A Final Word on Le’Veon Bell

So, Le'Veon Bell signs a four year, $52.5 million deal with the Jets.  Last year, he turned down a five year, $70 million contract with the Steelers.  I attempted to read an article on Deadspin that purported to detail how much money was guaranteed in each contract, but halfway through it, my eyes started watering and my head started to hurt, so I quit.  I mean, who cares?

I will say this for Bell, he took a principled stand and sat out a year in order to get what he felt he was worth, so good for him.  That he acted like knucklehead during his holdout with tweets from jet-skis and strip clubs, sort of takes some of the Sam Gompers/Curt Flood like aura away from him, but still, you got to hand it to a guy who passed on 14.5 million bucks.  I am sure that the Steelers never thought it would go that far, and that, if they had it to do over, they would have traded him last summer for whatever they could have gotten (2nd round pick? 3rd round pick? a carton of jock straps?).   And don't you think that the Steelers might have used some of that $14.5 mil of cap space last year to have helped the team during the season?  Oh, well.

As it is, it certainly appears that Bell lost on the bet he made on himself.  Of course, when you sort through what the guaranteed dough was from the Steelers and is from the Jets, maybe he didn't, but I am pretty sure that he will never recover that fourteen point five large he DIDN'T get paid by the Steelers last year.

I was going to say a "Final Word" on Antonio Brown, but, really, I am just tired of that subject.  Instead, I will refer you to Joe Starkey's column in today's Post-Gazette.  Says it all:

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/joe-starkey/2019/03/13/Joe-Starkey-Don-t-ever-forget-what-Antonio-Brown-did-to-this-team-and-its-fans/stories/201903130146

Yes, the Steelers have lost a couple of major talents in Bell and Brown, but they did play last season without Bell, and James Conner, notwithstanding a couple of devastating fumbles in key situations, pretty much replaced him without a beat.  Brown's talents may be more difficult to replace, but let us all remember a critical number:

0 - The number of Super Bowls won by the Steelers with Bell and Brown in the lineup.

On another Steelers note, I was sorry to see that TE Jesse James has elected to sign as a free agent with Detroit.  I know that the Steelers will move on from this, but I always liked James, and thought he was an asset to the team.  I wish him well, and I hope that Vance McDonald can stay healthy for sixteen games next year.

Yes, this really WAS a catch!

Sports, Money, and Morgan Freeman

Sports and money much in the news this past week......

Bryce Harper finally signed a contract this week.  It's with the Phillies for 13 years and a total of $330 million, which comes out to $25 million and change per year.  Harper will NOT be the highest played player in MLB.  That will be the Rockies Nolan Arenado at $32.5 million, and there are several others out there who make north of $25 million, including his new teammate, pitcher Jake Arietta.

There is a report out there that Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, turned down an offer from the Dodgers for four years and $180 million, which would have come out to $45 million per year.  Plus, it would have made Harper a free agent once again at the age of 30, when, assuming his career arc continues as it has over the years, he could have cashed in on yet ANOTHER mind boggling contract.

I guess it was more important to Harper (and Boras) to sign the contract with the largest total payout ($330 M) versus getting the highest single season contract ever ($45 M).  That is a real first world problem.  No wonder it took so long to hammer out a deal.  Plus, Boras gave out this memorable quote:

"It was important to Bryce to sign a contract where he knows he'll be in one place with the same team for a long period of time." (Those may not be the exact works, but that's the gist of it.)

Okay, I realize that this Phillies contract includes no-trade and no-opt-out clauses, but what are the odds that Harper will spend the entire thirteen year length of that contract with the Phillies?  I say that there is not a chance in Hell that that will happen, and I'd bet a hundred bucks to that effect.  Trouble is, that contract expires after the 2031 season, the year in which I will turn eighty, so there is a chance that if he is still with Philly then, I won't be around to see it, or to pay off or collect upon said bet.

Oh, and I can't wait to hear and see how the denizens of Citizens Bank Park are going to react the first time Harper goes into a ten game 5-for-44 slump.

