R.I.P. Dan Rooney

Second only to his father, "The Chief," Dan Rooney was the most beloved figure in Pittsburgh in my lifetime.  A few, like the late mayor Richard Caliguiri and several venerable local media stars might come close, but Rooney likely surpasses them.

Rooney's death was announced today.  He was 84.

He was heir to the Pittsburgh Steelers who oversaw decades of success, bringing six Super Bowl trophies to the city.  But he tested that popularity with his leadership in fighting racism in the NFL, formulating the Rooney Rule that requires that candidates of color be interviewed for top coaching jobs.  He tested it again by openly advocating for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections.

Pittsburghers were proud of his influence on the NFL, and they learned something from his calm and conciliatory style.  The NYTimes obituary chronicles his achievements.

He was with the Steelers for his entire working life (starting as a water boy), except for several years as Ambassador to Ireland (where he visited every county.) He was appointed by President Obama, who issued a statement today that reads:

"Dan Rooney was a great friend of mine, but more importantly, he was a great friend to the people of Pittsburgh, a model citizen, and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage. I knew he'd do a wonderful job when I named him as our United States Ambassador to Ireland, but naturally, he surpassed my high expectations, and I know the people of Ireland think fondly of him today.

"And I know the people of Pittsburgh, who loved him not only for the Super Bowl championships he brought as the owner of the Steelers, but for his generosity of spirit, mourn his passing today. Michelle and I offer our condolences to the Rooney family, some of the most gracious and thoughtful people we know -- even as we celebrate the life of Dan Rooney: a championship-caliber good man."

R.I.P. Chuck Noll

Chuck Noll, who coached the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl victories in the 1970s, died on Friday at the age of 82.  That victory record still stands.  The BBC headlined him as the most successful American football coach in its lead-story obit.

Before there was a Phil Jackson, there was Chuck Noll, who combined football intelligence and attention to detail on the basics, with a philosophy of life as well as playing.  He told his players that life and the pursuit of excellence are processes without end, that the real measure of how good they are is how well they raise their children.

When he retired as head coach in 1991 he didn't join the broadcast booth or become a celebrity.  He stayed in Pittsburgh, living quietly.  He always told his players to think about their lives after football, and he had.

I met him in 1980, on the practice field at St. Vincent College that now bears his name.  When the season started I attended a post-game press conference and asked him a few questions afterwards for a story I was writing on the relationship of Pittsburgh to its sports teams, especially in the troubled years of the 70s.  When I asked him about the fans, his face lit up in a broad smile--something I hadn't seen before.  He credited Pittsburgh's fans not only with inspiring the team but in creating new ways to be a fan that had since spread throughout the league.  "They started it." He praised their creativity.

One of his examples was the tank that fans built and brought onto the field at halftime, as representatives of Franco's Italian Army.  Running back Franco Harris had embraced a biracial identity, and so Italians as well as African Americans embraced him as their own.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has many articles on Noll including statements by those who knew him and worked with him, starting here.  Noll was held in as high esteem as royalty, yet he became a normal person who mostly left his public role behind.  Pittsburghers not only respected that--they liked it.

Sunday Sports Prattle

Baseball: The Giants are off to a great start.  Rejuvenated by new acquisitions, including the veterans pitcher Tim Hudson and the power hitter Mark Morse, they lead a competitive division.  Their starting pitching, while not up to standards of championship years, is pretty good, and relief pitching is better. They've gotten timely hitting and though some are (or were) not hitting well, they've been able to pick each other up.  What's most impressive about them, especially in this latest road trip, is their defense.  They are once again a fun team to follow.

I know the most about the Giants because I can listen to their games on radio.  My other team, the Pirates had a rocky start.  Inconsistent hitting but mostly pitching has hampered them.  But they're winning more lately--the Giants won 7 and lost only 3 games on their road trip--two of them to the Pirates.  Their trades seem to be working out well, but I sense a lack of depth.

Basketball: Weird playoffs, with nobody looking that good consistently.  While I'd like to see Oklahoma City get to the finals, right now I don't see anybody defeating Miami in seven.

Meanwhile, the disastrous reign of Dantoni with the Lakers is over.  Kobe is saying positive things about baby Buss but he's the one responsible for passing on Phil Jackson, twice.  Still think his oedipal ego is a huge problem.  However they do seem to have some young players with a future.  As long as they don't trade them away for another marquee has-been.  That's never worked for the Lakers (cf Gary Payton.)

