Still crazy after all these years

Browns QB Baker Mayfield with Coach Kevin Stefanski … Zeise: Quarterback situation will not matter, running game will Perhaps Mike Tomlin will luck out again. At the beginning of the 2021 football season, the Steelers were listed as having the toughest schedule in the NFL.  However, they have gotten one break already because of injury — the Seahawks lost starting QB Russell Wilson — and the Steelers eked out a win in OT against them, a team that was listed as a loss on my chart at the beginning of the season.  Now, they venture into Cleveland with the Browns featuring an ailing QB, Baker Mayfield. Instead of sitting out Mayfield for another week, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has accessed to his QB’s wish to start tomorrow’s game against the Steelers.  Last week, the Browns were crippled with the loss of two starting tackles and two running backs as well as Mayfield, but backup QB Case Keenum engineered a victory.  Instead of playing Keenum again and giving Mayfield a...

… one person predicted this — and I did not believe it During the summer when all of the prognosticators were making picks about the 2021 NFL season, some that they have already come to regret, one person close to me said this, “Hughie, the Steelers are going to be in last place in the [AFC North] division.” Actually, I was picking them to finish third, one spot ahead of the lowly Bengals.  Nevertheless, here we are in the week after the bye, and there are the Steelers, mired in last place while the Bengals are in a tie for first with the Bengals.  Not only that, the Bengals thrashed the Steelers 24-10 at Heinz Field earlier in the season. Pittsburgh could recover this week with a win over the Browns in Cleveland, especially if the Browns start Baker Mayfield instead of Case Keenum.  However, for now, Ben Reedy, you are the man. You told me this. and I did not believe you.  Now, about that meal that you owe me for my prediction about Aaron Rodgers. 

James Conner is grateful to be a Cardinal … from last-place team to Super Bowl contender When James Conner left the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this year, little did he know that he would have an opportunity to play for a Super Bowl contender.  However, that is what has transpired as the former Pitt Panther running back who has battled his way back from cancer was given a chance to compete with the Arizona Cardinals. He was going from a team that finished 12-4 last year but is now mired in last place in the AFC-North, something that he could not have envisioned. Not only has Conner received an opportunity to wear a uniform of a Super Bowl contender, he is also contributing very well.  “Unsung heroes paying dividends” Conner knew when he signed with Arizona that he would be playing behind their starting running back Chase Edmonds, but he has been one of a number of offensive players who have been contributors. After starting at 4-0, Sports Illustrated wrote this about Conner an...

A disgrace to MLB — but more so, “an embarrassment” to the city of Pittsburgh … “Just look at the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers” Just 50 years ago, I was studying at a university in suburban Philadelphia and living in a graduate dorm. This was the fall of 1971, the year that the Pittsburgh Pirates enthralled much of America with their victory over the Baltimore Orioles.  My friends were from all over the East Coast, from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland — and probably more.  What they had in common was few, if any, had ever watched the magnificent Roberto Clemente play baseball. Because of the vagaries of Major League Baseball, only one major league game per week was broadcast in the country — or so it seemed.  And never, ever, was that game one involving the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, over three years in a 19-year span, the Pirates captured three World Series titles — but none since.  What was so g...

“The Jason Garrett of college football” … worst loss in PSU history? Maybe not What thing is now clear: The University of Southern California would now never, ever consider James Franklin for their open coaching position. Nor would LSU.  Those rumors exploded in smoke after one of the most humiliating Nittany Lion losses in Penn State history.  How in the world could a premiere college coach lose to a team in which he is a 24-point favorite? Well, it has probably happened before, though I cannot remember one.  That is what Franklin’s team did on Saturday by losing to Illinois in nine overtimes. The trolling started early in the game, and became Twitter-mania by the second half.  Maybe back to East Stroudsburg Franklin’s move to the upper echelon of college football coaching was indeed a Horatio Alger moment. However, those moves often end in disaster. Twenty-six years ago, he graduated from little-known Division II East Stroudsburg of the Pennsylv...

Repost: Art Rooney, Sr. “You took the wrong guy”: “The Chief” and founder disagreed with passing on Marino … from the Chuck Noll biography In the background, the Chief was circumspect. He’d met Marino and was extremely fond of him. More than once that weekend, Art Sr. would sidle up to Artie [son, Art Rooney, Jr.] and say, “You took the wrong guy.” Michael MacCambridge, “Chuck Noll: His Life’s Work,” University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016 On a snowy Sunday in January, 1985, I met Art Rooney, Jr. [known as Artie by his family] at St. Francis College in Loretto, Pa. The visit had nothing to do with the Steelers, but had everything to do with my job recruiting athletes as the head football coach at the college.  At the time, Art, Jr. was personnel director for the Steelers, and he was the one who led the drafting for the four Super Bowl teams of the 1970s. It was a nice visit except for one nagging question that I as a devout Steelers fans wanted to ask him on that day — b...

Can Georgia run the table? First four: Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Alabama ,,, would prefer to be without the Tide, but …  The departure of Iowa from the Top 10 after being pummeled by twice-beaten Purdue, was not unusual, but the reality is that if the top four who are there right now stay there, it could eliminate three conferences from the College Football Playoffs.  Right now, Georgia is number 1 and Cincinnati number 2 in the AP poll. Oklahoma is third and Alabama fourth. The reality is that this could be the final four, though many things have to happen.  First, Alabama will have to defeat Georgia in the SEC title game, assuming that both continue to win. Cincinnati and Oklahoma will have to win out for this to happen. That is never easy. However, if that does happen, that would mean that no Big Ten team would make the final — again. Second, no ACC or Pac-12 team would make it either. They both would need miracles to get a team into the CFP. However...