Behind the Steel Curtain

Military Veterans: What's Your Favorite Sports Memory From Deployment?

2012-05-17T20:22:48Z

Military Veterans: What's Your Favorite Sports Memory From Deployment?

I know we've got a number of military men and women that read BTSC, and we could use your help.

Matt Ufford and the rest of SB Nation's YouTube channel are looking to honor veterans with a Memorial Day video compiled from clips of veterans talking about their favorite sports memory while deployed.

So check out the above link and if you are a veteran or if you know one, please pass this along!

The Pittsburgh Way: How Do You Find People That Fit The Culture?

2012-05-17T18:00:37Z

In the comments thread of my article on ‘The Downside of Being a Football Hero' and during an exchange with BTSC regular 5020, I wrote the following (typos corrected):

The idea that so many of us subscribe to is that with enough money, perhaps a better relationship, a better job that everything would be great. On the other hand, some of the most content individuals I have ever met didn't have much of anything. One of the things I think is really great about the so called blue collar mentality is that it detaches itself from and rejects the notion that the good life is a function of position and how much you make, but rather how you approach your life and responsibilities (values); a wise position because despite the propaganda suggesting otherwise many of us rarely completely transcend our circumstances. This may be the essence of the culture of Pittsburgh.

On reflection, two things resonated with me. First, as pointed out in the article, class is defined by more than financial status, but also by a system of values. That is why, I suppose, the definition is socioeconomic class. Second, while most of us in some sense recognized those values in a ‘know it when I see it fashion', sometimes there are things that are so obvious and pervasive that in a paradoxical sense we are unable to grasp them in a meaningful way.

When I was interviewing long time Steelers scout and talent evaluator Bill Nunn he mentioned something to me that I already knew, but the context of his statement jarred me into a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the facts. He pointed out that Dan Rooney, one of the most successful men in America, if not the world, a billionaire (that's spelled with a ‘B'), the United States Ambassador to Ireland, lives in the same home on Pittsburgh's North Side in which he grew up. Who else does that? Donald Trump? Dan Snyder? Jerry Jones? Mitt Romney? And what gave this greater impact was the fact that Nunn was saying this while we sat on the back porch of his home, which was also the home that he grew up in located in the Hill District (Nunn having enjoyed a successful career in the NFL spanning more than forty years and prior to that having served as Editor of the most prominent black newspaper in the United States).

In the article I posed a number of questions concerning what purchasing choices might be made if in possession of relatively large sum of money:

Do you buy a nice little economical hybrid or like ex-Steeler Leon Searcy do you use a limousine service? Do you purchase a condo, or a McMansion or something even more palatial?

I think we know how the Rooney family would probably answer that question. Some may be tempted to think that this type of thinking and behavior is peculiar to the Rooneys, but they are largely honored and respected by Pittsburghers because they so faithfully adhere to the values of the local culture. We label those values "blue collar", but they transcend both the type of work one happens to engage in as well as class affiliation.

Culture can be most difficult to define by those residing within it because, like water to a fish, it is so all encompassing that it becomes invisible, virtually impossible to discern. As such, you can be forgiven if you believe that the relationship between the Pittsburgh Steelers and what has come to be known as Steeler Nation is simply about football.

We call it the Steeler Way, but what that organization unswervingly represents is the Pittsburgh Way. Because one of the cornerstones of the underlying value system is a sincere, understated humility faithful practitioners like the Rooneys refrain from either self-promotion or justification of themselves or their governing set of values. Misunderstandings and underestimation is unavoidable since most of the rest of the nation, including (especially) the sports media operates under a different covenant.

Nor are the misunderstandings confined to outsiders. Many within Steeler Nation continually demonstrate a lack of comprehension of the culture, the values that are the foundation of the franchise's success. I certainly get how easy it is to be seduced by the priorities of the dominant culture. Nonetheless, it has to be acknowledged how bizarre it is that some of us envy those whose greatest aspiration is to someday be as successful as the Steelers. And nobody has been as successful as the Steelers. Yet we want to throw money at ‘big name' free agents because that's what everyone else does. We would jettison the development strategy that is dependent upon patience and loyalty for instant gratification because that's what everyone else does, and it is endorsed by the sages at ESPN. We ignore the example of the wise to worship at the feet of the ignorant.

I live in an area (Metropolitan Washington DC) that is largely governed by a different, competing value system; let's call it white collar values. Under this system your value is determined by the position you hold, your credentials and the amount of money you make.

Like many people I have been highly critical of Washington Redskin owner Daniel Snyder based upon the assumption that he has been stuck on stupid in relation to his decision making for his team. Looking at it from a different perspective Mr. Snyder can be viewed as being a prisoner of a dysfunctional value system.

