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IX - Here's your NFL Week 10 TV Distribution Map. If you aren't a Pittsburgher or live in the surrounding vicinity (West Virgnia, Ohio, Kentucky) you're not getting the Steelers important road test against the Bengals.
X - Your prototypical newspaper preview article, but it's worth a quick read for an overview of Sunday's game. There's also a nice Tomlin quote about Mike Wallace:
"(Wallace) is a guy that's pretty bold in his desire to be great, but more importantly than that we see day-to-day work habits that are pushing him in that direction," said Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin.
Bold in his desire to be great. Outstanding.
XII - Hines Ward joined The Fan on Thursday to talk about his new foundation and his status for Week 10.
XIV - Bodog has released their odds for the 2nd half of the football season. The Steelers are listed as 12:1 favorites to win the Super Bowl, up form 9:1 a week ago. Either this week or the next might be the best time to take your stake on the Steelers to win it all if you were considering it. A win in Cincinnati bumps it back down around 10:1, and with their schedule down the stretch, I don't suspect we'll see them fall out of the graces of the public more than once at most. Somewhat interestingly, Pittsburgh is listed as 5:1 favorites to win the AFC. In other words, everybody's getting bumped up by the fact that the Packers look so darn good.
A couple of individual props -- Ben Roethlisberger is 22:1 to win the 2011 MVP. Aaron Rodgers, of course, is the front runner at 1:4. There are worse ways to flush $5 dollars. Perhaps better value though would be Big Ben winning the passing yards title, even though the current leader, Drew Brees, is on pace to break Dan Marino's single-season record of 5,084 by a comfortable margin. Roethlisberger is 15:1 in that race. Finally, Mike Wallace is 15:2 to win the receiving yards title. Wes Welker is currently the favorite at 5:4. LaMarr Woodley gets the same odds, 15:2, to win the sack crown this year. Jared Allen is heavily favored at 5:4.
XL - Reputations die hard. Hines Ward is still getting voted by his peers as one of the NFL's dirtiest players. He's not wearing that crown though anymore. Ndamukong Suh gets the nod by a wide margin.
XLIII - There's a 12 minute interview with Aaron Smith on the Steelers' web site, the first, they claim Smith has given since being placed on Injured Reserve in mid-October.