It's Not The Steeler Way

Dan Rooney has already let the cat out of the bag as to how the Steelers will self-congratulate themselves when the season opens at Heinz field this fall. In front of the entire nation for the opening game of the season, they will do what is almost unheard of these days....nothing. That's right. They will do nothing. They may make an announcement over the PA system or something like that - but don't expect fireworks and banners falling from the sky like last year. "It's a big game, and it's a great way to open up, back on NBC, but no, we don't do the banner thing,'' Rooney said. Huh? What? No rubbing it in to the rest of the teams watchng from home? "No, we don't do things like that,'' he said. "We gave them all rings, and we have a trophy for winning that game.'' Wow. What an approach. Just one more reason to love this team. Can you imagine if Daniel Snyder, Jerry Jones or Jeffrey Lurie had the national spotlight on themselves that Thursday evening? Rooney just oozes class. It's too bad some of it doesn't drip onto the heads of some of the other owners.

Locking Up Ike

The Steelers are hard at work this week trying to come to terms with Ike Taylor on a long term deal. Currently 9 of the eleven starters on defense are signed beyond the 2007 season. Taylor and Troy Polamalu currently are not. If Taylor doesn't sign a long term deal, he will play this year for the tender the Steelers offered him and then he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2007. Troy's current deal expires after the 2007 season. Obviously both of these guys mean a lot to the team. Troy is fast becoming the best safety in the league because of his versatility and Ike is probably the best cover corner we've had since Rod Woodson roamed the secondary. It's been that long since we've had a shutdown corner. I don't know what it will take to sign Ike, I'm guessing a minimum of $5 million dollars up front and maybe 4-5 years for a total of $3.5 million a year on average including the signing bonus. I think right now we are negotiating from a position of strength since I'm guessing Ike would rather have the signing bonus right now as opposed to waiting another year. This will be his first "real" contract and he's probably anxious to get that big check cashed! He desrves it. I just hope the offer to Ike stays reasonable so we don't have to sell the farm to pay Troy and Ben. I'm going to predict that we resign Ike and Troy before the season starts and then take care of Big Ben next year. That's going to cost us some serious dough! Remember, Carson Palmer got $105 million! Ouch!

Terror Plot Thwarted Through Clip Art?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. We hear all the time on the news how a simple prop in a terrorist video or a single word in a press release can trigger an attack. Terrorists are very adept at using symbols and signals. I may have uncovered a local plot myself. A little background first. My office likes to eat Chinese food on Wednesdays. I've included the front and back pages of the menu from our closest provider of oriental cuisine. Well, Ok, we call it Chinese, but as you can see from the menu - they serve szechuan, hunan and cantonese. Needless to say, it's an oriental establishment.....or is it? Maybe they are North Korean and hate all Americans? Look at the cover of the menu. Do you see anything odd? At first glance, it looks like every other oriental takeout menu in the US. You have the "all you can eat" price, the frolicking Panda bears on a fan and the obligatory oriental symbols which could say "Die a horrible death you filthy American, you" for all we know. Now, look near the top at the chef/waiter. First of all, he doesn't look oriental to me. He's chubby and he has round eyes. Also, notice the duplicity - he's wearing a chef's hat, yet he's carrying the tray like a waiter would. Interesting. Lastly - look what's on the tray for God's sake. It's a....it's a....chinese rootbeer float? WTF? And a sandwich? And what's the other item? I can't even tell. Creamer? Sugar? For what? This chubby round-eyed profession confused "spy" is delivering a bologna sandwich and rootbeer float - there is no need for either creamer OR sugar. You figure it out. I can assure you, there is no sandwich on this menu. And not only are there no floats, there are no beverages. Hmmmmmm. How can I tell it's a sandwich and not a burger? Fool! It's cut in half! That's an obvious clue. While A&W serves rootbeer floats, they do not serve sandwiches. To me, this is a clue about an establishment that serves both floats AND sandwiches. Let's turn our attention now to the back page of the menu. You guessed it, the lunch specials. Here you will find things like Moo Shu Pork, General Tso's Chicken and......singing tomatos? Three of them....with nine musical notes. That's 3 notes each and I'm positive that's significant. I'm not sure about you, but I've eaten about 1,132 chinese meals since 1990. Not once have I come across a tomato. Why not singing water chestnuts? Why not, indeed. There is also a single tomato prominently featured on the front of the menu, yet strangely enough, it is not singing. In fact, it appears to be unanimated. Does "unanimated" equate to dead? And what of the onion? Oh, how I wish I had paid closer attention while my daughter was in her Blue's Clues years. Broccoli is also prominently featured on the cover. I don't know about you, but broccoli gives me gas. Tomatos signify something Italian to me when I see them on a menu. But, since there is no lasagna listed here, what should I assume? Surely the mafia of the boot country wouldn't have anything to do with this sinister plot? Yes, this menu rivals the Dead Sea Scrolls for it's complexity and leaves many questions unanswered. For instance, notice they open at 11:00 AM but the Lunch Buffet doesn't start until 11:15 AM. I'm going down there tomorrow, incognito, to see what happens if I order the Lunch Buffet at 11:08 AM. Will the cashier give me a knowing wink and assume I'm in on the plot? Why did they choose to add another line under "Only $5.25" for "Take Out Lunch Buffet $5.25"? Why not just say "Also Available To Go"? I'll tell you why...they needed to get the words "Take Out" on the menu because it's part of their evil plot. While an untrained eye might not catch it, I was quickly able to unscramble the name of the establishment "Panda Pavilion" to get part of the message: "Di Paopl in a van". So, for the unfortunate who cannot see through this cloak and dagger menu - let me translate it for you. On the day of 5/25, sometime between 11:00 and 11:15 AM, a slightly chubby man who may or may not be wearing a chef's hat but will have round eyes, will smash a van loaded with gas right into the local Friendly's through the TAKE OUT window while screaming "Die People". If you "sing" about this plot to anyone, 3 guys from the Chinese Mafia will make sure you end up unanimated by putting 3 bullets each right into your onion. Case Closed.

What is Jorge Ramos smoking?

I think he's loco. Jorge Ramos was on Bill Maher's HBO show on Friday night. He was discussing the illegal immigration problem in the US. Ramos is Mexico's national anchorman - getting more viewers per day than the "big 3" US anchors combined. He was starting to make sense and talk intelligently about a few things and then he made a comment that suggested Americans are more upset that the illegal immigrants are Mexican and not that they are illegal. When asked to follow up on that comment - he said something to the effect of "I don't hear anyone complaining about illegal immigrants from Ireland." He said that with a straight face! I just read a government report from 2004 that said of the 5 million illegal immigrants living in the US, 54% are Mexican. The rate of illegal Mexicans crossing the border increases every year by 150,000. It's been increasing since 1988 at that rate. That's unbelievable! He also said something to the effect of we should be glad we are getting their most ambitious people. Ummmm, ok. Listen, here's my beef with this - for someone to leave England and come here to visit - they have to have a passport, documentation and board a plane after having their luggage looked at and walking through a metal detector. Why on Earth is everyone so laid back about hundreds of people a day coming across the border unchecked? How long is it going to be before a terrorist cell enters the country via the Mexican trails? We have a process to enter this country. I will assume we made those rules for a purpose. I cannot understand for the life of me why we don't take this more seriously as a nation. I'm not calling for kicking everyone out immediately that's undocumented....but I sure as hell wouldn't mind DOCUMENTING them and toughening the borders so we can stop the flood of illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants? Yes. Illegal Immigrants? No! Even if we have to raise the number of immigrants we allow every year, I want it all by the books. I don't give a damn what it does initially to the economy. Hurt it, help it - I just don't care. This is post 9/11 and I don't trust the Mexican smugglers to not take terrorist money when they want to enter the country this way. Maybe if more illegal Mexicans stayed behind and worked towards making their country a better place to live - 500,000 people a year may stay there and help their economy and our countries could work better as a team. And trust me, I don't care if we bordered Sweden and 500,000 5' 8" blonds with long tan legs were entering our country every year - I would want them legally documented...and then sent immediately to my house to do light housecleaning with little skimpy outfits on....and the occasional massage.

Unbelievable Follow-Up To Fat Toddler Story

Click here to read more about special "catering".

Seriously, what's next? Thanks to a Mr. Hodge for sending this in.

