IX - First things first, the Final Four is being played tonight! This past week, the best rivalry in college basketball that people outside the state of Kentucky rarely talk about has been pushed back into the spotlight -- but why is it one of the best rivalries? There are a myriad of reasons, all of which were new to me, but I think all you really need to know is that Kentucky and Louisville fans really don't get along - not even a 68-year-old Kentucky fan and 71-year-old Louisville fan who just happen to be next to each other in a dialysis clinic. Being in a clinic AND hooked up for dialysis is apparently not enough to keep punches from being thrown and the police from being called.

X - Where do you stand on these Bill Parcells as Saints interim coach rumors? Bomani Jones has a great analogy for it, and the real kicker is at the end:

Bomani Jones on Bill Parcells (via sbnation)

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Far be it from me to horn in on one of Mike's old bread-and-butter series, but I think now is a good time for a Friday Six Pack.

IX - With free agency approaching next week, some in Steeler Nation will be waiting with bated breath to see if some team does try to poach Mike Wallace for the price of a 1st round draft pick. We've had plenty of pieces debating and analyzing "will they or won't they", so here's a fun interview that Sean Conboy did with Wallace back for the December 2011 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine.

X - What should the penalty be for having too many men on the field in the closing seconds when a score could win? Getting those seconds off the clock is of utmost importance, and teams could arguably not give a crap about a 5-yard penalty as the price for ensuring that their lead stays intact and win becomes final. Apparently, the NFL competition committee will clarify what kind of penalty an official can assess in that situation.

XIII - In the 1998 draft, the Steelers picked up a stud named Alan Faneca in the 1st round and a legend named Hines Ward in the 3rd round. Do you know who they took in the second round? A guy named Jeremy Staat out of Arizona State, who they tried to convert from 4-3 DT to 3-4 DE. Staat was not a stand-out Steeler on the field, but check out how his relationship with the late Pat Tillman (also a former Sun Devil) helped Staat find his way to the great work he's doing today.

XIV - Did you see the story from our own Anthony Defeo of how a friend of his played dodgeball against a pair of Steelers, James Harrison and Daniel Sepulveda? It really is awesome. And I'm still totally jealous.

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IX - Sean Conboy, who writes for Pittsburgh Magazine, weighs in with a nice feature commentary on the hiring of Todd Haley as the new offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and why fans should not be worried about any potential beef between he and Ben Roethlisberger.

X - Dermontti Dawson has always been a great interview. Now he gets to conduct an interview as a soon-to-be Hall of Famer. The longtime standout center for the Steelers will be enshrined in Canton this coming summer.

XIII - What do you think? Will Jerricho Cotchery receive a multi-year contract offer from the Pittsburgh Steelers? Is his future with the six-time Super Bowl champions directly related to the future of Hines Ward? I'm not sure they need to be necessarily because I think the Steelers will prove to be cautious with investing in Emmanuel Sanders in the long run, and because you never know how expensive Mike Wallace might prove to be on the open market.

XIV - It was before my time, or at least before professional football was a regular part of my life, but before there was Hard Knocks, HBO had a football show called 1st & 10 that ran for six seasons. The series was not a documentary franchise though.

This show ran on HBO for six seasons, starting in 1984. Since the whole collection only cost $5.99 on Amazon, I figured I would take a look and maybe there would be something there, you know? Not something as in "secretly changed television forever"-to reiterate, this is a show about a Pro Football team called the California Bulls starring Delta Burke and O.J. Simpson and a pre-Crypt Keeper John Kassir and pre-Law and Order: Sex Creeps Christopher Meloni-but maybe something like how Patton Oswalt recommended this show with the brother from Everybody Loves Raymond that ran on FOX for a few years, ‘Til Death, because it got entertainingly weird in later years, possibly because the writers knew the show was doomed.

Who remembers this?

XL - The article was published over the weekend, but do you agree with the authors at Grantland who posited that the slow but steady death of football is upon us? I must say, I agree, and though I can't search through the site's archives to find the link, I remember writing (in less detail or as creatively) two years ago that we were experiencing the beginning of the end of football, as we know it, as research about the lasting impacts associated with repeated head trauma began piling up.

