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(12/4) Chad Scott is out for the rest of the season with an injured hand. His injury comes right after perhaps his worst game ever, as he allowed two huge Cincinnati touchdowns in last week's game. Scott has been the butt of a lot of jokes in Pittsburgh this week, and it got me thinking about past collapses by Steeler DB's. These guys have perhaps the toughest job on the team, and they can single-handedly lose a game if they let a receiver get behind them. When they screw up, it can be monumental. So with that in mind, here are the top 10 DB collapses in recent Steelers history:

1) Tim McKyer, 1994 AFC Championship Game: Veteran CB McKyer gets burnt on a deep pass to WR Tony Martin late in the 4th quarter, as the Chargers stun the Steelers and go on to Super Bowl XXIX. McKyer collapses on the sidelines after realizing the implications of what has just happened and must be carried off the field after the game.

2) Dewayne Washington, 2002 AFC Divisional Playoffs: This hard fought battle between the Steelers and Titans goes into overtime, and on the first possession of the extra period, Dewayne gets burnt on a short pass to WR Justin McCareins. He then misses the tackle, allowing McCareins to gain 31 yards and put the Titans in FG range. To top it all off, Dewayne gets flagged for running into the kicker after "Oscar winner" Joe Nedney misses the FG attempt, giving the Titans a second chance which they convert.

3) Sammy Walker, 1992 AFC Divisional Playoffs: Walker gets beat repeatedly by Bills receivers Andre Reed and James Lofton, as Buffalo blows out the Steelers 24-3 at Three Rivers Stadium en route to their third consecutive conference title.

4) Harvey Clayton, 1984 AFC Championship Game: Harvey the Toast can't cover Dolphins receivers Mark Clayton and Mark Duper, as Dan Marino leads Miami to a 45-28 win and a trip to Super Bowl XIX.

5) Scott Shields, at Cleveland (2000): Shields is a promising second round draft pick who has the size and speed that many think will enable him to become a star. But he proves to be a flop. With the score tied and the Browns pinned inside their own 5 yard line in the final minutes of this game, Shields is way out of position and allows WR Kevin Johnson to gain 79 yards on a catch and run, which sets up the Browns for the game-winning FG. Shield is relegated to special teams for the rest of the season and cut the following year.

6) D.J. Johnson, 1993 AFC Wild Card Playoffs: Early in the first half, Johnson apparently takes offense to something said by Kansas City tight end Keith Cash and decides to kick him in the head! The referees immediately throw Johnson out of the game, and his replacements are unable to stop Joe Montana in the final minutes and again in overtime, leading to a painful 27-24 loss.

7) Dewayne Washington, at Cincinnati (1998): Dewayne makes the list twice, this time for getting smoked twice in the final minute by WR Carl Pickens. First the Bengals convert a 4th and 12 play with a 50 pass to Pickens, then score the winning touchdown with another pass to Pickens, both over Washington's head.

8) Delton Hall, at Washington (1988): The defense sets a dubious team record by allowing Doug Williams to throw for 430 yards in a 30-29 win. To be honest, I can't even remember if Delton Hall played in that game, but since he was the Chad Scott of the late 1980's, it's probably safe to assume that Williams threw on his side more than once.

9) Willie Williams and Alvoid Mays, vs. Cincinnati (1995): The two starting cornerbacks are hurt (Rod Woodson tears his ACL in the season opener while Deon Figures is recovering from one of his gang shootings). That leaves the Steelers with two inexperienced CB's, and the team starts the season with a miserable 3-4 record after the DB's are unable to stop Jeff Blake in a key Thursday night home game. Carnell Lake is eventually forced to move to CB in order to save the season.

10) Richard Shelton, 1992 AFC Divisional Playoffs: Ok, so Sammy Walker had the awful game, but all many Steelers fans will ever remember about this game is a play Shelton failed to make in the second half. The Bills were leading 17-3 and had the ball inside the Steelers 10 yard line, when QB Frank Reich threw an ill-timed sideline pass that Shelton stepped in front of. If he catches the football, he is gone for a 90 yard TD because there is NOBODY in front of him, and the Steelers are right back in the game. But instead Shelton drops the ball and the Bills score a TD on the next play to ice the game. Shelton's poor kid, who attended my high school at the time, gets harshly made fun of by one of my buddies.

