2021 Steelers Draft Recap

Welcome to my annual-ish Steelers draft recap. If you're new to my draft recaps, I want to share up front that I'm not going to pretend that I'm a draft expert. This is for entertainment purposes only and hopefully you enjoy it and possibly even smile or chuckle. An occasional guffaw is welcome! So with that, here is everything you need to know about the 2021 Pittsburgh Steelers draft class:

Round 1: Najee Harris - RB, University of Alabama

Fun fact! The Steelers had a running back with the last name of Harris who won 4 Super Bowls and went to the Hall of Fame. The Steelers also had a running back in the 2000s with the first name Najeh who had 725 rushing yards (a 4.3 yards per carry average!) and 9 total touchdowns in 32 career games. I think the Steelers and the fans expect production for Najee Harris closer to the first Harris rather than Najeh.

Round 2: Pat Freiermuth - TE, Penn State University

On Saturday morning, my 10 year old woke up and asked me who the Steelers drafted the previous evening.

Me - They picked a tight end from Penn State.

The Moose (excitedly and interrupting me) - They got Pat Freiermuth!

Clearly, he needs to do these draft recaps!  

I hope that Pat is ready to hear HEEEEEEEEEEEATH cheers whenever he catches a pass.

Round 3: Kendrick Green - OL, University of Illinois

Green joins an impressive list of University of Illinois players drafted by the Steelers.

DB Terry Hawthorne - 2013, 5th round

RB Rashard Mendenhall - 2008, 1st round

DB Bobby Dawson - 1988, 11th round

TE Cap Boso - 1986, 8th round

LB Octavus Morgan - 1974, 16th round

E (what position is E?) Gary Francis - 1957, 24th round

E Walt Kerulis - 1950, 23rd round

Not quite an all-pro line-up here. In my opinion, Mendenhall wasn't bad, but he is not remembered fondly by Steeler Nation thanks to his fumble in Super Bowl XLV. To my knowledge, none of these other guys ever played on the Steelers in a regular season game.  

We all agree that Cap Boso is an amazing name, right?

Round 4: Dan Moore, Jr. - DT, Texas A&M University

One of my favorite lines from the short-lived sitcom Happy Endings is this:

If Mary Tyler Moore married and divorced Steven Tyler and married and divorced Michael Moore, then got into a 3-way lesbian marriage with Demi Moore and Mandy Moore, would she go by the name Mary Tyler Moore Tyler Moore Moore Moore?

Let's just replace Michael Moore with Dan Moore.

Round 4: Buddy Johnson - LB, Texas A&M University

Hey Buddy!

Hi Buddy!

Round 5: Isaiahh Loudermilk - DE, University of Wisconsin

Pittsburghers (including me) get really upset when people omit the "h" in the city name. Isaiahh probably feels the same way, especially since his first name ends with two Hs. Isaiahh seems like a perfect fit for Pittsburgh!

Round 6: Quincy Roche, LB, University of Miami

Quincy Roche is trying to become the second player in Steelers history to have the first name starting with the letter Q after WR Quincy Morgan. In case you're wondering, the Pittsburgh Pirates have never had someone with the first name beginning with Q in the team's over 125 year history. Although he was a multi-sport star with excellent jumping abilities, Q*bert never got invited a Steelers training camp or a Pirates spring training in the 1980s.

Round 7: Tre Norwood - S, University of Oklahoma

I got nothing. Sorry Tre. I mean, I didn't forget about Tre.

Round 7: Pressley Harvin III - P, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)

Besides it taking me a few minutes to realize that this is not former NFL wide receiver Percy Harvin, Pressley Harvin seems awesome. I love this pick.

The biggest revelation of the NFL draft wasn't any of these players. It's that Darryl McDaniels (DMC) is a Steelers fan! 

Go Steelers!

Please click here for other Pittsburgh draft recaps over the years.

Photo of Najee Harris by Caitlyn Epes/Pittsburgh Steelers

Beat This Trevor Lawrence

Sure, Trevor Lawrence was selected #1 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars at the recent NFL draft, but can he throw two footballs perfectly at the exact same time like three year old Luigi?

Friday Video: Levitating

While this song has been out for a while now, I dig "Levitating" by Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby. 

