FAN: I Thought We Rode

I watched Inside The NFL tonight on Showtime and they showed a clip of the Dolphins game. After the game in the locker room, Joey Porter was doing the "Who Ride? We Ride" chant that I thought was a Steeler thing. I know he always did it and the most famous clip has thugged out Tyrone Carter in it....but if you change teams....shouldn't you come up with something new? A locker room of pansies doing the "We Ride" chant......great. Maybe they should try "Who Walks? We Walk", or "Who Jogs? We Jog" or even the ever popular "Who Skips? We Skip", just leave the ride out of it, mmmm'K?

In The "Line" Of Fire

SI sent out their annual football preview issue today. They had six regional covers and wouldn't you know Donovan McPuke graced our cover. Right....what? How about Ben? If you want to sell copies on the newstands, there has to be data that would back up a Roethlisberger cover over McNabb. Anyway, I digress. Still A Dog wants football. Let's talk football. In the issue, they go into the key for some team's success. Of course, they talked about the Steeler's Offensive Line. Thing is, I wasn't sure if they meant Offensive - like opposite of Defensive - line......or if they meant Offensive - like "F*ck me their line play is simply offensive "- line. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's the first choice. They are still listing Starks as a backup, so there's a front office screw up right there. Remember, he's getting paid like, zillions of dollars this year. Ouch. They call Colon a mauler on runs. Hmmmm. How about pass protection? They protect Ben like Marino's lines used to run block. Exactly! The thing that worries me, and they mentioned it, and The Dog mentioned it....we haven't invested a high pick on a stud hog in some time. They mention the Defensive Line as a strength of the team. Look how old they are though! Where is the future? With Parker and Melwelde Moore already in the fold, unless Mendenhall is special, I hardly see how someone getting his number of touches can replace our future lines. I'd like to be proven wrong on that and have him break out, especially on kick returns. And speaking of kick returns, they rated our Special Teams a solid B. Jeff Reed must have brought that average up all by himself, because if you take the FG unit out of the equation, I thought they sucked big donkey.....ears. I swear those guys just throw darts and mix and match what they are saying. One thing I did get excited about was all the talking they did about Lamar Woodley. Kevin Greene has taken a liking to him and took him under his wing, teaching him about rushing from the outside. I can't wait to see him in action this year. The talk about Woodley also boned up a piece of history when it said The Steelers haven't had consistent pressure on the QB since the Lloyd/Greene days. Interesting. I bet Jason Gildon and Joey Porter would have something to say about that.

J Peezey

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

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

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

Ravens Game Report

Wow. What a game. Still A Dog and I arrived around 1:00 PM after we stopped along the way to purchase ponchos. That turned out to be one of the smartest moves ever made, short of not bringing one from my house 300 miles away in the first place! We had fried fish sandwiches for lunch at The Oyster House, courtesy of The Dog who used to eat there while in school. We trolled around town until around 3:00 PM and then headed over to the game to meet the rest of our crew. It started to rain before we ever got there so we poncho'd up...but then it stopped again....so we deponcho'd. Some random thoughts from the game and I'll try to post pictures later as I'm having issues with my phone:

1. The place went nuts when Hank Williams Jr. was introduced to sing the banner. Nuts.

2. When they introduced special guest Bill Cowher, it was a good moment for me. He enjoyed seeing the players. The players certainly enjoyed seeing him. He was fired up. He was mock pushing players away trying to fire them up even more. What I did notice, though, was that a few "boo's" could be heard when they introduced him. All the man did was bring us respectability for almost his entire tenure. Like him or not, why "Boo" him on this special occasion? They were the "winningest" team in the NFL while he was there and lead the league in rushing and stopping the rush as well. At least give the man the respect he deserves.

3. Ben is playing out of his gourd right now. When he leaves the pocket, good things happen. When he stays in the pocket, good things happen. I'm glad they didn't give up on the run as well. Running against Baltimore is like running into a meat grinder (Dog Quote) but we can now win games and be impressive doing it when the run isn't clicking.

4. James Harrison - OMG! Tomlin said on the post game that he never coached a LB who had a better game than that. 'Nuff said.