Football: Concussion dangers talked about more but still not seriously addressed at any level.  So it's a dying game.  NFL draft was this weekend--lots of show for something that's more fantasy at this point than fantasy leagues.  Nobody knows how any of those players will perform.  The Steelers seem to have had a decent draft with intentions to completely revamp their defense with more speed, so their games may be more entertaining next year even if their record doesn't improve.      

Super Seattle

Back in 2005 when the Seattle Seahawks had the misfortune of playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, a Seattle journalist traveled to Pittsburgh and was amazed.  In Seattle she said, there wasn't much buzz about the Seahawks.  But in Pittsburgh, from the moment she landed, everybody talked about the Steelers.

In 2013 it seems that just about everybody in Seattle was going to see the Seahawks.  The fans there became internationally famous as the "12th man" in home games.  Their thundering feet registered on nearby seismographs.

As the 2014 Super Bowl approached, Denver quarterback Peyton Manning was perhaps the most famous player in the NFL.  But the jersey of the relatively "unknown" Seattle quarterback was outselling Manning's.

The Seattle defense dominated the Super Bowl,  the special teams had their moments, and the offense produced enough error-free football to wipe out the slightly favored Denver Broncos.

Congratulations then to Seattle and its fans.  We're glad you learned something from playing the Steelers.

The Other F Word

Okay, I'm going to sneak this in like the addict I apparently am.  The NFL playoffs have begun.  As I predicted, the "defending champion" Ravens stunk this year and didn't even make it as a Wild Card team.  As I sadly predicted, the Steelers didn't get in either, although they came exceptionally close: if a call hadn't been blown (that the League admits was blown) that gave San Diego a victory in their last game, the Steelers would have been a Wild Card, and would probably have defeated the Bengals Sunday.  And then gone up against Denver a decided underdog next week, but with the advantage most eventual champions have--of peaking at the end of the season.  I think the Steelers probably would have a chance against Denver if Manning had an off-day, but New England as well?  Probably not. So it is interesting that at least the sportswriters in Pittsburgh aren't crying much about it--they don't think the Steelers deserved to be in playoffs.  

I'm sure everybody in the League office who cares about money is praying for a Denver-New England playoff game, which could reach Super Bowl proportions in TV viewership.  And they wouldn't cry too much if one of those teams wound up facing San Francisco in the SB, because this year the quarterback is the story.  Peyton Manning is the biggest potential story, but you've also got Tom Brady, Colin Kaepernick, even Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, the ancient Brees and Rivers  or the Seattle phenom Wilson.

You have to like Denver at home over overmatched San Diego.  Indianapolis and New England is a potentially fun game, especially since both teams--and both quarterbacks--can come back big in the second half, the fourth quarter.  That game won't be over til it's over. Kevin Seifert is picking the Niners to win it all, much like the Steelers did when they were the first to get there on the road.  They'll have to get past Carolina, and western fans particularly are looking forward to a San Francisco-Seattle game the following week.  So the dream matchups are Denver-New England and SF-Seattle.  If the past is a guide, at least one of those teams won't be there.

Now I'll shut up about football, an increasingly troublesome game, with more injuries and bad behavior than ever in the NFL, and the truly awful stats on repetitive brain injuries at any level. (Seifert praising the Niners for wearing short sleeves or their coach for not wearing his parka in near-zero temps at Green Bay is sickening. Is frostbite so manly? What kind of example is that?)  It's potentially still a good game, but not as it is played today on any level.

No Joy in Blitzburgh

There is no joy in Blitzburgh tonight.  For going on 40 years, the pride of the Steelers was their defense.  Through quarterbacks thickheaded (Bubby Brister) and thinskinned (Neil O'Donnell) and other offensive woes, the Steelers defense may have occasionally wobbled but basically stayed strong.

Then came this season and piles of points given up, climaxed today when the New England Patriots scored 31 points in 17.5 minutes (the fourth quarter) and broke all time records for most points scored (55) and most yards gained against the Steelers in their history.  And that history before the 1970s was not pretty.

This Steelers team didn't win a preseason game and lost the first four of the season.  But then put together two wins, including one against the Super Bowl champ, their most recent blood rival, the Baltimore Ravens.