They were great during the performance at the Grammys too. 

I'm half-way through my 30 blog posts in 30ish days challenge. Just curious, do you like these more frequent, but less detailed posts, or do you prefer the longer posts that come out once or twice a week?

Refinancing

We refinanced late last year and are saving hundreds of dollars a month on our mortgage. Sure, there were closing costs, but those fees were included in the new mortgage, and we'll end up breaking even with those costs soon. Despite refinancing at a really good rate and fairly recently, the mortgage company started emailing me about refinancing. They emailed me on April 3rd and then again on April 9th, and April 10th. They took a few days off and then went crazy.

I received emails on the 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. I thought that was it, but then I got one more on the 28th. Finally, I figured that they must have some kind of amazing deal, so I decided to call them. They seemed surprised that I received all of the emails and then admitted that my current rate is better than anything they have to offer. 

I just hope that this means no more emails about refinancing for a while!

My Golf Course: Part II

Remember when I wrote that walking my golf course was my new happy place? Well, I took a few pictures from some recent walks. I even had a companion join me for one adventure.

It's going to be disappointing when the golfers start playing later hours, and when I can't walk because there will cicadas everywhere. In case you're wondering, I plan on writing several cicada posts in the next month or two. I can feel your excitement from here!

Make Sports Blowouts Fun!

Something unusual happened at the end of the Pittsburgh Penguins-New Jersey Devils game on Saturday. No, it’s not the empty net, buzzer-beating goal by Sidney Crosby from the opposite side of the rink. It’s that Pens’ defenseman Kris Letang took the face off (or at least stood in the face off circle) to end the game. (Start at the 8:20 mark of the video for the Crosby goal and Letang "faceoff.")

According to Hockey Reference, Letang has played in 856 regular season games over 15 seasons. This was only the fifth time Letang took a face off in his NHL career. So my question is why don’t defensemen ever take face offs?

Look, I know that it’s about positioning. If a defenseman is taking the face off, that means that a center or wing will have to take his/her spot. Plus, it’s likely that defensemen never practice face offs. However, you’re telling me that no defenseman in the league could regularly win faceoffs? There are likely many NHL defensemen who played on offense growing up or in the minors. I’m sure they won plenty of faceoffs then. Maybe they were the best at winning faceoffs on their teams or even in their leagues. However, due to their professional position, they never (or very rarely) take faceoffs now. I feel like there has to be a few NHL defensemen who could win a faceoff if a team really needs a win at the end of a period or game. Or if the game is a blowout, why not let defensemen from each team take a face off for something different?

This goes to a larger point in sports. I think most people enjoy the unusual aspects of the game. It's fun to see a position player pitch in baseball, though this happens weekly now.

I enjoy seeing Phillip Evans leading the Pirates pitching staff in ERA!

To see an offensive or defensive lineman score a touchdown. 

To see a goalie score a goal, especially one from near their opponent's goal like the one at the 2:30 mark of the video.

I suggest more of this in sports. If a team is down by 10 in the 9th inning of a baseball game, have someone who throws left-handed play 3rd base, shortstop, or 2nd base! Play all defenders on a power play! Have your center play point guard! So many possibilities!

Presented Without Comment

 Big Sexy Hair:

My Big Sexy Hair:

Reason #7366 Why I'm Old

A radio station labelled "Soft" by my vehicle played "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe. 

Never trust a big butt and a smile is considered soft.

Saturday Video: Golden

I'm convinced that the song "Golden" by Harry Styles was written in the hopes that it would be used frequently during the Tokyo Olympics. It's a catchy song, and you could definitely see NBC and other networks around the world playing this song constantly.

Friday Video: Ritt Momney

Perhaps you remember the 2006 song "Put Your Records On" by Corinne Bailey Rae. It's a really pleasant song that received several Grammy nominations. 

While the song isn't very old, Ritt Momney released a cover version late last year.

I know nothing about Ritt Momney other than what I just found in this Billboard interview. Apparently, Ritt Momney is a band, but it's pretty much one guy, Jack Rutter. I'd prefer that he called his group Jack Rutter since I think we can pretty much agree that Ritt Momney is a terrible band name. This has nothing to do with politics either. Boe Jiden, Hamala Karris, and Mitch McConnell would also be awful. Come to think of it though, Pancy Nelosi wouldn't be a bad band name.

Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys

As of the date and time of this post, the Pirates are 8-10 and tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for fourth/last place in the National League Central division. They are 3 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, and have been competitive after a 1-6 start. No one expects the team to be in playoff contention, though they might be better than the 100-loss team many people predicted (including those in my Pirates predictions post).

I started thinking about what jerseys the team is selling on its website. Although Ke'Bryan Hayes is injured and only played in two games this season, he's an exciting young player that fans want to support. Phillip Evans is off to a good start, so maybe fans would be interested in buying a jersey with his name and number on the back. Not so much. The Pirates shop shows 63 jerseys on the top sellers page. 

You expect jerseys for Pirates icons Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell to be at the top of the list, even though neither has played since 1972 and 1982 respectively. A "Your Name" jersey is also popular as is Josh Bell who was traded to the Washington Nationals in the offseason. According to the list, only 4 of the 63 jerseys are of current players, Kevin Newman and Adam Frazier. One of the Frazier jerseys is the most "popular" at #29 followed by a Starling Marte jersey at #30 and a Chris Archer jersey at #32. It should be noted that Marte was traded in January 2020, and Archer signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Rays after not pitching in 2020 after surgery. 

I know that there's not a lot to like about the Pirates team right now, but is it too much for the team to try to sell a Hayes, Keller, Reynolds, or Brubaker jersey?

Update: Just before I published the post, I clicked on the MLB shop website again. The Adam Frazier jerseys are now listed at #17 and #18. I doubt that many people bought Frazier jerseys in the last 24 hours, so I have no idea how the list is organized or if it changes daily.

My Golf Course

I may have found a happy place. I’ve probably mentioned before that I live on/adjacent to a golf course, which sounds much fancier than it is. I pay homeowner association fees that help support the golf course, so I think I can fairly call it my golf course. Despite it being my golf course, I’m not actually allowed to just walk on it whenever I want to or at all. However, over the last two evenings, all of the golfers have finished their rounds, but there has still been some daylight, so I decided to walk on the cart path around the 14th and 15th holes. It’s really nice. Just me and a few geese. I wouldn’t say that it’s quiet since you can hear cars driving by, but it is some rare alone time for me. The walks have only lasted about 20 minutes, but I really hope that this becomes a regular thing.

Where Do The Paw Patrol Go To The Bathroom?

At various times of their lives, my kids have watched and enjoyed Paw Patrol. While The Moose and Pedro Tulo have outgrown the show, my three year old Luigi is a big fan. I've mentioned Paw Patrol several times over the years, but I've never asked the pressing question in the post title. 

On the surface, this seems simple. They are dogs, so they probably do their business on grass. However, the pups talk, drive vehicles, dance, snowboard, and solve all types of problems. You also never see the pups near a fire hydrant, so perhaps they use a toilet. A however to the earlier however is that the dogs continue to eat in bowls on the ground, meaning that although they may seem more human than human (to quote White Zombie/Rob Zombie), they continue to have dog characteristics. 

If I had to guess, I think the pups do their business on grass, but they clean up after themselves. Otherwise, part of every episode would focus on Ryder cleaning up after them!

And if your kids watch Paw Patrol, I apologize that you'll probably think about this every episode now!

The Moose Knows Basketball

My ten year old, The Moose, is obsessed with sports. I know that I’m to blame, but I wish he had other hobbies and interests like doing his schoolwork. My friend organized a men’s NCAA basketball tournament pool, and I submitted two entries and let The Moose and his now seven year old brother complete a bracket. Here are the results:

The Moose finished in 30,564th place. This doesn’t seem impressive except that’s 30,564 out of probably 15 million entries (and significantly better than me). That’s fantastic!

I would say that I should probably listen to his sports advice now, but that’s not happening. We watched Space Jam on Sunday, and The Moose told his brother that Michael Jordan was a basketball AND a baseball Hall of Famer from his time on the Chicago White Sox. Jordan never made the majors and is not in the baseball Hall of Fame.

