Well, We Lost

And... I'm back! I just realized that it has, in fact, been about six weeks since I've posted anything to the ol' blog, so I thought I'd check in because there's some stuff happening in Pittsburgh sports.

Sure, the Penguins lost and the Pirates have already started sucking after opening the season by winning three straight (I predicted that would happen, btw, but since I didn't post anything, I really can't claim any credit).

But the real news is this draft thing that's happening in a week (almost to the hour). It's Tomlin's first draft and I'm sure he's nervous. The good news is that Kevin Colbert is probably going to run the show and throw in a quick, "Uh, yeah. That sounds like a good guy to get here. Yeah. I... uh... I like him. I'm going to go rehearse my lines for the next episode of 'House.'"

Colbert has presided over several consecutive successful drafts (we'll pretend 2002 didn't happen and that he pulled the trigger on Alonzo Jackson) and I trust him pretty much implicitly. He could take quarterbacks with all eight picks (we have a compensatory pick) and I'd be okay with it. I'd be a little confused about the strategy, but I'd still be okay.

Since we're not going to do that, let's look at what we should do. Not predicting anything. I'm going to sit on my Brian St. Pierre pick for the rest of my life and have, "Brian St. Pierre, QB, Boston College, Round 5, 2003, Pittsburgh Steelers" engraved on my tombstone.

Plus which, if I give the Steelers lots of options at each pick, I can then later say, "Well, they didn't go with option 3 or option 6, but they did go with option 12, so I was right."

I don't have time to do that right now, though, but check back again before draft day, because I will be posting something. I promise.

What I do have time for is a few quick comments about the state of Pittsburgh sports.

1. Alan Faneca's holdout is not a big deal. He'll be in training camp. The work-outs, technically, are voluntary. Plus which, he's a guard. I don't care if the premiere guys in the league are now making more than Tom Brady. They're guards. Seriously. I know he's a hell of a guy and he played left tackle when we needed him to but he's a guard. Really. He is. We can get another one. The new guy won't be as good, but guards aren't as important to the offensive line in this scheme as the center. We'll miss Hartings this year more than we'll miss Faneca next year when he signs a $60 million contract next off-season.
2. I don't care if Joey Porter's dogs ate Levi Jones. I really don't. He's not on the team anymore and it's not something I can concern myself with. I miss him, I'll continue to miss him, but I can't get all caught up in controversies that don't involve players on the roster.
3. Except for Chris Henry and Pacman Jones. With the new rules sent in place by Kaiser Goodell, it's a good thing that Santonio Holmes didn't have his little run-ins with the law this off-season, because he'd probably be looking at a four game suspension. The good news is that the Steelers usually draft high character guys that don't get in trouble, so it's not something we probably have to worry about in this new fascist regime. I mean, really, this much money, all these kids are between 21 and 31, most of them didn't come from money, and they have no idea how to react. So they throw 81 grand into a pile of strippers to see what will happen. Big deal. What Goodell should be doing is not messing with a good thing. Don't find dumb rules to add, find dumb rules to subtract. Add revenue, subtract dumb rules, keep the money flowing, punish a player when it's absolutely necessary. That's going to be his legacy. He shouldn't fuck with it too much.
4. The Penguins lost and that's a tragedy. Ottawa's a damn good team. They have good players and those players complement each other well. The Penguins have better players, but they're not as disciplined (I saw too many instances of chasing after someone just because they could, not because it was necessary and too many turnovers that ended up in scoring chances). I think they may have too many stars. There's not that one guy (and it should be Crosby) that everyone gears up for and needs to have the puck when it matters most. With the cup teams, it was Lemieux. Then Jagr took over. Then Kovalev and Lemieux started getting back in the mix and we didn't win a cup with those teams because there were too many chiefs. Ottawa played good team hockey and they beat our all stars. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
5. The Pirates are going to suck. It's over.