Copperhouse NFL Preview

AFC East NE 12-4 BUF 10-6 MIA 8-8 NYJ 5-11 AFC North PIT 12-4 CIN 10-6(Wild Card) BAL 9-7 CLE 4-12 AFC South IND 11-5 TEN 10-6 HOU 8-8 JAC 7-9 AFC East SD 11-5 DEN 10-6(Wild Card) KC 10-6 OAK 3-13	NFC East DAL 10-6 WSH 6-10 PHI 5-11 NYG 4-12 NFC North GB 9-7 CHI 9-7(Wild Card) MIN 8-8 DET 6-10 NFC South NO 11-5 CAR 8-8 ATL 5-11 TB 4-12 NFC East SEA 10-6 ARZ 9-7(Wild Card) STL 9-7 SF 4-12
AFC Champion SD Super Bowl Champ SD	NFC Champion NO

Here's my crazy ideas on how the NFL season will play out. I had a good idea in my head of where I thought teams records would be, but when I went in and starting looking at schedules, and going through week by week, I realized a lot of my stuff had no feasible way of happening. Some teams that I thought might make a run(Miami, Minnesota, Jacksonville) ended up having tougher schedules and I couldn't give them the wins I originally thought they might get. Some other teams ended up getting more wins than I would've thought because of easy games(Arizona, KC, Buffalo).

Pittsburgh has a bitter sweet schedule. The easy part of their schedule is pretty easy, but the tough part of it is one of the toughest in the league. They've got several games that should come pretty easy, including their first 4 games against Cleveland, Buffalo, San Francisco, and Arizona. Anything less than 4-0 going into the Seattle game will be a disappointment. Then they have a couple tough stretches that will likely make or break their season, starting with week 5-9 when they face Seattle, Denver & Cincinnati on the road, and Baltimore. They end the season on another tough stretch against Cincinnati, New England on the road, Jacksonville, and St Louis & Baltimore on the road. They're in a tough division, but I really think they're the best team in that division. Cincy could be tough, but I think Pittsburgh's secondary will be much better this year(it better be, they sucked last year) and the Steelers always play their division rivals tough. Barring a serious let down, I think they win the AFC North. They'll have to fight with the other division leaders(NE, Indy, SD) though to get a first round bye. It's going to take a much improved defense for them to go deep though, and their offense is going to need to stay healthy. They should have a good season, and if their new offense and the use of more 4-3 defense under Tomlin are successful, they could make a run in the playoffs.

Week 1: @ Cleveland - I don't care how rusty the starters looked in preseason, they'll win this game handily (Steelers win confidence on a scale of 1-10: 9)
Week 2: Buffalo - Buffalo could be a surprise this year, but Pitt should take this one pretty easily (7.8)
Week 3: San Fran - Win (8)
Week 4: @ Arizona - This one should be fun(note: I may be in phoenix for this game), Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm left the Steelers for Arizona after Mike Tomlin got Cowher's head coaching gig. They should help Arizona get their turnaround started, but Pittsburgh still wins this game. (7)
Week 5: Seattle - A rematch of the Super Bowl XL two years ago, this should be a tough game. Expect the Seahawks to blame the refs for every holding call, dropped pass, and Hasselback interception. If it was in Seattle I'd probably give this game to the SeaTurkey's, but in Heinz Field, Pittsburgh wins this one. (5.5)
Week 6: Bye
Week 7: @ Denver - This is going to be a tough road game, with both teams coming out of their bye's. Denver will likely be looking to recover from losses to San Diego and Indy before their bye. In Mile High, I think the Bronco's have the advantage here. (4)
Week 8: @ Cincinnati - Another road game against a tough team. Cincy isn't too far from Steeltown though, and there will be a lot of Black & Gold in the stands. We'll have to see who will step up to trash talk with Chad Johnson now that Joey Porter is gone, but Pittsburgh should win here. (6.5)
Week 9: Baltimore - Steelers come back home, but the game doesn't get any easier. I think the Ravens defense takes a step back this year, but they've improved their offense with the addition of McGahee. A divisional rival at home in November though? Pittsburgh better win this one, but it won't be easy. (6)
Week 10: Cleveland - Pittsburgh at home will destroy the Browns. (10)
Week 11: @ NY Jets - The Jets are another team that could end up being pretty solid this year, but by this late in the season, Chad Pennington should have thrown out his shoulder. Put this one in the win column. (7.5)
Week 12: Miami - Expect Heinz Field to be roaring for the homecoming of Joey Porter. You know Porter is going to be talking trash, and unlike a lot of NFL smack talkers, he usually backs it up with his performance. On the other hand, there's a reasonable chance that Joey gets in another pre-game fight and gets tossed. I'm still up in the air as to how Miami will do this year, but I'm giving the Steelers the cold weather advantage. (7)
Week 13: Cincinnati - Cincy at home in December. This is Pittsburgh's second to last home game of the regular season, and looking at their next four games, they better win this one. Cincy is never a walkover, but I'm confident in this one. (7.2)
Week 14: @ New England - This one always worries me. With Mike Tomlin being a new coach, we'll see if Belichick has figured out how to play him yet. This could be a tough one. (4.3)
Week 15: Jacksonville - I gotta go with Pittsburgh at home in December against a warm weather team. (7.5)
Week 16: @ St Louis - If St Louis is still healthy at this point in the season they'll be dangerous, but their big players are all getting older and will be wearing down. If our secondary can limit Bulger to a single throwing TD we'll take this one by 21. If not, it will go down to the wire. (6)
Week 17: @ Baltimore - Shitty, shitty game to end the regular season on, this could end being for the division title. Nobody wants to lose to a division rival heading into the playoffs, but this could be a struggle. (5)