How do I make the case that the white collar values are dysfunctional? Remember that professional football is rooted in the culture of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, the same area that spawned the Pittsburgh (and Steelers) Way. In the culture of football self-sacrifice and interdependence are much more than just admirable warm and fuzzy qualities; they are essential elements to success. When understood in this context money and talent, though important, can be of limited value if the other elements of cooperation aren't present. Self-promotion (and the individualism that fuels it) is at odds with and has a corrosive effect on the team consciousness (and the attendant leveling effects on individuals) that is necessary for winning. And when that attitude begins at the top; when your owner lives in a modest home and stands in line in the cafeteria at lunch time just like everyone else is it any wonder why the Steelers have been so successful.

Dysfunctional values compel you toward questionable decision making. Snyder could have never hired someone like Mike Tomlin (or Chuck Noll or Bill Cowherd) based upon his governing values, at least not at the front end because there wasn't that much ‘sizzle' in Tomlin's resume. And again, there were folks that had this issue in Steeler Nation as well. Tomlin was thought by some to be an ‘affirmative action' hire, the Rooneys being taken prisoner by their own rule (at the time there were people who were disappointed that Noll was chosen over a more ‘name' individual, Joe Paterno). Snyder ended up hiring the likes of Steve Spurrier and Mike Shanahan, guys with plenty of sizzle, but relatively little steak. Of course he would hire Tomlin now because he has a proven track record. But the key to success sometimes is the ability to recognize the potential before it manifests, something the Steelers organization demonstrates constantly.

The same value system likely would have encouraged Snyder to go in a different direction than Ben Roethlisberger if he had been in the market during the 2004 draft. Being true to his value system Snyder would have probably picked Eli Manning because of, literally, his name, and would have preferred either Manning or Philip Rivers because they were products of large conferences (SEC, ACC) as opposed to the mid major conference (MAC) associated with Ben. James Harrison, another MAC player, with less than standard measurables (too short for one thing) and something of a project would have been passed over as well. And isn't it funny that players that they let go often do rather well; think Ryan Clark, or more recently, Carlos Rogers.

The cultural/values argument goes a long way in explaining why the Skins consistently invest in players that are, objectively speaking, either past their prime (Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith), over-hyped (Albert Haynesworth) or were a bad fit for the team's schemes or personnel. Of course issues such as relationships don't come much into play with the white collar mentality. I would also argue that the Skins are extreme in some respects, and therefore more dysfunctional, but are for the most part closer to the norm for the league relative to Pittsburgh.

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of us in Steeler Nation are either white collar types (psychologically not necessarily professionally) or have been seduced to the point where we adopt the mindset when discerning the actions of the Steelers and other teams in the league. Confusion and other misunderstandings can result, something I have noticed playing out over the recent discussions over ‘character issues' involving our recent draft choices (Mike Adams, Sean Spence and Chris Rainey).

One of the questions being raised is whether the Steelers compromised their values by selecting these players. Were they so hard up for the infusion of talent that they turned their backs on their principles. Let's get one thing straight. If you conceptualize the Pittsburgh Steelers as being a bunch of milk drinking boy scouts you are somewhat deluded. Here begins an admittedly incomplete history lesson.

Are you concerned about Mike Adams' weed smoking? Eugene ‘Big Daddy' Lipscomb was a heroin addict. Bobby Layne would close down nightclubs at dawn and then go quarterback the team a couple of hours later. Joe Greene really was mean, at least on the football field. He kicked opponents in the groin, he spit in their faces. By comparison James Harrison looks like a nun. Ernie Holmes had disturbing psychological issues. Steve Courson (and others) used, some would say abused, performance enhancing substances. More recently, Adams has nothing over Santonio Holmes as a weed smoker, and he went to court on domestic issues. And of course there were Ben's troubles.

Clearly the point is that having a troubled past (or present) does not necessarily disqualify one from being a Pittsburgh Steeler. Environmental and developmental issues explain a lot of questionable decisions. The important thing is that once immersed in the Steeler Way, the Pittsburgh Way, can they exercise the self-sacrifice, specifically over their own vices for the good of the franchise and the community that supports them. Now in some cases the problems really are based upon the innate deficiencies of an individual's character, they are incapable of acting in any other manner. But if the waywardness is influenced by other factors then it would be a violation of blue collar values to not provide an opportunity for redemption. The problem with Santonio Holmes, to use one example, was not the indiscretions of his life prior to coming to Pittsburgh; it was the inability to move beyond that even in light of the extraordinary life opportunity provided him by being a Super Bowl MVP.

Big Ben represents the other side of the coin. Have you noticed that there hasn't been much talk lately about Ben's ‘issues'. My theory is that in the collective mind of Steeler Nation Ben has been completely rehabilitated, and according to the theory I can tell you exactly when it happened and why.

