It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Draft weekend.... I've been watching the NFl draft for years now, whether it's going to a draft party, hosting one myself, or watching it alone, it's a pretty exciting time for me as well as other Steeler fans and NFL fans around the world. It's what your team is made of. The Steelers have had a lot of success drafting, especially in the first round and after last night's selection it looks like this trend is going to continue. We selected David DeCastro (6-5 315lbs), guard from Stanford. He was projected a top 15 pick and rated the best offensive lineman in the draft. This guy was #1 on my own personal draft board and I'm sure theirs too. There is no way I expected this guy to be around and I don't the think the Steelers did also. But how things played out he fell to us. I couldn't have been more excited! Each team gets 10 minutes in the first round, I think it took them about 30 seconds to submit their pick. It was reported that about 30 minutes after the selection Ben called David to welcome him to the team and city, as he does with all the draft picks but I think this one is a little more special because he will be responsible for helping to protect Ben. Shoot I would have called him too! In case you didn't know, our offensive line hasn't been the greatest. Ben has been sacked an average 43 times since 2007. There are two guys I'm excited about here in the 2nd round, not sure if either will make, but both could be impact players if not this year, next for sure. Vinny Curry, DE from Marshall and Kendall Reyes, DT from UCONN. There's another guy too, NT from Clemson, Brandon Thompson. Either way, should be an awesome day two! Other news and notes, schedule is out and it looks good, I'll try and get it posted here soon!! Sadder side, Pens are out of the playoffs and to be honest, that's yesterday's news since the draft is here. I was pretty jacked off about it Sunday and into Monday, but oh well. I am a little disappointed we pooped the bed, especially with all the talent we have on the team. Even if we would have beaten Philthadelphia, I was ok with losing in the 2nd round or so. At this point, I'm hoping a Western Conference team wins the Stanley Cup. Erin is doing well, August is fast upon us, due date is about 15 weeks away... Enjoy the weekend and until next time....

When the Dust Settles

Sorry for the delay in postings. For those of you who don't already know, Erin is pregnant and we are expecting a child later this summer. We'll find out the sex of BFD (Baby Fetus Dinger) later this month. Exciting news!!!

Now onto sports, I'm not even really sure where and how to begin this post... As a life long Steelers fan, it's tough to see your favorite players, especially ones that you have grown up with leave the team. Being released and deciding to retire are totally different but yet the same. I think about the 70's and early 80's when we had all big names: Webster, Stallworth, Swann, Bradshaw, Harris, etc..., those were names you grew up as a kid watching every Sunday and you loved it, then some retiring and others being released and playing on different teams, it hurts to see them not wearing the black and gold on Sundays. Well our generation is experiencing this and it hurts, not a pain but a sadness that Sundays won't be the same, especially being at home games and announcing the starting lineup, whether it be offense or defense.

When we go to the games, one of my favorite parts about that Sunday are getting to the seats a little early, watching the last of the warmups, the national anthem, and the player introductions. Brings a tear to my eye every time, watching those players running out onto Heinz Field with 65,000 fans cheering and waving their towels. You really need to experience it if you haven't.

This past week in an effort to get under the salary cap, we made tough decisions, those that were released, Hines Ward, James Farrior, Aaron Smith, Chris Kemo. These guys are household names, fan favorites. In the Steelers defense, it's a business and they were business decisions. Smith hasn't had a healthy season 4 out of 5 years, Farrior plays on 1st and 2nd downs, and Hines got bumped down the depth chart due to younger receivers. They have all mentored the younger guys and let's face it, are old. Can't get around that! Hines and Smith both have come out and thanked the fans, the Rooney's, coaches, and players (I'm sure everyone did) for being a Steeler and said they will always bleed black and gold. That says and means a lot, not only to me but I know everyone else!! Just in reading other posts and blogs, there are a lot of angry upset Steeler fans, but I understand why it was done, I'm not mad, just sad that it's starting to come to a close. I'm willing to take wagers that Ward will be resigned at some point. My goal now is to get my Ward jersey signed!! I also plan to be in the stands that day in early August when Hines is inducted to the HOF.

Going into the offseason, we were 25-30 million above the projected 120 million salary cap, in a way you kind of saw some of this "dead weight" that was going to be released but didn't want to beleive it. There have also been a handful of players that offered and/or were approached to restructure their contracts to help get under the cap, to me that's one quality of a team player and not a greedy athlete.

I'm excited to see what happens this offseason, it's going to be interesting, that's for sure.

Until next time...

Everything Must End Sometime

Well I'm sure everyone knows by now, we got Tebowed. I hope I never use that word again. To keep my thoughts simple, we did a great job of coming back in the 2nd half and thought for sure we'd end it on O.T. We just had too many injures to overcome that day. Casey Hampton left in the first quarter, Brett "The Diesel" Keisel left in the 2nd, Max Starks went out, Ryan Clark didn't play, and Maurkice Pouncey didn't play either, not to mention Ben's ankle. All execpt for Clark and Ben will have an operation. That's what hurt. I also think Denver did to us what we did to them in 2005. Back then we were a running team and caught them off guard by passing, eventually to set up the run. We all expected Denver to run, but they came out throwing and pretty effectively. As I stated before, I'd rather lose in Denver than have got blown out in N.E. And with the end of the season was an end to my awesome look.