XLIII - In the event that violence continues to be regulated out of the game, might as well enjoy the physical, bone-crunching hits that make us both cringe and cheer while we can.

IX - Here's something to help you take the final steps towards putting the Steelers disappointing playoff loss to bed. Or not. Looks like the Broncos opening play of overtime could easily have been negated by an illegal formation penalty for only have six men on the line of scrimmage. At least seven are required by rule. Hehe. Darn. Those be the breaks this time.

X - The Steelers will reportedly make a final determination about Hines Ward's future with the team by March. I don't know why some consider this to be 'earlier than expected' being that March is the start of free agency and the time when the Steelers will be executing whatever strategy they've devised for this year's offseason moves in free agency and the draft. One thing's clear -- Ward knows he must take a pay-cut and restructure his contract in order for it to make sense for the Steelers to retain him for a 15th season. Ward said as much in his Tuesday afternoon interview with Tunch & Wolf.

XII - Ron Lippock, who runs the outstanding resource 'Pittsburgh Daily Sports Bulletin', recently interviewed Gabe Rivera, the former Steelers offensive lineman who was tragically injured during his rookie season in 1983. Good stuff as always from Ron and the PDSB.

XIV - Luke Ravensthal, Pittsburgh's mayor, 'Tebows' in public on Wednesday to settle up his bet with Denver mayor Michael Hancock from Sunday's wild card matchup.

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IX - Dale Lolley weighed in on the Steelers shocking overtime loss to the Broncos late Sunday night, as well as the season as a whole and where the team stands heading into the 2012 offseason. Good stuff, as always, from Dale.

X - Ron Cook files his usual post-game 'Two-Minute Drill' at the Post-Gazzette.

XIII - Pete Wilmoth at SB Nation Pittsburgh points to Demaryius Thomas as the player who deserves the lion's share of the credit for the Broncos' unexpected offensive success against the Steelers top-ranked defense.

XIV - Here's Benstonium's latest parody video, which will hopefully provide a quick laugh on a gloomy Monday in Steeler Nation. Great stuff as always.

XL - Your obligatory Tim Tebow article. 'It's time to believe in Tebow.' Agree or disagree?

XLIII - A new offseason means the revival of draft talk. We'll have our usual comprehensive coverage here in the months to come, including a new four round mock draft perhaps as early as today. But for now, here's Rob Rang's latest mock draft for the Steelers, who we now know will be selecting at No. 24.

IX - No need to link to the TV Distribution Map this week, as all four wild card round games are broadcast to the entire country on network television. So instead, here's the official injury and status reports for both the Steelers and the Broncos. The two squads meet Sunday afternoon in Denver to conclude the opening weekend of the 2011 NFL Playoffs.

X - Great piece about Isaac Redman on Yahoo! today titled 'Isaac Redman's faced tougher tests than the Denver Broncos.' Lots of tidbits in there I had no idea about, including Redman's upbringing, why he wound up at Bowie State, why Mike Tomlin gave him a particular nickname, to name but a few. Good stuff. Quite the opportunity for Redman this weekend.

XIII - John Fox, like so many coaches around the NFL, got his start in the National Football League under Chuck Noll. Fox was a defensive backs coach from 1989-1991 after a successful stint as a defensive coach at the University of Pittsburgh from '86-'88. Anyway, on Thursday, Fox joined 102.3 The Ticket in Denver (link to transcription) to talk about the Broncos' upcoming wild card matchup with the Steelers. In addition to commenting on Noll and the Rooneys, Fox answered questions about Sunday's game. One noteworthy comment concerned how the Broncos would not try to throw the ball much against Pittsburgh's defense. Obviously his words to the media should be taken with a beach's worth of salt, but I bring it up to ask you whether you think Denver will try to throw on the Steelers' depleted secondary. I kind of think they will, at least early in the game in an attempt to strike first and get the Steelers on their heels a bit.