Courtney Love is a Skank

Kurt Cobain was an important voice of Generation X. It's really too bad he married Courtney Love. (In my humble opinion) his poisonous wife just committed her second act of treason against him. The first occured when Courtney Love sold Kurt's private notebooks - back to when he was in highschool - to a publisher to make the book Journals. She was paid $4 million dollars for the journals which to Cobain were considered intensely personal. She sold him out for the money. There were also tons of issues about releasing some recorded material after Kurt's death but she clashed with the other bandmates and basically wanted everything to herself. She has now committed the ultimate sin against her husband who was the most anti-corporate artist of his time. She sold 25% of her majority stake of his works to a company to be used as they see fit for a reported $50 million dollars. Love owned 98% of the songwriting credits while Dave Grohl and Krist Noveselic each own a 1% stake. So, it won't be long before we hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" being used for 13 year old girls deodorant commercials. It makes me sick. I used to have major problems with artists who sold their music for commercial use. Most of it wasn't "art" in the first place and most of the artists that did it were writing songs to make money in the first place - so who cares? Then, in succession, Robert Plant did it, Sting did it, Rush did it...I couldn't wait to see who would be next. I was really disappointed when Rush did it but at least they didn't hand over their catalog. They simply sold 17 seconds (with no vocals) to Nissan to use in a Maxima commercial. Still, Zeppelin, Sting and Rush - easily 3 of my favorite 10 bands taking the easy money bothered me in some small way. I guess as popularity fades, money is needed to sustain a quality of life that has come to be expected. However, I would think Sting and the members of Zeppelin have $100 million in the bank. Back to Courtney - she obviously doesn't. She has an on again off again drug problem and she is constantly fighting legal battles to keep her daughter in her custody. She needs the money. However, selling Kurt's songs wasn't even the wrong thing to do. She could have sold them to Grohl and Noveselic, who would have bought them and used them properly. Instead, she continues her feud with them by selling out to a freaking corporation. May the flies of a thousand camels nest in her armpits. I hate the woman. I don't know how she can sleep at night. And yes, I picked the ugliest picture of her I could find to include with this rant. Bitch.

Stop "Catering" To The Obese

I recently read an article on child car seats that made me angry. Because so many 3-6 year olds are overweight and/or obese - carseat manufacturers are now making "husky" models. I'm not kidding - read the article here. Great. Super. Just what we needed. We always try to solve problems this way instead of attacking the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that little Johnny eats Ho-Ho's for breakfast, Ding-Dongs for lunch, Twinkies for dinner and then he parks his fat ass in front of a TV to watch SpongeBob for 3 hours. Guess what? Chubby little kids grow up to be chubby adults. I'm tired of sitting next to people that weigh 350 pounds on a plane. I'm tired of sitting beside them at the movies. My biggest pet peeve is when we go to a restaurant and the space between my stomach and the edge of the table resembles the Grand Canyon. Maybe if little Johnny McButterpants' ass didn't fit into any carseat, his blind parents wouldn't feed him garbage all day and would make him get some exercise. I just had a great idea for a restaurant chain - since Big & Tall and "Plus" size stores are so popular for clothing - maybe we should just have restaurants that cater to this size as well. Then maybe I could actually eat with my back up against the backrest for a change.

Race 2 of 7

Well, at least I'm not getting slower at a fast pace. I finished the New Hope-Solebury Spirit Run in 28:23 which is only 2 seconds off of my pace last year. This is a really hilly challenging course. I felt like I ran faster than I did in the race 2 weeks ago when I ran a low 27, but with all the hills, I guess I got slowed down more than I thought. I checked the stats from 2 years ago and I ran a 27:21. Besides being 2 years younger, I was also about 15 pounds lighter! Maybe by the time I drop my spare tire I'll be back in the 25-26 range. Here's the official race picture link.

Ice Age 2: The Letdown

I'm a huge fan of the movie, Ice Age. It had a great story, a great mix of characters and some very memorable lines: "hey - lord of the fire, your tail's on fire", "where's the baby, where's the baby...THERE he is". I've seen it countless times which means it passes my test as a good movie. If my daughter wants to watch a movie that I don't care for, I reach for a book or the laptop. If she chooses one that holds up after several viewings....I'm all in. We went to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown today and even though I had a few good belly laughs, it just wasn't the same. It really had the feel of a story that didn't need to be told. I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone, so I'll just say most of the belly laughs were from physical comedy....not the dialogue. It was missing the creativity of the DoDo birds in the original and the educated humor "hey, let's play extinction", "KIDS, get OUT of that tar pit". Here it is 2 hours after I've seen the movie and I can't think of one memorable line from part 2. Oh well, it rained here today so it was a good afternoon to unwind at the movies. I like to see movies when they first come out and the theater is crowded. The kids in attendance sure enjoyed it - lots of laughing, but like I said - it was mostly at Sid getting hit in the head and Scrat trying to get the acorn.

Ray Lewis to star in Disney Movie?

The world has gone mad. Did you see this? <----- Click Here.

Pay Yourself First

I just don't understand people. In 1985 the average American saved 10.1% of disposable income. Disposable income is defined as all aftertax employment income minus all basic needs. Some might argue with that definition but it is hard to wrap your arms around this term because of the nuances you can create from playing with expenses. Some simply see it as "money I can spend or save after my bills are paid". Well, people today are doing a lot more spending rather than saving. The percentage of disposable income saved this year? Negative one-half of one percent! That's right. We've finally hit the point where folks are spending more than they're making. How? By racking up huge credit card debt and paying for other high priced items in installments. Look, some people just aren't going to save money - it's that easy - but others who want to don't know how. The first thing they should do is read "The Automatic Millionaire". The book goes into great discussion about "The Latte Factor". People in the author's class said they didn't have money to save. He had each person make a list of all their cash expenses for the entire week. He noted how much was spent on frivolous items and noted that if $5 per day ($150 monthly) could be saved and invested at 10% (the historical average of the stock market), over 30 years if left untouched it would grow to roughly $300,000. He called it the latte factor because of the number of designer beverages on everyone's cash expenditures.
Here's where the usage of "disposable" gets sticky to me. Car payments are included in monthly expenses. I'm not saying everyone should be driving around in the cheapest car on the market - but is your car costing you tens of thousands of dollars in retirement? Or better yet, is your car choice going to cause you great pain when it comes time to send little Johnny to college? Let's take a look. Let's assume your family needs 2 cars to survive. Let's also assume you just had a baby and you have 18 years to save for college. Even if you don't intend to pay the entire tuition, you would like to contribute. Who knows where tuition costs will be in 18 years? Would you think I'm crazy if I said the cars you decide to drive over the next 18 years could cost you $120,000 in tuition or retirement money? Let's say you have $700 per month to throw at your cars. I'll try to break these 3 examples down quickly but you can work out the math if you don't believe the numbers. If you choose to spend the full $700 per month every year (either by leasing or trading up/in every time a car is paid off) you will have saved $0 over 18 years. Many people choose to lease these days because you get to rid yourself of the car before problems start, you always have a newer car and it allows you to drive a more expensive car than you probably would have purchased. If instead the same $700 went towards buying 2 lower priced cars so that they could be kept another 2 years after payoff (while banking the $700 per month) and then repeating that cycle twice while little Johnny grows up - the saved money would accrue to roughly $74,000 over 18 years. And that's with not starting to save a dime until year 6 when the first set of cars are paid off. It's $33,600 of your money with your good friend compounded interest at work. Sure, you would have some repairs to pay for, but you would still come out way ahead. For a real eye-opener, let's say we stick with leasing but instead of leasing 2 $350 cars we lease 2 $250 cars. That will save you $200 per month over 18 years at 10% for a grand total of $120,000. Think about it! That's the difference between leasing a high-end Passat or a Honda Civic. It's the difference between a Lexus and a Ford Taurus. Sure, you can afford to drive a Lexus, anyone can...it's all about priorities. Also, I don't want to sound like I'm begrudging anyone that drives an expensive car. Some people make enough money to live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, save more than enough money for retirement, save enough money for Johnny's college fund AND drive nice wheels. I'm just saying if you currently don't have enough money to have everything you want - why put the better part of your budget into your car? I used to have a neighbor who drove a brand new Toyota 4Runner and a brand new high-end Acura coupe. Nothing wrong with that...except they had lawn furniture in their house and slept on a mattress on the floor. I'm not kidding. It cracks me up when people try to guess what you make based on what you drive. I'm guessing Bill Gates doesn't tool around in a Hummer, but i bet there are thousands of guys that have $700 a month of disposable income and spend $600 of it leasing a Hummer. The sad part is, by the time you realize you better start saving money - it's usually too late.
You don't make $1 million dollars overnight. Most millionaires make it over the long haul by constantly saving their money. Also, I just used cars as an example. What if you drive a leased car that costs you $450 per month but you never go out to eat. Your neighbor may own a Ford Focus which costs him $225 per month but he spends $300 per month eating out every chance he gets. My thing is that most people would argue what their "real" disposable income is. I pay $80 a month for Direct TV and some people might think that's insane. That same person may smoke 2 packs a day at a cost of $240 a month. What is necessary? Who knows....but if you see what you are missing by not compounding these small monthly amounts - you may change your mind as to what you think is really necessary. When you get to be 50 or so and the kids start college or you want to retire because you're sick to death of your job - think back to all the money you could have saved had you driven that one car for 2 extra years, or not spent $100 a month on Starbucks, or not had the best cable or cell phone package or the 97" plasma TV. Don't feel too good about what you can afford...feel good about what you can save. Minus...point... five..... percent! Think about it. Sheesh.

