NFL approves Steelers’ restructuring

With a vote of 31-0, the NFL today unanimously approved the restructuring of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ ownership.  From this article at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s website:

Under the terms of the plan, Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II together will own a 30 percent interest in the team. The sale is expected to close on March 31.

Three new partners in the Steelers also were approved by NFL owners:

• James Haslam III, 54, of Knoxville, Tenn. He is the president of Pilot Travel Centers, operator of travel centers and truckstops. Pilot, based in Nashville, Tenn., also operates 40 convenience stories in the Knoxville, Tenn., area.

• Thomas Tull, 38, of Los Angeles. He is chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, a film production company, which joined with Warner Bros, to co-produce and co-finance films such as The Dark Knight, 300 and Batman Begins.

• The Paul family, whose members include Donna and Robert Paul and their children Larry Paul, 44, Stephen Paul, 44 and Karen Zimmer, 39. The family’s operations are based in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles and include Ampco-Pittsburgh, a metal fabricator, TV and radio stations and cable and cell phone operations.

“We are obviously very pleased to be keeping the Steelers’ ownership within the Rooney family and are appreciative of our fellow NFL owners’ support,” Dan Rooney said. “Today’s vote ensures that the Rooney family will be associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL for a very long time.”

Great news!

Free SMS Sports Scores!

Have you ever been out and about and wanted a sports score?

If you’ve got one of those slick new smartphones with a speedy 3G connection, it’s not a problem. But if you’re stuck with a regular old cell phone, mobile Internet is slow as hell, and downright painful to use. If you open your mobile web browser during the second quarter of a football game, chances are good that the game will be over by the time the score finally appears on your screen!

So that leaves SMS. There are dozens of free services out there that will send you sports scores via text message. The only problem with most of them is that you have to “sign up” for their service, which means that you’ll get the scores every Sunday – sometimes multiple times if you sign up for a service that sends you updates every quarter, or every time someone scores. This is also annoying, as at least eight Steelers games have been shown on local TV this year. Few things annoy me more than getting text message scores… about a game I’m watching on TV!

That’s why I’ve really taken a shine to 4INFO’s SMS sports score service. While you can sign up to get scores all season long, you can also use it on demand! Just text the name of your team (e.g. “Steelers”) to 44636 (4INFO) and, in around 15 seconds, they’ll send you the score! The service currently supports NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, NASCAR and NCAA football and basketball. They even have some “advanced features” too, like rankings, standings and schedules.

Check out this page for more information!

A New “Lawnmower Beer”?

Simpler Times LagerThe missus and I stopped by Trader Joe’s last Saturday while we were out running errands. Since Lisa had a few specific things that she wanted to pick up, I just kind of roamed the beer aisle while she went about her business. While there, I spotted a can of something called “Simpler Times Lager”. A single can only cost 67¢ (a full sixer will only set you back $3.99). So then I figured, “What the hell… it’s only 67¢!”

So… how is it? It’s… decent. It’s a lager, obviously. It’s got an appealing taste that hints at good drinkability, even if the head’s a little wimpy. It tastes light enough to be a barbeque beer, but it also has a touch of a stronger lager’s heft. In short, Simpler Times tastes a bit like what I’d imagine Pabst or Schlitz first tasted like back in the 1840s: a hardcore German lager lightened up a tad for the American market (as opposed to Budwesier or Coors, which is German lager that’s been lightened up a lot). Simpler Times won’t become the 2 Buck Chuck of the beer world, but it’s far better than Budweiser or Coors, in my (not so) humble opinion.

I checked out a few beer review sites, where Simpler Times was ravaged as “piss-poor swill”; that’s almost a “badge of honor” in my book, since I actually hate beer review sites. There’s just something so elitist about them. Just as many “foodie” websites look down their collective noses at any “unwashed prole” that would deign to eat Kraft Mac and Cheese instead of growing their own wheat to make their own pasta to coat in a sauce made from imported, $35.99/pound cheese, I feel that these beer sites are skewed towards the beer snob that won’t drink anything that doesn’t come directly from Bavaria.

But these review sites do make one good point, and that is this: although Simpler Times might be a decent beer, it’s only sold at Trader Joes. Which means that, for many people (assuming they even have a Trader Joe’s near them at all), buying a sixer of Simpler Times means driving 20 minutes to get to a Trader Joes… and passing countless convenience stores on the way that sell Pabst or Schlitz. So while I like Simpler Times, I just don’t see where I’d buy it that often. If I woke on a football Sunday and found that I had no beer, I’d rather drive to my local quickie mart to get a sixer of PBR than make the hour-long round trip journey to get Simpler Times. Don’t get me wrong – if Lisa called to say that she was stopping by TJs on the way home from work, I’d love me some Simpler Times… I just don’t think I’d go out of my way to get it, especially not when there are a dozen places to buy something nearly as good here in Belmont.

Quit Whining!

I swear, this is driving me crazy! The Internets are full of Baltimore Ravens fans, bitching and whining about the “controversial” touchdown call in Sunday’s game against the Steelers. I understand where they’re coming from (see also: Troy Polamalu’s interceptions  in the 2005 playoffs versus Indy and at the end of the Chargers game a few weeks ago). But still… it’s rich to hear Ratbirds fans complain about the officiating in Sunday’s game when this went on all game long:

(click to see Silverback getting held... again)
(click to see Silverback getting held... again)

In related news, the Steelers have jumped to the top of The Sporting News’ NFL Power Rankings. Also, check out Yahoo’s “premature playoff picture here.