Then came the loss to Oakland (another old rival, but a shadow of its great teams.)  But it was only today's loss that has the Pittsburgh sports scribes declaring that the season is over, and it's time to remember baseball and pay attention to hockey.  Or this:

"This score was tied, 24-24, with 7:10 remaining in the third quarter, the Steelers having overcome deficits of 14-0 and 24-10, but what happened after that, for the consumption of a national-television audience no less, was little else but the Steelers quitting on their mission, quitting on themselves, quitting on their coaches, quitting on their organization, quitting, inescapably, on their city."

Pretty harsh, and maybe too much.  There's something cyclical going on, for the Steelers and their conference, which is turning out to be the worst in the NFL.  The only reason that one team in it won today was because two teams in it were playing each other.

None of this will be a big surprise to my billions of readers.  I said the Ravens' Super Bowl win was a fluke, and they would stink this year.  They stink this year.  And I said that the Steelers would have a tough time winning a single game, because other teams have figured out how to beat them.  But I don't necessarily agree their season is totally lost, basically because nobody else in their conference is any good either. Still it's obvious that personnel changes are in the offing, and for whatever reasons, the Steelers haven't lucked out in their draft choices or young free agents.

So the Steelers could become the new old Pirates for awhile.  Rebuilding, if that's even possible in today's NFL.  

Buctober

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made it to the postseason for the first time in 21 years.  And (especially given the sorry state of the Steelers) Pittsburgh is paying attention.  They've coined a new word for the Bucs future: Buctober.

  At worst (and most likely) they'll be playing the Wild Card game on October 1.  As of right now, it would be in Pittsburgh, but there are four crucial games left, 3 with their opponent in that game, the Cincinnati Reds.  If the Reds finish ahead of them, I suppose they may just stay in Cincinnati, where their last game of the regular season will be played.  There's still a mathematical chance they can win the division, but St. Louis is two games ahead and keeps on winning.

As for this latest long drought, it's not unfamiliar for the Pirates, one of the oldest professional teams in baseball.  (Humboldt State U. is boastfully celebrating their centennial this year.  When this school opened the Pirates had been playing baseball for 30 years.)  Their greatest game World Series victory in 1960 was their first world championship since 1927.  So we're kind of used to this.  And we know to savor the moment.

Sunday Baseball: Big Games

The first game of the Pirates home series with the Cincinnati Reds was like a horrific flashback for me and I'm sure many old time fans.  The last good Pirates team was one out--and even one strike--from going to the World Series in 1992, with a comfortable lead in the 9th.  Then a Pirates infielder muffed an apparently routine ground ball, and the Atlanta baseball team scored several runs to win the game and the National League pennant in an agonizing third of an inning.  The images of that inning are etched in many Pittsburgh souls. By the start of the next season, the exodus of the team's stars was well underway, and they didn't have another winning season for twenty years, until this season.

The game on Friday was way too reminiscent.  The Pirates were playing for at least a top wild card berth, with some hopes for the division title.  St. Louis was in first by a game.  The Reds were breathing down the Pirates neck in third.  After that, the closest team was more than 20 games back.  But the Pirates had the game in hand, with timely hitting, homers and brilliant starting pitching.  They had a 3 run lead with their closer on the mound for the top of the 9th, and yes, there were two outs, and at times, the Reds were down to their last strike.  But an infielder's error led to a run, and after several foul balls on a 3-2 count, an infield hit scored two more to tie it.  The Pirates did nothing in the bottom of the 9th or the 10th, and in between a solo home run gave the Reds the game.

It was the second time in three days that the Pirates second-half closer had blown a save with 2 outs in the 9th.  They'd been bested 3 out of 4 by San Diego, and so had little margin for error.  That Reds victory meant the two teams were tied.

Nobody can yet be sure how devastating that 9th inning will be, although the Pirates did come back Saturday to win over the Reds 4-2--and even better, with the Reds having a man on and the tying run at the plate in the 9th, they held firm.  A. J. Burnett had another brilliant start, and this one wasn't wasted--the good news being that first-half closer Jason Grilli was back to close it out, after being out from injury.

Sunday's game with Cincy is pretty important.  It's the last home game of the Pirates' season--the next 3 are in Chicago and the final 3 in Cincinnati.  I'm not good enough at math to figure out the permutations, but the most likely outcome remains that the Pirates will play a one-game playoff--with the Reds. The Atlanta team (who they could wind up playing this year for the NL crown) was the nemesis for the 90s Pirates.  Let's hope the Reds aren't the Atlanta of this era.

