Rooney Rules

The latest article from SI writer Michael Silver ranks the NFL's current owners. Dan / Art II rank 9th this year, up from 10th last year. Last year's article infuriated me so much I sent an email (thoughtful, not attacking) and received a great reply from Mr. Silver. We've since traded emails on numerous occassions and the information that he gets is rock solid. I still think the Rooney family belongs in the top 5, but that's beside the point in this post. Although he doesn't go into any detail (I've asked for some, though) he reports that it was Dan's call to hire Mike Tomlin over Art II's vehemently disagreeing with him. Art II wanted one of the in-house guys (Grimm, Whiz) to take over. That blows up my theory of Art II sticking it to Bill Cowher by not hiring one of his staff. In the end, I think we're going to be happy with Tomlin and I respect Rooney for making the tough decision and not going with the insider. I think after the bad season they had - they needed to shake up the team and get the edge back. Grimm or Whiz would have been like a substitute teacher taking over for a year. Silver also claims Cowher leaving was all about the cheddar and that he would have stayed if offered market value. That's a tough one to swallow unless he was really more upset with Art II than anyone let on. He never seemed the type to me to leave for money since he's a Yinzer at heart, has money like Fort Knox and job security for life. Is that worth 2 million a year? I think it has more to do with Bill Cowher wanting to run the entire show - which is what he will get at his next stop, unless of course he becomes a NASCAR driver.

Mike Tomlin In Sports Illustrated

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

Patriot Way is a Farce?

Good article by Michael Silver of SI. We trade emails on occasion. It all started from me calling him out on an article he wrote about NFL owners. He didn't have the Rooney family in the top 10 and I was one of ten kazillion people who emailed him about it. He's really a cool dude and answers all email pretty honestly. We traded back and forth on the Rooney debate for about a week and then it turned to running, his brother's ultra iron man competitions, our old cars that we roll in, what a "grange" is, the cutting of Joey Porter and his Vegas fight - and who would win a fight in their primes: Porter or Greg Lloyd. We both went with Lloyd as Silver admitted that he's one of the most intimidating people he's ever met.

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.