The moment came at the beginning of the second half of the first Cleveland game this past season. I was on the open thread of BTSC when it was clear that Ben was going to play after folks had assumed that he was on his way to hospital after having his ankle crushed. The reaction on site, at Heinz Field and presumably elsewhere was electric, and people actually said at that moment that all was forgiven.

Ben's actions were not merely heroic in the generic sense but also consistent with the Pittsburgh way. One of the fables that we were taught growing up was the story of John Henry. John Henry was a laborer who drove spikes to secure railroad tracks. One day a machine was brought in that, presumably could do the job faster and more efficiently. John Henry challenged the machine and was holding his own in the ensuing contest, but eventually the exertion killed him. This was a powerful metaphor for a people whose methods of making a living included the possibility of black lung disease, being asphyxiated by gas, buried alive or vaporized by an errant splash of molten metal. You soldiered on even though to do so might cost you your life.

In this context a high ankle sprain isn't a deal killer, and it is a tremendous act of leadership. It is also consistent to an extent with Steelers lore. In his time it was said the game hadn't started until Terry Bradshaw was bleeding and half dead. Some have said that Ben's insistence on playing on that ankle may have cost the team the season. They may be right, but It may have also set a tone that will yield great returns in the future.

Being from the area, Adams has been exposed to the Pittsburgh Way. And maybe that is what inspired the courageous act of pleading his case to the Steelers brass. That action and the Steelers response both exemplify the Pittsburgh Way in action. There is certainly a risk involved, but it is a risk that is consistent with the value system. In fact, you could say that the value system would insist that these types of risks be undertaken if you truly strive for greatness.

Talkin' More Offensive Line: Willie Colon's Move to Left Guard Opens Up Tackle Competition

2012-05-17T11:22:39Z

Wednesday's announcement that OT Willie Colon is now LG Willie Colon creates competition for the Steelers' right tackle position. It could even influence the left tackle position.

What it ultimately does, though, is completely transform the Steelers offensive line, which is probably overdue at this point.

The Game of Musical Linemen Continues

The Steelers led the NFL in offensive line combinations last season (I saw there were 22 variations of five linemen, both starting and in-game replacements), and 2012 will add a 23rd different group.

The team informed Marcus Gilbert he'll play left tackle this season, and told Colon he'll play left guard. C Maurkice Pouncey will stay where he is, and rookie David DeCastro will play right guard. That leaves Jonathan Scott and rookie Mike Adams vying for right tackle.

Or does it?

It wouldn't be a Steelers offensive line without some speculation. Granted, the Steelers made the determination on Gilbert before the draft or free agency, suggesting they were pretty much convinced that was the direction they want to go in. But with nearly a full year of experience on the right side, the argument could be made having a veteran next to him it would help transition DeCastro to the NFL.

In that case, why not put Scott there?

If I were a betting man, I'd say Scott will open training camp at right tackle. Bets are off after that. I don't feel comfortable with making any bolder a prediction, but it seems too rosy to me to suggest the right tackle job is Adams' to lose right now. It was obvious to anyone watching Pouncey was a better player than Justin Hartwig, but it was still the veteran's job when the first preseason game rolled around.

I don't see the sense in just giving a rookie a job, even if the veteran is not exactly a world-beater. Then again, I (like most of everyone else) already penciled DeCastro in at right guard.

What about Max Starks?

What about him? We've speculated often about RB Rashard Mendenhall not making it back in time for training camp and probably not for the beginning part of the season. NT Casey Hampton as well. Starks falls between the two of them in terms of weight and age, and has the same injury. Certainly, less likely things have happened, but the difference is Hampton and Mendenhall are currently under contract. The Steelers don't have a ton of cap room, and cutting Scott doesn't save them any. Bringing Starks in to back up both tackle positions seems unlikely, at least for the earlier part of the year.

If Scott shows he's unable to handle a starting job, should he be thrust into one at some point, or has a poor training camp, then it's a different story. For now, the better option is to let Starks rehab and let Scott and Adams duke it out on their own.

They'll have Starks' number handy though, just in case.

Have we forgotten Colon's injury history?

If Colon has another set-back, it appears the job would be Doug Legursky's to lose. He won over offensive line coach Sean Kugler last season, and had earned time when Chris Kemoeatu was both injured and a healthy scratch.

Obviously, we're pulling for Colon, but we pulled for him last year, too. Injuries happen, and you don't really want to see anyone get hurt (I don't, at least, and judging from the comments yesterday, many won't agree with me). But that's the big X-factor here. All of this is for naught if something else happens to him.

Going into OTAs, though, the spotlight will be on Colon and his long-whispered move to the inside.

Willie Colon Moving from Right Tackle to Left Guard

2012-05-16T19:12:47Z

Mike Prisuta reported Wednesday afternoon Steelers OL Willie Colon will move from right tackle to left guard, a move often discussed throughout Colon’s tenure with the team.