5. Early in the game Ben could have easily ran for a 1st down on 3rd and short but decided to throw it instead....incomplete.

6. I'm guessing Willie didn't go for the corners as much because of the weather. Did you know it rained? :) Our seats were about 5 rows under the roof so we only got it when the wind blew hard.

7. On the 75th team:

A. Where was Lambert?
B. Since the game was a blowout, it would have been nice to bring out the current guys.
C. The crowd cheered for Faneca - not as much as some of the other guys. It got hard to keep up the intensity through 33 guys.
D. I think the crowd may have been louder for the Bus than for anyone else. I would say the other loudest cheers were for Ham, Greene, Swann, Stallworth, Franco and Bradshaw. The dynasty guys outshined everyone else.
E. Bennie Cunningham looks so much lighter!
F. I think it would have been special to bring out Myron Cope and I'm wondering why they didn't? What's wrong with the marketing department? I guess technically, he's not affiliated with the team?
G. I was so glad I got to cheer Gregg Lloyd one more time.
H. I already said I don't think Porter deserved to be on the team - but the fans voted him on and then they "boo'd" him last night (he wasn't there either). He got cut, he didn't leave. He also said very nice things about being selected and was proud and honored. Not sure he deserved to be "boo'd" on a night like this. If he doesn't sack Manning twice on successive plays - would we have even went to the Super Bowl in 2005?

8. What is wrong with people who can't sit still at games? I was on the aisle and I swear to God, some people are up and down the steps 5-6 times per game. I just don't get it. How you can go to the game and not pay attention is beyond me.

9. I had Beavis and Butthead sitting behind me last night for 3 quarters. These two drunk idiots were just screaming the entire game...stupid stuff. "Yeah, Baby". "Pittsburgh, Baby". "All day ,Baby". When they would tone it down to discuss football with other, it was obvious that combined, a pigeon knew more about the game. Then the language started and I was a little embarrassed for them and I can talk like a sailor with the best of them. I just don't go to public events and yell at the top of my lungs with women around "F&*# Baltimore Yinz Bitches". Their command of the English language was sad.

10. Why Why Why did they let Ben go back in after his hip pointer rolling right? STOOOOPID! Batch is one of the better backups in the league. It's 35-7. Relax!

I know I'm forgetting some things I wanted to point out, but I only got 4.5 hours of sleep last night after driving back to where I was staying in flurries from hell. I could barely see the road at some points! Will update this later tonight or tomorrow.

Jones gets "PorterHoused"

Hey Levi Jones, I hear that a nice Porterhouse steak is good for a black eye. Joey Porter was arrested last night at the Sands Casino for getting into a fight with Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones. Some may say Jones' fighting style was offensive after the fight. The article I read said it all "Jones was treated by medical personnel at the scene." The lineman outweighs Porter by what, sixty pounds minimum? The thing that is troubling about this for me is that Porter was never an off field problem for Bill Cowher. Sure, he was shot in the ass a few years ago, but that was a drive-by random shooting. I'm not a fan of players getting into trouble and I like Joey Porter. I think he's good for the game in the same manner that Chad Johnson is. This fight is just going to add to Joey's street cred as a menacing type of guy. I was going to post about Peezey tonight anyway as SI's Michael Silver wrote an article on SI.com about how Pittsburgh will regret not signing him and it will come back to haunt them. Silver dives into familiar journalist fodder like Pittsburgh not signing their own, which hasn't really been the case since Heinz field opened. Porter has already been resigned once! He "poo-poo's" James Harrison being resigned last year and ready to start and fails to mention the Steelers need to sign Troy Polamalu and Ben Roethlisberger to their second contracts....soon! He mentions (and again shrugs off) the logic that Mike Tomlin may switch to a 4-3 in the coming seasons and that would diminish Porter's role on the team. His reasoning is one-sided: Porter's fire. I agree with him that Porter's fire will be missed, but when a leader leaves, another person steps up to assume the leadership role. Tomlin will be looking for his defensive leader in camp. Maybe Casey Hampton will step up and be the voice of the defense. Silver criticizes the Stillers for not even making an effort to sign him. What's the point? He wanted top linebacker money and not to be insulted. In my estimation, he has been slipping ever so slightly each of the last 2-3 years. Another thing Silver never mentions is Porter's penchant for having personal fouls called on him in critical situations. In a close game, I'd bet my left plumb that the opposing coach is telling players to get after Peezey and make him do something stupid. Maybe Tomlin is very aware of this and wants a more "polished" approach. Why not just drop the axe now and not cause a problem closer to camp? Look, I didn't want JP to get cut. But when you add up all the small things (not going to take less money, Harrison signed and ready to play cheaply, may switch to 4-3, already played 8 years, Ben and Troy need long term deals) they point in one direction....a menu with no Porterhouse. It's a forward leaning decision and I like it. I'll miss him as a Steeler, but I like the decision.