(11/3) The 2003 season is now halfway over, and the end can't come too soon for Steelers fans. Pittsburgh was supposed to be a contender in the AFC once again this year, especially considering the fact that they play in such an awful division. But after a great opening game, the Steelers have completely crumbled. The defense can't make big plays and can't stop the passing game. The offensive line is in shambles, which means the Steelers have no running game and Tommy Maddox has no time to pass. So with no offense and no defense, the second half of the season looks bleak. Now that I've set a dreary tone, it's time to present my annual mid-season report. Enjoy!

(9/24) I have an old Betamax tape with a 1982 Steelers-Chargers playoff game on it. In that game, the Chargers fumbled the opening kickoff and the Steelers recovered it for a TD. There is a reason I bring this up - the guy who kicked off for the Steelers in that game 21 years ago is the same guy who will be kicking for the Titans this Sunday. Gary Anderson is still going strong at age 44. It is simply amazing that a guy who was teammates with Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, and Franco Harris would still be playing today. And now he is kicking for an outdoor team, which no one thought he would be able to do ever again. I hope Gary gets a nice reception upon his return to Pittsburgh. He won more games for us than I could ever keep track of, especially during the lean years of the late 1980's. He is truly one of the all-time great Steelers.

(8/31) All-pro Steelers LB Joey Porter was shot in a Denver bar early this morning. Porter was shot in the buttocks and was listed in serious condition, although they're saying that the injury is not career threatening. Five other people were shot at the bar, and one person was killed. Apparently Porter, who was in Denver for to watch his alma mater Colorado State play Colorado, was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no word yet on when or if he will be able to play again this year. After going thru the entire pre-season with no serious injuries, this is a HUGE blow to the Steelers defense. Porter was by far the best player on a mediocre defense last season. To have something like this happen just days before the season opener is nothing short of devastating. But the good news is that Porter made it out of that bar alive. He could have easily been killed. Let's hope that he recovers soon, and that the Steelers (and new starter Clark Haggans) can get by without him.

(8/31) The Steelers made their final cuts, and they dumped RB Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala. In a related story, the Pope announced that he is Catholic. I saw this cut coming weeks ago. Fu has become a complete waste of space. He is a really decent RB when he is healthy. The problem is that he is NEVER healthy. Fu claims that it is bad luck, but others say he won't play thru injuries. Either way, he is not worth keeping.

CB Hank Poteat was also cut today. Poteat was one of my all-time favorite players at Pitt, but he just never made it in the NFL. He got smoked so many times last year. His only value was as a kick returner, but the Steelers made a trade with the Eagles to acquire KR Freddie Milons, and that turned out to be the nail in the coffin for Hank's Steelers career. I hope he catches on somewhere. The other cuts included two other running backs: 7th round draft pick J.T. Wall and rookie free agent Dante Brown. I was kind of surprised that they cut Brown, especially after they cut Fu. Brown had a pretty decent pre-season, but I guess it's pretty obvious that we're gonna pass a lot this year. Besides, we can always add Brown to the practice squad so that he can replace Bettis after his inevitable week 3 injury.

(8/20) Bill Cowher has gone with his "gut instinct" and named Amos Zeroue the starting HB over Jerome Bettis for the 2003 season. On one hand, this is not too shocking. Bettis has had injury problems the past two seasons, and the Steelers have transformed into a pass-first offense under Tommy Maddox, so it makes more sense to have a guy like Zeroue (who can catch) in there. It's the same reason pass-catching TE Jay Remeirsma was also named as the starter over Mark Bruener, whose specialty is blocking. But it's still kind of weird to see a future Hall of Famer and one of the greatest Steelers of all time sitting the bench (it's also kind of weird to see Zeroue, a guy that I despised in college because he always killed Pitt, be such an integral part of the Steelers offense). The Bus handled all of this with his usual first class attitude, saying he was obviously disappointed but wanted to do whatever was necessary to win. I think Bettis may still be a big part of this team, especially late in the season when the weather is cold and defenses are worn down from a season's worth of injuries and fatigue.