A report indicates the Steelers notified Colon of their intentions to move him to the left guard position after the draft, when they selected Stanford OG David DeCastro in the first round.

This strongly indicates DeCastro will remain at right guard, the position he played in college.

Colon was one of the better right tackles in football before an Achilles injury and subsequent triceps injury ended his 2010 and 2011 seasons, respectively. He’s been around the game long enough to make one feel he’d be at least able to perform on a comparable level at guard as he did with tackle, provided he can get the terminology down (something no pro should struggle with).

The story now will be around who the right tackle will be; rookie Mike Adams or veteran Jonathan Scott.

Some have raised umbrage with the idea of Scott playing for the Steelers in any capacity (even some not named John Stephens), and with second-year OT Marcus Gilbert being told he would move to left tackle in 2012, it would appear Scott and Adams are now set to do battle for what will be the most talked about positional competition in training camp.

It’s very possible Scott takes the position early on account of his experience but is eventually replaced by the highly touted rookie.

Willie Colon will be the Steelers starting Left Guard

2012-05-16T18:45:00Z

It's been confirmed by Ed Bouchette that Willie Colon will be moving from right tackle to left guard, in an article which you can read in its entirety here, which means both Steelers rookies David DeCastro and Mike Adams will have a chance to start early.

"The move from his spot at right tackle, paves the way for their top two draft choices to start immediately. David DeCastro will be put at right guard and Mike Adams at left tackle. Marcus Gilbert, who started at right tackle last year as a rookie after Colon was injured in the opener, was scheduled to move to left tackle but likely will stay at right tackle now."

An Employer-Based View of the Steelers' Mike Adams

2012-05-16T16:00:24Z

It’s been really interesting to see the reactions to discussions about the ‘character concerns’ with three of our newly-drafted players. For a distinct subset of our community, the issues with these players are non-starters. They don’t see anything wrong with smoking marijuana, and they think the NCAA rules are stupid. The people who feel this way apparently haven’t noticed a critical point, though—the Steelers organization consider them to be a problem.

One member of this subset is SteelCityRoller. He left a long and impassioned comment to my previous article, and my reply to his comment was getting so long I decided to make it a post.

A minor issue for SteelCityRoller was as follows:

And as far as Spence and Adams receiving "gifts"…I don’t really care. They don’t get paid to play college football...

David DeCastro went to Stanford University on a football scholarship. The current value of a four-year education at Stanford is $160,200 at the 2011-12 rate. (Tuition is increasing by 3 percent this year.) A football scholarship to a Division I school like Stanford or Ohio State generally also includes full room and board and fees, which can amount to as much or more than the tuition costs at a less expensive school than Stanford.

Let’s say you are a musician instead of a football player, and decide to go to Northwestern University because of the great horn teacher there. Let’s say your audition impressed the school enough to garner you one of their music scholarships. If you’re lucky, it might cover 10 percent of the tuition (which is about the same as Stanford’s.) Let's also say your father works for another university, and said university provides partial tuition assistance for the children of university employees under the right circumstances. This is fantastic, but you’re still on your own for the remainder of the tuition and your room, board, fees, books and so on. As a result, you may well accumulate debt approaching six figures.

DeCastro left Stanford with a degree, no debt, I presume, and will receive a contract from the Steelers for somewhere around $7 million over four years. Our hypothetical Northwestern student left Northwestern with a degree and was fortunate enough to get an orchestra job about six months after graduation. This job, which is putatively full-time, will have paid him $7 million as well—in about 233 years. Unless he gets a pay cut, or the orchestra goes bankrupt, as so many have recently. And only if our hypothetical student can keep playing well for the next 231 years. In the meantime, he has a large pile of student loans to pay off. (The 233 year figure is not an exaggeration, unless my calculator is broken.)

Our hypothetical student is one of the lucky ones. Many music students go to school with essentially no financial assistance, and are unable to find a job in their chosen field after they graduate. Thus the old joke: "What's the first thing a musician says to you when you meet?" "Would you like fries with that?"

David DeCastro is a serious kid who took full advantage of his education. Mike Adams may or may not have taken advantage of his—I don’t know. The monetary value of an education at Ohio State is lower than at Stanford, in the strict sense of how much money you would have to disburse to go there without assistance, but it is still an impressive chunk of change.

The question of whether football even belongs in universities is one for another post. But under the current system, while a player may not be receiving cash payments, he is living at the expense of someone else for four years while he is trained and honed in the craft he supposedly loves and wishes to make his career. During that time he also has the opportunity to receive an education. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Our hypothetical Northwestern music student would probably agree.