Best Case Scenario: 14-2
Worst Case Scenario: 8-8

Copperhouse Fantasy Predictions - Ex-Sleepers

Today I'll give you my fantasy picks that are sleepers-that-everybody-thinks-is-a-sleeper-so-are-no-longer-sleepers. This is something that happens every year. All the ESPN, Sportsline, Yahoo, etc articles pick the same few players as "sleepers" so everyone moves them up on their draft board to the point that the sleeper becomes overrated. All these guys will have solid years, but don't reach to far in your draft for them.

Overrated Sleepers
QB: Jon Kitna(DET) - Kitna should put up decent numbers this year, he's got a solid receiving corp with Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams, but he still plays for Detroit. I'd at least take Vince Young, Philip Rivers, or Matt Hasselback ahead of Kitna.

RB: Travis Henry(DEN) - Travis Henry has fallen a bit in draft boards since he got dinged up in preseason, but people still are pretty worked up about him. Denver always fields a good runner with their cheap cut-blocking techniques, and Henry had a good year last year playing for Tennessee. Look for Willis McGahee, Edgerrin James, and maybe even Ronnie Brown ahead of Henry.

WR/TE: Lee Evans(BUF) - I didn't really have anybody for WR or TE, and Lee is probably a solid #2 receiver if JP Lossman plays up to his abilities this year. Looking at the fantasy rankings though, he was the most overrated one I saw.

DE: Green Bay - Again, there wasn't really any defenses that stood out for this category. Everyone's excited about Green Bay's chances on offense & defense this year, but be careful. If the cheesers offense doesn't pan out behind Favre this year, the defense is going to get worked hard and could break down.

How to avoid soliciting cops for sex in the bathroom

In light of Idaho Senator Larry Craig's and Florida Representative Bob Allen's recent restroom "misunderstandings" involving male undercover cops, I think we could all use a briefing on the rules of bathroom. If you follow these rules, your chances of being arrested for soliciting the undercover cop in the stall next to you fall dramatically.

Some advice for those who tell stall tales

Copperhouse Fantasy Predictions - Overrated Players

Continuing with my series on fantasy football, tonight I give you my overrated picks.

Overrated
QB: Donovan McNabb(PHI) - Alot of people are all giddy over McNabb's return from his torn ACL last year. I'm not expecting much, and I certainly don't think he's a top 10 fantasy qb. Even if he has recovered 100% from the ACL, he's still injury prone. He hasn't finished a season since 2004 and he's getting older. One of his main strengths is his mobility, and all that scrambling and changing direction can wreak havoc on a weak ACL. All the Campbell's Chunky Soup in the world isn't going to fix that. On top of that, his top receiver, Donte Stallworth, left for New England, leaving Reggie Brown as the #1 receiver. In addition, he's been kind of a dick about the whole drafting Kevin Kolb thing which could lead to some chemistry issues in the Eagles lockerroom. McNabb may be productive at times, but you better make sure you have a solid backup.

RB: Larry Johnson(KC) - LJ carried 416 times last season. History has shown that running backs that carry over 400 times in a season tend to slump pretty bad the next season. KC's offensive line isn't exactly stellar either, and they've got a young qb in Damon Huard. LJ also held out of 25 days of training camp trying to get more money, and finally signed a big 6 year extension. Missing a month of training camp is going to cost him alot of conditioning, leaving him in less than top-notch shape. He will also likely be relied on alot since KC has a young QB in Damon Huard. We have yet to see how much Priest Holmes comeback will affect LJ's reps and yards.

