In it, I make my claim that Chuck Noll didn’t just do the best coaching job in NFL history, but the best coaching job in the history of North American professional sports.

Notice that I don’t make the case that he’s the best NFL coach ever, although, I think that case could be made because of what he did in his first 11 seasons.

The chapter in my book refers to the period from 1969 to 1980. You’ll have to read the book (I hope to be taking pre-orders in a week or so) to see how I make my case.

Meanwhile, Chad Tillman has written a book called. The Ones Who Hit the Hardest, The Steelers, The Cowboys, The ’70s and the Fight For America’s Culture.”

The excerpt appeared on ESPN.com.

I was accused of nitpicking when I said that, for a guy who was supposed to be America’s Next Great Orator, he sure was dependent on the prompter.

I made a good living using a teleprompter, but I also had to do a lot of work without it and I pointed out that I knew a lot of people who worked in TV who were exposed as frauds if/when they were caught without a teleprompter to read.

Obama–with his over-dependence on the prompter–was exposing himself as a fraud.

I also was impolite enough to point out that George W. Bush was ridiculed for not being a good speaker but that he didn’t depend on a prompter as much as Obama–who was elected in large part because of his great speechifying.

Well guess who’s finally come to realize that what I was saying six months ago is true—-Mr. Thrill Up His Leg himself.

Chris Matthews says Obama needs to lose the teleprompter and says it’s his “menace”.

Being right all the time can get kind of boring, you know?

Or is it? I think Pitt is a better team today than it was last night at 8:00. Tino Sunseri was a better quarterback at 10:30 last night than he was at 8:30.

It will never get tougher for Pitt this season than it was last night in Utah.

It’s easy to see why Utah now has an 18 game winning streak at home. That is one tough place to play and it was an especially tough place for a kid to start his first college game at quarterback.

Pitt’s offensive line didn’t have a good night. There were way too many false start penalties, but, with that crowd and Sunseri’s and their inexperience it’s not surprising.

And it’s not just the five-yard penalties that hurt the offense. The fear of getting one causes offensive linemen to be a little less aggressive coming off the ball and that’s going to effect the running game even more than the passing game.

The loss last night shouldn’t drop Pitt in the stupid polls but it probably will and it doesn’t matter. Pitt is better prepared for the rest of the season because of that loss than it would have been by a 54-3 win over Younstown State.

And isn’t Dennis Dixon the guy with the skinniest legs in NFL history, whose coach said that he was worried about him being broken in half?

And which quarterback looks like he’s going to be out for a while with a knee injury? The 250 pound guy with the size 17 shoes.

One of the biggest myths in football is that small guys are more likely to get hurt. The people who get hurt most often are the people who get hit most often. It’s a lot tougher to line up a guy like Dixon than it is to line up a guy the size of Byron Leftwich.

Dixon is so skinny, I think he may end up being the exception to the rule, though. But I’d still be willing to bet that, if he gets hurt, it won’t be downfield. It will be while he’s in the pocket.

So, who should start a week from Sunday against the Falcons? The guy who should have been groomed as the starter from the beginning, Charlie Batch.

Penn State plays Youngstown State on Saturday.

Here’s my question for you if you’re a Pitt fan:

Which would you rather see, an exciting, high scoring double overtime loss to Utah tonight or a 56-3 win over Cupcake State at Heinz Field on Saturday?

If you’re a Penn State fan:

Would you rather see Penn State beat YSU 63-10 on Saturday or see an exciting, double overtime loss to Utah on the road?

Forget the stupid poll ramifications. I’m not interested in that nonsense.

I’m talking about you as a football fan. Would you rather see your team play in an exciting, evenly matched game and lose or watch it beat a hopelessly over matched opponent?

Call me crazy, but if I were a Pitt fan, I would much rather see a competitive loss to a real team than a blowout over a cupcake.

If the polls and the idiotic BCS system have made it so you’d rather see your team beat Youngstown 63-0 than see it lose to Utah 42-41 in double OT, that should be all the argument anybody needs for getting rid of them.

I’m really looking forward to watching Pitt tonight. The Steelers game will be on the DVR. If Pitt were playing Youngstown, I’d choose the Steelers pathetic fourth preseason game because I’d be expecting it to be more entertaining.

They don’t realize that it was not that long ago–before Walt Harris resurrected the program–when there was actually serious discussion about Pitt joining the MAC or some other lesser conference.

There may not have been any serious discussion about that coming from the athletic department or the chancellor’s office but there were lots of people in town who thought it was time for Pitt to just give up on the idea of maintaining a big time football program.

Harris was run out of town unfairly and the fans haven’t had a lot of patience for Dave Wannstedt.

His teams have lost a few games that they should have won, but he has the Pitt program in the best shape that it has been in since Foge Fazio left in the early ’80s.

I think tonight is Wannstedt’s biggest game since taking over as head coach.

That doesn’t necessarily make it a must win because winning the Big East is still the most important thing, but this is the year when Pitt is supposed to establish itself as a legitimate top 10 team.

Not top 20.

Not top 25.  Top 10.

And a loss tonight will stir up all the critics and change the entire dynamic of the season.

It’s the toughest opener Pitt has had in a long, long time and it won’t be easy and Pitt is the underdog, but it’s time for a Wannstedt team to show that it has become what he promised it would become.

By the way, it occured to me the other day that I have never heard anybody say a bad word about Dave Wannstedt the person. Not one.

I’ve never heard a complaint from anybody in the media who felt he or she was mistreated and I’ve never heard stories about unhappy assistants.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some negative stories out there, but the fact that I’ve yet to hear one tells me what a solid guy he is.

Anyway, here are some fantasy tips from a real, live scout–Joe Butler of Metro Index.

What are the chances of them saying the same thing about Al Gore’s responsibility for this whacko who held people hostage at the Discovery Channel?