Bumped From the Diaries. Great piece from steeler lifer that should spark some fun debate. Very cool idea! - Blitz -

Let's put aside the immediate trauma of the loss to Arizona and think about the big picture. No loss is good, but this gives Mike Tomlin one of those necessary ''coaching moments'' to assert himself and make improvements that will be important down the road. The softness in the secondary, Chinese fire-drill blocking by the o-line and the sloppiness in the passing game has to be addressed, the sooner the better. He needs a ''what the hell were we thinking'' meeting with his two coordinators. Yes, they each have a lot of freedom; but no, they don't get off the hook for bad games.

So, on to cheerier topics. As a lifelong Steelers fan, I have felt compelled to join the 75th anniversary season celebrations by putting together my own ''modern era'' team of Steelers greats and favorite players. I wanted to select not just a 24-man all-star team, but a full roster (45 active players and eight taxi squaders) that could dominate any fantasy league season and win an imaginary Super Bowl against any other franchise's all-time dream team. The final roster is humbly submitted for consideration at the bottom of this diary.

With apologies to Ernie Stautner, Elbie Nickel and all the other pre-Super Bowl era players, I restricted my roster to those who wore a Steelers uniform starting in 1966, when I first became a fan. That's also the year the NFL and AFL signed the merger agreement, so you could argue that 1966 is the first year of the modern era of the NFL. My only roster criteria was that a player had to have been a Steeler for five seasons or, in the case of current players such as Troy Polamalu and Heath Miller, likely to be. Roy Jefferson, who was my first Steeler hero, gets the benefit of a 1965 rookie season to become eligible.

Some of my subsequent favorite Steelers such as Frenchy Fuqua, Preston Pearson, Walter Abercrombie and Dirt Winston weren't good enough to make my 53-man roster. Kevin Greene, Leon Searcy and Antwan Randl El didn't play long enough. Gabe Rivera would have been a strong candidate if his career had lasted six years rather than six games (which featured two sacks and many terrorized O-linemen). Of course, if the Steelers had drafted Dan Marino in 1983 instead of Rivera, we would have had an interesting debate about who should be the starting quarterback.

As the head coach, I took the liberty of making a couple of positional changes in the starting lineup. The starting right guard is Dermontti Dawson, because I have absolutely no doubt that he could have been a perennial all-pro guard in real life. On my dream team, he works beautifully alongside Mike Webster (RIP). At the crowded strong safety position, Carnell Lake is the starter and I moved Troy Polamalu to free safety. The first offensive play from scrimmage for my offense would have a three WR set, putting Hines Ward in the slot, rather than lining up with a tight end.

As for the front seven on defense, I chose 12 starters to account for both the 3-4 and 4-3 alignments. ILB Levon Kirkland and DE Aaron Smith are the swing men. On the first defensive series I would line up in a 4-3 because that's just the way the Steel Curtain should be introduced on opening day. The greater depth of our linebacking talent and NFL rule changes over the years would result in us playing mostly out of a 3-4, however.

Overall, this is a team that has players from each decade but is still dominated by the original Steeler dynasty: five starters on defense, six on offense and the punter.  There is some personal bias: Rocky Bleier is a backup running back on the active roster ahead of Barry Foster, partly because I loved Rocky Bleier and partly because I know he would be a great leader and contributor on special teams.  Merrill Hoge was another favorite (as a player, not a studio analyst) and he makes the active roster for his versatility as a blocking back, useful runner and excellent receiver. I don't blame Foster for being upset about demotion to my all-time practice roster. Through no fault of his own, the one year he put up huge numbers (1992) I was living on a small island in the Indian Ocean and missed the entire season. By the time I got back, he was already over the hill. I had left Bill Cowher in charge of things that year and, upon my return to active watching duty, I reamed him out over his abuse of Foster. But Bill just got all frothy at the mouth and, in a matter of seconds, I had saliva all over my prized John Stallworth jersey. I decided to let it go.

Anyway, back to the team ...

The offensive line is not overly talented but very tough and strong on run-blocking, which is what we need. It would have a hard time in practice against our defense and, overall, is not as good as some other teams' all-time offensive lines. Check out http://www.geocities.com/madnessmike/raiders_all.htm and you will see what I mean. But there is no way this team is not going to score touchdowns, or grind out yards.  Kolb and Ilkin were not gifted but they battled like hell. Faneca, though no Hall of Famer in my opinion, is an excellent, mobile run-blocker.  Dawson might have been the best guard in Steelers history if he hadn't already been one of the best centres in NFL history. Bruce Van Dyke wins a backup spot at guard because he was tough as nails and Larry Brown provides a big extra body for the tackle spot. However, on balance, the line is not great. It doesn't hurt that both our QBs, Bradshaw and Roethlisberger, are strong dudes capable of pulling away from a lineman's grasp, or that Bettis and Harris force any defense to play run first. The only minor weakness in the backfield is that the top three backs (FB Harris, RB Bettis and RB Parker) are not necessarily great, natural, pass-catchers, although Harris was more than adequate. Nor do you have a classic blocking fullback. But Harris and Bettis could certainly block very well for each other and help out on the pass rush. I like that you have a fullback with a tailback's mentality and quick feet, and a tailback with a fullback's mentality and toughness. You could line them up in any formation and run effectively. Parker provides a great change of pace, Hoge and Bleier are versatile and excellent special teamers. The tight ends are not outstanding, although Miller's upside is significant. Green, while frustratingly inconsistent and possibly as dumb as a post, was a powerful blocker and provides a welcome huge target over the middle. The wide receivers are world class. There isn't a pure burner in the bunch, but they will make impossible catches all over the field and take everything that secondaries can dish out.