However, I also know this, if the Phillies strike it rich and reach a World Series or two during the first five or six years of that contract with Harper playing a key role in their success, both the team and its fans are going to be really, really happy with the deal, and that is something that we followers of the Bob Nutting Pirates are never going to experience.

And in football, we Steelers fans are being inundated with news coverage and endless talk show bleatings about (a) negotiations of a contract extension for Ben Roethlisberger, (b) the team not "tendering" or "franchising" Le’Veon Bell, and (c), the entire Antonio Brown fiasco.

Here is what The Grandstander thinks.

(a) The QB is the most important position on the team.  They have to do this deal.  Even though Ben turns 37 today (Happy Birthday, Big Ben!), and his skills may not be what they once were.  Just don't make these negotiations turn into yet another media circus.  Fat chance.

(b) Seeya Le'Veon, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  I do admit, though, that I am interested to see where he ends up and how much money he gets.  He bet big time on himself by skipping a season last year, and he may never get back that $14.5 million that he didn't get from the Steelers last year, but we'll see.

(c) Brown is perhaps the best receiver in the NFL, maybe the best ever in Steelers history (think  about that if you will), but he is a selfish and narcissistic team killer, who quit on his coaches and teammates last season, and I hope that the door DOES hit him in the ass on his way out.  I don't care about him, and I don't care to read or hear about him anymore.  As far as AB is concerned, I refer you to the great Morgan Freeman (I know you were wondering where he came into this discussion) and this quote from "The Shawshank Redemption":

"I don't give a shit."

Random Thoughts On A Disappointing Steelers Season

After ten games in 2018, the Steelers stood at 7-2-1, held a comfortable lead in the AFC North, and they appeared to be headed towards a playoff spot and first round bye.   What then followed was a disastrous 2-4 finish that included losses to two lousy teams, the Broncos and Raiders, a loss to a very good Chargers team wherein they gave away 16 point lead at home, and a win they barely eaked out over another crummy team, the Bengals.  Oh, they did manage to get one monkey off their backs by beating the evil forces of Kraft, Bellichick, Brady, and the Patriots in that 2-4 stretch.  That was quite satisfying at the time, but when the totality of the season is considered, it turns out to have been, at best, a hollow victory.

So, yeah, this team, one that by all accounts seemed to be loaded with Super Bowl caliber talent, ends up missing the playoffs and the 2018 season can only be categorized as a disappointment (or worse!).

Some random thoughts from this section of The Grandstand....

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With perfect 20/20 hindsight, Steelers management clearly underestimated the resolve of Le'Veon Bell and his willingness to not get paid in the short term in hopes of getting a huge guaranteed contract in the long term.  Bell was certainly within his rights to do so, and, financially at least, he was the only person who "lost" anything by this strategy.   Whether he gets the big money he desires remains to be seen, but if you placed a gun to the heads of Art Rooney, Kevin Colbert, and Mike Tomlin and insisted they speak the truth, I'm willing to bet that they now wish that they would have traded Bell before the season started and gotten something, even a mid-level draft pick for him.  As it is, Bell will achieve free agent status and the team will get bupkis for him.

Of course, the Steelers could impose a franchise tag on him again next season, but please, God, spare us from that particular melodrama again.

********

The newspaper today tells us that, statistically at least, the Steelers had the sixth best defense in the NFL in 2018.  Really?  When you watched this team all season, did you ever once think that you were watching a top tier defensive unit?

The defense forced only 15 turnovers all year, and had only eight interceptions, and I would have guessed that they had even fewer than that paltry number.   It was baffling to me to watch a team that just could not force turnovers on a regular basis.  This became all the more glaring and galling when in the game against the Patriots, Joe Haden DID make an interception, and off of Tom Brady, no less.  That play was critical in the Steelers winning that game, and it made the fact that they had so few throughout the season all the more frustrating.

I am not a football coach, so I won't even pretend to talk about the X's and O's of the game, but it seems to be obvious that something needs to be done with the defensive coaching staff leading into 2019.