Mike is STILL Blubbering.....

Gosh darnit, Mike, it's been close to 2 months since your inept team lost the Super Bowl with sloppy play and worse coaching. Can you please give the fans of the NFL a break and let them enjoy the free agency period and draft analysis without reading every day in the sports pages how you are still angry at the officiating in the Super Bowl. We get it. Ok? We get it. Really! Your comments right after the Super Bowl painted you as a passionate guy who was still a little hotheaded. Your comments now read as quite borish and what we've come to expect. The fact that you didn't get fined for your comments is still unbelievable to me. Even though Tags explained it away - you are still pretty lucky you didn't lose somewhere between 30-50k for your remarks. If you were half the man you say you are (well, for one your wife would be happy because then you'd only weigh about 2 bills) you should realize the commissioner showed you mercy and donate that money to charity. I'm sure there is a "Save The Walrus" campaign somewhere you can donate to. Call Paul McCartney as he probably has the number speed dialed on his cell phone. The head of officiating Mike Peoria sat with the owners at the meetings last week and AGAIN explained why every single call (with the exception of the tackle Hasselbeck made) was legit and you STILL want to whine about it. In retrospect, what would be interesting to hear from your blowhole (yes, I know, it's whales that have blowholes - but I like the way it sounded here) would be an explanation to the poor clock management your entire team showed near the end of the 2nd and 4th quarters. That's poor coaching. You were in so many blowouts this year you probably neglected to coach these situations. Nobody likes a whiner, especially in professional sports. If you remember just a few short years ago, the Steelers were eliminated from the playoffs on a field goal by the Titans in which they were allowed to kick it again after a miss because of a running into the kicker penalty. Our guy DeWayne Washington just GRAZED the kicker - who went down in an Oscar-worthy heap admitting on ESPN later that night that he was acting - and it cost us a legitimate shot at the Championship that year. Much like your comments right after the game, Cowher ran up to the official screaming "You cost us the game..." or something very close to that as I remember reading his lips. Here's the difference between you and Bill Cowher: a few days later after the emotion of the moment was over - Cowher apologized to the league, the official, his fans, the organization and said something to the effect of the officials followed the rules as they are written. He wasn't crying to the press 2 months later like a little girl with a skinned knee. Grow up, Mike. Until last year I thought maybe your earlier Super Bowl experience hinged on Brett Favre in his prime and had nothing to do with you. Seattle has been inconsistent since you've been there. You somewhat proved me wrong, but how are you now going to change the perception of NFL fans everywhere that you are a nothing more than a huge (and I mean huge) whiner? I'd start with an apology.

Read This Book...Freakonomics

I finished up book 2 of 3 last night and it's fantastic. I give it a 10 on my nonfiction scale. The book is Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and it will open your eyes as to which variables really drive society as a whole. Levitt crunches numbers and raw data to explain a myriad of complex issues. Some of his theories and chapter content: Legalizing abortion dramatically dropped crime rates 15-25 years later, Can we catch teachers who cheat on standardized tests for their students, Why Klan members are like Real Estate Agents, Can your name predict your success (and why do African Americans continue to give their children names that could be hurting them), Could tracking thievery from a bagel delivery man predict the current market, Is a child's success based on "who" their parents are (as people in general) or "what" their parents do (as far as parenting is concerned), Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
As a guy with math as half of his dual major - I absolutely loved this book and wished it was twice as long. I think I'll go over to his blog on www.freakonomics.com and sign up. Buy it - you'll love it. Or if you ask real nice, maybe I'll let you borrow mine.

200 Pound Tumor

If you get a chance - you should watch Discovery Health's 1 hour documentary on the removal of a 200 pound tumor from a 120 pound woman. This is no joke. It happened a few years ago and surprisingly I just heard about it. I was flipping around the stations tonight and saw it. They had to create a harness/lift above the operating table to lift the tumor off as they cut it and closed off arteries. I thought I was going to throw up a few times, but I couldn't stop watching. I'm not trying to be sick or gross, but it looked sort of like Jabba The Hut. She lost over 40 pints of blood during the operation which is 5 times your normal body amount. I can't even get into why they didn't start earlier, it only grew to that size at the very end and it happened very quickly. She had some sort of condition where she had multiple benign tumors her entire life and several of them grew to the size of softballs before they were removed. I'll tell you what, watching this documentary will make you feel pretty silly for wanting to lose 10 pounds for vanity's sake. There are a ton of articles on this case - just google "200 pound tumor".

Real Life Simpsons Intro

If you missed the real life Simpsons intro the other night, follow this link to a high quality version of it. They did a nice job. Man, I haven't watched an original episode of The Simpsons since about 1994. I guess it's still good or it wouldn't be on the air.

"Put that on the news!"

This is hilarious.....Don't laugh so hard you miss the girl saying "Put that on the news." Click Here.

Q is in the Hizzouse!

The Steelers announced today that they resigned WR Quincy Morgan. This is the signing I've been waiting for. Terms of the deal were not announced, but I truly believe Q will be your opening day starter on one side and it will be at a bargain price for the Steelers. He will probably also return kickoffs and showed flashes of success in that role last year. After the deals David Givens and Randle El signed, unless the Steelers gave Q $3 million a year, if he approaches his 2002 numbers of 56 for 964 and 7 TDs - he could be the steal of the 2006 FA signings. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the Steelers gave him something close to $4 million for 3 years. I am now more than comfortable going into the season with Ward, Wilson, Morgan, Washington, Mays and Morey as the receivers. Morey probably won't playa down as a WR but I love his tenacity on special teams. I would think this would end the speculation about taking a receiver early in the draft. Ben now has 2 big targets running around out there in Heath Miller and Quincy Morgan. Cedrick Wilson will also have plenty of room to roam in the slot with Quincy going deep and Miller running down the seam. I'm excited about the passing game.

Haynes Coming Back For More

The Steelers solidified their backfield a little more this weekend resigning Verron Haynes to a superb contract. The backup RB and 3rd down pass catcher will receive $1.6 million dollars over 2 years. That's an outstanding contract for both parties. Verron receives a nice payday for as many touches as he gets and the Steelers retain a 4-year veteran who already knows their system. They will still probably draft a RB in the later rounds or take a shot with an undrafted free agent as they only have 3 RBs under contract. Last year they had 4 but typically only dressed 3. Resigning Verron is huge in my opinion because I think he can get the tough yards if (when is more like it) Duce goes down with an injury.

How cool is the Internet?

I recently read the last chapter of one of the three books I'm currently reading (don't ask). The book is First Shot and it's all about the reported sinking of a Japanese mini mub by the US Ward 2 hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It also goes into great detail about submarines in general and how they came about. Some people in the military didn't believe the Ward sunk a mini sub. Some thought it may have been a whale, even though a pilot also called in the sub report. Had the commanders at Pearl Harbor listened to the Ward and had "all hands on deck", they still would have had major fleet losses, but maybe many lives could have been saved. The last chapter in the book takes you on the hunt for the missing sub which never turned up anywhere after the war...leaving the crew of the Ward sure they had sunk it since they found all of the remaining mini subs but 2. After a few expeditions turned up nothing, they rented some top of the line sonar equipment and labeled close to 30 "possibilities" near the site of the shots. With time running out on the last expedition - they finally came across the sub and it was described brilliantly. I was intrigued by the ending and wanted to read more about the sub and possibly see pictures of it. I found a website affiliated with the expedition and they have video clips you can stream. They actually have the edited video clip online of the exact moment the sub comes into view and focus and you can hear the crew's reaction. Within the course of 24 hours I went from imagining what the sub looked like when they found it to actually seeing it. Pretty cool indeed. Now maybe I can finish book 2 of 3.....

Finally! My New Plate Arrived

I'm not a huge fan of bumper stickers. True, some of them are very funny and clever - but I have more respect for my car than to put stickers on it. If you want to say something about yourself while driving - put it on your plate. There is only a one-time fee of $20 in PA. I had a plate made up in the early 90's that said "ONAMSSN" for "On a Mission". I had it for several reasons. First it kind of decribed me as being 110% straight ahead most of the time. I have to be doing something, always. It was in one of my favorite movies 'The Blues Brothers' and it was a lyric in one of my favorite Old Skewl hip hop songs - 'It Takes Two'. As the Super Bowl approached in February, I started to think about plates I could get if the Steelers won. I figured most clever Steeler plates were probably already in existense. You only get to list 3 choices and I didn't want to go back and forth for months waiting to see if what I requested was already in use. So, I incorporated the 5th Super Bowl win into the plate, filled out the form and sent it in the Monday after the big game. When my check cleared I knew I got one of my 3 choices which were "STLR 5SB", "STLR5SB" and "5SB STLR". In PA you only get 7 continuous characters or 8 with a space or hyphen. On a completely different note, I like to try to figure out plates when I see them. I passed an average looking guy in his mid 40's on my way to work on Friday with a plate that read "I RECYCL". Wow! This guy wants to tell the world one thing about himself and he chose the fact that he recycles. Nice. It may as well of said "IMA DORK". I'm not ragging on folks who recycle, I'm ragging on folks who choose things like "SAVEWATR", "VEGAN" or "NOABORT".

