Category: Sports

Mostly stuff about football…

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Great news!

‘Morning, everyone! How about not one, but TWO great TV news items to start your day:

First of all, NBC has renewed Chuck for a third season! So not only will we get to see the awesomeness that is Chuck, we’ll still get our weekly dose of  Yvonne Strahovski as well! Speaking of, here’s an old commercial from her native Australia that’s pretty funny:

And here’s Yvonne being interviewed by Craig Ferguson. Not only is it pretty funny, you can hear Yvonne speaking in her sexy accent:

The second big news item is even better: Tony Kornheiser is gone from Monday Night Football! Yes, it’s true! He’s gone! He’s gone! He’s gone! I won’t want to punch my TV this football season! When I first read the linked article, a rousing version of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy filled my head… OH HAPPY DAY! Tony’s Kornhole is gone!

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SI ranks the Rooneys

Sports Illustrated recently ranked the best and worst team owners in sports. Although it was amusing to read about the worst owners in the NBA or NHL, I am first and foremost and NFL fan… and it tickled me to no end to see which NFL owner SI ranked as #1: the Rooney family:

The NFL’s most decorated franchise has been under one family’s control since its inception in 1933. Since Art Rooney’s death in 1988, the Steelers have been run by Art’s son Dan and, in recent years by Art Jr., the patriarch’s son and the third generation of Rooney. Through the years, one thing has remained consistent: the class with which the organization is run. The Rooney family’s influence over the NFL has also resulted in breakthroughs in diversity — hence the “Rooney Rule.” But at the end of the day, the Rooneys have won a record six Super Bowl trophies and have given Pittsburgh, an industrial town that always seems to be hit hardest in tough economic times, its biggest source of civic pride.

Although I hate the Baltimore fucking Ravens with every once of my soul, it also kind of made me proud to see Steve Bisciotti on the list. Out of 32 total NFL owners, it’s pretty cool to see two of the four AFC North teams make the Top 5. However, it should probably come as no surprise that Mike Brown of the Cincinnati Bungles came in at #4 on the “Worst Owners” list.

Also, it’s pretty amazing to see that Art Rooney’s $2500 investment is now worth over a billion dollars. Even accounting for inflation, Art’s initial investment is still only around $40,000 in today’s dollars!

Read the full list here.

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ESPN: Steelers sign WR Hines Ward to extension

Awesome news!

The Pittsburgh Steelers wanted to make sure Hines Ward would complete what he had started — one of the great receiving careers in Steelers history.

Ward agreed and signed a four-year, $22 million contract extension that will allow him to stay a Steeler the rest of his career, according to a source. Ward was scheduled to be a free agent after the season. He is now signed through 2013.

The deal also frees up valuable cap room for the team.

The 33-year-old Ward has 800 career catches for 9,780 yards and 72 touchdowns.

What a great day for the Steelers and Ward!

via Pittsburgh Steelers sign WR Hines Ward to four-year extension – ESPN.

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Panthers = Stupid?

So… here’s the latest from the Carolina Panthers:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers signed Jake Delhomme to a five-year, $42.5 million extension on Thursday that keeps their quarterback under contract through the 2014 season.

The deal includes $20 million in guaranteed money and clears much needed salary-cap space for Carolina. Delhomme was to count for more than $10 million under the cap next season in the final year of his deal.

Seriously? Five more years of Jake Delhomme? Richardson and Fox are aware that Jake is 34, right? And that he was a good (but not great) quarterback on his best days, right? And that this is the same Jake Delhomme that threw five picks and lost a fumble in the playoffs, right?

Being a Steelers fan, I couldn’t care less what the hometown Panthers do… but this simply boggles the mind. Carolina, you need a quarterback, and Jake Delhomme ain’t it.

Read more here.

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Bronx Bomb

Is this the most amusing sports story in years, or what?

It seems that the pricey seats in New Yankee Stadium are apparently a huge flop. The seats – which cost between $500-$2,500 per ticket, per game – are going largely unfilled in these tough economic times, and (here’s the best part) people can see it for themselves with every televised Yankees home game. In baseball parks, the most expensive seats are those right behind home plate, and these are the ones that aren’t being filled. And so, with every pitch, TV viewers are treated to the site of a nearly empty area behind home plate.

The Yankees call their elite seating section the “Legends Suite”, and the Associated Press noted that on a recent Tuesday, only 64 of the 146 highest-priced seats were filled, while the next day only 37 were filled. The AP also reports slumping prices at stubhub.com, where many Legends Suite tickets are going for a 50% (or more) discount over face value.

This is so funny! The only funnier headline I could imagine is “Nuclear Bomb Levels Yankee Stadium”!

Read more about it here.

