John Steigerwald

 
Are the Pirates worse than the Steelers?
Pretty simple question, I know, but I’m not talking about 2012.
I’m talking about ever. As is in worse than the Steelers ever were. And that’s saying something. The Pirates are working on putting together their 20th losing season in a row. If they pull that off, will it be worse than the Steelers’ 40 years without a division championship?
That question came up on my talk show this week and my first response was to vote for the Steelers simply because 40 is twice as bad as 20. But the Steelers had a few winning seasons mixed in with all that futility.
I changed my vote to the Pirates.
We’ve seen converging legacies here this week.
It was 40 years ago, September 17th 1972, when the Steelers opened their season at Three Rivers Stadium with a win over the Oakland Raiders. Nobody knew then that it was not only the end of the Steelers’ futility, but also the beginning of what may be the best major, professional sports franchise in North America over the last 40 years.
The 1972 Steelers went on to win their first division championship and their first playoff game (thanks to the Immaculate Reception) and become the best NFL team ever.
I turned 24 during that season.
The Steelers, to me and all of my friends, were a laughing stock. They were something to do between Pirates seasons. I don’t really remember much about that win over the Raiders on opening day. Probably because I had seen the Steelers open so many seasons with impressive wins before they woke up and realized who they were and went back to becoming a national joke.
It wasn’t until they beat the Chiefs and the Vikings two weeks apart in the middle of the season that my friends and I felt like we could actually take them seriously. That’s when we started driving to motels in Ohio to watch the blacked out home games on TV.
I’m guessing that there were quite a few 20-something guys who were feeling the same way about the Pirates in July when they were 16 games over .500 and flirting with first place. For them to feel what we felt all those years ago, the Pirates would have needed to keep up the same pace, win the National League Central and go deep into the NLCS.
Instead, they got what looks like another losing season and a bizarre story about how the Pirates minor leaguers are being subjected to Navy Seals training and told to act like Hell’s Angels.
Maybe the Pirates will somehow avoid finishing below .500. But even if they do, because of the back-to-back epic collapses, I’m going to have to vote for the Pirates from1992-2012 as the worst era in Pittsburgh sports history. And if you’re old enough to remember the SOS (Same Old Steelers) days, you know how pathetic that makes them.
Congratulations.
- Being exposed to so many obnoxious team owners has given me an appreciation for the Rooney family and there’s no better example of that than Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. Nobody makes you appreciate The Chief, Dan or Art II more, but Jerry may have won me over this week. He told the world that he had tried to get rid of the obnoxious, game-ending kneel down a long time ago, but couldn’t get the other owners to go along with it. He brought it up this week because of the controversy created when Tampa Bay Bucs coach Greg Schianno had his defense, you know, play football on the last play and put a hit on Giants quarterback Eli Manning while he was genuflecting to close out last Sunday’s game.
The only thing I hate more than the kneel-down, is the timeout that some losing coaches call so that they can do multiple knee-downs.
If both teams agree that it’s time to stop playing football, then stop playing football. Let’s have the losing coach signal his defensive captain to pick up the ball and hand it to the referee as a sign that he has conceded the game.
The best part of what Jones said was about the fans. He said they are not getting the most from their entertainment dollar when they are expected to watch really large men pretend that they’re still playing football.
A long time ago, Jones proposed a rule to require offenses to attempt to move the ball forward or face a penalty and a stopped clock.
Works for me.
And if the game is totally out of reach and the trailing team wants to pack it in, the coach can avoid insulting everybody’s intelligence and concede

.
If that seems radical to you, remember, this is a league that, several years ago, in an effort to shorten games, began starting the clock sooner after out of bounds plays and penalties, except in the last two minutes of the first half and the last five minutes of the fourth quarter. The NFL bragged about giving its fans less football for their money.
The Canadian Football League has fewer kneel downs because it stops the clock after every play in the last three minutes of each half.
Know anybody who would prefer genuflecting to that?

