Still crazy after all these years

MVP Lamar Jackson should distance himself from the Browns Photo: Baltimore Ravens … is it worth completely disrupting their season? The National Football League did a strange thing on Friday. It suspended troubled wide receiver Antonio Brown for eight games — which is not surprising — but the fact that they did anything with him with all of the legal issues not completely resolved was interesting.  After those eight games, any NFL team could sign him, and that, on paper, would seem to be a no-brainer. After all, here was a sixth-round draft pick who exceeded everyone’s expectations, catching 837 passes in nine years with the Steelers for 11,207 yards and 74 touchdowns.  Brown was the premiere receiver in the league for about six years, but he became a terrible distraction off the field and now has legal and ethical issues to deal with that are problematic.  He was suspended for violating the NFL clause that requires the player’s personal conduct...

… Loaded question: Were the Steelers better with Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin? A Twitter user who is apparently a Steelers fan posted an item that is quite interesting. Here is the text of it, @PittShawnC Replying to @TribSports and @TimBenzPGH The argument could be made the Steelers were just as successful, if not more, in the 10 years before Ben (1994-03) then they've been in the last 10 with Ben (2009-18) 5:42 AM · Jul 24, 2020 Since this was directed at sports writer and columnist Tim Benz of the Tribune-Review, he took up the issue, Steelers (1994-03): Regular season record: 95-64-1. One Super Bowl trip, a loss. Four AFC Championship Game appearances. Six years in the playoffs (1994-97, 2001-02). Four years out (1998-00, 2003). Playoff record 7-6. Steelers (2009-18): Regular season record 103-56-1. One Super Bowl trip, a loss. Two AFC Championship Game appearances. Six years in the playoffs (2010-11, 2014-17). Four yea...

James Conner Photo: Bleacher Report … Chiefs lose right guard after M.D. opts out When James Conner was a junior at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015, he was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands. He had already lost the season because of a torn ACL and surgery for that, but this was a stage beyond that.  Last year, he said on a podcast that doctors said that he was fortunate that it was discovered when it was, or he could have been in trouble, "My heart, I got tumors growing all around it," Conner said during  a podcast  hosted by Michael Seander, who performs as a hip-hop artist named Mike Stud.  Then when he spoke with a doctor about the diagnosis, Conner told Seander, "He said you got about a week — if you didn’t get this treated, you had about a week, at the rate it was growing." Charlotte Carroll, “James Conner says doctors gave him ‘About a week’ to live  at time of cancer diagnosi...

Danny Murtaugh Photo: Pinterest … Bruce Markusen made a great case more than a decade ago Eleven years ago, a writer named Bruce Markusen persuasively argued for the enshrinement of Danny Murtaugh in the MLB Hall of Fame, Whitey Herzog ,  Davey Johnson  and  Billy Martin  have drawn most of the headlines of the managers listed on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, but none has a stronger case for Cooperstown enshrinement than a far less publicized fellow. Of all the former managers listed on the Veterans Committee ballot, the late  Danny Murtaugh  is as deserving as anyone. Bruce Markusen, “Cooperstown Confidential: Danny Murtaugh and  the Hall of Fame,” The Hardball Times, Dec. 4, 2009 Over a period of 20 years from 1957 to '77, Danny coached the Bucs for 15 of those years, winning two World Series crowns and five divisional titles. In all of them, the Pirates were a small-market team, but yet they defeated the powerful New Yo...