The majority of the comment from SteelCityRoller was reserved for this issue (substantially edited for brevity):

I still find it interesting that Adams is a “character issue” It amazes me how differently the world looks, depending on whose eyes you view it through. Did he break a rule? Yes, he did...I have personally watched alcohol destroy the lives of friends and family, people I cared deeply about...Yet, because most of society likes to drink, we deem it acceptable; and the young man who smoked a joint, is a nuisance to society. I respect Mike Adams tremendously for going to Pittsburgh, and taking accountibility for his actions, I’m just sad that our society put him in that position to have to do so. Perhaps, next time he should just go drown his stress and anxiety in the liquor aisle of the local 7-11, so at least we can feel good about his character.

I think SteelCityRoller is letting his feelings about the whole very tricky issue of alcohol vs. marijuana get in the way of seeing the problem. So let’s look at it from another angle altogether.

I write grant proposals to help fund my group. There is a lot of competition for this money. All foundations who fund the arts get more proposals than they can possibly fund, and the largest foundations in particular are swamped with applications. One of the ways some foundations narrow down the applicant pool is to set nit-picking requirements in addition to the usual hard and fast deadline.

A proposal may contain ten or more items—a proposal narrative, background information, a list of the board of directors, an annual budget, a project budget, demographic information about the makeup of your group, your board, and your audience, and so on. The application may stipulate that each one is to be so many pages and no more, in a font no smaller than 12 point Times, organized in a certain manner, and stapled in a certain fashion, or not stapled, or some bits stapled, but not all. Multiple copies of some documents but not others may be required. If the application gets to the foundation [literally] a minute late, or some of the papers are in the wrong order, or missing altogether, or if any of the stated requirements are not met, the application may go in the trash. If the application going into the trash is mine, two or three weeks of work is now worse than useless, because I could have been working on something else instead. It will probably be six months to a year before I can re-apply.

This may not seem fair. I'm a musician. I don't have an MBA. I don't have a degree in accounting, or any training in financial planning or grantwriting or data accumulation.

But if you look at it from the foundation’s point of view, you begin to see why these sorts of nitpicky rules may be relevant and not just a way of annoying everyone.

The first consideration is the convenience of the panelists. The panelists who review the applications and make the final decision as to what is funded have to go through a great many applications. If everything is laid out properly and in the same way in each application it is much easier to compare them directly. And if there is a limit to the amount of reading required for each application, and if the font is large enough to read without a magnifying glass it make their lives easier.

The second consideration is more critical. One of the things a foundation is most concerned about is what is going to happen to their money once that check leaves their office. They need to know the groups they fund are going to be accountable and actually use the money they have asked for in the way they say they are going to. As a foundation, you also have to prove to the agencies who oversee you that you funded the sorts of things you say you are going to fund and then exercise some amount of oversight as to the use of the funds. As a result, foundations require a final report, including a final budget. The foundations have to present these to the agencies who oversee them to prove the money has been used properly.

Foundation money is typically a big chunk of initial funds which are then invested. The proceeds of the investments are available for disbursal. The original money donated would have been taxed by the federal government had it remained the property of the donor(s). It has occurred to more than one person to create a foundation with a certain amount of money, put together a sham board, and then fund worthy projects such as, say, a yacht for the original donor. The government doesn’t see any reason why a person with a lot of money who wants a yacht shouldn’t buy it in the usual way and pay their taxes as well. Thus the oversight. A foundation who can’t prove they used the money appropriately, and made sure the recipients did as well, is in danger of losing their non-profit status.

But whatever the reasonable purpose of their rules is, from my standpoint as a prospective fundee it doesn’t matter. What matters is if I wish to be considered for funding by a certain agency, I have to abide by their rules. I have done absolutely nothing illegal if I put the various bits of the application in the envelope in the wrong order, or staple them if it says don’t staple, or if my proposal arrives one minute late. But I have broken their rules, and as a result my proposal might not even be considered.

So let’s compare this to the questions about our draftees with "character" issues. Does the fact I didn’t put the bits of paper in the envelope in the right order call my character into question? From the standpoint of the foundation, yes. They probably wouldn’t say "You have obvious character flaws, so we aren’t going to fund your organization." But if I’m the person held responsible for the use of the money, my inability or unwillingness to follow their rules in the submission of my proposal may well affect the amount of confidence the foundation has in me and my organization.

Am I likely to take the money and run off to Acapulco to hang out on the beach? Probably not—it isn’t nearly enough money for that. But it is entirely possible my lack of financial savvy or ability to plan properly, or follow through, may mean the money doesn’t get used in the way the proposal said it would. And if those differences are substantial enough to change the nature of the project, and/or if my organization can’t show how the money was used, it doesn’t matter whether my intent was good or not. Part of the purpose of a proposal is to give the funding agency a certain level of confidence about my organization’s ability to actually carry out the proposed project. So whether my organization and I failed because of bad faith or because of incapacity is moot.