Before....

Half way done...

After....

It's like I'm a whole new person, Erin told me how different I look. In a way, I feel like a player, here's what I mean. Players throught the season have all kind of weird superstitions they do, umm check. At the end of the season, they clean out their lockers and go about their lives until camp start. I relate in that aspect because after the season is over, I go back to my "normal" life, I tend to dress different, and I wash all my steelers stuff, jersey, jeans, etc... put them away until the next time they are called upon. Trust me, I'm not the only person who does this.

There was a good article in the Post-Gazette earlier this week just talking about the game and how it ended and one thing that was said was for the players, they tend to put it behind them, go back to their homes, take vacations or whatever they do but for the fans, it's harder to let go of. Trust me, I'm relating... I'm yet to watcht the NFL Network and I only watch the non football related clips on Sportscenter. For Steeler fans, winning is a habit, not only a dream, and the losses are harder to overcome.

Well it was an exciting season, definitely something to build upon for 2012, we'll see how things play out this offseason, for some it starts sooner than others.

Until next time....

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Holidays everyone, hope they were great for you! We (myself, Erin, and Sidney) went to Pittsburght for Christmas this year. We also went to the Steelers/Rams game Christmas Eve, it was awesome!! As you know, we get to the parking lot at 8am when they open....
Things getting set up.

We are pretty organized at this point, just getting our grill on. Not sure if you can tell, but we got a quarter barrell of IC Light for the tailgate and game, and let me tell you, it was damn near floating by the end of the day...

Playing a little tailgate toss, teams were Joe and I vs. Deena and her husband Jason.

No... I didn't fall asleep standing up...

Here's the group.

Just having a good time. For those of you who don't know the story, the last week in May is the last time I got my haircut and I said "I'll cut my hair when the season is over", that's why it's long. I also decided to start my beard and will trim that as well when the season is done, hopefully in Feb after #7.

So this year Joe and I exchanged gifts for our birthdays which are in Sept, we got eachother a "beer belly"
and we thought this game would be the perfect time to test them out since it was cold outside. Here are a few pictures of us getting ready.

Not really sure what Joe is doing...















It's amazing how real it looks, although I was a bit nervous getting into the game with it, here are a few pictures of that.
It's almost my turn, I had Erin's sweatshirt on, just for an extra layer.

Getting searched.

I made it in with no problems, gave her the sweatshirt back and saved myself a lot of money with this thing.. Well worth it. Although I have to say at halftime it started to leak and it looked like I had an accident in my pants, it wasn't pleasant but by then it was almost empty. I guess I didn't screw the cap back on correctly after I burped it.

Big game on Sunday, rooting for the bungels to beat the ratbirds, if that happens and we win, we'll win the division and get a 1 or 2 seed depending on what N.E. does, if not, we are a 5 and will be playing on wildcard weekend.

Until next time...

Don't Hate

So here's the deal....

We as Steeler fans can't expect to win all the games. I'm going to contradict this statement by saying "Winnings a habit not only a dream", that's a line from the famous Pittsburgh Polka. We've won for so many years and that is all Pittsburgh knows!

Big Ben played last night, well did the best he could. His mobility seemed to have gotten better through the game, tie it to adreneline or the shots he got, I don't know. I've haven't seent he post yet, it always takes me a few days to come around after a loss but I can just see everyone blaming Ben for this loss. Start with the coaches or doctors. If he truly shouldn't have played, they would have sat him. Yeah, there was a lot on the line, everything happened perfect on Sunday and all we needed to do was win last night. That would have put us in first place in the division and atop the AFC as the #1 seed. Now we have to see if the stars align for us one more time with a baltimore loss.

The offense put up 3 points but the defense let up 20 or whatever... I think James Harrison not playing had a little something to do with that. Our offensive line, well Max Starks got abused by rookie Aldon Smith last night, sacking and pressuring Ben. But then that raises the question, if Ben was healthy, he would have been mobile and could have created a lot more plays. Let's give him credit for playing and being a competitor. If the normal person had his injuries, you'd be off work and crying like a baby for weeks. I don't soley blame him for the loss last night. On the other side of the coin we are in the playoffs though... Even if baltimore loses one of the their final two remaining games, we are still playing on wildcard weekend because we'd hold the #3 seed, assuming NE and Houston don't lose any of their remaining games... An AFC Division title is always sweet as long as baltimore doesn't get it..

How about the power going off in Candlestick park twice last night.... Kinda funny their stadium is called Candlestick, after the 2nd time it happened, I thought the 49ers were going to come out wearing minor lights on top of their helmets.

Did Jimmy have something to do with the power?