Offer Sheets Have To Stop

You can bet your bottom dollar that there will be changes to the way offer sheets are handled next year for restricted free agents in the NFL. With the Vikings leading the way by the way they signed Hutchinson, the Seahawks just struck back by authoring the craziest offer sheet yet, an apparent attempt to "get back" at the Vikings who added a clause to the Hutchinson deal to make it impossible for the Seahawks to match. The Seahawks last night signed the Vikings Nate Burleson to a 7 year $49 million dollar offer sheet. You read that right, $49 million dollars for a receiver who has 1 thousand yard season to his name. However, the numbers and length here are irrelevant. It may as well have been a 27 year contract for $300 million because he will never see year 3 or 4 of this contract before it is renegotiated or he is cut. The years and amount were relevant however, because they are the same numbers the Vikings gave Hutchinson in their offer. This was clearly a tit for tat deal. The Seachickens also wrote 2 clauses into the deal that make it impossible for the Vikings to match. The first states that if Nate plays 5 games in Minnesota, the entire contract is then guaranteed. The second states that if Nate (in any one year) makes less than the combined total of all the running backs on the team, the contract becomes guaranteed for the entire amount. Shaun Alexander already makes more so if the Vikings want to keep Burleson, they would have to guarantee him $49 million dollars. Stupid. Seattle is probably going to pay him somewhere around $10 million for 3 years, but they were crafty enough to make the offer sheet work for them. The spirit of the rule is being desecrated right now. There is no telling what the next provision might be. Now I'm really afraid of what someone might try with Ike Taylor. Thank God we at least signed him to the highest tender meaning a team that signs him would have to give us their #1 pick this year. The Vikings probably screwed up royally by giving Nate a lower tender of $700k meaning the Seachickens will only have to give up a 3rd round pick for him. If the Vikings challenge Seattle's offer sheet and it holds up - every clause from here on out will contain the language "if the player plays 5 games in (original city) the entire contract becomes guaranteed". It's crafty but it's not good for the game. In my humble opinion.......

First Race of the Season

The Bucks County 5k Series kicked off this past weekend with the first of 7 local 5k races. It was cold and windy and a pretty miserable day. Anyway, I ran a 27:47 which is more than 2 minutes off of my best time, but it was still 90 seconds faster than the same race last year. The first race of the year is always a good measuring stick for just how much turkey, pie, ham and pork were eaten over the holidays. Apparently I did slightly better this year than last in that department. I'd still like to shave about 3 minutes off of that by the end of the season. Anyhooo, they had a photographer this year at 2 points during the race and they are selling the pictures at the website. If you need a good laugh and want to see a picture of a 37 year old fighting Father Time tooth and nail, click here.

Bonds Did Not Do Steroids

This just in, Barry Bonds did not take illegal steroids. Stop talking about it already. Why did he gain 57 pounds of muscle and his head swelled up to the size of a good mellon? Gland problem. His gland started to act up about 3 months after Big Mac broke Roger Maris' record. Here are some other hot stories coming over the wire.....It WASN'T the Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbor, Bobby Knight DOESN'T have an anger management problem, T.O. ISN'T a media whore, Daunte Culpepper DIDN'T touch a stripper (he was playing dice), Pete Rose DIDN'T bet on baseball, Jerry Jones DIDN'T have plastic surgery, Ricky Williams DIDN'T smoke enough pot to get a small village higher than a kite, Paris Hilton ISN'T a slut, Oprah ISN'T really that fat, Rosie O'Donnel ISN'T really that big either....well, yeah she is.....

Ok, you get the point.....let's try to end on a really good one....

Richard Gere ISN'T really fruitier than a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

Looking for a Wideout

Lee Mays is not the answer, although he signed on Monday. Lee is the Brian St. Pierre of WRs. It's nice to have him around for practice but he'll be up against it when it's time for the last cuts. Truthfully, I think Quincy Morgan was hurt worse than everyone thought. I so wanted him to be our opening day #2 wideout. I just think he could excel with medium expectations and being the 4th option in the offense. The fact that we chased Andre Davis and Tim Dwight leads me to believe that either we aren't sold on Ced being the #2, or we're not sold on Coke returning punts. Tim Dwight would have been a decent addition to go deep and open up the underneath stuff for Hines and the seam for Miller...but you don't necessarily need speed to go deep. All you have to do is run in a straight line and not stop to take one guy out of the picture. If you have more than average speed, you may be able to draw a safety to you unless one of the better corners is covering you. I love our #1 and our TE, if Q signs I like him to start. If Q doesn't sign....ouch! We need to either sign someone or draft a capable WR that can play early. Maybe Nate Washington is a sleeper and the Steelers aren't too worried, but if thats the case, I don't think we would have been looking at Davis. With Hartings returning and Okobi resigned to a new deal - I'm now getting away from thinking our first pick will be Ohio States's stud center Mangold. We'll discuss that more as we get closer to the draft. It still may be an offensive lineman purely for depth.

Why Didn't This Happen To Me?

Female teacher goes for younger guy....... <<--click

Why Sportswriters Suck...

or maybe a better title would be "Why wire sportswriters suck...". I read with great humor 3 different articles on the Colts signing Adam Vinatieri. Here is a blurb from the Reuters wire:

"Vanderjagt missed a 46-yard field goal in the final seconds of last season's playoffs to hand the
Pittsburgh Steelers a 21-18 win." Ummm, OK Steve Keating in Calgary, did you watch that game? Your lack of football knowledge doesn't even really deserve a response as to how inaccurate that statement is. Hand the Steelers a win? Why don't you ask everyone on the Colt's offensive line if they thought they deserved to win that game. Please. Calgary? You should be writing about hockey, eh?
But wait, there's more. Here is the AP writeup: The beginning states "Indianapolis' Super Bowl hopes ended last season on a missed field goal..(by signing Vinatieri)...the Colts may have eliminated that problem." but the bottom of the article then says "Vanderjagt's career accuracy rate is the best in the NFL." So they lost the most accurate kicker in the history of the NFL and that solved the problem? Fine, Michael Marot, whatever. Adam probably is more clutch, but your article is all over the place and really makes no sense. It's like you cut-n-pasted sentences about these 2 guys from any other article you could find. A better question may be why the league's most prolific offense needs to spend precious cap dollars on a very high-priced kicker when scoring points doesn't seem to be your problem. But that's just my opinion. I'm not a fancy shmancy wire writer or anything........

Thank You, Howard

I ripped Howard here a few weeks ago for not replaying his show during the afternoon drive and for not webcasting the show to paying members. I was missing out on many hours at work since I don't have a spare antenna or a place to even get a signal at work. Howard 100 started broadcasting the replay each day for the afternoon drive so I now get to hear more for what I'm paying for. The show also expects to be streaming online very soon which means I should get to hear most of the shows. That makes me so happy - I don't care if he takes every Friday off! Now how about that podcast 1 hour after the show ends........

The Roosnine Chapel

Ahhhhh. I finally put the finishing touches on my Rooney Lisa this past weekend. It was a good relaxing project after my travel schedule died down a bit. The day after the Super Bowl I had a business trip to Boston. I picked up the 2 Philadelphia papers, my local suburban paper, The USA Today, The New York tabloid and a paper from my hotel in Boston. Add those to the 3 Sports Illustrated covers plus the commemorative SI issue and it gave me a bunch of stuff I didn't want to store in a box! My wife is an avid scrapbooker so I asked for her advice. Usually the way I mount my autographs is an extension of my personality - they are all symmetric and neatly spaced. To mount everything I had from SBXL would have taken 3 poster sized frames if I did it that way and I didn't have the space. I decided to just make an abstract kind of deal out of everything I had. The glare in the middle is from the Commemorative issue - it's the trophy being kissed by Joey Porter. I just cut out the trophy but if you look at it closely, you can see him in it. Well, I guess I now own a one-of-a-kind piece of Steeler art work. Anyone want to make me an offfer for it?

Sectarian Violence Has To Stop

Every net feed I see, every headline I read, every teaser I hear...it's all about Sectarian Violence. Frankly, I'm sick of it. In this day and age, there is no reason in the world for sectarian violence. I like my cup of coffee just as hot as the next guy, but I'm not going to hit the poor girl if it doesn't burn my tongue. Just the other day my shirts came back from the cleaners heavily starched instead of lightly. Now from what I'm hearing in the news, this would have been the perfect time to just drop her with a godd, stiff right cross - but I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Instead, I just made her take the shirts home to do them herself. She will learn. They are trainable. There is no need for violence. A friend of mine, a not so bright one at that, was trying to explain to me how every war that was ever fought is based on sectarian violence. I nodded my head and agreed with him, but c'mon. What, they had sectaries back in the day when Hannibal crossed the Alps? "Listen honey, I said 10,000 POUNDS of peanuts...POUNDS!". Give me a break. Oh, and I suppose William Wallace used one for what, to buy face paint and schedule orthodontic procedures for his band of freedom fighters? This guy probably doesn't even know the typewriter wasn't invented until 1829. Besides that, from what I hear, they prefer to be called Administrative Assistants these days. So, from this day forward, I ask that all Administrative Assistant Violence be stopped. With your help, we can rid the world of this ugly behavior.

