When Harrison got out of his Smart Car yesterday, he tried
to demonstrate how smart he thinks he is by talking about his famous 100-yard interception return in the Super Bowl. He said
he was supposed to blitz on the play, but instead decided to drop back.
It's a great story. The problem is there
isn't supposed to be any more talk about last year. The Steelers are trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions by turning their
attention toward this year and not resting on last year's laurels.
For bringing up last year, I think Harrison
should do an extra lap in practice. On foot, not in his Smart Car.
More training camp thoughts:
n Remember when the Steelers and Patriots used to battle for the AFC championship? Now
these two rivals are rumored to be interested in Michael Vick? Talk about downsized dreams. I think Vick would be a better
fit in New England, since Bill Belichick likes to kick puppies.
n There's no truth to the rumor that Ben Roethlisberger can settle his civil
lawsuit by allowing one of the nuns at Saint Vincent College to whack him on the knuckles with a ruler.
n Mike Wallace has a mohawk. Most of you know that I'm talking
about the Steelers rookie receiver and not the 60 Minutes anchor. But it still sounds funny to say that Mike Wallace has a
mohawk. Speaking of Mike Wallace, he turns 23 today.
In the fourth quarter of that game, Miller made a catch for a first down on third-and-18 and also
had a touchdown catch, making those hands seem god-like. They wouldn't have won that game without him.
And then Miller's cool index went way up in my book during Super Bowl XLIII, when I found out he's from Swords Creek, Va.
You've got to be tough if you come from a place called Swords Creek.
Of all the players who could be free agents
after the 2009 season, Miller was arguably the most important one to sign to an extension. Among the players remaining on
that list are Willie Parker, Casey Hampton (they can wait and see on those two, depending on how younger guys pan out), Ryan
Clark and Jeff Reed (I'd like to see those two guys stay).
That's not all of the Steelers' potential free agents
after this season. You might ask me why I don't take the time to post the entire list. What's the big hurry? Ya' got a date
or something? As a matter of fact, I do. I'm meeting her in Times Square. She wants to see the Harry Potter movie.
I hope there are no thunderstorms tonight. I'm breaking one of the first two commandments (I just don't know which) by comparing
Heath Miller's hands to those of God. If God reads this, lightning might strike me and kill me. Dying on a date is usually
a turn-off. If that happens, she might want to see other people.
Just as he did the last time the Steelers were getting ready to defend a Super Bowl title, Ben Roethlisberger provided
the biggest offseason news.
It made me sick to read about
it. It became obvious that Roethlisberger's mind is not on football when ... he shot an 81 at Bethpage.
That's right. Big Ben beat Michael Jordan, Justin Timberlake and Phoenix police
officer Larry Giebelhausen in the U.S. Open Challenge on Long Island on June 12.
But seriously, Roethlisberger is facing a civil lawsuit in which a Nevada woman claims he sexually assaulted
her. However, I don't think it will affect his performance on the field like his motorcycle crash did in 2006. It will be
much easier to block that situation out of his mind than it was to overcome the physical toll of the motorcycle crash and
emergency appendectomy just before the start of the 2006 season.
Coincidentally, Roethlisberger's 81 at Bethpage came on the three-year anniversary of his motorcycle crash. I don't
think Bethpage allows motorcycles on the Black Course.
Roethlisberger didn't have to get up in front of the media last week and deny the
Nevada woman's claims. He took a risk by doing so. He could have hurt
his standing in the court of public opinion. But I don't think he did. I'm not saying that he did or didn't do it. I'm just
saying that there seemed to be a lot of conviction behind his words.
And it quelled the media frenzy. All is quiet on the Roethlisberger front this week, at least until Friday.
I would guess there will be a lot of questions about the case when training camp
opens at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.
So in this
calm before the storm, let me explain why I decided to hibernate from Steelahs.com from May 5-July 21.
The book that almost was
Mainly, it was because I tried to write a book, but ultimately decided to put it
on the shelf, so to speak.
The book was going to be an
anthology of columns from this site. I was going to include all of my game columns from the 2008 season as well as certain columns from 2007, my rookie season as a Steelers blogger.
I came up with the idea for a book a week or two after the Steelers won the Super
Bowl. I figured the Steelers' sixth championship might make a book
remotely marketable. I was going to publish my columns as is, exactly as they appeared on the site. Then I was going to add
footnotes to modify certain sentences or paragraphs with further comments.