WR: Roy Williams(DET) - Don't get me wrong, Roy Williams is helluva receiver. I also expect Jon Kitna to have a better than expected year. But their still the Detroit Lions, and now Williams has to share throws with another badass wideout, #2 overall draft pick Calvin Johnson.

DE: Baltimore Ravens - Let's face it, the Ravens are getting old. They are switching back to the 4-3 this year, which should help a bit, but Ray Lewis and Ed Reed have to stay healthy. They also lost Adalius Thomas who took off to New England. Put them in the tough AFC North division, and I don't see the Ravens as an elite defense anymore.

TE: Jeremy Shockey(NYG) - Two words: Eli Manning. Shockey has also never played a full 16 game season, so his health is always an issue. He's always been a solid chain mover, and one of Mannings favorite endzone targets. The problem is Eli has trouble hitting his targets.

Copperhouse Fantasy Predictions - Sleepers

So with me being an amateur mostly-sports blogger and all, I figure you've all been waiting patiently for me to condense my immense fantasy knowledge into a post to help you kick some serious ass in your office league. But since your office league will undoubtedly be won by Suzy down in accounting who picked her players based on how pretty the uniforms are and how cute the mascot is, just throw the dice and hope for the best. In the meantime, in the next couple posts I'll give the people what they want and give some of my sleeper picks, overrated players, and sleepers-that-everybody-thinks-is-a-sleeper-so-are-no-longer-sleepers.

Sleepers
QB: Ben Roethlisberger(PIT) - I know, this is a cheap pick what with me being a Pittsburgh fan and all, but Big Ben is set up to over-achieve this year. First of all, after last season when he was pretty awful, everyone is writing the guy off without even considering the fact that he had 2 near death experiences and a serious concussion and then rushed back to his starting job too soon. When he's healthy, he's an extremely efficient passer and a good runner. And this year his receiving corp is better too. He's still got Hines, and Cedrick Wilson, Santonio Holmes, and Nate Washington are starting to play more consistently. Don't forget the wide receivers coach got promoted to offensive coordinator and is looking to throw more and open the offense up a bit.

RB: Lawrence Maroney(NE) - I'm not sure why Maroney isn't ranked higher in the fantasy drafts. Last year he was a solid rusher and good catching passes out of the backfield too, but he was #2, sharing time with Corey Dillon. He had offseason shoulder surgery but looks to be healthy for the regular season.

WR: Vincent Jackson(SD) - Vincent is a big, fast receiver with a talented younger QB(Philip Rivers). Rivers continues to get better, and Jackson is his #1 receiver. He probably loses some potential since LT is so good as a pass catcher, but look for a big year from Jackson.

DE: Vikings - Vikings had a solid defense last year but struggled against the pass. They're tough to run against with the Williams boys up front, and they've addressed their secondary concerns, adding Mike Doss and drafting Marcus McCauley. They'll also get LB Chad Greenway and CB Cedric Griffin back after injuries last year. They also play in the weak NFC North.

TE: Algae Crumpler(ATL) - This isn't really a sleeper pick, since Algae is considered a #1 TE, but people seem to think he's going to suffer without the jail-bound Vick. I'm not sure why he would suffer though, since he's going from the not very accurate Vick to the more accurate Harrington. If the Falcons can protect Harrington, Crumpler will have a good year.

I'm Back Again

The Bandit rolled back into PDX late Sunday night after 5 seriously kick-ass, showerless days of cheap beer, gourmet eats, rockin tunes, all around good folk, and 15 minutes of the worlds greatest massage courtesy of Hannah at the Floater. And thanks to the abnormally high percentage of bitter Seahawks fans, I even made it home with a couple Iron City barley pops in my cooler next to the kokanee empties and a drained bottle of cheap-ass vodka that got mixed with a very light dose of off-brand Sunny-D from a greasy gas station. It was a long-ass drive yesterday, but I made it home in one stanked up, tired piece. Two stops for gas, and a greasy burger and a rockstar were all it took. Speaking of which, can anyone tell me when the hell napkins stopped being a standard item when you get a ass-burger to-go from the drive-up? Whoever came up with the ri-goddamn-diculous idea to cut costs by leaving the napkins out of the bag deserves a kick in the nuts.

More later with some fantasy predictions. Why? Because there's nothing like writing about fantasy sports on a blog to make people really take you seriously.