John Steigerwald

J. Steigerwald column for 9.15/16.12

Clint Hurdle should have been fired last Tuesday. But, he shouldn’t have been fired by the General Manager because Neal Huntington should have been fired about five minutes before Hurdle .
The Pirates had lost to the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 in 14 innings the night before. And that was after they had lost the previous three games in Chicago.
Team owner Bob Nutting should have greeted the players in the visitors’ clubhouse in Cincinnati and said this: “Congratulations, guys. You just got your manager and your general manager fired. Clint will be replaced by ________whom you’ll be meeting in a few minutes.”
“I will not stand by and let it happen again. Last year you guys made history with a collapse of biblical proportions after being in first place in July. Here we are now in the second week of September and you look like you’re on the way to doing it again.”
“I know we’re only the Pirates and I know there is a well established culture of losing around here. (He should be raising his voice and maybe waving his arms right about here.) But I am not conceding anything. The other teams in the wild card race have been nice enough to stink as much as you have and this can be turned around. I don’t know if __________can get you to play any better but I’m pretty damn sure he can’t get you to play worse.”
That’s what Nutting should have said if he thinks he is the owner of a real Major League Baseball team. That’s what real owners of real teams do every once in a while. They get fed up and go with a knee jerk reaction even when they know that there’s no guarantee it’s going to work. They send a message to the entire organization that everybody is accountable and losing will no longer be accepted. In this case, the message would be that epic collapses were no longer accepted.
It might not have been fair to Hurdle and Huntington, but when
is it ever fair to make only the manager or coach pay for the terrible performance of players? If a manager who follows the worst collapse in Major League Baseball history with another collapse that is every bit as bad doesn’t deserve to be fired, what manager does?
Hurdle has done a great job for the Pirates for two first halves and he’s the most media savvy and media friendly manager they’ve had since Chuck Tanner. He never had much of a chance with the roster he was given, but you don’t get players’ attention by firing a first base coach, a scout or even a general manager.
Nutting needed to send a message and he missed the chance.
Then again, maybe he did send a message by doing nothing. A very loud and very clear one.
- If I were the Steelers, I wouldn’t trade Ben Roethlisberger to the Baltimore Ravens for Joe Flacco. I think Roethlisberger is the best quarterback in the AFC North, but I also think that it’s no longer such a slam dunk. He was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week after going 21-29 for 299 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions in the Ravens’ 44-13 win over the Bengals. Some Steelers fans seem to dismiss Flacco as just another quarterback, but he’s a lot more than that. He has owned the Steelers recently and he outplayed Tom Brady in last season’s AFC Championship game. If not for a dropped pass on a perfectly thrown ball in the end zone, he would have taken the Ravens to the Super Bowl.
- Meanwhile, Roethliusberger seems to get a pass from fans who have been willing to set other Steelers quarterbacks’ homes on fire for less than throwing a pick-six on the final possession. Roethlisberger did that and he also missed a wide open Heath Miller in the end zone earlier in the opening game loss to the Broncos. I’m not suggesting for a minute that the Steelers lost in Denver because of him. Quarterback was way down the list of reasons for the Steelers losing last Sunday night and he was one of their best players. But Roethlisberger has played two less than brilliant games in a row. He put up a 75.9 passer rating in the Wild Card game in Denver last January.
- The entire Steelers’ offense may need to step it up quite a bit this season if they are going to make the playoffs. It’s beginning to look like key players on the defense can’t be counted on to play a lot of games. If the over/under on the number of games James Harrison will play is 10, put me down for under. Same thing if the number is 12 for Troy Polamalu. One of these years, the age of the Steelers’ defense has to catch up to them.