By late June, I had assembled all of the columns through Super
Bowl XLIII. I was just going to go back and self-edit the book and then publish it, most likely electronically.
Then I decided against
it.
It would have only costed a few hundred dollars to
publish it as an e-book (among the working titles, by the way, were "Towel Boy," "God, One-Hit Wonders and the Steelers" and "The Steelers Bathroom Reader." Seriously).
But with the uncertain economy, I thought it would be better to hold onto that money.
Another reason I stopped the project is because, frankly, I didn't really think the book was good enough. Since I've
only been doing this site for two years, I don't have a deep enough
body of work from which to cull material for a book. It would have been like swimming in a kiddie pool (oh what the hell do
I know about that, I can't swim).
Maybe if the Steelers
win another Super Bowl or two in the near future, I'll try again. If the Steelers win the Super Bowl this season, the story
of how they wrested Team of the Decade status from the Patriots would
make a great book, along with a cultural look back on the past decade (life, and the world, has changed quite a bit since Y2K, hasn't it?).
But that would be incumbent upon the Steelers to repeat as Super Bowl champions. What do you say, guys?
Training camp starts in three days.
While I was out
Let's quickly catch up on Steelers news that unfolded during my absence.
The Steelers signed left tackle Max Starks to a four-year contract. The best news there is that NFL contracts aren't
guaranteed. Let's hope another year together makes the Steelers' offensive
line more effective.
The Steelers made the customary visit
to the White House as Super Bowl champions, but with a twist. President Obama put the Steelers to work. They assembled care packages for the military. It was cool that the Steelers and Obama worked together to do something
more than the usual grip-and-grin-sports-champion-White House visit.
Speaking of the government, Dan Rooney officially became U.S.
ambassador to Ireland. That was a mere formality. Click here for my take on that.
But the biggest news during my vacation from Steelahs.com
(yes, a vacation from a non-paying job) doesn't involve the Steelers directly, but can be linked to the Steelers.
Summer
of death
I can't remember so many celebrity
deaths in such a short time. It started with Ed McMahon on June 23 and was followed by Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, Karl Malden, Walter Cronkite and Frank McCourt. They say these things happen
in threes. There have been a lot more than three, although Saturday's
death of Vernon Forrest made it three in the boxing world after Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti.
Have I missed any?
Oh,
that's right.
There's the most famous celebrity to depart
(Michael Jackson) and the most shocking (Steve McNair). Both of these stories have Steelers angles.
The McNair story has an obvious Steelers angle, considering
he was a respected Steelers nemesis.
Let's not kid ourselves.
McNair wasn't the only NFL player (he recently retired, but you know what I mean) to have relationships with females outside his marriage. If you're a star athlete, women will throw themselves at
you. I read once that Joe Montana could be on an airplane, see a picture
of a model in a magazine, call his agent and be with that woman the next day.
I'm not saying the McNair death should turn all pro athletes into monks, but hopefully it at least teaches them to
choose their women more carefully.
Then there's Michael Jackson.
The cap
How could I possibly
connect Michael Jackson to the Steelers, you ask?
Check
out Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" video. Did you see the dancer with the Steelers cap? I had that exact same Steelers cap. It was 1987, my junior year in high school, and I thought wearing the same cap as a dancer in a Michael Jackson
video gave me some street cred, even though the cap was only visible
in the video for a total of about 2.7 seconds.
I thought
for sure my Steelers cap would make me look cool enough for Susan to dance with me.
I was obsessed with this brunette for about a year and a half in high school. I never uttered a word to her, mind
you. I was pretty clueless as a teenager. I had no idea that you're supposed to start by making small talk with a girl and
build a rapport before asking her out. My only communication with Susan was eye contact. I would steal a glance whenever I
could. A couple of times I got picked off (that's what I call it when someone catches you checking them out). Looking back
on it now, I must have creeped her out.
I went to my first
high school dance that fall. But Susan was dating a guy on the football team. It killed me to watch them slow dancing to Michael
Jackson's "I Just Can't Stop Loving You."
But Susan and Bernie (yes, this guy's name was Bernie) broke up not long after
that dance. My plan was to go to the next high school dance and ask Susan to dance with me.
When I finally got up the courage to ask her to dance. She said no.
That's life.
But hey, let's say she had danced
with me, and we started dating, and we stayed together throughout high school and college, and we got married.
She'd be a football widow by now.
I have no idea what became of Susan. Or my vintage 1987 Steelers cap.
Have I mentioned that training camp starts in three days?
