Recent Events

Well, thank the Sweet Baby Jesus, another football season is upon us. Now, I'm a diehard Steelers fan, but not so much that I think their warts are cute and the fact that they get too conservative when they get a lead is cute. Since I'm starting this a little late in the off-season, I've gotta cover some issues that have been streamed across the Internet as "dire" or "season threatening" as the Black and Gold attempt to defend their title.

First of All:

Has it gotten old for anyone out there to hear the Steelers referred to as "the defending champs"? I know it hasn't for me. Not yet. I'm also quite fond of the fact that every article about Big Ben describes him as the youngest quarterback ever to win the Super Bowl.

Cowher's Contract:

Okay. I understand that it's a big deal that the man has never gone into a season with only two years remaining on his current deal. I understand that Art Rooney II has announced that they're discontinuing negotiations. That's bad. And, I'm thinking that the negotiations went a little something like this:

Kevin Colbert: What would it take to make you happy?
Cowher's Agent: Bill wants to be the highest paid coach in the NFL.
Colbert: How about 4th or 5th highest? Will that work?
(Silence. More silence. Agent shuffles papers, Cowher begins to scowl.)
Agent: I think we're done here.

Here's my thinking: There's absolutely nothing we can do about it. And, the players are definitely not going to give up the chance at a big payday in the future (we've got a number of guys in the last year of their contract) just because they're not sure if Cowher's gonna be around for the 2008 season. And Cowher seems to be very focused on the present and non-committal about the future. I say so what. If he wins another title, he can take a dump in the trophy room and declare that he received "services in exchange for money" from Kordell Stewart on numerous occasions from 1996-2002 and I wouldn't care. If not having a contract focuses him on winning another title, more power to him.

He'll either sign an extension, or he won't. If he doesn't, he'll either retire or go to another team. Again, nothing we can do. I'd like to add for the conspiracy theorists out there that Bill Parcells' contract also expires at the end of the 2007 season. Parcells ain't signing another contract. If there's anyone that will throw gobs of money at a name coach, it's Jerry Jones. I'm sure Cowher would rather die than coach the Cowboys (as would we all), but for $7 million a year, he'd probably have a threesome with Jones and Barbara Bush.

I say we pay him. After all, my argument for signing the man to an extension or whether or not he should be fired remains the same: If he wanted another job after he left the Steelers, how many teams would line up to hire him? I'm thinking lots. And, I'm sure he wants to retire and hang out with his daughters and his wife, but that still leaves him about 49 men short of what he's used to dealing with. He won't stay retired long. He'll go somewhere else. For $7 million a year in Pittsburgh? Get Dan Rooney and Sophie Masloff on the horn and tell 'em to bring some lube!

Injuries to the Offensive Line:

It has been a big deal here in Pittsburgh, but I don't know how big a deal it seems to be nationally. Chukky Okobi got hurt. Barrett Brooks got arrested. The day after Brooks got arrested, my grandfather called me and asked me, "What's up with this Brett Barks? Is he a starter?" I think that right there points out just how important the man is. Him getting arrested just gave us one more reason to cut him and replace him with someone younger, more talented, and cheaper.

Speaking of which, I've been lobbying for the outster of Mr. Okobi for about 3 years now. I even rooted for Gay "Bo" Lacy to take the back-up job from him when we drafted Lacy in 2004. Now remember that Lacy, during the 2004 off-season, was the only center on any NFL roster that snapped the ball with both hands. Marvin Phillip was a two-time All-Pac 10 player at his position. He's big enough, athletic enough, and he doesn't draw $2 million a year in salary. If Okobi really was the "center of the future," he'd have overtaken Hartings and his balky knees by now. Let me point out that the preceeding comment was a slam against Okobi, not in any way a slight against Hartings. That guy's awesome.

Phillips definitely isn't the next Webster or Dawson. Hell, Hartings isn't the next Webster or Dawson. But, he's good enough. And he's better than Okobi. We've spent the last two off-seasons stockpiling young depth and talent along the offensive line. I suggest we use it.

And, lost in all the offensive line worry is the fact that everyone seems to have completely forgotten that Big Ben almost died just over two months ago. Just throwing that out there. Couple of back-up linemen aren't that important in the big picture.

Free Agent Departures:

We lost a guy that had one touchdown reception and 35 total catches last year, a 35 year-old defensive lineman, and Chris Hope. Not that big a deal. Seriously.

Granted, we drafted two guys (Holmes to replace El the receiver and Reid to replace El the returner) to replace Randle-El and really needed to draft a third guy (Brad Smith of Missouri or Michael Robinson of Penn State) to fully replace him, but it's not that huge a loss. In an era of specialization in the NFL, if you do three things well, you're not really good at anything. Holmes just needs to concentrate on receiving (and showing up for court dates) and he'll be better at it than El. Reid just needs to focus on returning punts. And Hines Ward can throw. They just never needed him to. By the way, we've got this guy on the team... wears #7... he's a pretty good thrower. Gets paid for that sort of thing.

As much as I hated to see Kimo go (and I wasn't that shocked to see something since I saw Courtney Cox's breasts in The Longest Yard), Brett Keisel is actually ready. And he's better than Kimo. Maybe not from a technique standpoint (yet), but he's younger, faster, stronger, and a far superior pass rusher.

I really think Ryan Clark is an upgrade over Chris Hope. I have nothing to back this up. All I know is that Hope was asking for too much money to be Troy Polamalu's fluff girl. After all, who makes more, the guy that invented Tide, or the guy that does the laundry? Troy creates and makes a difference, the free safety in the scheme simply cleans up (which makes the fluff girl analogy either unfounded or pretty accurate, depending on how you look at it).

Wow. I got to rambling. More coming soon.