Tough break for Willie Parker and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Post Gazette is reporting Willie Parker reinjured the MCL injury that has kept him out the past couple of weeks when he stepped in a hole at the Steeers practice facility on Monday. A hole?

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Enough, Carl. Just fill the damn holes so our star RBs don't get hurt. 

Parker doesn't sound like he's ready to scratch himself just yet from the Bengals game though:

"Oh, man, I don't know, I don't want to talk about my injury," Parker said. "I'm not going to have any injury update with me. Y'all want an injury update, go talk to coach.

"We'll take it day by day and decide at the end of week."

I'm currently reading Jim Wexell's book, Steeler Nation, and there's a segment devoted to Willie Parker's upbringing. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say this guy's a warrior and you can count on him wanting to come back just as soon as humanly possible, not necessarily as soon as is most intelligently possible.

Here's hoping he's feeling well enough to play against the Bengals, a team he absolutely feasts on individually (682 yards and 6 TDs in 6 career starts vs CIN). If he's not close enough to 100%, here's hoping he and the coaching staff hold him out and save his unique talents for another day. I'd prefer for him to play obviously for what he brings and for his own individual efforts at rehabbing. But I'm also curious to see what Bruce Arians does when he has Gary Russel, Willie Parker and Mewelde Moore all healthy and at his disposal. Aren't you?