The "failure rate" between college and the NFL is quite substantial even for players who are drafted. It’s entirely possible some of the NFL's rules are designed to cull the herd a bit. They may be trying to reduce the risk teams take, particularly with high round picks. But beyond that, the recreational use of marijuana is illegal in every state. However unreasonable this may be is entirely beside the point. The NFL is well within their rights to set up any rules they like, and it’s pretty hard to argue about rules forbidding the use of an illegal substance. The NFL hates it when players get arrested, because it makes them look bad. If the laws change, it’s a different argument. But even in this case it is still possible for the NFL to prohibit marijuana use, or to prohibit whatever else they wish, legal or illegal.

Mike Adams is a big risk, both because of his draft position and because the number of violations he had. He knew the things he was doing could jeopardize his future in the NFL, and still he did them. This means he either thought he was above the rules, he thought he wouldn’t get caught, or he couldn’t help himself. Any of those three are character flaws, just of different sorts. Any of them call in question his ability to give reasonable value to a future employer. As an employer, I would hate to be asked to choose between an arrogant employee, a dishonest one, or one demonstrably lacking self-control.

Nobody except the principals know what Colbert, Tomlin and Rooney said to Adams in that discussion before the draft. But I can guarantee you they didn’t say "By gum, you’re right, those were dumb rules and we can’t believe we took you off our board for something so silly. Sorry about that, old chap." They clearly believe these things were a tremendous cause for concern, and aren’t entirely convinced the experiment will turn out well.

We can only hope Adams is willing and actually able to fulfill the promises which led the Steelers to take a chance on him. It may be a great pity he can't "drown his stress and anxiety" by lighting up. But if he can't find another way, one acceptable to the NFL and the Steelers, to deal with the stress and anxiety resulting from being drafted by the team he grew up wanting to play for, then Mike Adams does indeed have a flawed character.

Talkin' Wide Receivers: Mike Wallace Setting the Market, Antonio Brown Setting the Bar

2012-05-16T14:01:04Z

Pittsburgh Steelers WR Mike Wallace has little leverage left in his contract negotiation. Not only is teammate, WR Antonio Brown, rising fast among other NFL wide receivers, but he's taking some of the spotlight from Wallace.

Two dogs, one bone. Or, two great receivers, one big Steelers pay day.

Does Wallace's alleged threats to hold out matter?

No. The Steelers have the ability to reduce his $2.7 million tender offer to 110 percent of his 2011 salary (much less than $2.7 million) if Wallace does not sign the deal by June 15, one day after mini-camp ends.

Maybe this is Clintonion, but it depends on what a "hold out" is. Will Wallace miss OTAs? That's certainly possible, and it's not something that would draw a fine. In the end, it doesn't matter as much if he's not there for mini camp as if he missed training camp, and Wallace's situation doesn't improve at all by missing any of it.

Keep in mind, too, the reduction piece of the tender offer is an option the Steelers have the right to exercise; it does not mean they will. Such a move would no doubt back Wallace into a corner that could lead to an inevitable training camp holdout, which would be detrimental to both Wallace and the Steelers.

Eagles WR Desean Jackson, a receiver probably a step below Wallace (and signed a deal this off-season worth $15 million guaranteed), admitted his contract battle distracted him, and advised Eagles RB LeSean McCoy against doing the same thing he did.

"I think it would be in his best interest to come" to offseason practices and camp, Jackson said. "Looking back now it really hurt me more than I thought it helped me. Hopefully he saw everything I went through, and hopefully [agent] Drew [Rosenhaus] won't have him go through the same thing."

Regardless of what Wallace's agent, Bus Cook, may be telling Adam Schefter, which naturally makes such high quality reporters like Evan Silva report it as if a precursor to the future, a hold out will not help Wallace in any way. His best bet is to hold off on signing it until Cook has had one last pre-mini camp crack at a long-term deal. Sign it, requesting the Steelers come back to the table in training camp (where OLB LaMarr Woodley, SS Troy Polamalu and ILB Lawrence Timmons all signed extensions last season, Woodley having signed his franchise tag without holding out) and take a look at the matter again.

Can Antonio Brown be even better in 2012?

Yes. Lots of simple questions surrounding this group. For as talented as Brown is, the aspect making him such an outstanding receiver is his work ethic. Former 6th round draft picks don't run routes as well as he did in his second year. They don't command as much attention as he did over the second half of the season. His desire to be great is without question his best attribute, and he's setting the bar very high for any Steelers receiver - including Wallace - in the future.

His success may simply force Wallace to another team, and while that does only intensify his own impending contract negotiation (he's set to be a restricted free agent in 2013), it doesn't seem like Brown would have it any other way. Taken off special teams duties for this upcoming season, Brown figures to be a big part of the offense, and rightfully he should. The rapport he developed with QB Ben Roethlisberger after the first quarter of the season was evident to all, and odds of him leading the team in receptions this season are very high.

