Le'Veon Bell and 50 Cent

This post combines the Celebrities In Pittsburgh Gear series with the Pittsburgh Athletes with World-Renowned Athletes (PAWRA!) series. Rapper/entrepreneur 50 Cent met Pittsburgh Steelers Running Back Le'Veon Bell over the weekend.

You can also see 50 wearing a Pirates hat here, possibly inspired by or inspiring the team's 6-game winning streak, with Adam "Pacman" Jones, formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Busy weekend for Mr. Cent! I'm sure that you're thinking, Sean, 50 Cent is responsible for In Da Club, one of the biggest hits of the 21st Century, but he is not a world-renowned athlete. I disagree. This video of 50 throwing out the first pitch at a Mets game in 2014 went viral all over the world.

As I wrote: World Renowned!


Photos from 50 Cent's Instagram.

Kids Book Predicts Steelers-Patriots Game

Back in November, I traveled to Portland and made sure to visit Powell's Books the "largest used and new bookstore in the world." While trying to find Ron Lippock's Steelers Takeaways among the approximately 1 million books in stock, I stumbled upon Here We Go Steelers, Here We Go and bought it for the sake of a future blog post (and to read to my kids, but mostly for blog content). What I didn't realize is that this predicts the outcome of Sunday's Steelers-New England Patriots AFC Championship game.

Before we see the pictures below, I think it's fair to point out several inaccuracies. First, the game in the book takes place at Heinz Field which makes perfect sense for a children's book about the Steelers. In addition, most of the uniform numbers don't match up with current players. So with that, let's witness what will happen on Sunday.

Coach Mike Tomlin, arguably the greatest cheerleader in this country's history, leads the team in a rousing edition of Give Me An S, Give me a T, etc. so that the entire team spells the word Steelers. Antonio Brown is front and center this time to get a better camera angle for Facebook Live.

In the spirit of the referee's message of good sportsmanship, Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount and Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell decide to get high together right at midfield.

The role of James Harrison in this picture is being played by Anthony Chickillo. After the sack, Jim Nantz will refer to James Harrison as "ageless." (And yes, that is my cat Ziggy's tail next to the book.)

After last week's struggles in the red zone, the Steelers decided to hand the ball to Le'Veon Bell (being played by Fitzgerald Toussaint in the book) for a touchdown on a 4th and goal. Smart call!

Chris Boswell has been terrific this season, so why wouldn't he (and not the pictured Jeff Reed or Landry Jones) kick the game-winning field goal?

Celebration time! I'm sure Julian Edelman will be all smiles shaking hands after the game since that's how his team is run." Meanwhile, Steely McBeam is out haunting people in the parking lot.

So there you go. The Steelers will win on Sunday with a late field goal. Enjoy the game (even though you already know the result)!

Steelers-Browns-Chiefs-Chargers Recap

It's time to put the Terrible Towels away until next season. Start the season 0-4 and lose to an awful Oakland Raiders team and you really don't deserve to make the playoffs. Sure, the Steelers should have reached the playoffs based on the mediocre San Diego Chargers' performance against the replacement Kansas City Chiefs (more on this below), but that obviously didn't happen. Here are some of my thoughts about the Steelers-Browns game:

- Steelers RB Le'Veon Bell ran for 90 yards and a TD. He finished the season with 1163 total yards in 13 games. I'm excited to see how Bell progresses in the future.

- While drunk driving is extremely dangerous and drunk drivers certainly deserve the appropriate punishment, you would think that Robocop would do more than catch drunk drivers.



- After Troy Polamalu made a tackle CBS announcer Steve Beuerlein said "You see the way he throws his body around & just gives it up." That sounds a little dirty.

- J.J. Watt should enjoy being in all of these commercials now. On a 2-14 team, he won't be in many (or any) next year.

- At 3:34, Ziggy started knocking things off of the dining room table to get my attention since he wanted food. Doesn't he understand that the Steelers game was on (and that it was too early to eat)?

- Antonio Brown had another solid game (9 catches, 87 yards) as part of an incredible season where he became the first player in NFL history to have at least 5 receptions and 50 yards in all 16 regular season games. While I'm not going to compare Brown with Calvin Johnson, the best WR in the NFL, I do see some potential similarities in the other wide receivers around them. Johnson has never had a really good #2 receiver, though that hasn't stopped him. Meanwhile, with Emmanuel Sanders a free agent, Jerricho Cotchery a year older and Markus Wheaton unimpressive as a rookie, it will be interesting to see how the Steelers surround Brown next year.

I really don't have much more to write about the Steelers game. Jarvis Jones and Lawrence Timmons both played well. The offense played good enough to win, the special teams didn't make any mistakes and the defense played a solid game.

This brings us to the post game. With the Dolphins and Jets both losing, if the Chargers defeated Kansas City, they would be the #6 seed. If they lost to Kansas City, the Steelers would be in the playoffs. It would have been nice if Heinz Field stayed open to show the game on the scoreboard.

