Who Is The Best Athlete You Ever Saw Live?

I think this will be fun. Today, I want to read stories about the best athlete you ever saw play live before they were stars, if they even became stars at all. Maybe this was your brother or a kid you played against in Little League, but saying that you saw Troy Polamalu make an incredible interception as a member of the Steelers is not what we're looking for here.

Since this is my blog, I'll go first. Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, I was fortunate enough to see plenty of amazing athletes. My high school football team regularly competed for the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League ("WPIAL") Championship and included future NFL players like Steve Breaston, Ryan Mundy, Lousaka Polite, Shawntae Spencer and Rob Gronkowski (for one season), though these guys were after my time. Tirrell Greene was an offensive lineman for my high school and later became an All-American at the University of Miami, and although I feel that he paved the way for future Woodland Hills graduates to play in college, I don't remember seeing him play live.

While my high school produced numerous NFL players, it was an opponent that makes the top of my list. As a college freshman home for Thanksgiving break, I attended a playoff game between Woodland Hills and North Hills. North Hills had a freshman running back that seemed bigger and faster than everyone on the field and ran for over 200 yards in a victory over the Wolverines. He also played linebacker, ended up going to Penn State, was the #2 overall draft pick for Washington, a 3-time Pro Bowler and now co-hosts a radio show in DC. His name was and is LaVar Arrington.

Some people who know me probably thought my answer would be Jason Taylor who graduated a year before me. I remember Taylor as being an awkward basketball player who hadn’t grown into his body yet and made only a few catches as a tight end. I never thought he would inspire Giant Jason Taylor.

Honorable mentions:

Gerald Thompson, Woodland Hills RB, who I thought was going to be a star after running for 1,600 yards and 25 TDs.

Brandon Short of McKeesport HS who later played for the New York Giants.

Michael Keyes of Woodland Hills who was a really good basketball point guard. He wasn’t flashy, but was a great leader and always seemed to make the right decision. He played D1 basketball at Towson.

Nia S. – When I was in junior high, I was responsible for shadowing her for nearly an entire soccer game. I felt extremely fortunate that I held her to only one goal and my team won. I believe that she’s a doctor now.

Your turn. Share who the best athlete you ever saw live in the comments section below.

Random Steelers-Titans Notes

That was a fun game! The Steelers led early and held a convincing lead throughout the second half to defeat the Tennessee Titans 38-17. I don’t think I bit my fingernails once during the game! While you can read a full recap of the game on the Post-Gazette or on the many Steelers blogs on the sidebar of my website, here are some notes that you may not read anywhere else.

The CBS telecast started with a nice story about Tennessee Titans Head Coach Mike Munchak growing up in Scranton and apparently returning to Pennsylvania. It was very nice, but there's one significant problem. According to Google Maps, Scranton is 283 miles from Pittsburgh. Scranton is also only 121 miles from New York City; 125 miles from Philadelphia; 201 miles from Baltimore; 242 miles from Washington; and 296 miles from Boston. Therefore, I hope CBS runs the "returning home" piece for Munchak whenever the Titans face the Jets, Giants, Eagles, Ravens, Redskins or Patriots. If you want to make the case that Munchak returned to his home state, how often do you see similar stories about players or coaches from New York City returning to a game in Buffalo?

At least for one week, the maligned and banged up offensive line played extremely well. The Steelers rushed for 174 yards (6.7 yards per carry) and only allowed one sack. Maybe Max Starks truly is the answer!

We interrupt my notes for a brief commercial. I don’t understand why guy #1 doesn’t ask for a haircut rather than casual Wednesday. Meanwhile, guy #2 has no right to get in Gary Cole’s face. You don’t do that to Gary Cole! I hope Gary Cole punched him as soon as the director yelled cut.



I like the Jonathan Dwyer era. 11 carries for 107 yards is not too shabby. With that written, if Mendenhall, Redman and Moore are all healthy next week, Dwyer should return to the 4th string running back.