What If Ward Didn't Get His Extension Last Year

Is anyone paying attention to any free agent deals being signed? Are you? Did you laugh at the David Givens contract? Are you kidding me? Givens got an $8 million bonus from the Titans and $24 million over 5 years. Now, I know what you're going to ask next...."Who is David Givens?". Unless you're a Pats fan or your fantasy league starts 3 receivers, you are excused from not knowing. Here are some details. Sit down and prepare to be astounded by these numbers.
He's played in 53 games but only started 27. He didn't even start every game last year. He started in 10 of 13 games played. Last year he had 59 catches for 738 yards and 2 TDs. He has 12 TDs in his CAREER. 158 catches. Ladies and gentlemen, these are NOT $24 million numbers. Do these teams just not understand what wins football games? He will now average 1/20th of the team's cap. My man better break out of his shell and have 80 for 1,200 and 10 TDs for the kind of money he's getting paid. Hines Ward's contract extension was for 4 years and $25.8 million. Essentially getting $6.25 per year on average as opposed to Givens' $4.8. Ward got a $10 million signing bonus. Here are Ward's numbers for the same 4 years as Givens':

Ward's catches - 69, 80, 95, 112, yards - 975, 1004, 1163, 1329, TDs - 11, 4, 10, 12.

Ward is head and shoulders above Givens as a player. Now I see why players flip out over other player's contracts. Had Ward not signed an extension and entered free agency this year...what would he have been worth? Think about it! In my humble opinion, David Givens is a nice player. I think the Patriots were generous to offer $2.5 million per year. For the Titan's to give this man $24 million......it just goes to show the luncay in the NFL and how teams get attached to certain players as free agents. Absurd. Insane. For the love of God..sign a stud on either line..offense or defense. Super Bowls are not won on 2nd receiver's shoulders. If they were, we would have retained Randle El. Live and learn. I will kiss anyone's ass who thinks this is a good deal if David Givens is still on that team in 3 years, let alone 5. Ass. Kiss. Won't happen. I guarantee it.

Why The Rooney's Rule

The Steelers have the 16th highest average ticket price in the league. The Steelers also just won their 5th Super Bowl, the third team to do so. They are also returning most key components on offense and defense and have an excellent shot to repeat. So, season ticket holders should probably expect to get hosed this year. What a perfect time for the Rooney's to raise ticket prices to get them more in-line with the higher market teams and pad their pockets a bit. Wrong. The Steelers organization decided to raise ticket prices 0% this year. Huh? Can you imagine if the Redskins won the Super Bowl? Kansas City failed to make the playoffs and their fans got a 15.2% ticket increase to move them to 3rd highest average in the league. Wow. Mind boggling. As the popularity of the league continues to grow and waiting lists for season tickets cross 100,000 - owners are taking advantage of the time honored system of supply and demand. Some of these teams also have 90,000 seats in their stadiums. The Steelers, although playing in a brand new stadium, only have around 65,000 seats. I think they easily could have had 80,000 plus - but decided the stadium should have a view of the city - easily passing up millions of dollars per year in ticket sales. You simply cannot claim the Rooney's are only out for themselves. They really care about the fans. Click here to see the complete list of ticket prices for all teams. I don't mind that some of the lower priced teams raised prices over 10% to get more in the middle of the pack, but what on earth are the Niner's doing raising prices 10% to move into 6th place?

Cell Hell

I am not a cell phone hater. I've owned one since 1994 after getting stuck on the PA Turnpike in an ice storm. It was shut down for several hours and family was expecting me home at a certain time. What I continue to struggle with when it comes to cell phones is people's utter lack of respect for noise pollution. I rarely use my phone in public and when I do I excuse myself to a more private area or talk in a very low voice. When I used to ride the train to work in Center City Philadelphia, it never ceased to amaze me that some folks would talk so loudly on their cells that you could hear every word of a conversation 10 seats away, yet you couldn't hear the conversation between 2 people sitting right behind you. My new pet peeve is idiots walking around with bluetooth ear pieces on while they aren't even talking. Do these clowns think they are impressing someone? They cost $100. Big Deal. It's not a status symbol. My passion against public cell screamers was escalated this week while travelling. While waiting to board my plane I took a quick count - of the 28 people seated in my area, 16 were talking on a phone. I could hear every word of 13 of them. Ridiculous. Thank God they are banned on flights. Isn't it funny though that when the plane lands and they say it's OK to turn on phones, 85% of the passengers speed dial someone to say they have "just landed" and proceed to tell them the details of their trip. Why Why Why can't these people wait until they are in the terminal at least to make this type of call? Why I say? The worst offense though and a humorous one at that if you look at logisitcs is the cell phone talking in the shuttle on the way to the rental cars. Seriously...think about it. The shuttle ride is all of 5 minutes. It is small and holds about 8-10 people. 4 idiots are talking nonsense loudly on their cells. No business calls, just mindless babble. Think about it - in 5 minutes they will be in a private, enclosed vehicle....yet somehow they deem it necessary to squawk (and loudly at that) about absolutely nothing while in the presence of other people. Shut Up!! I've heard the easiest way to lose weight is to ask yourself "am I really hungry?" every time food is about to pass your lips. It's great advice in it's simplest form. Maybe we need to start having service announcements that ask 'When you're in public, ask yourself if that phonecall you're about to make is really necessary." Show some respect for other people.

10 Minutes of Reckless Endangerment

I got to take in some local music last week while in St. Louis on business. On a tip from famous blues historian Allen "Double A" Anthony, I programmed the digits from The Broadway Oyster Bar into the GPS system and headed out on Tuesday night. It was a decent drive into the city at night and the Arch looked incredible all lit up as I got closer to it. The bar was only several blocks away. When I first showed up I thought I must have the wrong place. It was old and a tad run down - but it had plenty of character. When I found out it was 150 years old, it all made sense! The walls were so covered with old band postings that you couldn't even see them. One of the first ones that caught my eye was an old autographed photo of Elvis Presley. It was from when Elvis was still a badass, not from the joker wearing the studded jumpsuit in Vegas while holding a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich in one hand and 20 pills in the other. Elvis had played there along with countless other famous blues musicians. I had the alligator appetizer while I waited for the band to start and tried Fat Tire beer for the first time. Both were outstanding. To read their own description of the cuisine and atmosphere, click here as they've won many awards. The band was Big Bamou and consisted of guys that are in other bands but play here as a group every Tuesday. Their drummer, Benet Shaeffer, told me they've been playing there for 9 years. The band was tight. Benet kicked ass. The lead singer played the best live trumpet I've ever heard. His name is Brian Casserly and you can read about him here. They did a song about marshmellows and the crowd pelted him and the band members with them. Some locals brought their own, but the bartender supplied us with ours. I had a superb time hanging out with 2 locals who are opening their own club in 3 months down the street. Mark, thanks for the fun. On Wednesday night, I got in on the act myself. I went to an open jam night at the Backstreet Jazz and Blues Club after being slightly disappointed with the band at The Trainwreck Saloon. They were called Gargoyle Lounge and I won't post the link as they don't deserve the promo! They had no drummer and used a drum machine.....and they were bad in my humble opinion. I see from their website that they do employ a drummer, so he must have been out for some reason. Anyway, I left there and went to the open jam. Local kickass band Reckless Endangerment was tearing up Slow Ride when I walked in. I talked to the MC and told him I wanted to play Crazy Train on drums. No problem. He hooked me up with Mark, the drummer from RE and I started talking to the band. We waited for some other guys to finish up and then we went up and hammered out stuff like Crazy Train and You Shook Me All Night Long. Mark was kidding around with me and said they didn't think I was going to be able to play. I guess the fact that I left on my argyle sweater from the bank meeting didn't help anything out! All the guys in their band are really super cool and I had a great time. Mark is a solid beat keeper ala Phil Rudd. The dueling guitarists Danny and Vince were both outstanding and the wall of bass being supplied by Rich was a driving force. The fact that their lead singer Ritchie could bounce between AC/DC and Led Zeppelin was very impressive. When I return to St. Louis - I'm definitely going back there or looking them up on their website. Mark promised me a tee shirt and I emailed him today. Anyone from Reckless Endangerment - if you got my link and read this, leave some comments so my boys will know I can still kick it!