What would have been more fun was if the NFL had cameras in the Steelers locker room showing them watching the Chiefs-Chargers game. Better yet, maybe the team could have watched the game at Mike Tomlin's house. Imagine seeing Brett Keisel's reaction when one of Tomlin's kids stands in front of the TV!

- In the NBA, injured or inactive players tend to wear suits or at least dress nicely on the bench. In the NHL, scratched players dress nicely in the booth. Kansas City players such as Alex Smith and Jamaal Charles sure looked professional...wearing Chiefs T-shirts and shorts.

- KC running back Knile Davis is by far my favorite person named Knile.

- Ryan Succop missed a field goal at the end of regulation that would have put the Steelers in the playoffs. That sucked.

- The Chargers ran perhaps one of the dumbest plays in NFL history by doing a fake punt from their own 28 yard-line. If they were unsuccessful, the Chiefs would be in field goal range to try to win the game (again). Instead, the determination that the runner's forward progress was stopped even though there was no whistle or indication by a referee as to where to spot the ball. Oh, and the play couldn't be reviewed. Behind the Steel Curtain has more on this.

- There was also the penalty that should have been called that wasn't called during the final Succop field goal. For all of the complaints about this though, I didn't see anyone mention this during the broadcast or on Twitter when this happened.

Remember my first paragraph about the Steelers not deserving to make the playoffs? San Diego is not much better. They lost to Houston and Washington, the two worst teams in the NFL. Miami & Baltimore don't have any rightful claims to the final AFC Wild Card spot either. Oh well. Big off-season for the Steelers, but I'm optimistic about the team's future.

Steelers-Dolphins Recap

The Steelers season is over. I mean, they're still going to play three more games, but the team has virtually no chance of making the playoffs. The Steelers have had moments this season where they looked amazing, but there have been more times when they have not looked good. Too many offensive turnovers early in the season. The inability for the defense to make big stops. Injuries. Questions about coaching and personnel. There's going to be a lot of talk in the next few days, weeks and months about where the team goes from here, but, as the title suggests, I want to share my thoughts about Sunday's game. As always, my recaps are different than any other Steelers recap you'll read.

- Let's start with the final play of the game. Here's what I think the Dolphins players were thinking during this play.

Oh, this is cute. The Steelers are going to try to lateral all over the field. Oh, an offensive lineman has the ball. Hilarious. Isn't this where they started at the beginning of the play? Back to Big Ben. Wait, is he allowed to throw it down the field again? Let's just tackle him anyway. He just flipped the ball to Antonio Brown. Was that a forward lateral? Hold on. Antonio Brown has the ball. Holy crap! Not Antonio Brown. He's really, really fast and really, really good. Uh oh. Uh oh. Ref called him out of bounds. He was out, right? Okay. Whew. That was close. Let's get out of the cold and get some Smiley Cookies.

- I'm always amazed at the number of players who do not wear long-sleeve shirts underneath their jerseys on cold games. What you usually don't see is the same players putting on heavy jackets on the sidelines. I think NFL players are sending the wrong message here. Basically, their actions are showing that it is okay to expose your arms in freezing temperatures. This could increase the number of potential frostbite cases among people trying to emulate their favorite players. WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

- For the Steelers, you can't expect to win while giving up 181 rushing yards, especially when Daniel Thomas (!) runs for over 100 yards.

- Cameron Heyward has really played well this season. He had 10 tackles on Sunday, including a sack, and a batted-down pass. Heyward just needs to be careful to not go all Hulk Hogan and slam his opponents down on the turf.

- The Dolphins have an offensive lineman named John Jerry. I bet you didn't know this, but John Jerry Jingleheimer Schmidt; his name is my name too!

- This is the only truly serious part of the recap, so feel free to skip this section if you'd like to read my usual humorous banter. During the Thanksgiving game against the Ravens, Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell appeared to get knocked unconscious late in the game and was later diagnosed with a concussion. As the witty announcer Dan Fouts said, he got his Bell rung. Cute. Anyway, with all we have learned about concussions and brain injuries over the past few years, it seems, questionable, at best that Bell returned to the field only 10 days after his injury. I guess that the doctors cleared him to play, but his head injury has to be concerning.

- It seems like nearly every Steelers-Dolphins game is played in bad weather. There was the 3-0 Steelers win in a 2007 Monday Night game which started late due to a major thunderstorm. I also seem to remember a game in Miami where there was tropical storm rain.

- Grudge Match with Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone looks like a terrible movie. I hope that Alan Arkin is getting paid well to appear in this film.

- I was surprised that Troy Polamalu's interception return for a touchdown was only his 3rd pick-6 of his career. I thought he had more.

- Miami's Charles Clay is arguably the most successful Clay since former Congressman Henry Clay. You didn't expect to see a reference to the former Whig Party Presidential candidate as well the Speaker of the House and Senator from Kentucky in the Dolphins-Steelers recap, did you?

I'm guessing a live blog of next week's Sunday night game against the Bengals is unlikely.

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?