All I'm saying is we could be in a much worse position than we are. There are much worse teams out there year in and year out, for example, cleveland.. We should just be thankful of the team we root for and our history!

Until next time....

December Football

"If you don't know what Steeler football is in December, find someone that does and ride with them!" Quote from Ben last year in a game against the Carolina Panthers...

He's right, December is all about Steelers football, this is when we turn up the heat and start bringing the pain. Sadly though our fate to win the division is in Baltimore's hands, we need them to have one more loss than us because they swept the season series. But as you know, that don't mean squat! After the second loss, terrell suggs said it best, "Sweeping the series doesn't mean anything, we know we'll see these guys in the playoffs and that's what counts"

Last night was a good game, closer than I thought but hey a win is a win! There was a play in the 2nd quarter with 6 minutes to go, Ben got high-lowed and it really looked like and everyone thought he broke his leg or ankle. He was in serious pain, the announcers thought he was done for the evening. Low and behold, he came trotting out for the 2nd half and led us to a victory!! It was a great thing. It's been called a high ankle sprain and now has 9-10 to rest it. Our defense looked awesome and they are really starting to find their groove as well.

I apologize for not keeping up with the blog, I've been studying for the PHR exam and it's really been consuming most of my extra/free time, though it will all be over shortly!!

I had a little scare back in the beginning of Nov. What you should know is I've missed 1 Steelers game since 1998 season started, 1!! It was in 2004 the second or third game of the year, we were playing in baltimore, Tommy Maddox was our QB and was Ben's rookie season. Well Tommy got hurt and in stepped the franchise, that was his only loss of the season, except for the AFC Championship game. But I was out of the country that day so I missed it. Back to what I started, I was in LA for a Tony Robbins thing, which is another story, but the Steelers played Sunday night at 8:20 and in LA it's 5:20. This event was wrapping up Sunday at 6 so needless to say I had some choices to make. Well as a group we stopped about 3pm and decided to just head to the airport, I couldn't have been more excited. I posted up at the bar for the game and had plenty of time because we had a redeye flight home. The Steelers played well that game and I firmly believe we lost because the bar ran out of budlights.

I was drinking budlights during that winning stretch and with 4 min left in the 4 quarter, I ordered another and they were sold out, so in keeping up with things and staying in the bud family I got a regular bud, it was a tough decision. The end result was baltmore marched 92 yards down the field in under 2 minutes for what was the game winning drive. If we won that game, we'd be two up in the division and be the #1 seed in the AFC. Oh well!!

My last rant of the day, I can't stand on Facebook all the cleveland brown fans have to throw their two cents in, doesn't happen any other time except when they play us. They are always complaining about the Steelers and what a bunch of criminals and dirty players we are and crybabies when we get fined. SHUT UP... Just because you will never be like us or even be talked about in the same class as the Steelers, don't hate. Yeah, we have a few players that made a few bad decisions but there aren't any criminals on the team. Fines, they have a right to complain, most of the fines the players have received were b.s., I'm a firm believer the commish targeted the Steelers last season to make examples probably because we play the hardest and are the best. Some plays deserved a fine or two but a lot of other, not so much. He like made up the rules as he went... So just because you have a crappy football team and always will, I understand your need to trash your rival.. We'll always be better than cleveland, just get used to it. If I ever have a child, this will be a t-shirt he wears.

Here's another one that sums it up...

Until next time....

Old Habits Don't Die

Sorry for the delay in posts, I've been busy. 4pm and later games kill me in the sense of the anticipation and waiting around I have to do. A few weeks ago for the Tennessee game, we well I decided to tailgate, I grilled a few burghers and brats while I waited for kickoff.

The week before, we played Houston, it was a tough loss, but I guess you can't win them all, as much as we would like to. Since then we have come away with a few much needed wins to put us at 4-2. As you might know, I can be a bit superstitious and you would figure I would have this in a routine season in and season out. Well since making it to the SB last year and losing, I thought maybe it's time to mix some sh$t up, the first few weeks of the season it hasn't panned out to my liking, so I've started getting back into the old routine of things.

I've started using my gameday Steelers toothbrush

back to wearing the same black tshirt under my jersey that I've worn for the last 6 seasons and I've gone back to my black and yellow kicks. Call me gross but I'm still using the same bath towel 10/3, I've changed the day I shave, which by the way my new look is clean shavin face. I'd like to think at some point during the game, the team is in their huddle and someone steps up and says "hey guys, we've been playin hard all game, let's go out and take care of business this week for Mike, he's a die hard fan and we appreciate that". Maybe I'm wrong!

I'm glad to see my man Rashard is finding his groove, the resigning of Max Starks really ignited a fire on that offense of line and even though our d-line has been bit by the injury bug there have been guys stepping up. We may have left the starting gate late but everyone knows we finish strong, we don't like sitting around in January watching everyone, we love playing and beating everyone else!

Bottom line is we have some catching up to do, those dirty purple birds are the division leader and we gotta catch'em!

GO STEELERS!!

Until next time.....