Pittsburgh Athletes Invade Northern Virginia

We all know that there are a lot of Western Pennsylvania transplants and Pittsburgh sports fans in the DC area. I've written about this countless times when attending Pirates-Nationals games, Pens-Caps games, Pitt-Georgetown games, and in particular, the 2008 Steelers-Redskins game. Therefore, it should be no surprise that there's a sports memorabilia show occurring at the Dulles Expo Center this weekend (April 8-10) featuring more Pittsburgh athletes than Washington figures. Here are some of the former or current athletes with Pittsburgh area ties:

Le'Veon Bell
Terry Bradshaw
Antonio Brown (shouldn't he be in LA dancing?)
Dermontti Dawson
Kevin Greene
Lou Holtz (East Liverpool in the house!)
Curtis Martin (he's wearing Jets gear in the picture, but we all know he's a Pitt and Allderdice guy)
Heath Miller (I'd love to see if people go up to him and yell "Heeeeeeeeeath.")
Ryan Shazier
Stephon Tuitt
Markus Wheaton
Dion Lewis (another Pitt guy)
Michael Moorer (the pride of Monessen)
Dwight Stone

There is a lot of money to be made by the athletes and I assume by the event organizer. It costs $100 to get an 8x10 photo with Antonio Brown. While I don't think it's possible for Brown to take a bad picture, I wouldn't want to pay $80 for a picture with Kevin Greene if he looks like unhappy.

My question is why are there so few baseball, basketball and hockey players? Actually, there are no hockey players and the only baseball players are Juan Marichal, Dale Murphy, Gaylord Perry, Frank Robinson and Pedro Sierra compared to dozens of football players. Oh, and William Shatner will be there for some reason.

You'll notice that I didn't include the actual name of the event or a website link since I'm not necessarily promoting this event. If the company wants me to promote the event, I'm more than happy to do so...for the right price.

2013 Pittsburgh Steelers Predictions

While I’ve spent the summer following the Pittsburgh Pirates and plan to continue to do so as the team fights for the National League Central division, with the NFL season only a week away, it’s time to share some thoughts about the Pittsburgh Steelers. First, according to SportBet.com where you can make football game picks all season, the Steelers are +3000 on the moneyline to win the Super Bowl. I have no idea what this means since I’m used to seeing odds like 10-to-1, but the Steelers are tied for 11th with Cincinnati for the best odds to win the Super Bowl. I’ve struggled with whether I think this is appropriate. On one hand, I’m used to seeing the Steelers regularly make the playoffs and compete for the Super Bowl, so this may seem low. However, the team went 8-8 last season and has some serious question marks.

On offense, the Steelers finished near the bottom of the league in rushing in 2012. The team looked to upgrade the running back position by drafting Le’Veon Bell out of Michigan State in the 2nd round. Unfortunately, Bell has a foot injury and will likely miss, minimally, the first few weeks of the season. The offensive line is young and has struggled during the preseason. With Mike Wallace gone, there are some questions about whether Emmanuel Sanders is ready to step up and the depth at the wide receiver position. Additionally, Heath Miller, arguably the most underrated tight end in the NFL, is recovering from a torn ACL with his return unknown.

Defensively, the Steelers have led the NFL in total net yards allowed in both the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The problem is that the team finished -10 in the takeaway/giveaway ratio last season. I know this sounds elementary, but the Steelers must cause more turnovers (and have less turnovers) if they want to compete for the playoffs. A healthy Troy Polamalu will certainly help. I also think this is a make or break season for defensive ends Ziggy Hood (Ziggy!) and Cameron Heyward, and they’re finally going to live up to their 1st round draft pick selections.

Going back to the odds, being 11th best team will likely get you either into the playoffs or in playoff contention. That’s where I see the Steelers this year at 9-7 or 10-6. Actually, I’ll split the difference and go with 9-6-1 and look forward to everyone freaking out during the tie game. While I don’t think the defense will be #1 in the league for a third consecutive year, I think they’re going to cause more turnovers. Additionally, the running game can’t be as bad as last year, right? So my prediction is that the Steelers will finish the season with a 9-6-1 record and barely earn the second AFC Wild Card.

How do you think the Steelers will finish this season?

Steelers-Jaguars Recap

I’ll preface this post by writing that I have no idea what Al Michaels or John Madden said during Sunday night’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Jacksonville Jaguars game. I have not read recaps of the game by Pittsburgh newspapers, national sports websites or the Pittsburgh sports related blogs listed on my links list. The following are my comments, thoughts and pictures from attending the game live.



This picture was taken a half hour before game time. Notice the large banner covering two sections on the top left and the Jaguars banner behind the end zone. Apparently, these seats and several other sections throughout the stadium are completely covered during the entire season to help the team avoid blackouts. That would never happen for the Steelers. Oh, Jacksonville has no problem selling these seats for the Florida-Georgia college football game.



I really don’t know what to write about these guys. They were loud and somewhat annoying, but overall, pretty cool. Of course, I was not sitting directly next to them unlike the guy on the left wearing a white shirt. His sleeve ended up being mostly black from the body paint. He wasn't too happy being next to them.



The Steelers with an empty backfield, which they used more on Sunday than during the last 75 years combined. Did Mike Tomlin or Bruce Arians mention anywhere why used this set so often? Did it force the Jaguars to have more defenders in coverage instead of blitzing?

When the Steelers used this set, it seemed like the receivers were Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Nate Washington, Heath Miller and Mewelde Moore. Do the Steelers have a fourth WR?



Occasionally, the Steelers really did run the ball. I think this was one such case. Moore was definitely more effective on the outside as opposed to between the tackles.



Your halftime entertainment was a fireworks/laser show. The smoke was a little overwhelming after it ended. Maybe that’s why Fred Taylor had trouble picking up yards in the second half.



This picture was taken at the end of the game and did not come out well. The guy in the center had green hair and was an obnoxious Jaguars fan. To quote the Pensblog, STUNNED!

Other notes:

- Washington Capitals’ Sergei Federov’s brother Anthony sang the national anthem. Apparently, he was on American Idol.

- After a first down, the Jags fans cheer "Move Them Chains, Move Them Chains, Move Them Chains, Huh." Seemed kind of silly.

- I’m sure that everyone is saying and writing that Ben Roethlisberger is amazing in his ability to make plays after avoiding the pass rush. While he did make a great pass to Hines Ward late in the fourth quarter, he really needs to throw the ball away once in a while. On that particular play, he could (should) have been sacked, which may have knocked the Steelers out of field goal range. He probably did take 3 sacks during the game when he could have thrown it away. Yes, I’m nitpicking, but it really is OK to throw it away once in a while.

- "Welcome to Teal Town" is not very intimidating.

- Although Crazy Train is a great song, the Jaguars played it on three separate occasions (not including the fourth time when they played the Lil’ John version). I’m sure there are other songs out there that could be used to excite the crowd.

- My guess is that 25% of the fans supported the Steelers.

- I probably received a dozen compliments on the Louis Lipps jersey.

- I wanted to take a picture of the final score, but as soon as the game ended the team removed the score from the scoreboard. Did the Jaguars think their fans would forget that the team lost?

Most importantly, the Steelers won 26-21 and are now 4-1 heading into the bye week.