Is Emmanuel Sanders the Forgotten One among Steelers receivers?

It wasn't long ago Sanders, and not Brown, was the rising receiver among the Steelers. Injuries have really set him back after he led the team in targets in the AFC Championship Game his rookie year. A foot injury in the Super Bowl, and what appeared to be a re-aggravation of that injury in training camp, forced Sanders to lose some ground.

Injuries happen to everyone, and the ones affecting Sanders are ill-timed. He's still very talented and, with some luck, could really surprise some people this year. He's also a year away from restricted free agency, so this is an important off-season and training camp for him. Injuries are unpredictable and they take their toll on a player mentally. The real question we should be asking is how good can he be if the Injury Bug passes over him for just one year?

What are rookie WR Toney Clemons' chances of making the roster?

Normally I take a quick glance into the seventh-round picks and see what unique skill they may bring to the table, but more, what weaknesses they show that may have caused them to fall so far. In Clemons' case, it really seems to be his rocky collegiate career that affected him, even more than just needing some work on his hands. Playing for two coaches at Michigan, transferring to Colorado and working for numerous coaches there, it's tough to ask any player to grow and improve under such conditions.

Dropping passes, though, isn't nearly as much coaching as it is focus, concentration and coordination. Tough to be an NFL receiver if you can't catch the ball.

In Clemons' case, and no doubt, his agent is saying the same thing, he's on a great team to move past all of that. While wide receivers coach Scottie Montgomery has to be moving closer each passing year to a promotion, the coaching staff is otherwise stable for the foreseeable future, and he has some great younger receivers around him.

Will it be enough to make the 53-man roster? I'd say right now, it won't be. With Sanders' injury concerns, I think they'll want to bring in a low-priced veteran for the sake of stability to that group. Clemons could be a riser and need a year of seasoning, and the Steelers won't want a guy like that to take a spot now. He'll get a camp to prove that prediction false. It sure would help the Steelers in the future for him to earn playing time now, though.

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Every Draft Has a Player that the Steelers Should Have Picked Instead (at Least I Thought So at the Time)

2012-05-16T03:04:49Z

As someone who follows the NFL Draft on a casual-to-serious level, I always find it funny how quickly I can become enamored with a certain player based on just reading a review of his measurements and skill-set, even if I didn't know that player existed all throughout his college career. I soon become convinced that this is the player that the Steelers MUST take with their first round selection. If they don't, I know I'll be severely disappointed.

It's sort of like how a little kid acts when he's at a department store with his parents and he spots a new toy out of the corner of his eye. This kid wasn't even thinking about that toy when he got up that morning, but now, that toy is the only thing that will bring him happiness. When Mom grabs him by the arm and whisks him away so she can finish the rest of her shopping, the kid loses it and causes a scene right in the middle of the store.

The 2012 draft season was no exception as I quickly became enamored with Memphis nose tackle Dontari Poe after his more than impressive showing at the NFL Combine. I didn't know who Poe was during his college career, but I was certain that the 340plus pound specimen would be the Steelers answer to the next Casey Hampton. Poe became that new toy that I hoped and prayed would fall to the Steelers had 24. Unfortunately, he was picked by the Chiefs at 11.

Thankfully, Stanford guard David DeCastro was an even shinier new toy that caught my eye as the draft progressed, and when he fell all the way to the Steelers, I soon forgot about Poe.

My brother, on the other hand, wasn't so happy about the Steelers, maybe, finding the next Alan Faneca. Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower was his shiny new toy, and when the Steelers passed on him, my brother called me up to complain about it. "I can't believe they passed on Hightower. He's going to be the next James Farrior. The Steelers will be sorry!"

Talk about a temper tantrum.

It's obviously too soon to know whether or not the Steelers will be sorry that they passed on Hightower, or if Poe will be the next great 3/4 nose tackle, or if DeCastro will be the next Alan Faneca.

One thing I do know is that every draft is a crap-shoot, and there will always be "what ifs" and "why didn't theys" when player A is picked instead of player B.

After the jump, I'll give you a brief review of some of my favorite "why didn't they" moments in Steelers drafts gone by, and how things turned out for all parties involved.

1986 NFL Draft

As a 13 year old, this was the year that I became aware of the draft process, and I couldn't wait to get home from school (the draft was on Tuesdays back then) because I was fairly certain that the Steelers were going to use their rare top 10 pick (9th overall) to select running back Keith Byars out of Ohio State. Franco Harris was two years into retirement, and the team certainly needed a featured back. Walter Abercrombie? I mean, come on!. This would be the perfect time to pick their franchise back of the future.

Sadly, however, when I discovered that the Steelers, instead, selected Temple guard John Rienstra, well, I was more than disappointed.