On defence, it was certainly difficult to keep Jason Gildon off the active roster and painful to release Keith Willis, Gary Dunn, David Little (RIP) and Earl Holmes. I always thought Chad Brown was a little overrated because of the snake thing and his fifth season as a Steeler was an after-thought after he ditched the team 10 years earlier. Joey Porter isn't good enough to start on this team but he made the active roster ahead of Gildon because of special teams. The same is true of Mike Merriweather, who backs up Jack Ham and, in my opinion, is one of the top 10 athletes to ever put on a Steeler uniform. Dwayne Woodruff made the roster ahead of Glen Edwards because we needed another backup corner rather than a fifth safety. Carnell Lake was the most versatile defensive back in Steelers history, but he was best at strong safety and Polamalu would adjust to free safey with no problem. Many old-time fans will be upset to see Aaron Smith start ahead of Dwight White, but the two players are products of different systems and eras. White benefitted from playing with a great group while Smith is one of the most underrated and durable Steelers of all time. Hampton makes the starting lineup but mean mofo Ernie Holmes would get plenty of playing time as the only interior backup.  It's fun to imagine Greg Lloyd and Jack Lambert breaking out of the defensive huddle together in psychotic accord about who they should decapitate on the next series. I dress eight linebackers for defensive scheme flexibility and special teams skills. The CB combo of Blount and Woodson is perhaps the NFL's best single-team combo of all-time. With the USC Trojan duo of Lake and Polamalu at safety, helped out by the range and coverage skills of Lambert and Ham, opposing receivers face a monumental task to get open. Again, I refer to the Raiders' all-time team at the URL noted above for some great match-ups: Tim Brown, Fred Biletnikoff, Cliff Branch, Dave Casper and Raymond Chester battling to get open while Stabler counts to three before getting hammered or running for his life. As for my dream team front seven, whether in a 3-4 or 4-3, there is just no way they give up a 100-yard running game to anybody, even Jim Brown.  You can't run left, you can:t run right and you sure as hell can't run up the middle.

On special teams, Woodson could easily be the punt returner as well as the primary kickoff returner, but Lipps was no slouch and I figure Woodson could use a break. Walden was near the end of his career and not overly impressive when the Steelers went to their first two Super Bowls, but he was one of the NFL's best punters for a long time and easily beat out Craig Colquitt for the starting job.  Daniel Sepulveda has a good chance to replace him someday. Future Hall of Famer Gary Anderson need not worry about being replaced by Jeff Reed.

As for the practice roster, it's impossible to cover all potential injury situations. Dressing just seven offensive linemen, I felt I needed two on practice roster so went with Ray Mansfield and Steve (Crusher) Courson. Courson (RIP) became controversial because of his admitted steroid use and allegations of widespread team use, but it took guts to come out of the closet like that and, in any event, he was a bulldozing run-blocker -- in my view a notch above Sam Davis and Gerry Mullins. With Dawson established as my right guard, I wanted another center around and chose Mansfield (also RIP). Mansfield was a tough guy and a leader and knew what to do in bad situations. He died in a hiking accident in the Grand Canyon. He was injured in a fall, sent the other hikers ahead for help, leaned back against a rock, got out a cigar and watched the sun go down one last time before dying. Now that's class. NT Joel Steed was an immovable stud in his day and I kept him around ahead of the underrated Dunn. Edwards provides fantastic depth behind Lake, Polamalu, Shell and Wagner. With five wide receivers on the active roster i decided to keep an extra tight end around (Cunningham) rather than a more talented wideout (Thigpen). And the third-string QB is O'Donnell because I think he would manage an emergency situation a bit better than Kordell Stewart. Certainly he would put receivers at less risk of getting killed.

Oh yeah, one other thing. On days when I'm too busy to attend practice for my dream team, Chuck Noll is in charge.

ALL-TIME STEELERS TEAM (1966-2007)
STARTING LINEUP
OFFENCE
QB: Bradshaw
RB: Harris, Bettis
REC: Swann, Stallworth, Ward
C: Webster
G: Dawson, Faneca
OT: Ilkin, Kolb

DEFENCE
DT: Greene
NT: Hampton
DE: Greenwood, A. Smith
OLB: Ham, Lloyd
MLB: Lambert
ILB: Kirkland
CB: Woodson, Blount
SS: Lake
FS: Polamalu

PUNTER: Walden
KICKER: Anderson
PR:  Lipps
KR: Woodson

BACKUPS
OFFENCE
QB: Roethlisberger
RB: Parker, Bleier,  Hoge
REC: Lipps, Jefferson
TE: Green, Miller
OL: Brown, Van Dyke

DEFENCE
DLINE: White, Holmes
LB: Russell, Farrior, Merriweather, Porter
DB: Shell, Wagner, Thomas, Woodruff

PRACTICE ROSTER
QB: O'Donnell
RB: Foster
OL: Mansfield, Courson
TE: Cunningham
DT: Steed
LB: Gildon
DB: Edwards