John Steigerwald

J. Steigerwald column for 9.08/09.12

Dave Wannstedt should still be Pitt’s head football coach.
I know that’s easy to say two years and three coaches after he was fired and I know that it’s ridiculously premature and grossly unfair to question Paul Chryst’s qualifications, but it’s just so hard to imagine him or anyone else getting the program back to the level that Wannstedt had achieved any time soon.
Or in my lifetime.
After watching Pitt get destroyed by Youngstown State and Cincinnati it’s hard to imagine Pitt beating anybody, much less going 26-12 over the next three seasons.
That’s what Wannstedt’s teams did from 2008-10. That’s the best three year record since 1981-83, back when Pitt actually had a big time football program.
As recently as 2008, Pitt beat Notre Dame, Louisville and West Virginia. There was also a one point come-from-ahead loss on the road in Iowa.
Pitt was, you know, competitive. That obviously wasn’t good enough after six seasons and Wannstedt was forced to resign.
At the time, a good case could be made for his firing and the guy who fired him, AD Steve Pederson, didn’t have the luxury of hindsight.
You and I do and right now it looks like a terrible decision.
Paul Chryst has a few years to prove me wrong.
- Chryst has the same problem that Wanndstedt, and last year’s coach Todd Graham had. He doesn’t have a qualified quarterback.
Tino Sunseri is a local kid and he tries hard and he’s been jerked around by four offensive coordinators in four years, but he’s made it clear that he is in over his head.
His predecessor, Bill Stull, another local kid, was better but still never looked like a guy who could make a major difference in one game much less a season.
Pitt has lost close games to big time opponents in the last six or seven years for no other reason than the opposing quarterback was better.
It says here, with all of Pitt’s other problems (and there are many) if the two quarterbacks had switched teams Thursday at 7 o’clock, Pitt would have given Cincinnati all it could handle and might have won. You could have said the same thing after recent close losses to Utah, Iowa, Michigan State, North Carolina State, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Notre Dame.
How far away does a 9-4 season with wins over Iowa, Notre Dame and West Virginia seem right now? That was 2008.
How about 10-3 with wins over Notre Dame and North Carolina? That was 2009. Unfortunately for Wannstedt, close losses to Cincinnati, West Virginia and North Carolina State were sprinkled in there. All three losses would have been reversed if the teams had traded quarterbacks before the game.
Wannstedt was a great recruiter who couldn’t recruit a star, NFL draftable quarterback. If he had, despite some embarrassing losses to rent-a-victims Ohio and Bowling Green, he would still be the coach and Pitt’s football program wouldn’t be the embarrassment that it is now.
- There have been so many books written about the Steelers of the ‘70s that you may think there are no original stories left. I thought so, too, until I read “The Last of the Headbangers” by Kevin Cooke. It’s a compilation of stories about the NFL from Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception in 1972 to “The Catch” by Dwight Clark of the San Francisco ’49ers in 1982. The Steelers are a big part of the book and I read stories and quotes that I had never seen before, including an excellent chapter on Terry Bradshaw and how the coin flip that gave the Steelers a chance to get him in the 1970 draft changed NFL history.
- The knee jerk reaction (I know it was mine) to Ben Roethlisberger saying that he would skip a Steelers game if playing meant that he would miss the birth of his child, is to give him a pass and say that no football game is worth missing a once-in-a-lifetime moment like that.
But, let’s think about that for a minute. Ben Roethlisberger isn’t just one more guy waiting to become a father for the first time. He works for a company that is paying him $100 million — about $800,000 per game. The company pays him that well because it considers him INDISPENSIBLE. Think of all the work that goes into putting an NFL football team together and how many people, including the owners, front office, coaching staff, scouts and players who depend on him.
Roethlisberger said, “I’m not missing the birth of my child. There’s no chance. I know some fans don’t want to hear that, but there’s no chance.”
He’s right not to care about fan reaction. Fans have no real stake in what happens and it’s not about feeling an obligation to them to make their Sunday as enjoyable as possible.
It’s about understanding that, when you are paid the kind of money that he is being paid, some of the rules that apply to almost everybody else don’t apply to you. Millions of dollars could be at stake for the employer who has already paid Roethlisberger enough money that his son should never have to worry about money.
I’m pretty sure that the father being present for the birth of a child is a relatively new thing. Billions of fathers have missed the birth of their sons since the advent of the maternity ward.
Just wondering, if Ben does miss a game, will he expect his $800,000?
Would the Steelers be vilified if they wanted to dock his pay?
Should they be?
Just asking.

John Steigerwald

Read my column for this week and give me your reaction here:

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John Steigerwald

John Steigerwald

I’ve gotten in trouble for stating my attitude about athletes and steroids. After hearing so many debunked indignant,tearful deniaplayers athletes who turned out to be guilty, I decided to take a guilty until proven innocent when any credible evidence is presented.