Meanwhile, the 3rd guy on the RB depth chart - Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala - got hurt AGAIN. I think it's time to part ways with Fu. I mean, honestly, this is getting ridiculous. The guy is useless because he is hurt ALL of the time. I don't know if it's bad conditioning, no desire to play through injuries, or just bad luck (probably a combination of all three), but the Steelers need someone who can play. For that reason, I'll take Verron Haynes over Fu any day of the week.

(8/4) Ok, I know - this has not been a good off-season for my web site. I have been ultra-busy and I have really only updated this site once (for the draft). For that I apologize. Now it is almost time for the 2003 season, so I am going to commit myself to once again updating this site on a regular basis.

The pre-season kicks off this Saturday. These pre-season games are meaningless, and there are too many of them, and people can get needlessly hurt (like Kendrell Bell last year), but it's still nice to see football again. The Steelers will also start addressing some of the big battles. The starting right tackle, halfback, and safety positions are all up in the air right now. It will be interesting to see how things shake out.

The Steelers travel to Detroit to take on the Lions for their first fake game. As you may have heard, there has been some bad blood between the Steelers and Lions recently. Detroit is miffed about being fined $200k for not interviewing a minority when they hired Steve Mariucci this year, even though they tried to interview five different black guys who all wisely turned them down. The Lions directed their anger towards Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who came up with the whole "you have to interview at least one minority" rule. I have to side with the Lions on this one. First of all, I cannot believe the NFL caved to the terroristic scare tactics of Jesse Jackson and company. If a team is dumb enough to pass on a good coach like Herm Edwards or Tony Dungy just because they are black, then that team deserves whatever they get. Secondly, they came up with the dumbest possible solution to this so-called "problem". It's just a token interview designed to appease a bunch of wacko liberals. In this case, the whole process degenerated into an argument between the Steelers and Lions over which organization has more black employees! Does this mean the Steelers are going to add ten more black beer vendors so they can outdo the Lions?? Maybe I don't have a great understanding of black issues, but this can't really be what black people want. I can't imagine that the black employees of the Steelers feel a lot of pride when they're used as numbers to boast about how "diverse" the club is. How in the world do you achieve equality by separating everyone into different groups? Why can't Marvin Lewis and Bill Cowher just have the title of "coach", rather than "black coach" and "white coach"? And most importantly, why do we always have to unnecessarily mix politics with sports? Stuff like this makes me want to throw up.

(2/27) The long journey that has been Kordell Stewart's career in Pittsburgh has come to an end. The Steelers, seeing no need to keep an expensive backup QB, released Stewart today. Now that his time here is officially over, I'd like to take a moment to reflect back on Stewart's 8 years in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers drafted Kordell Stewart in the 2nd round of the 1995 NFL draft, after seeing the amazing plays he could make while at Colorado. People don't remember this, but before Kordell Stewart came into the league, it was highly unusual for a team to draft a running QB. He quickly became an integral part of the Steelers run to the Super Bowl that season, taking on the role of "Slash". Stewart was very successful playing that role for his first two seasons, but in 1997 he was ready to take over as the Steelers starting QB. He found even more success in that role, starring in national commercials, being a guest on David Letterman, and most importantly leading the Steelers all the way to the AFC Championship Game while producing some of the most memorable games of the past decade. However, Stewart threw several key interceptions in the Championship Game loss to Denver, and his career soon took a turn for the worse. The 1998 season was miserable for Stewart and the Steelers. Perhaps his all-time low point came during a game in Tampa Bay in which he cried on the sidelines after being benched. The 1999 season was even worse, as Stewart was not only benched, but was also shut out of the team QB meetings. Meanwhile, Stewart was the main target of fans frustrated with a lousy team. There were rumors that he was flaming homo, among other things.

In 2000, just when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse for Stewart, the Steelers suddenly had an amazing revival after starting the season 0-3. Stewart replaced Kent Grahm as the starter and led the team to a 9-7 record, which was just short of the playoffs. In 2001, the team went 13-3, and Kordell Stewart had the best year of his career. He was named team MVP, voted to the Pro Bowl, and once again led the Steelers into the AFC Championship Game. He was even in the running for NFL MVP. Stewart was riding high, but once again his fortunes turned on a dime. In the third game of the 2002 season, Kordell was benched and replaced by journeyman Tommy Maddox. Stewart watched from the bench as Tommy Gun shattered team passing recrods and led the Steelers back into the playoffs. That was the end for Kordell.