Did you know that Ryan Mundy was an excellent wide receiver at Woodland Hills High School catching passes from current Kansas City WR Steve Breaston? He looked good on the terrific pass from punter Daniel Sepulveda who has proved that he can do anything on the football field. Seriously, if Dwyer got injured in the fourth quarter, I’m sure that Sepulveda could have filled in at running back.

Hines Ward had a very Hines Ward day with 7 catches, 54 yards and two touchdowns. Even more significant is that I don’t think the announcers referenced Dancing With the Stars after any of his catches.

In one of my many poor fantasy football decisions this week, I started Antonio Brown. Although Roethlisberger threw for 5 touchdown passes, none of them went to Brown.

I hate to give Dan Dierdorf credit, but he made a great point late in the game when he said that they had not mentioned Ike Taylor. “Face Me Ike” (who apparently changed his website name from Face Me Ike to officialiketaylor.com and hasn’t updated it since June) is truly an underrated cornerback.

Congratulations to Cameron Heyward on his first NFL sack!

I’m sure the Steelers D is excited to face 1-4 Jacksonville and their rookie QB Blake Gabbert next week.

Steelers Season In Review

I've written and rewritten parts of this post several times. I'm trying to balance the disappointment of not making the playoffs after coming off of a Super Bowl Championship with the fact that the organization is still one of the best in football. I'm sure many of you don't see that today, but living in the DC area, it's easy to see that the Steelers are in significantly better shape than the Washington Redskins and many other teams in the NFL (ex. Detroit Lions, St. Louis Rams).

Before I share my thoughts, let's look back at the 2009-2010 predictions by drinkyourmilkshake of Behind the Steel Curtain; Phil of Phil's Occasional Musings; Michael Rizzo of Rizzo Sports (and the Rizzo Sports Blog); Messiah, Marc & Gobo of White Nerdy Wonks; Donald of Steelers Today; Steve of Steve Is Alive; Rob of The Bluey Blog; and me.

1. Number of sacks James Harrison will have this season.
Steve predicted 12 for James and that Woodley would lead the team with 15.5. Messiah also believed that Harrison would have 12 sacks. The actual amount was 10 with Woodley leading the team with 13.5 sacks.

2. Limas Sweed's numbers (catches, yards & touchdowns).
The actual amount was 1 catch for 5 yards and 0 touchdowns. We all expected significantly more except for Rob who predicted "no more than 10 catches, 1 TD and 150 yards."

3. Stefan Logan: Reminds me of Antwaan Randle El as a Steeler; Greatest returner in team history; or Another Allen Rossum?

Well, Logan didn't have any touchdowns but he set the Steelers record for most kick-off return yards. Logan wasn't anything special returning punts and was often replaced by Mewelde Moore when a fair catch was probable. Overall, though, he was a solid returner and improved his special teams coverage as the year progressed.

Messiah - I'd say he's not quite Twaan, but certainly better than Colclough.
Donald - I predict that Logan will become the greatest 5'7" returner in team history.

Points for both Messiah & Donald!

4. Will Jeff Reed be arrested during the season?
Rob - Once, for drunk and disorderly conduct.

During the season, Reed was cited by police for disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

5. Who will lead the team in touchdowns scored?
Rob - Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall led the team with 8 touchdowns followed by Hines Ward, Heath Miller and Mike Wallace with 6 each. I need to take Rob with me to Vegas the next time I go!

6. Season prediction (please include the team record) + Any other thoughts/predictions:
All of us predicted division champs and playoffs. I think Phil's prediction was the closest though. 11-5. It's extraordinarily difficult to repeat as Super Bowl champions. I think we're going to have another good year and win the division but lose a close-game heartbreaker in the playoffs. Maybe that's just what I'm used to as a fan. Despite our success, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have something to complain about when it comes to the Steelers.