Beat 'em, Bucs!

(Meanwhile the Steelers looked sorry against another Cincy team.  They have yet to win a game this year, including preseason, and now 2 reg season losses against lesser teams.  They may not win one for awhile--teams know how to beat them, and so far the Steelers don't have an answer.)    

Closer to Ross St., the Bay may get a new champion--the Oakland A's are on the verge of clinching their division.  While some individual SF Giants players have had an exciting September, the team is still wobbly, and is currently giving the Yankees hope for making the playoffs.  Giving up the all-time record breaker for grand slams to a guy who is probably not in Lou Gehrig's league as a human being is not a highlight of the season.

It's Outa Here!

Well, before we get into this week's bad news let's talk some sports.

The NBA playoffs are going into their second round.  If you had to choose which of the three California teams would make it at least that far, it probably wouldn't be the Golden State Warriors and the classic shooting of Stephen Curry (pictured with Kobe), but that's the facts. The Kobe-less Lakers got decisively swept, but I was surprised they even made it to the playoffs at all.  I guess I'm not alone in believing Boy Buss's choice of coach was disastrous from the get-go.  It's not far under the surface in this diatribe by one of LA's leading sportswriters, and I heard it crawl into comments from Magic Johnson.

But even Phil Jackson may not have been able to save them from the repeat of an experiment that failed when he was there: bring in some aging superstars for a team that looks unstoppable, at least if you judge by old highlight reels.  Injuries and lack of chemistry killed that Karl Malone/Gary Payton experiment, and the same factors ruined this season.  Especially injuries.

Injuries to key players are the story for many teams.  Oklahoma, Golden State and Chicago got through the first round despite them, but that's probably it.  Everybody is competing to finally lose to Miami, which has played even better this year, despite injuries.  Right now they're pretty healthy so it's probably pretty safe to snooze through June.

The NFL had their draft, and for all the volumes of words wasted on it, nobody has any idea of who is really going to be helped decisively.  But even with a reputedly strong draft, I still see the Ravens as a lucky one month wonder.  The Steelers seemed to have a good draft, everybody says, but I'm afraid I don't understand how they get better with no help to the offensive line.

Which brings me to the only sport and only team I really enjoy watching, baseball as played by the San Francisco Giants.  In the early season they don't have their dominating starting pitching, but everything else is working as it was last fall.  Lately they're coming from behind a lot, with games being tied and won in the very late innings.  In that they remind me of my 1960 Pirates, and one of  Bob Prince's signature sayings when they squeezed out a come from behind victory: "We had 'em all the way!"

Another 1960 Pirates reference: Pablo Sandoval is the best bad-ball hitter I've seen since Smoky Burgess.

But mostly (as I've said before) they are so much fun to watch.  Especially at home, because even though I've been in that ballpark only once, it's an indelible memory.  The combination of what a great park it is with the great fans--I saw a game in the Barry Bonds era, when there was always excitement and a lot of winning--makes it so easy for me to feel like I'm there while watching it on TV.  So here's this story from this past weekend:

I watched the early innings of the Giants-Dodgers game on Saturday, when the Giants built a 5-1 lead.  Then dinner time and then Saturday night movie time, so I only glanced at the score to see them behind as the Dodgers had scored 9.  Then when our Netflix was over, the game was in the bottom of the ninth, tied 9-9, with Buster Posey up, the bases loaded and one out.  Basically there are only a few ways you don't win with this combination.  First of all, there's Posey, a great hitter, last year's MVP, who won the previous night's game against the Dodgers with homer in the last of the 9th.  Posey had at least a dozen ways to put the ball in play and win the game. He could win the game just by being walked. The only bad things he could do were to strike out or foul out, but the next batter would still come up with the bases loaded.  The worst thing he could do was hit into a double play.  Which is what he did, on the second pitch I think.

So the TV went off, and by the time I got to my computer to check the score--I was prepared to go to my cave to resume watching--the game was over, the Giants had won in the 10th, via a home run, by a player I had never heard of: Guillermo Quiroz.