Hotels Full of Green(backs)

I started to notice something while I was at Disney 2 years ago. More and more hotels and resorts are putting signs in their bathrooms stating they are very concerned about the environment and if you want to help out, please hang up your towels if you don't want to wash them every day. They then give statistics on how much water could be saved if hotels cut down on washing every towel every day. They urge you to hang up a towel and re-use it instead of washing them all every day. While this is a nice gesture, they're so full of shit it's not funny. Come On! I can't even believe they have the cahunas to suggest for one second that they are concerned about the environment. Their suggestion is PURELY profit driven. Are you trying to tell me that all of a sudden, within the last 2 years every major hotel chain just 'came up' with that idea? What is their net profit per day made off of that decision? Furthermore, why don't they donate that amount to some environmental charity? Please don't get me wrong - I'm not a granola eating, tree hugging liberal. Anything but. I want to drill holes in Alaska until it looks like a big slice of Swiss Cheese and I want the fairways on golf courses to be a shade of green that can only be obtained through chemical enhancement. I want BALCO juiced tee boxes. It just really bothers me when people make a decision for greed and then try to pass it off as something entirely different. The Hilton owned Double Tree just cranked up the nonsense. In a $150/night room, there was a note on my pillow explaining that unless notified otherwise - they would only change the sheets every 3rd night unless a new guest was arriving and you were leaving. That makes perfect sense to me also, as there is no need to change them daily - but again - they mention the environment. "Boooo. Boooo, I Say." Also, on the desk was a note about electricity and how much is wasted every day because people leave their rooms and leave the lights and TVs on. Again, it's an attempt to save them money. Is my room rate going to go down next year if everyone turns off the electricity in their rooms? No! I tell my wife when she travels on business to let the TV on when she leaves the room. Maybe if hotels beefed up security...I mean add security....people wouldn't feel compelled to do that. While in New York last week, the Comfort Suites I was staying in had the message in the bathroom about the environment - yet they had a gas fireplace burning in the lobby den 24/7....soley for ambiance. It was in the 50's and 60's and I never saw one person sitting in the den. I came in one night pretty late and it was still burning. Apparently it's OK to waste gas, just not water. Or, does the ambiance of the fireplace in the den allow them to charge more because it's aesthetically pleasing to their business travelers?
And while I'm on hotels....most do a good job of having a free continental breakfast. Some even add waffles to the free mix. Well, the Hilton hotels still charge for breakfast. The rub is, it's a breakast buffet for $9.95. You can get a pound of bacon, a stack of eggs, french toast and a plate of fresh fruit for your money....or you can get a tiny box of cheerios and 8 0z milk and still pay the same price. Idiotic. Well, on the third day of the trip my business companion just had cereal. When the waitress came to see if we were done I asked her if they had another price for someone who just ate cereal. She told us after stuttering around that the cereal bar was $4.00. Great. She had a box of Cheerios 1/20th the size of a box I can buy for $4 at the grocery store. I asked the waitress if there was a menu for breakfast and she said she would see if she could find one. So, only at that point did we learn we didn't have to have the buffet. Before I asked, it was implied it was the only choice. Most things were $8 anyway so the buffet was a "bargain". Charge whatever you want, but please stop insulting people's intelligence!

More on Why I Hate Flying......

Big ups to "Iowa Chick" and "UCLA Guy" for the good conversation at the St. Louis Chili's in the airport. My flight was to leave St. Louis at 4:05 and board at 3:40. My meetings broke up early due to an impending snow storm in Chicago where one of the attendees was heading. I got to the airport at 1:00 Central thinking I would catch an earlier flight home. No deal. In a twist of cruel irony...I could get home 25 minutes faster if I connected in, you guessed it, snowy Chicago. I went to the bar at Chili's to relax and have some lunch...and 5 glasses of ice water to rehydrate myself from Wednesday night (a future entry). I went to my gate at 3:35 and was told my flight was delayed 1:15 because it was coming from .......Chicago. We boarded at 5:10 Central and the Capt. told us we had a good tail wind and we would make up time. We landed at 8:10 (40 minutes late) and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for 10 minutes because of "some mixup". We were all squished into a regional jet that put all our carry-ons into the belly of the plane...effectively making them not carry-ons at all. So, we now had to wait for our bags to be unloaded while the people that did check bags got to start walking. I was at the front of the steps to the sky walk so as the bags came on, a nice worker asked me to pass the bags back to the end of the line. So, I asked her if she could put me on the payroll. I mean, after all the waiting I did yesterday - she now expected me to smile and do her job for her. Well, if you know me, I'm nice as hell so I passed the bags back....of course...mine was third from last. As I was walking away, I asked her why on smallish jet flights they don't just say you have to check your bags but all of a sudden, she wasn't so friendly now that "her" job was done. Thanks. Buh-Bye. I felt like David Spade had just blown me off. I walked out to wait for the shuttle which got there in a record 20 minutes (heavy sarcasm). Had I paid a private lot to shuttle me, I'm sure the economy shuttle would have passed 10 times in the same 20 minutes. When the shuttle made the second stop, too many people got on and the driver couldn't shut the door so he asked 2 people to get off. There was a small disagreement about who the 2 would be. I hope that old dude didn't get hurt, but I didn't push him that hard and it's only about an 18" drop from the platform. I parked in 'B' and the bus started dropping off at 'K'. I got home at 10:00 PM Eastern. There is something very wrong with this process. It covered 813 miles. I drive 80 mph. Thats 10 hours. I left a meeting at 12:30 Central and arrived home at 10:00 Eastern. I could have taken anything I wanted had I driven. Gas would have cost me about $80. Somebody PLEASE remind me again why we fly?

Wow. Perfect Predictions So Far

Superb job by the front office. We signed Keisel the Deisel....let Kimo walk. Chris Hope took a walk and we signed a replacement before he left. We restructured Hartings. We signed Rodney Bailey to a very cheap contract and kept Tuman. Good solid players at backup prices. Depth and defense win Super Bowls. The thing that worries me is that Ike Taylor is drawing interest. I feel like he is now a core player. I would hate it if he walked. Townsend is still up in the air, but it is not the end of the world if he leaves either. The Steelers offerred Hope about 2.5 per year but he left for greener pastures. Have fun not making the playoffs in Tennessee, Chris. His replacement, Ryan Clark, is only making $7 million over 4 years....an outstanding Steeler contract. Don't forget we also signed a solid backup QB in Charlie Batch. He could be integral if Big Ben misses time again this year since Batch knows the offense well. After cutting Maddox it was great to see Charlie come back. I would now like to focus on getting Quincy Morgan signed. As I've stated here before, I like him to start at the #2 wideout position more than Cedrick Wilson just because of his size and blocking. Ced can play the slot. I'd love to make this 10 paragraphs - but I'm still in St Louis and trying to make a meeting! Go Steelers!!!!!

Bye Bye Kimo

Well, Like I said many moons ago when I first started this blog, he is not essential. The Steelers would never pay him $9 million for 3 years. Never. It just goes to show you what a true Champion bettis was that not once, not twice, but three times he took less money to stay here and win a championship. If you remember, the first time he became a free agent, the 'Skins offered him more money than we did but he remained a Steeler. The last 2 years he took massive pay cuts to remain a Steeler. Now, if Kimo had chosen to stay he could have split time with Keisel (if he stays) and tutor him much like Bettis did to Staley and Parker. You don't always have to chase the money. I was a little disappointed to say the least. Oh well, he wasn't integral. He will be replaced and we will carry on. Everyone will be sorry they left when they repeat.

Where are the Hot Flight Attendants?

You know what? I'm sick of movies. They are so fake. They are soooo Hollywood. People like Kathy Bates because she looks like a "real" person. People like William Macy because he looks like a "real" person. Well, in any movie I've ever seen where a jetliner is involved - all the flight attendants are little hotties. They're all 24-35 with toned bodies and tight uniforms. I've recently become a reluctant business traveler and I can tell you without a doubt - I have yet to see one single hottie attendant. I'm a pissy guy. Everything pisses me off about air travel from the long lines to the shuttle buses to the lousy food to the long amount of time it takes to get off the plane....you name it - I hate it - that's my flight policy.....unless I'm heading to a beach on my own time. So, my thinking is, if I'm going to be crammed on this little jet that only holds 100 people for 3 hours and I'm going to hear the woman next to me cracking her gum for the next 3 hours...can't somebody throw me a bone and not give me the equivalent of Edith Freakin' Bunker for my flight attendant?! Does Hooter's Air fly out of Philadelphia? I'll have to check on that. That's complaint one....more to follow this week as I get more and more "revved up" about business traveling.

