Monday Links & Videos

I would like to thank Christopher Columbus for having a day. Therefore, with no work or soccer games, today was the first day I’ve been able to sleep-in in at least a month. Ziggy had different ideas and twice decided to make sure I was awake. I’ve essentially been awake since 7:45.

I can’t take Washington Redskins kicker Graham Gano seriously. All I think of when I hear his name is, “Not gnews is good gnews with Gary Gnu.”

Check out this photo essay of 20 of the most-unique homes ever built like this one. [Matador Life]



Ngewo attended his first Penguins game. [Ngewo's World]

Angelo Spagnola didn’t have the best golfing experience with Andy Van Slyke. [Pittsburgh's Black and Gold]

I’m the only person linking to a post/video on Deadspin that has nothing to do with Brett Favre or The Cigar Guy. [Deadspin]



Finally, I'm not sure whether or not I'll attend Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, but I'm a big fan of what they are doing...raising money for the non-profit Trust for the National Mall. The Mall really does get overused with not enough money going to restore part of this nation's famous places. [Washington Post]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rally to Restore Sanity Location
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

2010 Pittsburgh Steelers Schedule

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year: the day when the NFL releases the upcoming season schedule. It's a day when I start making plans and set my own personal schedule for the rest of the year.

Here is your 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers regular season schedule:

Sunday, Sept. 12 – ATLANTA -- 1 p.m. (FOX)
Sunday, Sept. 19 -- at Tennessee -- 1 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday, Sept. 26 -- at Tampa Bay -- 1 p.m. (CBS)

Sunday, Oct. 3 -- BALTIMORE --1 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday, Oct. 10 -- Bye
Sunday, Oct. 17 -- CLEVELAND -- 1 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday, Oct. 24 -- at Miami -- 1 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday, Oct. 31 -- at New Orleans -- 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

Monday, Nov. 8 -- at Cincinnati -- 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Sunday, Nov. 14 -- NEW ENGLAND -- 8:20 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday, Nov. 21* -- OAKLAND -- 1 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday, Nov. 28* -- at Buffalo -- 1 p.m. (CBS)

Sunday, Dec. 5* -- at Baltimore -- 8:20 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday, Dec. 12* -- CINCINNATI -- 1 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday, Dec. 19* -- NEW YORK JETS -- 4:15 p.m. (CBS)
Thursday, Dec. 23* -- CAROLINA -- 8:20 p.m. (NFL NETWORK)

Sunday, Jan. 2* -- at Cleveland -- 1 p.m. (CBS)

* Times and TV network may change due to flexible scheduling


A few thoughts:

- With the likely suspension of Ben Roethlisberger, it would have been nice to have the Steelers face Cleveland in the first two weeks.

- Remember how much the media hyped the Brett Favre/Vikings vs. Packers games last season? That will be nothing compared to Byron Leftwich/Steelers vs. Tampa Bay game!

- Interesting Halloween match-up in New Orleans on a Sunday night. How many people will dress up like Kim Kardashian?

- Three home games over the last four weeks could give the Steelers an advantage in the playoff race.

- Santonio Holmes, Alan Faneca, Darrelle Revis and Jason Taylor all return to Pittsburgh as New York Jets on December 19th.

- The schedule is set up to allow Heinz Field to host the January 1st NHL Winter Classic.

- I'm looking into group tickets to attend the Steelers-Dolphins game in Miami. If you're interested in going, please let me know. (Yes, I'm being serious.)

Steelers-Vikings Random Thoughts

You can find a full recap on Sunday's Pittsburgh Steelers-Minnesota Vikings football game anywhere on the internet. However, I'm here to provide my thoughts on items you probably won't find elsewhere. (Please note that I made some of these observations on Twitter yesterday.) I apologize if this looks like a Peter King or Larry King column.

* Who made a worse attempt at a tackle: Jeff Reed on Percy Harvin’s kick-off return or Brett Favre on Keyaron Fox’s interception return?


(Favre's tackle attempt looked worse live and on video than in this picture.)

* The Steelers are not going to win many games where David Johnson has more receiving yards than Hines Ward.

* I miss the Alcoa fantastic finishes commercials.

* How was Casey Hampton offsides twice? Isn't the ball directly in front of him?

* I was really impressed with Vikings’ WR Sidney Rice.

* Miller Lite asks what greatness tastes like. I think it probably tastes like chicken.

* Did Ziggy Hood play?

* I was surprised that Mewelde Moore played instead of Willie Parker after Mendenhall’s fumble.

* Watching the Packers-Vikings game a few weeks ago, DE Jared Allen was the most dominant player on the field with 4.5 sacks and a forced fumble. Against the Steelers, he had only 1.5 tackles and no sacks.


Finally, congratulations to Lara M. on winning the Sean's Ramblings First Contest. Lara's prediction that Ben Roethlisberger would throw for 210 yards was the closest of any other entry, though in actuality, not very close as he threw for only 175 yards. I'm sure that she is happy that we were not playing with Price Is Right rules.

Thanks again to the orientalwatchsite, a website of affordable Men's Watches by Orient Japan, for providing this great prize. (Please visit their website.)


Photo by Peter Diana / Post-Gazette

Happy Wednesday

I'm at home today, so expect multiple posts throughout the day. I'll start with the latest edition of Yinz Luv 'Da Stillers.



Sadly, these were the only highlights of the Steelers-Chargers game that I have seen. Despite having access to ESPN on my Virgin America flight, the network only seemed to cover Brett Favre on Monday.