Later I checked the recap, and found out he was the backup catcher and pinch-hitter, and that he hit it with one out in the 10th.  Much later, just before sleeptime, I turned on the TV--the Sportsnet Bay Area station often replays the entire game but I never know when--and there it was.  I saw immediately that I had turned it on with the score tied 9-9 and the bottom of the 10th.  I then saw there was one out, and I realized this was the guy.  I saw exactly one pitch--it was the home run ball.

What a moment!  The stadium was in delirium, and so was Quiroz.  It was a line shot to left field that he and everybody knew was gone right away.  He was ecstatic on the bases.  He took his cap off, exposing a big round bald spot on the top of his head.  Quiroz was a veteran journeyman with six major league teams that mostly kept him playing in the minors.  This was his first home run of the year.  He won a game with it in extra innings, at home, for the Giants, in very probably the oldest rivalry in major league baseball, the Giants and the Dodgers.

We were all part of a moment in that man's life he will never forget--and unlike a lot of such moments lately, this was one of joy, celebration, accomplishment, fulfillment, a dream come true.    

NFL Preview

The NFL playoffs begin today and the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't in them.  Sadly, they don't deserve to be.  Bad luck was one contribution.  You have to wonder about conditioning with so many injuries and coaching with so many lapses.  But who knows.  They just didn't play that good.  And they've got better and more exciting competition.

Even though it's not likely that anybody is going to beat Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, the Wild Card round this weekend has some potentially entertaining matchups. Three of the games test late season momentum against experience and stats. Unless they crash--and I don't think they will just yet--the inspired Indianapolis Colts could take the wilting Baltimore Ravens.  The Cinncy Bengals have mo and might even overcome the crashing Houston Texans, though the Texans were a pre-season fave to win it all.  Of the two upstarts, I like Luck and the Colts.

In the NFC the Minnesota Vikings beat their rivals the Green Bay Packers to get into this game, so they have mo.  But very likely not enough.  Adrian Peterson may or may not have a big day but the Packers probably will.

Another flashly frosh in RGIII has given the Washington Negroes instant cred, and the Seattle Seahawks had late season mo.  The Seahawks defense will be tested by the Washington Rednecks wide-open offense, but the Washington Dagos will have to play their best game to get through it, and also stop Seattle's offense.  The Seahawks could have a down game but they should overcome the  challenge of the Washington Spics, a fun team to watch but with a racist name that is a disgrace to their country, conveniently located in the nation's capital.

Monday Night Football

It's a pretty sad contrast.  Both the Pittsburgh Steelers (who played Sunday night) and the San Francisco 49ers (who played Monday night) lost their primo quarterbacks to injuries before an important game.  The Steelers defense stopped a mostly inept Ravens offense, but the Steelers' backup quarterback, a skilled veteran, and their beat-up running backs couldn't score more than 10 points, and gave up 3.  Special teams gave up another 7, and that was the ball game.

On Monday, the 49ers backup quarterback, a first year player, became a future and maybe present star. True, they beat another backup quarterback, but the 49er defense totally dominated.  They won easily over the Chicago Bears.

I was bred a Steelers fan and always will be loyal.  But the truth is that the Steelers haven't been fun to watch for awhile.  And the 49ers are fun to watch, as they certainly were Monday night.  (They're also easier for me to watch--more of their games are broadcast here.)

It's also true however that for me pro football is increasingly hard to watch in general.  There's just so many guys you can watch being carted off the field in pain, before it's not a fun game anymore.  And when so many of the best players are injured--as is increasingly the case, certainly this year but for at least the past few--the games are less interesting, less admirable.

Conflict Monday

Setting up a conflict I suspect will be widespread, the San Francisco Giants forced a seventh game in the NLCS, to be played Monday night, with the crucial innings very likely conflicting with the third presidential debate.  Although the weather may mess with any predictable scenario--for the game, that is.

The debate is on foreign policy, supposedly, but it rarely stays there.  To win this debate President Obama should be able to say only two things: If you liked the Bush foreign policy, you'll love Romney's, and how many wars do you want to start?  But if Romney is smart he'll be as bland as possible, hoping for a tie while the polls show him very close.

The polls still show little or no bounce for President Obama from that much-watched second debate.  I really can't pretend to understand the dynamics of what's going on now.  It almost seems that as consumer confidence rises, people feel more willing to take a chance on Mr. Slick.  It just doesn't make sense, unless it's a lot of shadow chickens coming home to roost.  If so, we're really in for it.  Still, even with these very tight polls, the smart money remains on President Obama.

