Hey everyone,

 

I'm not really the type to join hands and sing Kumbayah a whole lot, but I think we really have a great online community here. People like blitzburgh, cgolden, maryrose, rickva, datruth, and many other (not slighting anyone by not including!) spend a lot of their time and energy contributing great commentary, history and perspective on the game and the team that we all love. (except for maybe kwoog ;) The articles and fanposts are half of why I came to this site and continue to follow it closely, and the great discussion in the comments section is the other half. It's always been polite, knowledgeable, informative, and lots of fun. However, lately I've been noticing some personal attacks in the comments - here's a sampling. I've left out usernames, because the point is not to call individuals out.

 

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Who the hell are you! Leave Leftwich alone. I bet you can’t throw the football at all. It’s easy for you to sit on your fat ass and critique his performance does your wife or girlfriend critique yours? What a serious hater!

--- You are a moron

It’s Labor Day wtf! IDIOT

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If there were any white coaches that had taken that position, i problably would never hear from you ignorant paistey a--.

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Don't get me wrong, I think the signal to noise ratio is still very high. I would just hate to see the general level of discussion devolve until this board just wasn't fun anymore. It's entirely possible that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I just think that it would be great if we could stick to discussing football, and avoid making personal attacks. (*even* on Browns fans ;) ) I don't know how to make this happen, but I feel like one good approach might be the silent treatment - if someone makes a personal attack, let's just not feed into that by responding - attacking the attacker will probably only make things worse... 

 

Anyway, what do you guys all think? Feel free to post your thoughts, suggestions, aspersions on my character/heritage/sexual ability, etc. here ;)

 

 

Hey guys,

 

thought I'd start an open thread in case anyone else is watching and wants to comment. Pasting in some junk to get my 57 words or whatever it is :)

 

3-15 MIN11 (11:52) (Shotgun) PENALTY on MIN-M.Birk, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at MIN 11 - No Play. 2-18 MIN8 (12:39) (Shotgun) A.Peterson left tackle to MIN 11 for 3 yards (B.Keisel). 1-15 MIN11 (13:12) G.Frerotte sacked at MIN 8 for -3 yards (Aa.Smith).

I'm in the 'Burgh with my fiancée visiting my parents for a few days - so, of course, I ditched all of them for a few hours and drove to Latrobe to catch my first ever Steelers training camp. It was interesting, and a lot of fun. I took a lot of pictures, so I apologize to those of you with slow connections. I'll start with my notes, and put pictures below...

Continue reading this post »

 

so I shouldn't need to say anything more than to post this photo:

 

via www.pittsburghlive.com  

(Max Starks in front, Sean Mahan behind him)

 

OK, I wil say something more - that dude looks tiny next to Starks. If Sean Mahan is starting under center on Sep. 7th, I'm going to go to a corner and rock back and forth, quietly whimpering....

Not that it should be too much of a problem against the Texans, unless Mario Williams really does his thing. My father-in-law to be is from Houston, so normally I'm happy to root a little for them, but not in this game!

Poll

Who wins the battle for Center '08?

• Mahan
• Hartwig
• Stapleton
• Colon/other???

  78 votes | Results

I'm surprised no-one else has posted anything, but anyway, that was our round 3 choice - listed as OLB, maybe we'll play him as a DE? I don't really know much about him, but anyone who sacks the QB 12 times a year for the past two years can't be all bad :-D

Some nice info here:

http://www.nfldraftdog.com/2008_nfl_draft/bruce_davis.htm 

highlights:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nbl03WpCpXk 

 

opening it up for discussion :)

 

<<update>> We Take Tony Hills, a 6'6", 300 lb. OT from UT - finally some help for the OL :)

<<update>> That was a little unexpected - we take Dennis Dixon from Oregon in the 5th round - seems like his draft stock fell a lot after a knee injury. Grooming a Batch replacement? Here's hoping we don't see him on the field for quite some time... Or maybe he's a conversion project?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9cZwClh3bg&feature=related 

Bumped from the diaries. We'll keep rolling this draft along, but man, I'm itching for some Steelers banter. I'll get on that tomorrow, but for now, thanks to acrollet for this entry about Mike Tomlin.

-Blitz-

The more I hear of what Mike Tomlin has to say, the better I like him as our team's coach. He never seems to speak in clichés or make excuses, just straight talk all the way. The Post-Gazette had a mini-retrospective article about him one year out. Here are a couple of the quotes that stood out to me:

When asked whether he has his players' respect:

"I don't worry about that. Every job I've ever gotten people have asked me that question because I was a young guy. I coach, they play. Mutual respect is, of course, part of it." Thoughts on the potential longevity of his position: "I don't look for security. If I was looking for security, I'd be a professor or something, some tenured position." Talking about how he likes his job: "Man, I'm living a dream. Every day I come to work it's an awesome thing. I walk past five Lombardis to my right every morning when I walk to my office. It's fun, it's awesome, it's challenging, it's tough, it's all those things, but it's what you dream about doing. I love it." I think the Rooneys really found a smart, down to earth coach for the Steelers. He will ultimately be judged mostly by his record, but he had a first year most coaches would kill for. For a combination of skills and attitude, I don't think I would take another coach in the league right now.

Poll

How many Lombardis do you think Tomlin will bring to da Burgh?

• 0
• 1
• 2
• 3+

  21 votes | Results