EDIT: Added a link to Ian Newbill's Myspace page. Saw Ian and his band last friday at the Panida Theater in Sandpoint, Idaho, and he absolutely rocked the shit out of the joint. The guy has some serious songwriting talent and can play the fuck out of a guitar.

New Pirates CEO?

Dan Duquette, a former Boston Red Sox General Manager, reportedly met with Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting about the upcoming vacancy for Pirates CEO. As I reported earlier this summer, current CEO Kevin McClatchy is stepping down at the end of the season.

Whoever takes over for McClatchy is going to have their work cut out for them, but on the plus side, it will be difficult for anyone to do a worse job than McClatchy. McClatchy has consistently overpaid mediocre and bad players(like Jason Kendall, Pittsburgh's highest paid player, even though he's playing for ), signed washed up veterans(Matt Morris, Derek Bell, etc), and let go of their best players because they were too cheap(this is a long list, but we'll start with Barry Bonds, Tim Wakefield, Oliver Perez, Mike Gonzalez, Aramis Ramirez, Brian Giles).

Regardless of takes over for McClatchy, Pittsburgh also needs to get rid of Manager Jim Tracy and GM Dave Littlefield.

How Bout That

Last weekend, the Pirates won two consecutive games against the Philadelphia Phillies after trailing by 4 in both games. On Saturday, the Bucs gave up 4 runs in the top of the first before also scoring 4 in the bottom of the inning. After giving up 2 more in the second, the Pirates went on to win 11-6. On Sunday, the Pirates fell behind 4-0 before a 7 run seventh inning put them ahead on their way to a 8-4 win. Apparently this marks just the 8th time in Major League history that a team in sole possession of its league's worst record won consecutive games after trailing by 4 or more runs in both(this little tidbit came from Tim Keown over at ESPN.com). So I guess this is a good thing...well, maybe not good, but at least bittersweet, which is quite the improvement over most things you could say about Pittsburgh over the last 15 years.

The Pirates also picked up another come-from-behind win on Monday, when Josh Phelps hit an 8th inning pinch-hit homer to tie it and Freddy Sanchez knocked an RBI single into center in the 11th.

Friday Cop-out Post

It's Friday, I'm feeling lazy, and the job that actually pays me money(as opposed to this, which only pays in the self-realization that perhaps someone, somewhere reads what I write and it brightens their day, even if only by a small flicker for a few minutes as they read...or some other sappy crap like that) is keeping my busy this week.

So, in lieu putting some actual thought into todays post, I will direct you to an interesting article by Gregg Easterbrook of ESPN's Page 2. Easterbrook has several reasons why he is sympathetic towards Michael Vick's current clusterfuck situation.

Remember, the charges against Vick are accusations. The Duke lacrosse mess reminded us that accusations are not the same as guilt and that prosecutors might be unscrupulous. The NFL, the media and popular opinion all seem to accept that because Vick is accused, he must be guilty. He's been treated as guilty -- mocked, effectively suspended from football, deprived of most of his income -- long before any legal determination has been made. There's something deeply sick about the fact that you can go to the NFL's official shop and order a Bills jersey with No. 32 and SIMPSON on the back -- go here and try it yourself -- or a Panthers jersey with CARRUTH on the back, the NFL system actually says "Great choice!" in response, but if you go here and try to order a Falcons' jersey with Vick's name or number, you'll get a message saying your order cannot be processed.

$63 billion...thats alot

I think South Carolina jails may have gotten a bad batch of anti-psychotic medication. Either that or Michael Vick's life just got a whole lot messier. SC inmate Jonathan Lee Riches has apparently filed a hand-written(for comedies sake, I hope it was on the back of a napkin, written in blood) lawsuit against Michael Vick for $63 billion!!! Riches claims that Vick stole his two pit bulls, pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, sold the dogs on eBay, and used the proceeds to buy missiles from Iran. You can't make this shit up. Riches wants the money, backed by gold and silver, dropped off at the front gates of Williamsburg Federal Correctional facility in South Carolina where he is an inmate. Riches also pleads that "Michael Vick has to stop physically hurting my feelings and dashing my hopes." This brings up another concern...how is Michael Vick physically hurting Riches feelings? There's really only one explanation: Vick is a super secret ninja master who has been mind-raping Riches. And you know Vick must be a powerful Ninja, since even from Atlanta, he has been able to penetrate the walls of the medium-security prison in Salters, SC(300+ miles away) and psychologically sodomize Riches.

Of course this story is from Fox News, so it's possible its all a Democratic conspiracy to destroy America.

Heinz Ketchup Only!!