Monday Randomness…

– The (New York) Daily News stole the Empire State Building recently for an in-depth article about the growing problem of mortgage fraud. In mortgage fraud, scammers generally forge paperwork with local governments to transfer property to their aliases; they then use the property to apply for mortgages. They then take the money and split. In most cases, the genuine property owner has no idea the scam has even happened until a foreclosure crew shows up to seize property due to the unpaid, illicit mortgage. In the Daily News’ case, the newspaper’s forged documents contained several “tells” that should have tipped off the people in the NYC deeds office: star of the original King Kong film Fay Ray was listed as a witness, bank robber Willie Sutton was listed as notary, and the company purchasing the iconic New York building was “Nelots Properties LLC” (stolen spelled backwards). You should check out the article; it’s a good read!

– Watch out: Microsoft is planning to make their own version of WordPress.

– Shopping at a Circuit City liquidation sale? Be careful! The closing Circuit City stores are no longer owned by the company but by a liquidator who apparently has no qualms about doubling the MSRP on electronics and taking a discount off that absurdly high price. For example, one woman stopped by a closing Circuit City in Parker, Colorado looking for a deal on a Sony BDP-S350 Blu-Ray DVD player. She’d seen the player at Best Buy for $299 and Amazon for $249, and figured Circuit City’s “50% Off” offer might save her a few ducats. However, the liquidator’s “saleperson” assured the shopper that their price of $309 was a huge 50% discount over their “list price” of $618!

– Good karma and “get well” wishes to Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who is now on the heart transplant waiting list. I’m not a fan of your team sir, but you are, by all accounts, a good man and a swell NFL owner. Get well soon, and God Bless!

– With his win against the Ratbirds yesterday, Ben Roethlisberger became the first quarterback in NFL history to win 50 games in his first 5 seasons. Congrats, Ben! It’s been a hell of a ride so far!

– Epic Carnival – a website that’s half pictures of hot celebrity chicks and half snarky NFL news, a mash-up of The Superficial and a slightly more serious Kissing Suzy Kolber, if you will – has become one of my favorite new sites. Check out this list of Top 10 amazing but true NFL facts. Some excerpts: “There is, in fact, no NFL law on the books that prevents the Cardinals from hosting a playoff game”… “Minnesota actually trailed for most of its game against Detroit, and became the first professional football team ever to be concerned when Gus Frerotte got hurt”… and “Despite the fact that he’s been on the losing end of a great deal of football games, Terrell Owens still screams and cries like a little girl when it happens again.”

Steelers Win AFC North!

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 13-9 this afternoon, thus winning the AFC North championship and securing a first-round bye in the playoffs. The Steelers defense looked great as always, but their offense is making the few hairs I have left turn grey:

Steelers-Ravens

Yes, complain about that call all you want… I don’t care! My team is 11-3 and sitting pretty!

NASCAR in trouble?

I hate NASCAR. To me, driving a car is not a “sport”, whether it be NASCAR or Formula 1. Sure, many consider it an “entertaining pastime”… but a “sport”? No, not hardly.

But the fact is, I live in Charlotte, North Carolina, the birthplace of NASCAR and home to hundreds of companies that support the sport. Oh, and the future NASCAR Hall of Fame, too. NASCAR is huge here. In fact, the sports reporting on our local TV news usually goes Carolina Panthers > NASCAR > NCAA basketball > NCAA football > Charlotte Bobcats > Charlotte Checkers (and, if there’s time left in the broadcast) > Carolina Hurricanes. So whether I like it or not, I hear a lot about NASCAR. And what I’m hearing lately isn’t good.

You probably know that the Big Three automakers are in a world of trouble. You might not have followed through on that thought: the Big Three are huge supporters of NASCAR, to the tune of millions of dollars a year. As much as the automakers would like to keep their NASCAR sponsorships, they are at the point where it simply might not be feasible to keep pouring millions into the sport. And any government bailout of the industry might actually make things worse for NASCAR, since the government might question why they should give taxpayer money to NASCAR by way of the Big Three. After all, several Big Three  executives recently appeared before Congress, and were given tounge lashings for using private jets to get there. What do you think Congress’ reaction would be to find out that the automakers gave $20 million of that supposed bailout money to NASCAR?

Just last night there was a bit on the local news about how Petty Enterprises cannot find a sponsor and thus might go under or be forced to merge with another team. Again, I’m not a NASCAR fan, but I know who Richard Petty is, and if he can’t get a deal, you have to wonder about the stability of the sport in general. And then there’s this bit where NASCAR president Mike Helton literally begs fans to support the “sport’s” sponsors.

What happened to NASCAR? My grandfather was big into NASCAR starting in the late 80s, so I heard about it all the time from him. It seemed for a while in the mid 90s that NASCAR would eclipse the NHL or MLB as one of the “Big Three” sports. And now the wheels are falling off (punny!). What the hell happened?

Quote of the Day

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

– C. S. Lewis