On a complete tangent, I only saw one three pointer in the Tune Squad-Monstars basketball game, and it was by Wayne Knight by complete luck. I assume that the upcoming Space Jam movie starring LeBron James will be filled with threes to reflect the current NBA.

How Much Do You Tip Food Delivery Drivers?

This is probably a question I could simply ask on Twitter or Facebook, but I need some content for my 30 blog posts in 30ish days challenge. If you eat at a restaurant, you probably tip around 20% of your bill. For my question, I’m specifically asking about food delivery from individual restaurants since I honestly don’t know the pricing structure for companies like DoorDash, UberEats, etc. works. I’m thinking about your general order from pizza chains like Dominos or Papa John's. It could be from Panera or your local Chinese restaurant too. Do you give a 20% tip like you do at a restaurant? If a restaurant already has delivery fee charge, does that impact the amount you tip?

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Blue Hair

I'm really glad that I titled my challenge "30 in 30ish" since my goal of publishing 30 blog posts in 30 consecutive days reached a total of 3 days before I missed a day. Maybe 30 in 35 or 40 is more realistic.

Anyway, I was at the grocery store recently and came across this:

I don't have many options for what I can do with my hair, but changing the color is a possibility. Of course, all I could think about was the Progressive commercial where you're trying not to turn into your parents.

(My apologies for posting this version of the video where the guy says blue for 10 minutes. I can't seem to find the original commercial.) 

2021 Best of The 'Burgh

Voting is currently underway in Pittsburgh Magazine's annual Best of the 'Burgh. As I mentioned last month, I want to sincerely thank my friends and family for nominating me in the Local Writer category. I'm a finalist up against an impressive group of nominees in Damon Young, Gene Collier, Merecedes J. Williams, Natalie Bencivenga, and Tony Norman. All of these individuals have better credentials than me and get paid to share their opinions. If you've read this blog at all, you can tell that no one is paying to hear from me. 

Before I go any further, I should probably address something fairly important for this contest. I'm not a local writer. I mean, I'm a local writer for where I live, but that place isn't Pittsburgh or Western Pennsylvania. With that written, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Before the pandemic, I tried to get back at least once a year to visit family and friends and to expose my kids to Pittsburgh. I regularly write about Pittsburgh in posts including our family vacation, the closing of one of my favorite restaurants, The O, and predictions for the Pirates this season. My guess is that at least 1,000 of my over 3,000 blog posts here reference Pittsburgh. Historically, more people in Western Pennsylvania read my blog than from anyone else. I am also a proud member of the Pittsburgh Bloggers group on Facebook, and the majority of the people I follow on Twitter have Pittsburgh ties. In addition, I regularly visit blogs and websites devoted to Pittsburgh and listen to Pittsburgh podcasts. Basically, I believe that I have the credentials of a local writer except that I don't have a phone number with a 412 area code.

So this is the part of the post where I should encourage you to vote for me. If you'd like to, please do. However, any of the other nominees are deserving (and probably more deserving), so I'm not going to start a "None of the Above" campaign.

Voting concludes on Saturday, April 17th at 11:59 PM. The local writer category is under "Personalities." And thanks for checking out my third blog post in my 30 in 30ish challenge.

30 In 30ish

Nearly my entire life consists of being a parent to my three boys and working (with the occasional sleep thrown in there). Yes, it’s been like this since the pandemic started, but it seems even more prevalent lately. So I decided that I needed some sort of motivation to do something for myself. While I wish that this would be a vacation, exercising, or even finishing a book, the fatherhood and work responsibilities aren't going away, and the pandemic is still happening. Therefore, I settled on writing 30 blog posts in 30ish days. 

The goal is to write a post every day for 30 straight days or at least close to it. I also want to have a big finish around my birthday with a post focused on the anniversary of one of the greatest adventures of my life. In case you're wondering, I'm counting yesterday's blog post about raccoons in my neighborhood and remembering all the time I spent in computer labs as a college student as the first post. Maybe not the best starter, but it counts!

So consider this day 2 and enjoy the next 28ish days or so!

Raccoon Adventures

I love my community message board. Sure, it seems like many of the posts consist of neighbors complaining about people not cleaning up after their dogs, but there are some hidden gems on occasion. Recently, a neighbor shared this lovely story.

