Month: November 2008

The Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals fought to a 13-13 tie last Sunday, the first such tie in an NFL game since November 11, 2002, when Pittsburgh and Atlanta played to a 34-34 tie.

Ties are obviously rare in the NFL – if a game is tied at the end of regulation, a 15 minute “sudden death” overtime is played, in which the first time to score wins. Since it’s fairly easy for most teams to at least get a field goal when they need one, most games end within that overtime period.

During the regular season, if neither team scores during the overtime period, the game ends in a tie. During the playoffs, however, overtimes are added until a team scores. It’s as simple as that. And you’d think one of the NFL’s marquee quarterbacks would know that. But apparently Donovan McNabb does not. After the game, McNabb was quoted as saying:

“I didn’t know [a game could end in a tie]… I’ve never been part of a tie. I never even knew it was in the rule book. I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game. But unfortunately with the rules, we settled with a tie.”

Huh? I know that ties don’t happen often, but jeez – this is a basic NFL rule we’re talking about here, not something obscure like a 1 point safety! But no, McNabb’s idiocy continued:

“I hate to see what happens in the Super Bowl or I hate to see what happens in the playoffs. You have to settle with a tie.”

Sigh. Yes, Donovan, the NFL would let the Super Bowl end in a tie! Jeez – that guy is as dumb as a box of rocks!

Go back to your Chunky soup, Donovan, the grown-ups are talking!

So yesterday the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the San Diego Chargers at Heinz Field by the score of 11-10. The Steelers won by first getting a safety (2 points) and then scoring 3 field goals (9 points). It seems hard to believe, but a final score of 11-10 had never happened in the history of the NFL… until yesterday. That’s 12,837 professional football games, and never once was there a 11-10 score!

I haven’t seen the game yet, but I wonder how it actually happened. Large Benjamin threw for 308 yards (with no interceptions!) and Willie Parker ran for 115 yards… but still, the Steelers were unable to put it in the end zone… until the final play of the game, when Troy Polamalu picked up an errant lateral and returned it 12 yards for a touchdown. Except that the Chargers were called for an illegal forward pass. The officials huddled for several minutes, initially giving Pittsburgh the score, then taking the points off the board. After the game was over, referee Scott Green admitted that the TD should have counted. So… once again, the referees screwed over Troy Polamalu. This is getting old, folks!

The four Rooney brothers have agreed to sell their shares in the Pittsburgh Steelers football team to their oldest brother Dan, current chairman of the team. This will give Dan (and his son, Art II, who is team president) an 80% share of the club, which will meet all NFL rules and regulations and keep the team within the Rooney family.

The Steelers began way back in 1933, when Art Rooney Sr. won $2,500 at the Saratoga Race Course in New York. He used his winnings to buy an NFL franchise for the city of Pittsburgh. The team was called the Pittsburgh Pirates, after the local MLB team Art loved as a child. In 1942, the team was renamed the Steelers after the city’s heritage in the steel industry. After decades of losing records, the Steelers finally began to show signs of life in the late 1960s, and later went on to become the “Team of the 1970s” by winning 4 Super Bowls in that decade.

When Art died back in 1988, he left 80% of the team to the each of his 5 sons, so that each one owned 16% of the franchise. This violates an NFL rule which states that one person must own a minimum of 30% of any team. Additionally, some of the Rooney boys owned racetracks and slot machines, which violates NFL rules about team owners having a stake in gambling businesses.

Continue reading “There IS a God: Rooneys Keep Steelers”

NFL head coaches hate benching starting quarterbacks. Starting quarterbacks usually have the most overall talent in their position on a team. And they say something about the head coach and his philosophy and decision-making skills. Benching a quarterback for reasons other than health means that you might not have made the “correct” decision the first time… or that “panic time” has set in. Neither option is good for a football team.

But so it is that the Steelers face this question this very week. Large Benjamin is not only not living up to his gigantic paycheck, he’s directly costing his team games. His 4 interceptions against the Giants cost the Steelers the game. The Colts rolled up 14 points off his interceptions.

But perhaps the best example comes from the Redskins game. The Steelers offense, which struggled mightily against the Redskins, roared instantly to life when an injury to Rothlisberger forced seasoned veteran Byron Leftwich to enter the game. Once Leftwich came in, the offense, which could barely get a first down in three quarters with Big Ben, suddenly “clicked”, and the Steelers almost instantly ran up 2 touchdowns.

So the word in the blogosphere is that fans (and certain sports writers) think that Ben should be benched for this week’s game against the Chargers. And you know what? I think they might be right. Maybe Ben’s shoulder is hurt much worse than we had been led to believe. Maybe he’s just in a slump. I don’t know. What I do know is that the Steelers defense has been playing their hearts out, only to have Large Benjamin throw the games away with stupid plays. So why not give Byron a chance? With the way he’s playing, there’s even talk of him looking for a starting job next year… so why not use him while we have him?