Byars was selected one pick after the Steelers at 10, and he went on to have a fairly productive NFL career that included over 600 receptions as both a running back and a tight end.

As for Rienstra's career, let's just say it was less than stellar. I think this quote from wikipedia sums up the choice rather bluntly: "In 1986, the Steelers had their highest draft pick since the early 70's (9th overall). They used it on a guard from Temple named John Rienstra."

Nothing much to add to that.

1988 NFL Draft

This is the draft that still gives me nightmares to this very day. It was the day that the Steelers passed on my college crush--Michigian St. running back Lorenzo White--and instead selected defensive end Aaron Jones out of Eastern Kentucky.

White didn't have a great career by any stretch, but he was certainly more productive than Jones, who only finished with 18 sacks during his nine year career after boasting that he would get at least that many during his rookie campaign.

1992 NFL Draft

This was Bill Cowher's first draft as head coach after taking over for the legendary Chuck Noll. Cowher was going to need to make his first pick count if he was going to change the Steelers' mediocre-to-bad fortunes around pretty quickly. For some reason, I thought the best way to change the team's fortunes would be to draft Eugene Chung, a tackle from Virginia Tech. Why? I don't remember really, but I knew he was going to be the man.

The Steelers did select an offensive tackle, but instead of Chung, they took Leon Searcy out of Miami with the 11th pick in the first round . Unlike in the drafts of '86 and '88, however, this turned out to be the right selection. Searcy became a productive player and started in Super Bowl XXX. Unfortunately, he was so good that he left for Jacksonville as a free agent after just four seasons in Pittsburgh.

As for Chung, he was selected two picks after Searcy and really didn't do much of note during his six-year career.

See? Those "what ifs" work out both ways.

2000 NFL Draft

In the months leading up to the 2000 NFL Draft, there was a bit of a love-affair brewing in certain segments of Steeler Nation with quarterback Chad Pennington of Marshall University. Steelers fans were so sick of the team's constant struggles at the quarterback position that they were openly begging for the team to draft Pennington. I was even out to dinner one night and spotted a fan wearing a road white Pennington Steelers jersey. Where did he get it? Who knows.

However, after reaching and failing on wide receiver Troy Edwards in the '99 draft, the Steelers were forced to pick our old friend Plaxico Burress out of Michigan St. with the 8th overall selection in the 2000 draft. I say "forced" because it certainly wasn't a bad pick, and Burress was considered a legit wide receiver prospect--albeit one with a bit of an attitude--but the team had just missed the playoffs two years in a row, and some people were concerned with the thought of using two straight first round picks on the same position.

I'm going to go ahead and call this one a draw. Plaxico certainly was a productive receiver during his time in Pittsburgh, but he only lasted five years with the Steelers before he left via free agency following the 2004 season. He signed with the New York Giants, and, well, you know what happened after that.

Pennington, who went 17th to the New York Jets, played for a decade with both the Jets and Miami Dolphins, but he didn't have the arm to be an elite quarterback in the NFL, and he officially retired following the 2011 season.

2010 NFL Draft

Let's round it out with a draft that's still way up in the air in terms of evaluation.

2010 was going to be the year that the Steelers finally picked their Alan Faneca of the future. It had been three years and several Big Ben injuries since Faneca departed following the '07 season, and the Steelers were in desperate need for an upgrade upfront.

In the weeks before the draft, Idaho guard Mike Iupati's name surfaced as a potential candidate for the Steelers, who were drafting 18th after missing the playoffs in '09. Just like Poe, I didn't even know Iupati existed during his time at Idaho, but the second I saw his massive frame, I knew he was the guy I wanted the Steelers to take. What wasn't to like about him? He was big, he was tough, and he was Samoan.

In addition to Iupati, center Maurkice Pouncey out of Florida was another potential pick for the Steelers. In fact, as the draft drew closer, Pouncey's name was coming up more and more, and he was the projected pick in many mock drafts.

I wasn't too excited about this possibility. I wanted the massive Iupati; I wanted the angry Samoan guard leading the way on running plays and keeping the pocket clean for the franchise quarterback. A center out of Florida? Boring!

Unfortunately, for my draft hopes, the San Francisco 49ers swooped up Iupati a pick before, and the Steelers were forced to "settle" for Pouncey.

Well, I'm glad I didn't get my wish, because as it turned out, Pouncey quickly became one of the best young linemen in the NFL and continued the Steelers great tradition at center by being named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first two seasons.

As for Iupati, he still might be the the next Alan Faneca, but in Pouncey, Pittsburgh may have found their next Dirt Dawson. That's pretty good, too. .

Well, there you have it. I'm sure I could continue this article indefinitely, but you get the idea. You just never know what you're going to wind up with in the draft, and sometimes that shiny toy might not work once you get it home and take it out of the box.