Randle El Gone

How much did it take to lure Randle El away? $31 million dollars over 7 years with year 7 voidable by the Redskins. It includes $11.5 million up front. He turned down the Bear's offer Saturday for $18 million over 6 years. It included $8 million up front. Well, he got his money, but I have a feeling he won't even see year 4 of his contract. If he fails to perform, he won't even see year 3. I would love to know what we offered him. I guess he had to take that crazy offer, what idiot wouldn't? At least the Redskins have a chance to win. The thing that is curious to me is that he signed there knowing Moss is #1 and they traded for Brandon Lloyd Saturday. I know it's Al Saunders, but is he really going to bust out? I'm going to go out on a limb and say he wil not have more than 60 catches. If he gets right around 60 - thats an insane amount of money to pay for it. Al Saunders got a lot of passing yards in KC with very average WRs. Why they needed Moss, Randle El and Lloyd is anyone's guess. They could have used 1 big receiver in their top 3. Oh well, I will miss Randle El's smile, his hard nosed play, his fearless running, his shiftiness and his sensational punt returns. What I won't miss is his dancing before running right up the gut on punts, his very very very mediocre blocking skills or his lack of height. I'm ready for Quincy Morgan to be given a chance...he's more physical and has height....a much more traditional wide out to play outside. I hope Ced goes to the slot and plays Randle El's role from the early years of his career.

Discover How Dishonest Discover Is

Another rant about a dubious business process. My wife and I use the Discover card for business expenses only. We use the American Express Rebate card for all other purchases because it pays us back 1.5% of all our purchases. Discover has a cash back program also, but it is for 1% unless you buy certain things. In the past, Discover simply applied your reward to your balance, which is what I would expect the default to be. Well, you need to be a lawyer to sift through all of their rules to prevent you from really taking advantage of their new offer. They no longer apply the reward to your balance automatically. They now stick a sheet in their bill that most people will throw away (mistake 1). The sheet says you must call a 1-800 number or go to their website to redeem the reward (mistake 2). Honestly, are the elderly going to see that? I almost didn't see it. True, your reward will continue to grow, but I bet a TON of people just assume it is applied to their balance at some point not knowing that they have to do something to cash it in. How many people will cancel their cards or die with a reward outstanding? Next, they try to get you to trade in your $ for gift cards - marketing the fact that you can double your reward on some purchases. Well, I had $120 coming to me so I thought - wow - if I can double that with a store I use a lot (Border's, Gap, Best Buy) maybe I'll do it. Well, the only companies that doubles were travel agencies and cruises (mistake 3). Most would give you an extra $5 if you got a $20 making it a $25 gift card. I still thought I might do this, but I noticed there were only 1 or 2 companies I do business with. Well, I'll just get 3 $25 cards for 2 companies making $30 in the process. Wrong. You may only get 1 "bonus" per company (mistake 4). In the end I just decided to click the button that would apply the reward to my balance and instead of prefilling the entire amount of $120, it defaults to only $20 in the "apply this amount" bucket (mistake 5). Almost makes me think it's time to "Discover" a new company to use for business expenses and travel!

Crazy Spending Starts Already

The Carolina Panthers signed DeShaun Foster to a 3 year contract minutes before free agency started last night. They paid him 14.5 million dollars for 3 years. Now, before I tell you what he did to earn that money - you have to get over your infatuation with the name "DeShaun Foster". I play fantasy football and if you read the magazines and articles associated with the game, Foster is usually a highly regarded back. Here is my guarantee to you - had Foster reached the free agent market - he would have never seen 14.5 million for 3 years. This is why the Steelers will always win at the cap game. The Panthers saw Foster as a must have...someone who they could not do without. They hit the panic button. There are a ton of free agent running backs out there this year. Would someone else really overpay for DF with his history of injuries? Here are Fosters numbers from last year: 205 carriers for 879 yards and 2 TDs. For his career he has 4 TDs. You read that right....4. True, he has played behind Stephen Davis when he was healthy - but the reason he was playing BEHIND Davis was because he never turned into the player who was drafted with the 2nd pick in the 2nd round in 2002. He missed the entire 2002 season to an injury. He has played in 33 games in 4 years....missing 31. He averages 4.1 yards a carry. Now, had we just seen his numbers and not heard his name, how much would we say this player was worth? Correct. Nowhere near $14.5 million for 3 years. The Panthers just made a classic FA mistake. They overvalued one of their own players. Even if he plays stellar this year, I feel very strongly that he won't play in 25% of the 48 games he has been signed for.

Will Cap Increase Save Randle El? No.

Even though the salary cap has been increased by $7 million dollars this year - I still don't think the Steelers will retain Randle El. As I've stated before - I love the guy and I wish we could sign him - but somebody will definitely overpay for him...and hate themselves for it in 2 years. Randle El is a role player - not a free agent to covet. For fiscal responsibility's sake, we just can't pay the 4th option in the offense crazy money. Randle El will get his, but not from us. I think if we make him a fair offer he should take it. Do you really think Az-Akim enjoyed having all that pressure put on him when he went to Detroit for top dollars after excelling as the Rams standout slot receiver? He was quickly cut and is no longer a relevant player. Had he remained with the Rams for less money, he would have continued to shine. I wish Randle El the best if he leaves, but I will be really surprised if he ends up catching 75 balls for 1,000 yards and those are the numbers he better hit if he's being paid in the $3 million dollar range. Right now, Brett Keisel and Charlie Batch are more important in my mind. I like Sean Morey also. We need role players and depth. I'd even like Verron Haynes back. I guess we'll see starting tomorrow.

What's Wrong With America?

So I'm sitting in the breakfast room at a hotel in New York while on a business trip. I'm watching CNN's morning news program to find out what's going on in the world. It's not E! It's not MTV. It's not O. It's not the local show....It's CN frikkin N. A crawler starts across the bottom while Robin (the host) is lamely bantering with the national weather man (who gives such general information it's useless..."somewhere in the US today (dramatic pause) it will RAIN" - Gee. Thanks !) Anyway, back to the crawler. I get a little excited. Maybe my company stock exploded yesterday. Maybe Jerome Bettis decided not to retire. Maybe Al Franken got hit by a bus! No...the crawler starts off "Madonna.......". Oh no, did she die? She can't die. "Madonna's daughter.....". Oh no, this would be a tragedy if her 9 year old died. And yes, when I see a crawler on CNN that starts out "Milton Berle...." it usually ends "died today". Recently we've had "Bob Denver....." and "The Munster's Al 'Grandpa' Lewis....." type crawlers that ended with "died today." "Madonna's daughter Lourdes asks mom if she's gay." I'm not kidding. That was the crawler. No follow-up. No mention of the story by the host. One sentence. Is this what Americans care about? Is this important enough to run a crawler on CNN? Let's put this in context of how it appeared on the crawler: "14 die in Iraq car bomb......Iran warns US of intervention.....RIM settles Blackberry case......Madonna's daughter Lourdes asks mom if she's gay........Patriot Act is renewed" Wow. I was surprised that wasn't followed up with other things that affect my life much in the same way: "Oscar Winner Reese Witherspoon does not tip mailman for Christmas......Broccolli gives Elton John gas......John Travolta's head now a good sized pumpkin......Cruise "Broken" that he wasn't offered chance to kiss Heath" Well, that last one might have been real....or I was just dreaming. Anyway......Oh yeah, Who gives a rat's ass what Lourdes asks her mother? The crawler should have read "Madonna's daughter Lourdes asks mom why the frig she named her Lourdes". At least I would have gotten a laugh out of that instead of slowly shaking my head and returning to my lousy free breakfast.

Selig Off His Rocker On Puckett

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said on the passing of Kirby Puckett "he was a hall of famer in every aspect of the word". Well, here's hoping Bud meant to add "on the playing field" to his remark. While every article written today wanted to crown him as this great person, all I care to remember are the countless times I've read about him being messed up in domestic abuse cases. One time might be a "he said, she said" kind of thing. Twice is questionable, but COME ON. This man was no saint and just because he died doesn't mean we have to act like he was. Is that such a wrong belief? Read this for one author's chronicles of his past discretions. Fine, he was a great baseball player. I'm not convinced he was a great human being.

I Am Gettin Old.....

Have you seen Eddie Van Halen lately? VH (the original lineup) used to be one of my favorite bands. Remember how powerful "Unchained" was? "Take Your Whiskey Home" was another favorite. Those first 6 albums were mind blowing.....look at poor Eddie. I know he has survived cancer, but if thats what 30 years of partying does to you.... He might lose a foot race to Keith Richards! Stay healthy my man. We're all pulling for you. Man, I can still see him like he was in photo 1.

One of the Stupidest Things I've Ever Seen

I'm not here to mock cheerleaders. My wife was a cheerleader in jr. high. When I was a senior in high school (when John Hughes ruled the world) the head cheerleader lived 2 blocks away and was a very good friend of mine - still is! But I saw something on ESPN tonight that I just had to shake my head at, and then I found the article on their website . This girl is exactly who Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri were mocking when they did their Spartan Cheerleader skits back in the day. This girl fell 15 feet right onto her pumpkin. Bang! Hardwood floor, meet the hottie. The crowd hushed, the stretcher came out. And then, not unlike Mike Utley giving the "thumbs up" sign to let the crowd know he was OK, well, actually it was nothing like that at all..... she heard the school's fight song being played and she started doing the routine while strapped into the stretcher!! Never mind that one wrong twist could injure her further (her neck was in fact broken!) - the show had to go on! These people came to see her cheer and cheer she will, damnit. I shouldn't say another word about it because no matter how much sarcasm I try to drip - I can't top the visual of this broken neck girl cheering away to her fight song while strapped in tighter than Hannibal Lecter. I wonder if the band was really playing or if she was the only one hearing the music? Any way.............