Nevertheless, the same pundits who were claiming the third debate was meaningless are now hyping its importance.  It does seem the last time to making the closing argument to a national audience.  If not a national league audience.


Meanwhile in matters less important than the fate of the future, Ryan Vogelsong pitched a great game 6 to keep the Giants alive. Now they'll need an equally great game from Matt Cain, and probably Buster Posey to come out of his hitting funk.  All for the privilege of facing an intimidating and well-rested roser of Detroit pitchers in the World Series starting Wednesday.

  Vogelsong unites the Giants and my hometown Pirates--he started his major league career in Pittsburgh, and even got married there.  Here he is. (And to complete Sunday, the Steelers actually looked like the Steelers, after the 1st quarter.)

Sporting News

As sports becomes more about obscene amounts of money, my interest wanes.  It's hard to not feel like just another enabling dupe.  But let's say in terms of residual interest...

The biggest ongoing contests are March Madness, the NCAA collegiate tournaments, both men and women.  I've got no favorites (except I like watching the Baylor women with the phenomenal Brittany Griner) but I note with interest that the GOPer attempt to paint President Obama as an out of touch weirdo intellectual alien non-American runs up against his sports acumen.  It's become traditional for fans to "fill out their brackets"--the series of games, the winner of which goes on to the next level in a series of elimination brackets until the last two standing.  The art and/or science of it has lately been called "bracketology."  But since one of the enthusiasts doing so is President Obama, the sports world checks them regularly, for updates on "Barack-etology."  And before today's "Elite Eight" games he was in the top 1% on getting the brackets right.

Meanwhile, NFL football is going through a lot of drama, with New Orleans bounty hunters and a series of moves and trades that includes Tim Tebow becoming the second quarterback for the New York Jets.  Anything to do with New York is endlessly discussed, analyzed, screamed about.  But as this was all going on, Pittsburgh Steeler's wide receiver Hines Ward--who had earlier been cut from the team's roster--decided to retire a Steeler.  This story is about the reception for that decision in Pittsburgh, where he was and will now always remain a hero.  It tells you a little more about the particularities of the unique relationship between Pittsburgh and the Steelers, which in the end has nothing to do with the larger mediasports world.

Lastly, my least favorite team in the NBA is the Miami Heat, and my least favorite player is LeBron James.  But this week, the Heat earned my respect for something they did off the court--getting themselves photographed in hoodies to show their support for the murdered Florida teenager Trayvon Martin--and where they stand in the current controversy.

There We Were

The Steelers lost to Denver and their quarterback Tim Tebow in overtime on Sunday.  The reason of course is that Tim Tebow is a devout fundamentalist Christian, and so God was on the side of Denver.  God saw to it that two more Steelers were injured early in the game, so the entire defensive line was second and third string.  When Steelers receivers had easy catches with the end zone in sight, God knocked the ball out of their hands.  God shone His light in the eyes of Steeler coverage when St. Tebow threw the ball to his receivers, especially the Steeler corner called Gay (get it?)  Obviously God has not yet forgiven Big Ben--having already hobbled him and made it harder for him to pass accurately, He knocked the ball out of his hand when all he needed was a few yards to set up the winning field goal.  And then of course, His Lightning struck in the first play of overtime. St. Tebow be praised.  Amen.

Here We Go Steelers

Here's one of the newest Pittsburgh Steelers fans---Margaret's grandson Beckett.  I don't know if Beckett will be watching the Pittsburgh-Denver playoff game on Sunday but I will.  I don't expect to enjoy it much, though.  The Steelers are heavily favored, but sports writers in Pittsburgh at least are expresssing caution.  It's likely to be low scoring, sloppy and painful to watch.

The Steelers have been painful to watch pretty much all year, and they are entering the playoffs as a Wild Card with a lot going against them. In terms of further success, playoff experience has proven to have minuses as well as pluses.  The two more important factors are the physical health of the team and momentum from the last several games.  The 2005 Steelers won the Super Bowl as a Wild Card team, but key players were coming back from injuries and they were healthier than they'd been all year as they began the playoffs.  This year they're starting with way too many injuries.  Their running back is out for the playoffs, and other key personnel--including their marquee players (Big Ben, Troy Polamalu, James Harrison)--are playing hurt.  Any one or two or more of them could be sidelined at any point.