Steelers Caught With Pants Down!

After reviewing the free agent signings in the NFL for Wednesday and Thursday, I decided to place a call to Steelers headquarters in the 'Burgh. I asked for Kevin Colbert but he wasn't around. Seems Coach Tomlin was watching film. Dan Rooney was napping. Art II was throwing darts at a dartboard with Bill Cowher's face on it. Interesting. I asked the nice lady who answered the phone if anyone over there realized the free agent signing period began on March 2nd. She assured me it started on April 2nd and that I had nothing to worry about. They were cutting players that wanted sentimental money and devising a strategy for resigning the new core of the team. I told her that Joey Porter had already signed with the Dolphins and she said that it was just a rumor. I told her to check NFL.com and she said they all saw it, but assumed the website was hacked and the image of Joey wearing Dolphin's gear was "Photo Shopped". I asked her if they were targeting any players that would get the fans excited and she told me all about this exciting punter. I asked if I could put her on hold and get the new commissioner on the line - she agreed. The commish came on the line and informed her that the free agent signing period had indeed started almost a full week ago. Bells went off, alarms sounded, papers rustled....there was some screaming followed by some crying....followed by some screaming about crying. I heard what sounded like Coach scream "What? Is anyone left? A Punter!!!?????". In all the confusion, the office manager forgot about me so I slowly hung up the phone, happy with the fact that if they sign the punter, I'll never have to hear "You know Jim, Chris Gardocki has never had a punt blocked". I'll miss that almost as much as I miss hearing that Carlton Haselrig never went to college.

Peezey Gets P-A-I-D

I just don't understand some team's philosophy on free agents. Joey Porter, already an 8-year vet, gets cut in a salary cap snafu and ends up making cheddar grande in Miami. At first when I heard the deal was for $32 million, I didn't blink because a lot of deals never make it to the last 1 or 2 years where a lot of the money is. Peezey's agent must be better then Arli$$ because $20 million of the $32 is guaranteed. Amazing. Good for him. If you are giving somebody $20 million in guaranteed money - it better be for a difference maker. Joey Porter is still a better than average outside linebacker. Is he a $20 mil slam dunk? I don't think so. As far as pass rushers go- what's Jason Taylor worth after Porter's deal? It's crazy. I never in a million years thought he'd get that kind of cabbage without having to play one down. I have a feeling we better hurry up and sign Troy Polamalu before an inferior safety's deal prices us right out of the market! And did you see what Ahman Green got from the Texans? The Texans panicked more than Rosie O'Donnel sitting at the last table at a buffet stye dinner reception. Ahman Green? This is 2007 not 2002!

Slantradamous Strikes Again

Hours after posting an opinion on what to do with Joey Porter and predicting that he had played his last game as a Steeler, I got an email from Still A Dad saying he was let go. I'm assuming it was because Porter threatened to hold out if he doesn't have a new deal and the Steelers had no intention of giving him a long term contract with James Harrison in the fold. Basically, Harrison did what Steeler backup linebackers do - he forced a starter out of a job. When you have someone who can play the position as well as the starter and he's making less than 50% of said starter.....the writing is on the wall. Also interesting to note - Porter was a Cowher guy all the way and came to camp last year a little disgruntled because of his contract ONLY after BC reached out to him and asked him to come. Faneca made comments at the Pro Bowl this year to the tune of "why did all the other teams want our assistants but we didn't?". Tomlin would cause an uproar if Faneca found himself out of a job. I think he's quite safe. I also hear the Tomlin is high on a LB that he helped draft for the Vikings....and I think the guy is a free agent. He wouldn't take Harrison's spot, but who knows what's coming in the next few weeks? I'm still a little shocked this happened so quickly but it sure does send a message to every player on the team.