I've never seen an athelete (or any human being for that matter) have more of a roller coaster career than Kordell Stewart. Everyone loved him those first few years, but everyone turned on him quickly. It wasn't fair - the fans in Pittsburgh demand every QB to be Terry Bradshaw, a guy we booed while he was winning 4 Super Bowls. The fans are also so much more cynical these days thanks to all the free agency and "it's a business" rhetoric that has been spewed by pro atheletes over the last decade. Kordell was only as good as his last game, and yes, he did not deserve much of the criticism that he had to endure (and no, the fans did not boo Stewart because he is black, as many of the liberal self-righteous media types would have you believe).

That being said, I also have to point out that Kordell never handled any of the adversity very well. He is supposed to be a professional, but he was always too fragile and cared too much about what the fans thought. One only needs to look at Pitt QB Rod Rutherford for comparison. Last season, Rutherford was booed loudly at Pitt's first home game (yes, I was one of the people chanting for his backup). But he responded by shrugging it off, saying that he's been in Pittsburgh long enough to know that the fans always like the backup QB better, and went on to have an outstanding season. Here is a kid who is a junior in college, and he has more maturity than an 8-year NFL verteran.

Now that it is all said and done, I will try to remember Kordell Stewart's better moments, rather than his low points. There are two games which I think he should be remembered by: the huge game against Denver in 1997 in which he accounted for all 5 of the Steelers touchdowns, and the game against Oakland in 2000 in which he courageously came back from an injury to lead the Steelers to a come-from-behind upset win over the Raiders. I was there for both of those and trust me, no one was booing Kordell Stewart on those days. I think he is going to have a lot of success if he goes to the right team (i.e. a team that plays strong defense and doesn't rely solely on the QB, such as Carolina or even Tampa Bay). He is too inaccurate and inconsistent to ever be a real superstar QB, but his playmaking ability won us a bunch of games. Goodbye Kordell - it was quite a ride.

(2/27) The Steelers have released kicker Todd Peterson, which will save them an additional $1 million under the salary cap. Like poor Kris Brown before him, Peterson struggled big time last year, leading the NFL in missed FG's. Rookie PK Jeff Reed replaced an injured Peterson in December and quickly stole his job.

(1/7) Here are some random thoughts about the playoffs, now that I have had some time to digest the surreal events of this past Sunday:

• I've seen some sore-losing crybabies before, but the Cleveland Browns take the cake. CB Corey Fuller, who has been outspoken about his disdain for the Steelers in the past, openly predicted that the Steelers will lose this week in Tennessee, as if that somehow makes up for his team blowing a 17 point lead. "I can’t stand the Steelers," said Fuller. "I hope they get killed. I don’t like them personally, or sports-wise." What a 5 year old. Doesn't that make you even more happy that we beat those losers again?
  
  
• Everyone who left the game early on Sunday should have their season tickets revoked and given to REAL fans. Yes, we were losing badly. I was as disgusted as anyone, and I admit that I had given up hope. My brother and I started talking about what they could do to improve the defense for next season. But the LAST thing you'd ever want to do is leave a game of that magnitude. All those people who just had to beat the traffic ended up missing history. However, just like the Immaculate Reception, I'm sure all those people who left will claim they were there years later.
  
  
• The injury news is not good for this week's game. Mckeesport Mike Logan is done for the remainder of the playoffs. Chad Scott is hoping to come back, even with that broken hand. Kendrell Bell is also hoping to play again. Bell was absolutely amazing on Sunday. He was in the Cleveland backfield on several key 3rd downs. He claims that being injured actually caused him to have to focus more, and that because of that he played his best game ever. So my advice is to have one of the scrub players like Lee Mays intentionally club Bell in the ankle before every game. We desperately need him against the Titans.
  
  
• Will all of the injuries to the secondary force the Steelers to sign a veteran player who is currently out of football? It may sound odd, but some other playoff teams have brought guys back from the dead to fill roster spots. The Giants signed a 19-year veteran to handle the long-snapping duties (which eventually cost them the game in San Francisco). And I'm still dumbfounded from seeing Eric Metcalf returning punts for the Packers last weekend. When they said "Eric Metcalf is back deep for the return", I was thinking, "Hmmmm, I wonder if that's his son." But as it turns out, it was actually Eric Metcalf!