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Special teams.  On the plus side, there was that fake field goal attempt that led to a Chris Boswell-to-Alejandro Villanueva touchdown pass, there was a blocked FG by L.J Fort, and there was, well, what other good things were there? Chris Boswell's implosion has been well documented, and did the Steelers ever have a kick off or punt return of any significance at all this season?  If they did, it's not coming to mind right now.

********

Ben Roethlisberger hung some great numbers this year. Total yards, TD passes....he set team records in both categories, and he became the first Steelers QB and only the seventh NFL QB to throw for over 5,000 yards in a season.  There is still no QB I would rather see with the ball late in the fourth quarter when you need to drive a team down field with little time left on the clock to get a score to win a game.  This was demonstrated time and again this season.  The win against Jacksonville comes to mind, and even in losses to Oakland and New Orleans, Ben did what had to be done when the game was on the line.  He even finally outplayed and defeated the great Tom Brady.

He also led the league with 16 interceptions, including a terrible one in the closing seconds against Denver in the end zone when he was on the cusp of pulling off another fourth quarter, last minute comeback.

What caused this to happen?   Poor coaching and play calling? Bullheadedness on Ben's part?  Or after fifteen seasons and at age 36, is Father Time beginning to catch up to Big Ben?  Again, I'm not a coach, so I don't pretend to know the answers.  I'm glad that #7 will be back at the helm once again next year, but he can't go on forever.

********

There were bright spots that need to be recognized....James Conner's performance sparked the team through that mid-season 6-0 streak and that 7-2-1 record.  He seemed to more than make up for Bell's absence.  Still, there were two critical fumbles that led directly to the Browns being able to pull off that tie in the season opener, and in another game, the exact one I cannot remember at the moment, that led to a Steelers defeat.  Plus, he missed three games due to injury down the stretch, so he has yet to be able to stay on the field for a full sixteen game schedule.

Also, T.J.Watt sure seems to be a guy on defense who was well worth that number one draft pick two years ago.

********

And then there is Antonio Brown.

First off, Brown is the best WR in football.  He is also probably the best player on the Steelers team and its most valuable player (and that fact that he wasn't voted that award by his teammates appears to be quite telling in light of the events of the last week of the season).  

All that aside, the drama that he generates - and I am not going to list all of there incidents of this past season; if you follow the team, you know of them - along with the unbelievable narcissism, reached its zenith this past week leading up to the Bengals game. Skipping practices, not showing up for a final walk through the day before the game, then having his agent, not him, his agent, calling Tomlin and saying he'll play on Sunday, showing up pregame on the sideline and then leaving the Stadium at halftime, then not returning phone calls from his bosses, including the team president, all of that adds up to a guy who (a) no longer wants to be with the team, and (b) should not be with the team in the future.  His actions have led to what appears to be a breakdown in team morale, as evidenced in numerous quotes this week from unnamed players on the team, and has called into question Tomlin's ability to maintain discipline and the aforementioned morale among the team.  I know that there are salary cap implications that make it difficult to either trade or release Brown, but somehow or another, I believe that bringing Brown back to this team in 2019 is going to just allow what was apparently a real problem on the team and in the locker room to get even worse.

Antonio Brown is a great player and it won't be easy to replace him, but let's face it, the Steelers haven't won any Super Bowls, or even had a lot of post season success, WITH him on the team these last few years, have they?

********

I imagine that the 2018 season post-mortem discussions that will take place among Art Rooney, Kevin Colbert, and Mike Tomlin are going to be really, really interesting these next few weeks. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.....

********

Despite some highs - hey, the season was not without its great moments - and lows, in the end, the images of the 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers will forever be.......

Le'Veon Bell on a jetski in Miami, and 

Antonio Brown in a mink coat on the sidelines against the Bengals, right before he blew off his team and left Heinz Field.

On the bright side, it will be stress-free watching the NFL Playoffs without the Steelers in them this year.