Smith Gets New Deal, 3-4 Staying

Aaron Smith staying around to retire a Steeler or at minimum play another 2-3 years in the 'Burgh signals what the short term plan is for new coach Mike Tomlin. Finding a solid replacement for Smith would be hard for the next few years. It's not that he's untouchable and we should be grooming a replacement - it's that this team is still equipped to win it all with the current lineup and a few tweaks. I don't personally feel that a tweak is needed on the defensive line at this point. Hampton and Smith have played a lot of games together and Keisel played well last year. I also think the contract is a decent enough deal with the cap going up to $90 million dollars. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't excite me nearly as much as it will when Polamalu or Roethlisberger is resigned - but when you look at the makeup of the team, the DL starters are set in stone and with Hoke signed, Hampton is backed up sufficiently. Maybe the plan is for the contract to really be a 2 year deal and be looking at a younger player, but the cap will keep going up making the later part of the contract still acceptable when he gets to it. The bigger question is - what to do with Joey Porter? I remember the Steelers kept Greg Lloyd late in his career and let Chad Brown walk. It turned out to be a bad decision in retrospect. Also, after it was clear to Steeler Nation that Jason Gildon just didn't have it any more - he was retained past his prime and hurt the team badly in my estimation. Porter can be an enigma. He completely destroyed Manning in the playoff game during the Super Bowl run, but he also disappears completely from other games. I'm hoping that when he does disappear, it's because he's being doubled allowing someone else to make a play. There is no doubt that he's also one of the emotional leaders of the team - but his emotions also cause many issues. At times last year I was surprised that he wasn't yanked from a game until he calmed down. Porter will be interesting because we can afford to pay him what he's due this year and then let him walk - although he might hold out. We could keep him for the next 3-4 years only if the money is right - and he won't like what I think is right. He's on the down side of his career and even if he maintains his current level of play for 2007 and 2008 - I'd hate to be paying him $4 million dollars a year in 2009 just to watch him be too slow like Gildon was near the end. James Harrison has to start at some point. Why not this year? Could Porter be traded on draft day? You bet. I won't be surprised by anything that happens concerning him and I'm not sure what I want to happen to him right now. I'm loyal...but not Bill Cowher loyal. I love it that on a player's poll of 350+ current players, Peezey ranked #1 for most feared player. I like intimidation. I don't like stupid penalties. I think The Dog feels his time is over. I'm tempted to have him play this year for what we owe him and then decide what to do. Look, if we are resigning Troy and Ben this year - Porter has to go. Of all the players that we need to keep, I'm just not sure he fits into those plans. I will hate to see him go. You know he'll probably also tell tales out of school once gone. I wish they could agree on a fair contract where he would play this entire year and then start to come in more just to pass rush in later years. I don't think that will happen. I'm predicting it will get ugly and he's played his last game for the Black-n-Gold.

J-Peezy Relaxes A Little

Read This. I love Peezy. Don't get me wrong, he's one of my favorite players. He might not be the brightest bulb in the pack all the time, but he plays 125% full tilt...and he's mean. However, how smart is it to complain about your contract when you play outside linebacker and James Harrison is begging for playing time? Peezy is getting close to $4 mil this year and over $5 in 2007. He needs to understand that he is part of a team. He's part of the core....the signed core. After this season and next, I'm not sure he'll still warrant that kind of money. Plus, the Steelers are OUTSTANDING at drafting LBs. Don't think for a second that we'll break the bank to keep Joey happy while he's under contract. Troy and Ben are the two huge concerns. Man, maybe Cowher is smart when he looks at the list of players coming due on contracts...NC does seem like a nice place to retire.......for a few years.