Contracts Done Right

Scout.com posted a great story on how the Steelers do their contracts and why they are so successful. Click the following link to check it out.

Contracts The Steeler Way.

Good Super Bowl XL Steeler Parade Footage

Wow. My old college roommate and tailgate buddy has a friend (hard to believe) that went to the parade and taped some footage. He took it home and edited it, mixing in some cool tunes and still shots. If you'd like to see it, click the following link.

15 minute Cool Ass Parade Capsule.

Deals, Deals, Deals (And All Good Ones!)

The Steelers unloaded some 2006 cap dollars in the past 24 hours. Tommy Maddux was cut as expected. The other popular cap casualty was Willie Williams. If you remember, Willie made "The Tackle" in the 1995 AFC Championship Game against the Colts that gave us the ball back with enough time to score one more time. I'm not sure I would call either of these cuts "cap casualties". They weren't cut just to save money. Their days of getting paid more than league minimum for their years of service are over. Maddux is gun shy and makes bad decisions. Willie is too old to play corner any longer. Another cut that saved $0 was Russell Stuvaints. Even though we keep 10 DBs, there is just no room for someone who can't play in the dime occasionally. Russell got hurt early in 2005 after having 23 solo tackles in 2004 on special teams. The Steelers are deep at DB with backups Coke, Carter, McFadden and Iwuoma, the only special teams luxury at DB. With Williams being cut and McFadden or Coke potentially taking over for Townsend, they will need to draft at least 1 corner this year. They will need 2 new DBs in my estimation and both will have to play some corner. If we lose Hope (Chris, not faith), we'll need a safety as well - although Carter has shown promise in my eyes.
Also big news, Duce took a paycut! He went down to counting about $1.5 against the cap this year instead of his $2+. That was huge. I think now they'll let him play the part of Bettis without looking elsewhere for a big back. $1.5 isn't that bad for someone who could be pressed into a starting role if Parker gets hurt. The Steelers are still trying to negotiate with Hartings but it looks like something will get done there. Okobi is still key in this decision and is being promised he is the Center of the future. His agent just doens't want him to waste away while waiting for Hartings to retire. Valid point. They are trying to negotiate with both of them. Chucky is due to make 2 million this year but counts $2.7 against the cap. He can't make that on the bench. So, if Hartings stays, Chucki may decide to go and I don't think we can blame him for that. If he goes, maybe we'll be looking at Mangold (Center, OSU) in the draft. In any event, what we've done so far has not hurt the team financially, chemistry-wise or politically with the fans. Good job, as expected.
Tough calls still coming up on Randle El, Hope, Keisel & Townsend. And don't forget, as I like to harp on - we have some huge (read H-U-G-E) extensions coming down the pike (Roethlisberger, Polamalu, Parker). Maybe we can get crafty and give them salary in the uncapped year that would normally be a bonus if 2007 is uncapped. Basically give at least one of them a huge cap number in 2007 instead of spreading a big bonus out over 4-5 years. I'm sure many teams will be employing this trick.

Anderson - Lower Mileage Alternative?

Mike Anderson became a cap casualty today. I'm not suggesting the Steelers run out and pick him up. I'm just saying it's an interesting thought. He's 240. He's 6 feet tall. He runs hard. Staley is big and runs tough also - when he's healthy. I like Duce, I'm just afraid if we go into the season with 1 big back (Staley), he'll get hurt and take the big man option out of our ground attack. Anderson is around 2 years older than Duce, but he only has about 850 carries. Duce has 1700 touches including his 250 catches. There is a lot of tread left on Anderson's tires. Yes, he missed the entire 2004 season due to an injury - but that was his only significant injury. I would imagine if the cap goes up this year in the next 3 days we will just keep Duce for at least 1 more season. However, if the cap doesn't go up and Hartings refuses to renegotiate - we may be looking to gain salary back somewhere else. Don't be shocked if they switch #2 backs to save a few dollars and slightly upgrade the position.

Thoughts From The Super Bowl Parade

My dad was good enough to tape the Steelers Super Bowl parade for me and I watched it over the last 2 nights. Why 2 nights? It's 2 hours and thirty minutes long! The crowd was amazing. At some points the cars could barely get through. It was cold and it looked like it was sleeting. I'm not sure if the fans would have turned out and stayed like that in most other cities. Steeler fans really set themselves apart from the rest of the league this year in a ton of indicators. The first thing I read was that the Steelers lead NFL merchandise purchases for the 2005 season. Also, so far in 2006, the sales of Super Bowl items are up 500% over last year's winners, the Patriots in the same timeframe. The Steelers also had the top honor of "most watched" NFL team this year (and last year) in their home viewing area - meaning within a certain mileage limit, what percentage of TVs were tuned into the game. Finally, this year's Super Bowl was the 2nd most watched program in the history of television. Only the last episode of M*A*S*H had more viewers. Not sure if it was the granola eating Seahawk's fans that drove the number up? The next highest rated Super Bowl was Super Bowl XXX, again being lead by Steeler Nation. Total viewers who watched the entire game was up over 5% this year from the Eagles-Patriots game of last year. Who Dey? We Dey! Back to the parade thoughts:

* Randle El was having the best time of any player I saw. I hope he remembers that when he's signing his fat contract with the Bears or Eagles.

* For some unknown reason, the local ABC channel went with a 2 window viewing area for most of the broadcast with the one window showing the commentators. If there's one thing I hate, It's local TV people acting like celebrities. I didn't want to hear these people, let alone see them.

* A reporter went up to Randle El and called him "Willie". Randle El said "Who are you talking to?" and the guy replied something to the effect of "I'm sorry, I'm an idiot." Yes, you are.

* Most players got to say something at the microphone and the director of the program decided to only show a handful of them. I could hear some players on the podium while stupid Sally Wiggins is talking over them saying "I think I see another car coming with players on it.......". SHUT UP!

* Joey Porter is no doubt the emotional leader of this team. No Doubt.

* Bill Cowher should never ever chant "Who Dey? We Dey". He looked like the whitest man in American on the podium doing that. Stop it.

* Jeff Reed is one interesting character to say the least. Nice hair.

* My biggest impression? The Rooneys. Dan said 5 words and Art II said about 10 and then they stepped into the background. I didn't even see Kevin Colbert take the microphone. I just sat there thinking - if this was Jerry Jones, Daniel Snyder or Jeffrie Lurie - I bet they'd be standing at the mike hogging as much camera time as humanly possible. Thats not the Rooneys. Thats one of the reasons I love this team so much.

Somebody Please Club Paul

Is anyone else sick and tired of reading about how Paul McCartney is out to squash the annual seal hunt in Canada? Paul and his 18-year-old wife (OK, she's not 18 but she could be his grandaughter) are headed to Canada to actually go out and observe the seals and take part in the protest. I read a few article about it tonight from different sources. From what I could tell, it's as necessary as hunting white tail deer in Pennsylvania. Humane? Read this. Read the entire website actually before believing everything the protestors say. C'mon, Paul. Kids are hungry and AIDS is threatening an entire continent. Are you just doing this because your hot little wife thinks the baby seals are cute? Well, "whitecoat" baby seals have been off-limits for 20 years. There have been protestors at every hunt for the last umpteen years and they are allowed up to 25 meters from the hunters. If all these violations were really going on, wouldn't we know about it? Photo Op. Paul gets in news. This has been going on for hundreds of years. It's not going to stop because a "pop" star attends. Now maybe if Ringo threw his hat in the ring......

Netflix "throttles" Frequent Users

If you haven't heard the term "throttling" yet, click here to read this story. How embarassing for Netflix that their algorithm has become public. It costs Netflix .78 to mail a dvd both ways. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that after a certain amount of rentals, they start to lose money on a customer. To curb heavy users, Netflix slows down their turnaround for these customers. Hey, Netflix should talk to bankers who have 80% nonprofitable customers! You would think there are far more people who rent only 5-6 per month than people who rent 22. This is just another instance of companies acting in a dubious manner. I might have to have a weekly rant based on false advertising. Netflix claims unlimited rentals for $17.99. As some people have now found out - unlimited is the wrong word to use. For now, they just changed the wording in their terms of agreement. I think a change will be coming in their pricing. They will probably have one price for up to X rentals per month and then have a premium ($1 per maybe?) for anything over X. Who knows where X will fall? I still may consider joining Netflix as I watch my fair share of movies on Direct TV's Pay-Per-View. But I don't think I've ever paid for 5 in the same month which would be the threshold for saving money. I would probably end up spending more time in front of the TV if I did join which is another great reason not to join. Also, I would think the Motion Picture Association would be interested in people renting 25 movies per month or turning around 3 movies in a day....they are probably burning one and I'm not talking about a fatty.