XIV - Jerricho Cotchery commented on Santonio Holmes during an interview on WFAN in New York on Thursday. In the interview, Cotchery said that Holmes was a well-respected, hard-working teammate during his first season in New York last year. Apparently though something changed in year two, as Holmes was called out by his teammates during the Jets' late-season collapse. Cotchery, of course, also fielded questions about his role with the Steelers and the playoff tilt with Denver this weekend.

XL - Sticking with the interview theme, Maurkice Pouncey didn't appreciate all the Tim Tebow questions asked of him during his Friday interview on The Fan. The second-year center, who was named a first team All Pro for the second time in as many seasons, will unfortunately not get to take his frustration out on the Broncos this weekend, as he's been ruled out with a nagging ankle injury. On the other side of the matchup, Erick Dekker, who's been Tebow's favorite target this season, also joined The Fan this week to talk about backing into the playoffs and squaring off against the mighty Steelers in round one.

XLIII - Dale Lolley recaps the week's news and makes his prediction for Sunday's game in his latest Friday blog post.

IX - I suppose unsurprisingly, Dick LeBeau is not changing his defensive schemes to account for Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos' unique style of offense. Brett Keisel explained the philosophy:

"We’ve been a solid defense around here for a long time," defensive end Brett Keisel said. "Regardless of who we’re playing, we understand what we’re capable of as a defense. If we all just do our job, we’re pretty good."

X - Though Mike Tomlin insists that Ben Roethlisberger is in no worse shape than he was a week ago, it's a bit disconcerting to hear that Ben Roethlisberger 'tweaked' his ankle during last Sunday's Week 17 win over the Cleveland Browns. I think that's why our own Anthony Defeo characterized Big Ben's injury status last week as a 'no-win' situation

XIII - Damon Hack at SI.com previews the Steelers-Broncos game with three keys to the game and a final score prediction.

XIV - There is one player on Denver's roster that I think can help swing the game in their favor if the Steelers play sloppy and keep Denver hanging around into the fourth quarter. That would be place kicker Matt Prater, who was just named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month in December.

XL - The Broncos' dynamic pass-rushing duo of Elvis Dumervill and Von Miller has been slowed in recent weeks as a result of injuries and just the natural wear-and-tear of a long NFL season. But it's still a formidable test for Max Starks and particularly right tackle Marcus Gilbert. The rookie out of Florida joined 93.7 The Fan on Thursday to talk about his first playoff game coming up this Sunday in Denver.

XLIII - Though non-football related, some of you I know are video game aficionados and avid players, so a heads up that the parent company behind SB Nation (Vox Media) announced it will be launching a site dedicated to gaming coverage featuring an all-start cast of editors and journalists.

IX - Thankfully the Steelers will enter their second of two matchups with the Cleveland Browns in much better shape injury-wise than they were in the first meeting, as well as when the two old rivals played in October of 1964. Only LaMarr Woodley appears likely to miss the final regular season contest due to injury.

X - If there ever were a week to head out to a watering hole or elsewhere that has Sunday Ticket, this weekend qualifies. Obviously we'd like to be able to watch both the Steelers-Browns game and the Ravens-Bengals matchup concurrently. But from the look of it, not many markets outside of the direct region will see either game, as Denver's 'win-and-in' game against the Chiefs is shown in most markets across the country. Here's your NFL Week 17 TV Distribution Map.

XIII - Sports Illustrated has filed its Top NFL stories of 2011. There was the lockout, a certain Hall of Fame quarterback that unexpectedly wasn't able to play a single down, Tebow-mania....any guesses as to what made the list?

XIV - All six of the Steelers Super Bowl trophies will be on display at the Carnegie Science Center through the weekend, including on New Year's Day. Fun opportunity to check out all the hardware if you're in or around the PGH area.

XL - For the final time this year, I submitted my responses about the Steelers upcoming game to the National Football Post's Friday Football Forecast. Many thanks to them for the opportunity to contribute this season.

XLIII - Definitely sounds like Hines Ward is going to get every opportunity in the world to get to 1,000 catches this coming Sunday. He's five shy heading into the final game of the regular season.