The Le'Veon Bell Saga Concludes

Throughout this NFL and Steelers football season, I have pretty much avoided discussing the subject of Le'Veon Bell.    I chose to adopt the Chuck Noll-ian philosophy of addressing only topics as they pertained to the Steelers that were actually, you know, playing.  Today, however, the matter reached its denouement when Bell chose not to report to the Steelers by the CBA mandated deadline of 4:00 PM, so he will not be playing for the Steelers, or anybody else, in 2018.  This also means that he will no doubt never appear in a Steelers uniform again.

We won't be seeing this anymore.

So here are The Grandstander's thoughts on the matter.  They are presented in a somewhat disjointed fashion and in no particular order of importance.

1. It is important to remember, I think, that the only  person who took a risk here, the only person who has actually lost anything throughout this whole process is Le'Veon Bell himself.  He thinks that he is worth and that he deserves a whole lot more than what the Steelers were willing to pay him in guaranteed money, and in standing up for that principle, he has passed up the chance to make $14.5 million this year.  I like to think that I am a highly principled person myself, but I can't see myself ever walking away from that much money if the opportunity presented itself, which, of course, it never will.  So, give Bell some credit for that stance.
2. The Steelers are coming out fairly unscathed in the court of public opinion over this whole affair only because of the emergence of James Conner as a star running back himself, one who has been able to do pretty much everything that Bell had been able to do.  Had Conner fizzled the Steelers would not be sitting with the second best record in the AFC today, and the fan base would be screaming for the blood of the cheapskate Rooneys.  And such a scenario could still play out if Conner were to become injured.
3. As I understand it, the Steelers and Bell could go through this entire fandango again next year by putting the franchise tag on Bell, albeit at a price north of $25 million, for the 2019 season.  That will never happen. It would then appear that Bell would become an unrestricted free agent (although there is a way where Bell could sign an agreement with another team and the Steelers would have the right to match the offer, and if that happens, I can't see the Steelers matching such an offer).  
4. So it would appear that Bell will be free to sign with the highest bidder for 2019.  Will his roll of the dice produce a contract that will give him what he thinks he deserves?  And even if it does, will he ever be able to make back that $14.5 large that he didn't get this year?  We'll find out, but as I said at the outset, Bell is the one that was willing to take this risk, and only he will be the one who will either reap the reward, or pay the price for his stance.
5. One thing I heard on the radio today was the possibility that the NFL owners might agree to not pay Bell what he wants, if only to show other players that they can't play that sit-out-the-season card when their contracts come up for negotiation.  That, however, would be collusion, and you just can't see the NFL lodge brothers engaging in the practice of collusion, can you? Nah, that could never happen, right?
6. You will never get a full and complete answer from Art II, Kevin Colbert, and Mike Tomlin, but here are questions to which I would love to know the answers: (A) Did they ever really think that Bell would stick to his guns on this issue? (B) If they knew in July and August what they know today, would they have traded Bell to another team for a second or third round pick just so they could get something, anything for him?
7. Why do I just have a sickening feeling that Le'Veon Bell will return to Heinz Field one day wearing a New England Patriots or Baltimore Ravens uniform?

Sports Notes - Various Topics

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box, Wide, Wide World of Sports Division.....

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a spectacular month of July, sporting a record of 17-9 that shot them back into playoff contention.  August has not been so kind.  With three games remaining, the August ledger shows them at 8-16.  Fourth place in the Central, 14 games out of first place.  Eight and one-half games out of the Wild Card spot with nine (9!!) teams ahead of them.  With thirty games remaining, they have to go 18-12 just to finish over .500.

And here is some more good news.  On his weekly radio show on Sunday, Neal Huntington led off with this quote:

"As we look at next year's club, the core of it is this year's club."

How would you like to be a ticket sales rep for that Pirates with THAT as your marketing slogan this off-season?

********

Le'Veon Bell has indicated that he will sign his franchise tag deal with the Steelers and report for practice on Monday, one week before the regular season opener.  All the Steelers players and coaches are saying the right things.  You know, "He's the best...it's just business....we're glad he's back...we need him to get where we want to go"...and blah blah blah.

