10 Things I Think I Thought while experiencing another Steelers-less weekend

Weird that though our season has ended, my thoughts have not. Here are ten of them:

1. Given all the drama we went through through the season, one could almost pretend the season continues, since the drama does. Perhaps we could call it As the Stomach Turns, or The Bold and the Boomin’. Seriously, is this ever going to end?
2. One down, one to go in the Lombardi elimination sweepstakes. I may just tune into the Chiefs/Patsie game, that’s how confident I am it will go our way. I will enjoy watching them lose. Which reminds me, who was it who boldly went out on a limb and predicted it would be the top two seeds in each conference? The same one who predicted Franco would play the hero against the Raiders in 1972, that’s who.
3. I am grateful for the internet and the democratization of communication that it has wrought. I get to write about the Steelers, without having to outperform Ed Bouchette, Gerry Dulac or Bob Labriola. I hate, however, that the same tool gives voice to sundry tools piping in on our drama. Everyone has an opinion, including me. But now everyone’s opinion has an outlet. Everyone’s a theologian. And everyone’s a sportswriter.
4. I want to share a whole thought in praise of Bud Dupree. During our opening four games he looked pretty bad. But he really turned it around. He may not be the next Greg Lloyd/Joey Porter/James Harrison, but he, to borrow a baseball term, was worth at least one win against replacement.
5. Which reminds me, the 1974 draft is not the standard. It was a shocking outlier, never seen before or since. Before draft season begins in earnest let me encourage you to take a look at various draft classes since you’ve been paying attention to football. Not just the Steelers, but all teams. It will remind you what a crapshoot the whole thing is. As I like to say, there are far more busts in the draft than there are in Canton.
6. Here’s a challenge for someone with too much time on their hands. See if you can construct a team of 6th round or later picks that are active that could beat a team of first rounders who are still playing, somewhere. I’ll start. Tom Brady at QB, AB at wide receiver. On the first round team, let’s go with Johnny Manziel (Canada is playing, sort of) and John Ross. See how it works? Crapshoot I tell ya.
7. Never had the least interest in fantasy football. Don’t come @ me.
8. Five years from now we may be terribly glad to have drafted Josh Dobbs or Mason Rudolph. Neither, I suspect, will end up in the Hall of Fame. One of them, I hope, will win a Lombardi. We have great reason to hope in the future after Big Ben. We shouldn’t automatically assume it will be the 80’s all over again. It may well be the 90’s when we had some excellent teams, led by non- HOF QBs, O’Donnell and Stewart.
9. For all you Tomlin haters out there- if you want a lesson on quarterback coaching malfeasance, see Cowher and Stewart. The Chin destroyed Slash. That man could flat out play.
10. And those of you wondering how I came to have such a beautiful wife, it’s because of something we haven’t experienced in the Jordan Berry era- I out-punted my coverage.