Steelers Should Sign Favre

Once again, Brett Favre has been in the news quite a bit recently. Much to the dismay of Big Daddy Drew of Kissing Suzy Kolber (language may be NSFW), the speculation is that Favre would join the Minnesota Vikings, but according to Yahoo, "Favre told Vikings coach Brad Childress that he wanted to remain retired." Nevertheless, I don’t expect that people will believe that Favre is truly retired until the day Super Bowl 44 is played. Therefore, to end the speculation and the months of "will Brett be back?" stories, I propose that the Pittsburgh Steelers sign Favre. From his perspective, wouldn’t he want one more chance to win a second Super Bowl? The defending Super Bowl champions are one of next season’s top contenders and could give Favre that opportunity.



From the Steelers side, we all witnessed what happened after Super Bowl 40. The Steelers finished the season 8-8 and failed to reach the postseason. In his final season as Steelers coach, Bill Cowher did not have his usual enthusiasm and the team seemed to play without the same passion and determination that they did during the previous season. Plus, that was the season in which Ben Roethlisberger missed one game after an appendectomy and had that whole motorcycle accident thing. To ensure that Roethlisberger doesn’t have the same drama following his second Super Bowl championship, signing Favre could keep Ben away from motorcycles and a second appendicitis. In addition, signing Favre would keep the team hungry. A team that wins a championship can’t be complacent and needs some new players who are desperate to win the title. Sure, the team has a new rookie class highlighted by Ziggy Hood, but rookies don’t have the same perspective that veterans have. And yes, the Steelers signed free agents Keiwan Ratliff and Shaun McDonald, but they don’t bring the same history and headlines that Brett Favre would. While Favre competing for another Super Bowl would be a national story, I can’t see the same level of "Bettis wins a championship in his hometown" coverage for Ratliff or McDonald.

Another reason to sign Favre would be to help in the development of Dennis Dixon and rookie free agent Mike Reilly out of Central Washington. Roethlisberger and Charlie Batch need to focus on learning the playbook and winning games. They may not have the time to mentor the younger quarterbacks. Dixon needs someone to teach him what it’s like to win a Super Bowl. Brett Favre can do that. Of course, when Favre is busy meeting with Peter King or Rachel Nichols, Dixon could always talk to Roethlisberger about the experience of winning two Super Bowls.

If only John Madden was alive to see Favre as a Steeler.

Monday Morning Links and Other Thoughts

It’s so nice to have football back! To see the Steelers have an impressive season debut in defeating Houston. To know that there are games on for approximately 10 hours from Sunday early afternoon to Sunday night. To walk around the grocery store on a Sunday and see people wearing their football jerseys. (Although why was one guy wearing an A.J. Hawk Packers’ jersey when the team doesn’t play until Monday?) To follow your fantasy football teams and hope that Terrell Owens can score big points while his quarterback Tony Romo does not (or worse to root for Reggie Bush for one league and against him in another). Welcome back professional football!

Have you watched any football highlights from yesterday? If so, you may have noticed every announcer gushing over Brett Favre’s touchdown pass where he threw a terrible ball on a fourth down that somehow manager to find an open receiver. It’s only a matter of time (probably next week) when that same pass is intercepted.

On to the links…

Since I’m providing absolutely no analysis on yesterday’s Steelers game, here are thoughts from Mondesi’s House, D.C. Steeler Nation and Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies.

On Friday, I was honored to participate in Cotter’s (of One For the Other Thumb) weekly Meeting People is Easy feature.

Arjewtino is a Dodgers fan who on Friday wrote that, after the up-and-down season the team has had, he is in an abusive relationship. So what happens this weekend? The Dodgers swept Arizona and are back in first place. To Arjewtino, things could be much worse…you could be a Pittsburgh Pirates fan!

Finally, check out TriviaForCharity.com where you can earn money for charitable groups by answering free trivia questions.

Have a good day!

Life Without the Internet

From Monday at 11:00am until Wednesday at 10:00pm, something was missing in my life. That something was internet access. I wasn’t in the remote wilderness; I was in New York City. I even had a computer, although I could not justify paying $17.95 a night for internet access in my hotel room. I even considered paying $8 for internet access at LaGuardia airport (cheers again to Albuquerque Airport for having free wireless internet), but I didn’t think it was worth it. Instead, I had to learn about what was going on in the world through the USA Today and the limited time I had in my hotel room watching TV.

Over the last few days, my life has been incomplete. I couldn’t check my e-mail or visit my usual website for news and information including the Post-Gazette, Washington Post, Deadspin and Google Reader. For example, I didn’t know that Sidney Crosby returned to the Penguins until after the game ended. I couldn’t see if people had excellent best man speech ideas for me based on Monday morning’s post. I did not learn about Brett Favre’s retirement until many hours after the announcement. I also didn’t know that Lindsey Lohan’s mother and sister were going to be on an E! show titled Living Lohan.

Now that I’m home, things seem right. I can see how many people visited my blog (only folks searching for "why I hate Hillary Clinton" on Google); I can read other blogs again (OK, I haven’t done this yet); I can check my bank account balance (an extra $1000 did not magically appear); and I can read my e-mail again (I received mostly spam messages and junk mail). Actually, I did receive the following eight news alerts from The Washington Post within a 24-hour period:

Inside Decision Tuesday
Obama & McCain Win Vermont
McCain Wins Ohio
Clinton Wins Rhode Island
McCain Wins GOP Nomination
Clinton Wins Ohio
Clinton Wins Texas
Bush, McCain at White House

So McCain winning Texas wasn’t important? Why wasn’t there a news alert about Ben Roethlisberger’s $102 million contract? It doesn’t matter now since I can find everything that I need from the comfort of my home and office.