When this season ends, and Bell goes and collects his pot of free agency gold in 2019, these same players, the ones who have been banging their heads at training camp and in exhibition games will no doubt tell us what they REALLY thought of Bell's hold outs these last two seasons.  You know, like they all told us about what kind of a teammate James Harrison was in his final year with the team after the Steelers canned him.

********

Pitt opens its 2018 football season on Saturday against the mighty Great Danes of Albany University. I am looking forward to being at Heinz Field on Saturday to see Albany collect it's huge paycheck, and to spending another convivial season, my sixth, amongst the members of the ticket group I am in.  That's will always be fun.

As for how is Pitt going to fare this season, I can claim no insight or expertise to make a valid prediction.  However, I do know this: In the three seasons under Head Coach Pat Narduzzi (or HCPN, as he will be known for the remainder off this blogging season), Pitt has gone 8-5, 8-5, 5-7 (0-2 in bowl games; they failed to qualify for a bowl last year, and that's not easy to do in college football these days).  It's time for the Panthers to take that proverbial "next step" under Narduzzi.  Not sure what that means, but it would sure be nice to see Pitt in the race for a slot in the ACC Championship game in November.  HCPN has already predicted that they will be in that game. Can't say that he's shying away from putting himself on the spot.

Oh, and Pitt is relying heavily on sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett, who as started all of one game in his career.  Granted, that game was a spectacular upset win over a 10-0 (or were they 11-0 at the time?) Miami, and Pickett sure was great in that one.  Still, Pitt is putting  a lot of eggs in the inexperienced Pickett's basket.  I hope it works out.

********

On the national scene, you are all familiar with the sordid tale of Urban Meyer and the ridiculous slap on the wrist that Ohio State handed him last week.  This has been written about extensively by many, many talented national sportswriters and commentators,  so I won't restate the story here. Suffice to say, most people, at least most people outside of the state of Ohio, feel that Meyer should have been fired.  I especially like one columnist I read, and I regret that I can't remember who it was, who has renamed the Buckeyes coach "Urban Liar".

Well, at least we know who and what runs the show at THE Ohio State University, and considering their track record over the years with Woody Hayes and Jim Tressel, I guess we shouldn't really be surprised.

As for me, I have decided to effect any own form of protest.  I have decided that I will NOT watch any college football game this season involving Ohio State.  That could include several games of consequence, including games against Penn State and Michigan, and it could also include games in the College Football Playoffs in January.  Although  I would think - hope? - that that CFP Committee would bend over backwards to NOT include Ohio State in that four team set-up, no matter what their record.

Now, I know that little old me sitting in Pittsburgh, PA not watching a given football game or games on a given weekend or weekends will not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but it will make me feel better about myself.  So I have that going for me, which is nice.  (Two classic movie lines referenced in one paragraph!)

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The other big announcement in recent days was confirmation that Tiger Woods will meet Phil Mickelson, head to head, in a $9 million televised golf match over Thanksgiving weekend.  Of course the Nine Large will be coming from someone else's pockets - yours!  Yep, this made for TV event will be available only on a Pay-Per-View basis, probably cost you twenty-five to thirty bucks to watch this event.  

Now I love Tiger and Phil, and they are arguably the two greatest and most important golfers (and in the case of Woods, one of the most important athletes) in this century, but this is pure money grab, worthy only of fading boxers, MMA fighters, and Vince McMahon.  Also, between them, Woods and Mickelson have won exactly one tournament in the last five years.  I don't begrudge anyone making a buck, but guys of their stature should really be above this.  

Now, if they were going to play a skins game for $1,000 a hole OF THEIR OWN MONEY....that I might be willing to watch.

Steelers 42 - Bengals 21, and Other Football Thoughts

There are very few absolutes in life - the sun will rise in the east, the Pope will always pray for peace, the Yankees will always spend vast amounts of money.  That's about it, but there is another one that you can take to the bank with as close to absolute certainty as there is in professional sports, and that is this: with rare, very rare, exceptions, the Cincinnati Bengals will almost always revert to being, well, the Cincinnati Bengals.

