James Harrison Robbed of AFC Defensive Player of the Week Honors in Week 9

To be fair, Clark was penalized on the play, so Tomlin using it as an example of the right way to tackle doesn’t logically suggest Clark was in the right.

It’s a separate argument to say that play SHOULDN’T be penalized. My problem is Clark gets penalized and fined for that, but other players and teams are not, even though the league has established a staunch stance against alleged unnecessary roughness.

The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing within the league office.

A lack of fine on McClain doesn’t create a conspiracy theory, it confirms one.

This is getting out of hand. I don’t claim to be an expert on managerial philosophy, but the way all of this has been handled only proves Roger Goodell is not able or qualified to be in the position he’s in.

There’s no excuse why his customers are left in the dark on the rules behind his product. The lack of communication, floating standards and defiance of his own rule book are all factual and valid complaints, and a good leader addresses each of them, regardless of the negative reaction it will create.

This is probably because I’ve recently watched Ken Burns’ mini-series on it, but it seems very comparable to the way prohibition was started, and even more like how it was enforced. I’ve been saying since last year this is a powder keg waiting to explode, and a lack of centralized leadership doesn’t seem concerned with that in the least.

Pride cometh before the fall…

The Ravens rightly won the game. You’ll never see me writing about officials determining an entire 60 minute football game.

What this speaks to is something larger than even one fiercely competitive Ravens/Steelers battle. It goes to the credibility of the league – an entity that makes $9 billion basically tax free each year.

There’s only one ownership group that had the guts to stand up to this when they had the chance to do it, but not surprising, 31 other teams don’t mind the idea of the Steelers players getting the short end of the stick when it comes to league punishment.

Honestly, this would be similar to them not giving it to Suggs after Week 1.

Thanks for stopping by, rival (respectful and with purpose) fans are always welcome here!

appreciate the objectivity – would you mind stopping by NY and teaching a bit to Goodell?

two runs on the previous offensive possession and that drive never takes place – the coaches blew this game, not the players.

So because the Jets didn’t have a final drive on which Harris could have made a play, his five tackles and interception are worth more than three sacks and a forced fumble (which was recovered by Pittsburgh in the second half of a close game, and led to seven points and the lead)?

Not swallowin’ it, man…it makes no sense that one player is placed under a microscope when another one isn’t.

the fact that the reason he missed the previous 4 games was due to a H2H hit that was hard enough to break his orbital bone. Not once, that I have heard anyway, has Deebo complained about that his being illegal. He may have, but where I live i have not herd anything. Maybe, hopefully, he has stored that hate from that hit not being flagged, and has been reading Mechem’s poasts, and will take it out on opposing offenses the remainder of the season.

I think you have mistaken this site for Yahoo sports.

you are as clear as a pane of glass…..now please remove your head from your a$$ before you smother yourself.

There are the fabled, annual plays that should have either slowed down their momentum or even defeated them

I am quite confused by your list of plays that follows. How exactly can these be blamed on the Steelers? If you’re saying that God manipulates the outcome, then I guess we don’t really need to worry about the refs and the league office.

As to the team being staffed with “bad human beings,” that’s a rather blanket statement, don’t you think? Every team, and I do mean every team, has its “bad boys,” and a couple of them from other franchises are currently awaiting trial or sentencing for proven crimes. The Steelers have a great many players who are never in trouble, work in the community, and are exemplary citizens. Many of the players in that category are some of the more visible ones. This franchise is not run in such a way as to encourage poor behavior, although they can’t always prevent it. Some other teams seem to take a more laissez faire attitude towards these things.

But to return to your contention, it seems that what you are saying in effect is that “the refs, league office, fellow players and opposition writers & fans” are all jealous of our franchise and looking for any way they can to drag them down. You may be correct to a certain extent. It is unfortunately a common human trait to try to drag down people that you perceive as better, or luckier, than you. The opinions of players from other teams, opposition writers, and fans aren’t really that big of a deal, though, as their bias is plain.

But if you are saying on the other hand that the refs and league officials “hate” the Steelers and are trying to alter the outcome of games, that’s an entirely different matter. Obviously, if it could be proven it would be a scandal of massive proportions. That is a much more serious accusation than the league office being more inclined to fine marginal infractions if they are committed by a Steeler.

As to the refs, much as I hate to say it, the Steelers have been on the favorable side of some questionable calls as well as the wrong side, and even may have won a close game or two as a result. I expect that it evens out over the long haul. It is possible that one of the factors in Sunday’s loss was a few non-calls or a few over-zealous ones. But as Mike Tomlin likes to say, the team shouldn’t have put themselves in a position where those calls matter anyhow.

And if James Harrison misses out on a few league honors, I’m not sure he cares. He probably should have gotten DPOY last year rather than Troy, but I’m guessing there was no way the league was going to give that to the Steelers’ bad boy.

I was mystified by your putting Troy in that category, BTW, because while he’s a ferocious player, off the field he’s mild mannered to a fault, visits sick kids in the hospital every week with no fanfare, contribues to and even actively works for various charities, and so on. If you think that the league doesn’t want Troy as part of the face of it you’re nuts.

And to get to the bottom line, literally, successful franchises generate a lot of income for the league. Unsuccessful ones, not so much. (Jacksonville, anyone?) However the league officials and refs may feel privately, it’s hard to see that they really want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. And if they really want to sanitize the image of the NFL, they are going to have to remove an awful lot of players from an awful lot of teams…

Period…….End of discussion!

Just so you know, whoever you are! We like our players to be role models off the field and mean, nasty beasts on the field. And by the way, this way of running our organziation has led to more Championships since the merger than any other franchise. Also, it has led us to having one of the largest and probably the best well represented fanbase in the country.

I could care less if Troy or James wins the DPOY award again. But just so you know, they have won it 2 of the last 4 yrs.

Or as the duchess of steel said………….pull your head outta your ass.

You don’t wanna go over the middle and you sure as hell don’t wanna try to run up the middle OR if you do, you gonna feel the PAIN! Thats football!

are your bad feelings usually right???

I so hope NOT!

someone should look into that, that is worth a lot of money on the street.