That 2005 team also had tremendous momentum.  It was obvious as the season ended last year that Green Bay was going all the way, although another surprising Steelers team came close in the Super Bowl.  They were hampered by key injuries, and their outstanding running back in that game (although he committed a key fumble) won't be playing at all for these playoffs.  As for this year's momentum, the Steelers have none really, especially on offense. I think most thinking Steelers fans are hoping that they get by a weaker Denver team, but don't get humiliated in the next round.  Of course, as they say, anything can happen in the playoffs.

The NFL this year does have some teams that are fun to watch, at least theoretically, and all of them have a better chance to move on.  I see the Super Bowl being between either Green Bay or New Orleans and either New England or the boring Baltimore, with San Francisco as a sleeper possibility.  But if I'm forced to choose, I'd say this is New Orleans year.  They've got momentum, a quarterback that's having a record-setting year, a healthy team, and a better defense than Green Bay.  But the best game of the playoffs is apt to be Green Bay v. New Orleans (assuming it happens), in the year of the high-scoring pass offenses.

But every year recently I keep thinking that this one will be the last year I'll be watching.  How much longer can I endure moronic commercial after offensive commercial, surrounding brief moments of millionaires giving each other concussions?  Truth is I haven't watched an entire game in more than a year.  We'll see. Or not.         

Where the Marx Brothers Got Their Material

Sure, Duck Soup is silly. But...here's a 'this day in history' note from wikipedia, verbatim and in full: 1268:Conradin, the last Duke of Swabia, was beheaded in Naples after failing to reclaim Sicily for the House of Hohenstaufen from Charles of Anjou." Now class, who was the first Duke of Swabia? How far is Swabia from Freedonia? And who was Charles of Anjou pere? Any other new business? Sorry, that's old business now.

Speaking of old business, the My Little Blogosphere links are still not registering new posts on American Dash, where the NFL has progressed through the 6th week and the seventh, with appropriate posts (mostly about the Steelers of course)... As for the World Series, Margaret's brother is a Yankees fan and he could use a win, plus growing up in Pittsburgh Pirates country I never developed any affection for the Philadelphia Phillies. But there's something about watching the Yankees lose...

Pittsburgh, This is Your Time

With the reigning champions in NHL hockey (the Penguins) and NFL football (the Steelers, who again beat the Arizona Cardinals Thursday, this time in a preseason game), Pittsburgh has had a good year, tarnished however by two acts of gun violence by lunatics of the Rabid Right. For the next month or so it is the center of different attention: first as the host of the current Netroots convention (President Clinton delivered the keynote Thursday), and then as the host of the international G-20 convention in September--selected by Barack Obama, the same weekend that the Steelers visited the White House, and he put them to work packing care packages for U.S. troops.

Visitors will find some big changes since the last time Pittsburgh was the City of Champions (which was the last time any city had two championship pro teams, in 1979.) The steel mills were pretty much gone by then, and the new economy that is helping Pittsburgh weather the Great Recession better than other Rust Belt cities is symbolized in the bottom photo of downtown from across the Mon River: that big black building peeking from behind the gleaming silver ones used to say U.S. Steel and USX, but now it's UPMC--University of Pittsburgh Medical Centers. Universities and medicine are the biggest game in town, with high tech (centered also at Carnegie Mellon) adding to the diversity.

Pittsburgh has also once again been voted America's Most Liveable City, having maintained modest housing prices that didn't bubble or break as much as elsewhere, meanwhile adding to cultural and arts institutions, and continuing to make the rivers and other natural assets more accessible. I'm sure Netroots people are discovering the walkable downtown from the comfortable green convention center. The city government has had economic problems and the Great Recession has cut into some local institutions, but this is still a great city--even on the relatively gray day in June I snapped these photos.

Steeler Nation Comes Home

Population of the City of Pittsburgh: 312,000.

Population of downtown Pittsburgh on Tuesday for Steelers Super Bowl Victory Parade: 350,000.

Sixth World Championship: priceless.

Photo: Lake Fong, Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Congratulations, Steelers!

Steeler Nation rejoices--Pittsburgh Steelers win their sixth
Super Bowl, more world championships than any other team.

Game Day for Steeler Nation

The First Fan leads Steeler Nation for the Super Bowl today. See more below. Go Steelers!