Facing the a home game against the Steelers wherein a victory would just about put a death knell on the Steelers playoff aspirations, and increase their own playoff possibilities, the Bengals took a 21-17 lead into the fourth quarter and proceeded to allow the Steelers to score 25 straight points in the space of about nine minutes.  That ain't easy, but if any team has shown a historical propensity for such happenings, it is the Bengals.  I don't want to sell the Steelers short here.  They thoroughly earned this victory in what, for three quarters anyway, was a close, hard fought, and pretty good football game.

The Steelers are a flawed team, especially on the defensive side of the ball.  They give up too many long plays, often for scores  - it happened twice today - but the offensive unit sure seems to be peaking at the right time of the season.  Ben Roethlisberger continues having one of his best seasons ever (despite some inexplicably bad games this season), Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are having Pro Bowl seasons, and the offensive line appears to be among the best in the league.  Can they make a deep run in the NFL Playoffs?  Given the weaknesses of the defense, probably not, but the trick is to get into the Playoffs.  To do that they will need to win at least two of their remaining three games, with one of those wins coming in the season finale against the Bengals.  Once you get into the Playoffs, anything can happen, as the KayCee Royals can tell you.  I know, I know, different sport, but still a good analogy.

********

Because Marilyn and I went to a play this afternoon, I only watched the Steelers game via my DVR recording, beginning at around 4:45.  Did you realize that you can watch an entire NFL game in about ninety minutes or so this way?  Terrific.

Anyway, this circumstance meant that we listened to the radio broadcast of the game for the twenty or so real time minutes of the fourth quarter that transpired during our drive home.  It would take a writer much, much, MUCH better than I to describe just how incredibly bad the radio team of Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin, and, yes, Craig Wolfley is.   On the long incompletion  that Andy Dalton threw to A.J. Green with Cincy down 28-21, Hilgrove described it as, and I may not have it exactly here, but the gist is correct: "A guy came and knocked the ball away, pushed Green out of bounds and another guy almost intercepted the ball."  The two "guys" in question were, I might add, Steelers with whom, presumably, Hillgrove is familiar and should be able to identify by name.  I might also add that Tunch made no effort to step in a identify who those two Steelers defenders were.

Awful, and the Steelers and their broadcast partners should really move onto some fresh blood next season.  The glory days of "turn down the TV sound and listen to Fleming and Cope on the radio" are long gone.

********

I see that the college football playoff committee has settled on Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State as the first ever college football final four.  I think it's a just line-up.  All the pre-weekend hype centered on whether or not TCU should be ranked ahead of Baylor if all teams held serve over the weekend.  All teams did hold serve, and all but still undefeated FSU won in blowouts, including fifth ranked Ohio State.  It seems to me, and to some knowledgeable football people out there, that as the season progressed, it became apparent that Ohio State, despite playing in a weak Big Ten, was certainly among the four best teams in the country, and maybe even the best team.  The advanced metrics crowd will surely argue that this is not the case, but they passed the "eye test" to me, and, apparently, the twelve person committee, so I like the line-up.

I also like that Alabama and Ohio State will be matched up in one of the semi-final games.  With two such cheerful, outgoing, and likable coaches like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer going head to head, gosh it's going to be tough to decide which guy you would like to win more.

Steelers 27 - Titans 24

Lesson learned from last night's Steelers game:

Football games are sixty minutes long.

Yeah, it was not a great performance, and yeah, they came very close to losing to another NFL bottom feeder, but, in fact, they WON THE GAME.

Another lesson learned: 

Don't make withering posts on Facebook about the performance of any given team until the given game is over.

And three cheers and a Game Ball for this guy:

Steelers Beat Packers; Still Alive!

In a wild game that was unbelievably entertaining, the Steelers beat the Packers yesterday, 38-31, and, amazingly, kept their playoff hopes alive as they head into the final weekend of the season next week.