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Bad move…

How’s this for a stupid marketing move? It seems that Pepsi decided to give away tickets to a game at the new Yankee Stadium. For whatever reason, the company decided to give away the tickets at the game. Of course, far more people showed up than Pepsi had tickets for, so the company was treated to the sight of angry Yankees fans chanting “Pepsi sucks!” outside the stadium:

The company is continuing the promotion, but will now give the tickets away, in advance, at a third-party location.

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John Madden retires

Faster than you can say, “Tough actin’ Tinactin,” NFL Hall of Famer John Madden, the legendary voice of Monday Night Football and the creator of EA Sports video game Madden NFL Football, has decided to take himself out of the game. Madden’s retiring from broadcasting. He’ll be leaving NBC’s Football Game of the Week as the color commentator; Al Michaels is continuing at the play by play voice.

This is a sad day! Even though people loved making fun of John Madden, it was still reassuring to hear his voice (and his bizarre non sequiturs) during football games. Madden was like that crazy uncle you had that spoke gibberish 90% of time, but you just couldn’t help but love. His voice was kind of like a warm, fuzzy blanket: comforting and reassuring. Even though he often pointed out things that even a novice football fan grasped several minutes before, it was always comforting to hear his booming voice. I, for one, will miss him!

via John Madden retires from NFL broadcasting.

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DOWNLOAD: Steelers 2009 Schedule for Outlook!

Heads-up: the 2010-11 calendar is here.

The NFL released the official 2009-2010 schedule yesterday… and for the SIXTH YEAR IN A ROW I’m proud to offer the Pittsburgh Steelers Schedule for Microsoft Outlook!

The jimcofer.com “Pittsburgh Steelers 2009 Schedule For Outlook” is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 98 or later. It might also work with Google Calendar or any other program that can import calendar events from CSV files. It has only been tested with Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, however.

The schedule contains all preseason and regular season Steelers games as well as the name of the network airing the game. All times are for the Eastern (USA) time zone. A reminder is also scheduled for 8:00PM the day before each game. Fans of other (lesser) teams can also download the file and use it as a template to create a schedule for their favorite team using any spreadsheet app that supports CSV files.

There are three editions of the schedule available for download: the Steelers 2009-10 schedule only, the 2009-10 Steelers schedule with the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, and a calendar with the playoffs and Super Bowl only. Pick your poison by clicking the appropriate link below:

Steelers 2009-2010 Schedule
Steelers 2009-2010 Schedule with NFL Playoffs
NFL 2009-2010 Playoff Schedule only

*     *     *

To import the calendar, follow these simple instructions. Make sure to read the all the directions below carefully before you begin:

  1. Download the file to your desktop and unzip.
  2. Open Outlook and select “File” > “Import and Export” > “Import from another program or file”, then click “Next”.
  3. Choose “Comma Separated Values (Windows)”, then click “Next”.
  4. Use the “Browse” button on the next screen to select the CSV file you unzipped in step 1.
  5. On the next screen make sure to select “Calendar” as the destination then click “Next” and “Finish”… That’s it!

DISABLING REMINDERS: If you wish to disable the reminders, open the CSV file and change the value of “reminder on/off” (column G) to FALSE for each game before you import the Calendar into Outlook.

CHANGING “SHOW TIME AS”: By default, the entries will display their time as “Free” on your calendar. If you wish to change this to something else, open the file in your favorite spreadsheet app and change the value of each entry in Column V (“Show Time As”) from FREE to “1” (Tentative), “2” (Busy), “3” (Free) or “4” (Out of the Office) – without the quotes.

TROUBLESHOOTING: If you try to import the schedule but don’t see any of the games listed in your calendar (especially if you do not get any kind of error message), shut Outlook down completely (open Task Manager to make sure that OUTLOOK.EXE is not running) and re-open Outlook and try the import again.

VERSION INFORMATION: This file was tested on 15 April 2009 on a Windows Vista x64 machine running Office 2007 and a virtual machine running Windows XP Professional and Office 2003. It was scanned with AVG 8.5 (8.5.287) and found to be virus-free. It’s the exact same file I’ve used for all prior versions of the schedule, so it should work for just about everyone.

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Harrison gets a new deal!

This is awesome news:

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison has reached terms on a $51.75 million, six-year contract that will make the NFL Defensive Player of the Year the second highest-paid player in franchise history.

The contract set to be announced Tuesday will pay Harrison a guaranteed $20 million—more than any other player in team history except Ben Roethlisberger. The quarterback signed a $102 million, eight-year contract last year that will pay him a guaranteed $36 million.

Harrison broke into the Steelers lineup in 2007 and had 8 1/2 sacks. He had a Steelers-record 16 sacks in 15 games last season, and his 100-yard interception return for a TD in the Super Bowl helped the Steelers beat Arizona.

Harrison and the Steelers have been going ’round and ’round over a new contract, and many Steelers fans (including this one) were worried that he might have walked away from the team. With almost $52 million on the table, however, it seems like James will stay. Hooray!