Phil, that brings us to today. There were certainly positives to the season such as the pending stardom of LaMarr Woodley, the thought that Rashard Mendenhall can be a #1 running back and the fact that Mike Wallace may be the offensive rookie of the year. Unfortunately, there were more negatives. The kick return coverage was among the worst in NFL history and the defense rarely made stops when needed. The secondary struggled, particularly in the fourth quarter, though I wonder how much of this was related to Troy Polamalu's absence. Taking away one of the best players in football certainly impacts the rest of the team and especially the secondary. I'm a big fan of Tyrone Carter playing spot duty or in specific packages. Unfortunately, he was exposed playing nearly every down. It also didn't help that rookies Ryan Mundy (I know he's not really a rookie, but he never left the practice squad in 2008) and Joe Burnett were playing significant minutes and that another rookie Keenan Lewis couldn't get on the field.

Now here's the positive to all of this. The Steelers have had a history of getting little production out of players in their first season only to see great improvements during their second season. It happened with Mendenhall, Polamalu, Woodley, and Lawrence Timmons. If we get similar growth out of players like Mundy, Burnett, Lewis, Ziggy Hood, and tackle Ramon Foster along with a healthy Polamalu and Aaron Smith, I think the team will be in good shape coming into next season.

There are a few other items that should be addressed. I know that a lot of people think offensive coordinator Bruce Arians should go. I'm not so sure. The Steelers finished 7th in the league in total yards with better numbers than playoff teams such as Indianapolis, San Diego, Philadelphia and Baltimore. While we may miss the days of giving the ball to Jerome Bettis 25 times a game and watching him run for over 100 yards, the NFL is now a passing league and that's where the team excels. Unfortunately, the team isn't able to close games like we did in seasons past. To have Bettis run out the clock in the fourth quarter when everyone knows that the team is going to run. However, I don't think you can pin this on Arians. The team, and in this case I'm referring to the personnel department, hasn't adequately addressed the offensive line over the past few years.



Bottom line: Perhaps this was Super Bowl Hangover Part II. It's certainly possible that the team overlooked Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland. They may not have said it, but I'm sure that the players came into those games knowing they were the better team and believed that they would win just by showing up. That won't happen next year. I also believe that having Polamalu and Smith healthy would have translated into at least one more win. One more win would have got the team into the playoffs.

Finally, not everything is bad in the world. The Steelers have won two Super Bowl Championships over the last 5 seasons. How many teams would dream of having even one?

Steelers Links and Random Stuff

- Two fellow Woodland Hills High School graduates are on this year’s Super Bowl teams. I hope that Steve Breaston loses two fumbles on Sunday, but has 1,500 yards receiving and 10+ touchdowns next year (especially if he’s on my fantasy team). Meanwhile, is Ryan Mundy even on the Steelers' 53-man roster? Regardless, take that Penn Hills and Gateway!

- Sign up for a five-minute shift to be part of the world’s longest Terrible Towel Wave.

- Cotter wrote about the fact that there are 43 strip clubs in Tampa and the Cardinals arrival. I’m linking to the post because he is the first person I know to have bought a Snuggie. (One For The Other Thumb)

- Have you seen this picture (by Ross D. Franklin/AP) of Captain Bruce Meyer holding an Arizona Cardinals flag outside the cockpit window as the team arrived at the Tampa International Airport?



This doesn't seem very safe. Sully Sullenberger wouldn't hold a flag out of an airplane window!

- Your new addition to the Washington Nationals broadcasting team: Rob Dibble (DCist)

- Bob Smizik (Alf). He’s back. In blog (pog) form! Gold star to anyone who gets the Alf/pog reference. (Post-Gazette)

- PittGirl is also back, sort of. She is guest-blogging on Have a Good Sandwich.

- I found the message/question below on fellow DC area blogger Urban Bohemian, but the post has since been removed from Yahoo answers. There is no chance this is real, right?



(In case you can't read the picture or don't want to click on it, this is the text:

I’m concerned that my son has a secret girlfriend?

My 17 year old son has been very secretive with me lately, recently he has started to refuse to go to church with the family and tonight when I was going through his room I found a magazine with naked men in it. He obviously has a girlfriend that he is hiding from me that brought that magazine into my home and I am afraid they are having intercourse and I am greatly concerned that he is going to get her pregnant.

What should I do about this?