn't have to rebuild. I'd like to mail him $40 so he can buy a decent shirt. A sweatshirt is bad enough but to cut the sleeves off? This is clearly a man who likes to thumb his nose at everyone. I hope he and Peter King will be happy together after they marry.

Peter King Going Where No Pundit Has Gone Before

Like I've stated many times before, the guy has lost all credibility with me this year. However, it's still fun to read his columns to see what he's going to come up with next. This week, in his Offensive Player Of The Week award - he's giving it to Mark Brunell - who didn't play a single down. That's right ladies and gentlemen, not one single down. What did he do that was so great? One of Washington's coaches told Peter that he played Drew Brees on the scout team really well. I'll let you go back and read that sentence one more time to let it sink in. I think Peter gets so caught up talking about his Iraq buddy, his daughter, Rutgers, Tom Brady, Bill Belichek, coffee, baristas, airplanes, hotel gyms - did I mention Tom Brady - Drew Brees, did you hear there was a hurricane in New Orleans last year, House......he forgets why he has the audience he has. Football. He's becoming one of the idiots that talks in soundbites and opinions and never really backs anything up. Ok, Peter, go back and look at all the offensive performances again and then explain to me how Mark Brunell can be offensive player of the week. I just named your article the dumbest "football" article of the week.

Peter King Is Off His Rocker

You know what's horrible? When sports pundits have to make shit up just to fill some time. On the advice of Still A. Dog, I've really really really - I mean seriously - cut down on my football pre game watching this year. He finally convinced me of what I knew in my heart 5 years ago but still loved to start watching football at 11:00 AM on Sunday mornings....we know as much as they do. They might have better connections and they might understand the game itself a little more than us...but if you watch or have watched a lot of football games in your lifetime - there isn't much they can say that you don't already know. With every passing year I lose more respect for Mr. King's opinions. I read him in SI and I usually read his "Monday Morning Quarterback" article on SI.com - but more and more - he seems to be writing for the casual fan that might not question alot of what he's been writing about. He recently wrote in a MMQB article that Nick Saban is one of the top 5 coaches in the NFL. He was called out on it the following day by about every loyal reader he has. Instead of owning up to making a mistake - he changed his logic for saying why he said it. Well, I was watching the last 10 minutes of HBO's NFL show today while waiting for Madagascar to start and he was comparing the trade for Eli Manning that the Giants made to the Herschel Walker trade from the Cowboys to the Vikings. He went through the players that the Chargers got, and then had the audacity to compare it to the Herschel Walker trade! Yes, he did! I think it's a tad early to be comparing Eli Manning to Herschel at the end of his career. Don't you think? And why even have that little 2 minute commentary before you can safely evaluate it from all angles? I'll tell you why. He's a Charger lover. Just like he's a Bill Parcells lover. Just like he's a Tom Brady and Bill Belichek lover. He is losing his cred with serious football fans every time he makes a statement like that instead of just telling us about the week in football and getting us good info from his sources. I'm not a Manning family fan, but I'll take his side in this debate for now. If the Giants win a Super Bowl and the Rivers lead Chargers do not - will he take that back? The only thing that can be compared in those trades is that one of the teams in each was able to fill a lot of needs quickly. Hershel was supposed to take an already good team over the top and failed. Eli was brought in to grow into the role of team leader and be there for 10-15 years.

Peter King is Patriots Crazy

You know, I usually at least respect Peter King's opinion even if I don't agree with it. That being said, recently he is starting to slip. For one thing, when he picked this year's Super Bowl winner (Dallas), he had them playing the Pats in the big game. He went on to mention four contenders in the AFC - none of which were the Steelers....and this was BEFORE Ben decided to try out for the circus. Show some respect would ya? However, this will play into Cowher's motivational hand. He also graded out the draft from 5 years ago. I don't disagree that the draft class of the Steelers was weak behind first pick Casey Hampton, but listen how he simply tosses aside Casey..."First-round pick Casey Hampton has been an above-average anchor to the defensive line,". Damn! That's the understatement of the century. That proves to me that he is looking only at tackles and sacks instead of scheme and job assignment. I don't have to explain to Steeler fans what Casey Hampton means to this team. Ask Coach Cowher who the anchor of the entire 3-4 defense is and he'll tell you it's Casey. It's funny how Mr. King name drops Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady all the time in his weekly articles. Also funny that Parcells and Belicheck hate to talk to the press, and Peter picks them to go to the Super Bowl. Maybe he just wants more access to them this year?