This game had just about everything:

• another very good game by Ben Roethlisberger, who may well be having the best season of his career,
• a successful fake punt by the Steelers that resulted in a thirty yard gain,
• a 100 yard rushing game by Le'Veon Bell; it had been 22 games since the Steelers had a 100 yard rusher,
• an interception returned for a touchdown by Cortez Allen
• a blocked field goal,
• yet another fourth quarter lead that the Steelers defense could not hold, followed by...
• a fourth quarter TD by Bell that regained the lead,
• a Packer kick-off return and a Steelers penalty that almost allowed the Packers to tie the game,
• an incomplete pass into the end zone on the final play that would have forced the game into overtime,
• and, oh yeah, an apparently blown call by the officials following that blocked Packer FG attempt, that would have loomed REALLY large had the Steelers ended up losing that game.

Local media types have been trying to gin up a controversy over Mike Tomlin's decision not to eat up time on the clock by not having Roethlisberger kneel down for two plays and then kick a FG at the end of the game.  Instead, Bell scored the winning TD (and did the Packers let him score there?), and the Packers got the ball back with over a minute to play, and ended the game, thanks to that 70 yard kick return, inside the Steelers ten yard line with a chance to tie the game.

Sorry, but I'm with Tomlin on this one.  When you have a chance to score, you try to score on the very next play.  Plus, the idea of an Offense trying not to score, while the Defense tries to allow  you to score, just strikes me as wrong.  This happened in the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl two years ago, and it just didn't sit well with me.  Besides, how many times is a strategy like that going to work for you? One in ten times? A hundred times? A thousand times?  Yeah, it almost worked for Green Bay yesterday, but the key word there is almost.

Oh, and a word about Le'Veon Bell.  After a slow start, due to injuries, it is now apparent, Bell appears to be the real deal as an NFL running back.  Big, fast, strong and with an almost freakish ability to hurdle defenders.  One of the things I like most about him is his ability make what should be three or four yard losses into one or two yard gains.

As I have been saying for a few weeks now, whatever else the Steelers have been this year, their games, with one or two exceptions, have been tremendously entertaining, win or lose, and that game yesterday may have topped them all.

And you have to hand it to the NFL, they do know how to milk the playoff possibility game.  With a win next week and help from three other teams in three other games, the Steelers could find themselves with a seat at the table when the Playoffs begin the following week.  Probable? Not very, but still possible, and if it happens, I will remind you that all twelve playoff teams will start with a 0-0 record.  And to the Gloomy Guses who may root against this happening because it will "only spoil our draft position", get over it.

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Two other NFL observations:

The Seattle Seahawks, who may very well be the best team in the NFL, lost yesterday to the Arizona Cardinals.  The Cardinals are now 10-5, very much alive in the NFC playoff hunt, and are coached by Bruce Ariens, who was shoved into "retirement" by Art Rooney II two years ago.  Make your own judgements there.

In Detroit, Coach Jim Schwartz, a singularly annoying individual, with time on the clock and times out in his pocket, elected to play for a field goal to tie the game with the Giants yesterday rather than try to score a touchdown.  The fans at Ford Field made the displeasure with this strategy known, and Schwartz was seen turning towards the stands and jawing with the fans about it.  The Giants won the game in OT, and Schwartz is said to be on the ropes in Detroit.

What's On TV Tonight?

After a ten day stretch wherein the Pirates went 2-7, and lost three extra innings games in what can only be termed excruciating fashion, I am going to turn my attention tonight, for really the first time this summer, to the Pittsburgh Steelers and their exhibition (I refuse to use the NFL-mandated term for these games) game against the Redskins tonight.  I did catch bits and pieces of the game against the Giants last week, but plan on paying a bit more attention to this evening's game.

I am particularly interested in seeing the heralded rookie running back Le'Veon Bell, if, that is, he is deemed healthy enough to play.  This was a position in which the Steelers were deficient last season, so I am anxious to see how he performs.

I am also anxious to watch first round draft pick Jarvis Jones of the University of Georgia.  No less an authority than a kid working in a t-shirt shop in Hilton Head, SC told me last April that the Steelers got "a hell of a player" when they drafted him.

As for the Buccos, I am determined not to lose faith, but I am also glad that these next several games will be on the west coast, which means I will probably be in bed as they are being played, and I will miss most parts of them.  My nervous system needs a break after this last stretch.