Dr. Charles Yesalis, one of the foremost experts on steroid use in sports,said that that he doesn’t see how any human could win the Tour de France without drugs.

For the foresable future,  when it comes to Lance Armstrong, I’m going with guilty.

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Lance Armstrong faces fresh doping charges from USADA

By Amy Shipley, Wednesday, June 13, 2:56 PM

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brought formal doping charges against former cyclist Lance Armstrong in an action that could cost him his seven Tour de France titles, according to a letter sent to Armstrong and several others Tuesday.

As a result of the charges, Armstrong has been immediately banned from competition in triathlons, a sport he took up after his retirement from cycling in 2011.

In the 15-page charging letter obtained by The Post, USADA made previously unpublicized allegations against Armstrong, alleging it collected blood samples from Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 that were “fully consistent with blood ma­nipu­la­tion including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” Armstrong has never tested positive.

In February, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles ended a nearly two-year investigation into doping allegations involving Armstrong without bringing criminal charges. Armstrong’s former teammates Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton cooperated with federal agents in that investigation and publicly accused Armstrong of doping.

USADA is the quasi-government agency that oversees anti-doping in Olympic sports in the United States. It is empowered to bring charges that could lead to suspension from competition and the rescinding of awards. It does not have authority to bring criminal charges.

“I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one,” Armstrong said in a statement released by his publicist. “That USADA ignores this fundamental distinction and charges me instead of the admitted dopers says far more about USADA, its lack of fairness and this vendetta than it does about my guilt or innocence. Any fair consideration of these allegations has and will continue to vindicate me.”

USADA’s letter, dated June 12, alleges that Armstrong and five former cycling team associates — three doctors including Italian physician Michele Ferrari, one trainer and team manager Johan Bruyneel— engaged in a massive doping conspiracy from 1998 to 2011, and that “the witnesses to the conduct described in this letter include more than ten (10) cyclists . . .”

All of the six, including trainer Jose Pepi Marti of Switzerland and doctors Pedro Celaya of Luxembourg and Luis Garcia del Moral of Spain, face competition bans. USADA put all of the alleged violations in one letter, it stated, because it considers the six defendents part of a “long running doping conspiracy.”

The letter specifically alleges that “multiple riders with firsthand knowledge” will testify that Armstrong used EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone and masking agents, and that he distributed and administered drugs to other cyclists from 1998 to 2005. The letter alleges that numerous witnesses will testify that Armstrong also used human growth hormone before 1996.

“These charges are a product of malice and spite and not evidence,” Robert D. Luskin, Armstrong’s Washington-based attorney, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Nothing else explains the fact . . . they allege an overarching doping conspiracy among four teams over 14 years and Lance is the only rider that gets charged.”

Armstrong competed for the U.S. Postal Service team and later the Discovery Channel team from 1998 to 2005. In 2009, he rode for the Astana Cycling Team and on RadioShack’s team in 2010-11.

The letter further claims that Martial Saugy, the director of an anti-doping lab in Switzerland, stated that Armstrong’s urine sample results from the 2001 Tour of Switzerland indicated EPO use.

Saugy told The Post last year that Armstrong’s sample was merely “suspicious,” a designation that meant it could not be called positive. Further analysis with modern methods might bring clarity, Saugy said, but the sample no longer exists.

“We did not do the additional analysis. It will never be sufficient to say, in fact, it was positive,” Saugy said in an interview with The Post. “I will never go in front of a court with that type of thing.”

Luskin said USADA sent Armstrong a letter last week asking him to meet with anti-doping officials. Armstrong declined, believing USADA was not interested in his testimony but rather a confession, Luskin said. In its letter, USADA said “with the exception of Mr. Armstrong, every other U.S. rider contacted by USADA regarding doping in cycling agreed to meet with USADA . . .”

USADA Chief Executive Officer Travis Tygart could not be immediately reached to comment.

Though the World Anti-Doping Agency places an eight-year statute of limitations on doping allegations, USADA argues in its letter that evidence of banned acts outside of the eight-year limit can be losed to corroborate evidence within the limit, and the statute of limitations can be waived when the alleged violations were fraudulently concealed.

John Steigerwald