Hello neighbors, I just saw an emaciated raccoon slowly walking around looking lethargic and confused. I called the police and they came out. The officer couldn’t find it. It was seen across the street from REDACTED. The officer said if you see it again, to call the police again. He said it may have distemper, as they have been getting a lot of similar reports.

Before I go further, since this is my blog, I thought I would share my raccoon story. During my freshman year of college, I returned to my residence hall by myself very late one night (or very early in the morning) from an amazing party. And by amazing party, I mean from finishing a paper in the computer lab. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term “computer lab,” in the 1990s, not everyone had their own computers. If you were lucky, you might have a friend or roommate who had a computer and would let you borrow it. Oh, and by borrow it, I mean that you would sit in that person's room at their desk since people only had heavy desktop computers back then. If you weren't lucky, you would go to one of the computer labs on campus and sit in a room full of people and computers for hours, or worse, wait for someone to finish using a computer and then sit in a room full of people and computers for hours.

Anyway, when I completed the paper, printed it in the computer lab, and saved it on disc (email was a thing back then, but email attachments were not), I walked back to my room. Just before reaching my residence hall, a raccoon popped out of the dumpster at probably around 4:00 AM and simply stared at me as if to say, "I'm eating here. Don't bother me, or suffer the consequences." Since I probably looked lethargic and confused myself, I turned around and walked in an entirely different direction to get back to my room.

Now back to your regularly scheduled neighborhood message board already in progress. 

The first reply: I too saw a very small sickly looking raccoon in [our neighborhood] last week.  I called the police and my husband and I followed it without getting too close until the officer arrived.  He put it down immediately.   Thank you for calling and trying to get help for the animal.  I’m keeping my eyes open. 

By "put it down," the person means, picked up the raccoon and rocked it to sleep for bedtime, right? Like, putting a child down for a nap.

Next reply: I called Animal Control last week but they weren’t open.  I then called the non-emergency number for the police.  They said they dispatch for animal control.  When the officer arrived he said he was “acting animal control.”

Who knew that acting animal control is one of the job titles and duties for police officers.

Final reply: My neighbor said that sometimes patrol officers cover for animal control officers.  In his encounter the police also implied they would put the animal down as well. Wonder how they make that call.

I never really thought of this before, but I assume that the officer is actually shooting the raccoon, right? Are there other ways of putting it down? I understand if it's a rabid raccoon that could be dangerous, but I'm not sure I want to hear (or see) police shooting a raccoon in a populated neighborhood.

Of course, maybe people were just confused between raccoons and bears again. Or they saw a fox instead and decided to publish a video of it on a blog instead of sharing it with the message board!

Old Spice?

When driving last week, the song "Dreams" by The Cranberries came on the radio. My 10 year old (The Moose) asked me to change the station because he hates when we listen to old songs. (The actual quote was "I hate when you listen to old songs.") A few months ago, I wrote that we started dancing to Just Dance songs on YouTube for exercise on cold and rainy days. I recently played "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, and The Moose again criticized it for being an old song. He then asked if the members of the Spice Girls are still alive. After I replied yes, he asked how old are they? In their 70s?

To be fair to The Moose, both Dreams and Wannabe are about 25 years old. That is old to him. Plus, he really doesn't comprehend the age of songs or anything else. In his mind, the Spice Girls, Rolling Stones, and even Mozart could all be contemporaries. 

Still, I have failed as a parent in teaching The Moose and my other kids about music. I rarely play music in the house. I don't use Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Tidal, or any other streaming services. I never had an iPod, and I don't have any songs on my phone. This might be surprising, but I have never downloaded any music either. Sure, I bought tapes and CDs in the past, but I don't think I've bought a new CD since The Moose was born. So much of the music The Moose listens to is from the radio when he's in the car. Therefore, he knows your Dua Lipas and Harry Styleses (Stylesi?), but I don't think he's very familiar with Prince or Tom Petty or The Beatles or really anyone from before 2010. 

This is the part of the blog post where I ask for advice. How do I get The Moose and his brothers to appreciate and listen to more music other than what's currently playing on pop radio? 

Photo by Getty Images.