According to The Smoking Gun, the Pittsburgh Steelers submit a 17 page document to their hotel for games. The document spells out everything from the pillow preference of Dan Rooney(Foam rubber) to the number of chefs at the omelet station during pregame meals(2 with 3-4 portable burners) to the type of ketchup on the tables during meals(must be Heinz). It also details how the room lists should look and what the mini-bars should be stocked with(no alcohol). Room service is also not permitted to deliver alcohol to players' rooms(Drinking Like a Champion: fine for the Super Bowl, but not regular season games).

Pirates/Giants Reunion Special

In his first game against Pittsburgh since breaking the all-time HR record, Bonds hit his 758th career dinger. The former Pirate hit a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 3rd against his former teammate Matt Morris who was recently traded by the Giants to the Bucs for center fielder Rajai Davis who fell just HR short of hitting for the cycle against his former team (You got that clusterfuck of teams and former teams straightened out yet?). The Giants took a 6-2 lead into the 8th, but the Bucs rallied for 6 runs and then held on for a 8-7 win.

Storm Blows Over, Tiger Rages On

Graeme Storm, the first round leader at the PGA Championship, fell apart today shooting a 6 over 76. Meanwhile Tiger Woods shot a spectacular 63 to take a 2 shot leader after starting the day 6 shots back. The 63 represented a new personal best at a major for Tiger and made him only the 43rd golfer to ever shoot a 63 in a major. Tiger nearly made history when his birdie putt on 18 nearly went in before horseshoeing out of the whole. That putt would have given Woods a major championship record 62.

Steely McBeam...really?

Much to the dismay of many Steelers fan, and apparently the delight of a few others, the Steelers have added a team mascot this year. Personally I don't see why we don't just get some sexy cheerleaders instead, but whatever. What concerns me is the mascot's name...Steely McBeam. Apparently our mascot is a 70's pornstar with a fondness for happy meals(not too mention an eery resemblance to Bill Cowher). Even Stevie Steeler, the old mascot who was discontinued in the mid-90's, had a better name. Although admittedly, Stevie Steeler isn't exactly the most impressive moniker either. Making it even worse, the fans got to choose the name. That's right, 70,000+ fans were asked to submit names, and the best they could come up with is Steely McBeam.

Punting Pittsburgh Style

Why would anyone trade up to draft a punter? That's a question many people have been asking since the NFL Draft when the Steelers took Daniel Sepulveda in the 4th round. In his first preseason game, Sepulveda had 4 punts with an average of 40.5 yds(32.8 yds net), but if you really want to know why they took him, check out this video of him from his Baylor days.



Thats right, that's a punter laying a devasting hit during punt coverage.And it's not like the return man broke past everybody else and Sepulveda was the only defender left. No, he ran up and drilled the poor bastard with several of his teammates about to make a tackle. Now that's Steeler football. Who the hell needs Joey Porter and his bum knee when we've got the baddest punter in the league. And how long exactly does it take to live down being the guy in a youtube video getting laid out by a punter?

Spurrier rips college admissions policies

EDIT: The quote I originally posted was not by Steve Spurrier, it was posted on ESPN's front page in relation to the story and I mistakenly took it as a Spurrier quote. It has been removed to avoid confusion. What Spurrier actually said is posted below:

"As long as I'm the coach here, we're going to take guys that qualify," Spurrier said. "If not, then I have to go somewhere else because I can't tell a young man, 'You’re coming to school here,' he qualifies, and not do that. And we did that this year."

"I've got to apologize to two young men that we recruited," Spurrier said. "They qualified. They signed with us in February. They were denied admission to our school."

"Personally, I don't think that's the way you do business. I'm embarrassed that I and our coaches basically misled these young men into believing they were coming here."

Spurrier later defended his comments saying, "In my opinion, I still believe we made a mistake."

Apparently, two recruits who were cleared by the NCAA to enroll after meeting NCAA standards, were then denied admission by the schools special admissions committee. The school has defended its policies following the comments by Spurrier saying this will be his last year at South Carolina if the school is going to operate like this.

There are a couple issues at play here. First, not all colleges can or should have the same admission standards. Thats what makes some schools better. Thats what makes graduates from certain schools more sought-after than graduates of other schools. But a problem arises when an academically focused school also strives to be an athletic powerhouse. More often than not, the top athletes are not the top scholars. That is absolutely not meant as acceptance of the 'dumb jock' stereotype, there are many extraordinary athletes who are also excellent students and several top academic schools that also perenially compete for athletic titles(Duke and Stanford come to mind). There are also, however, many more athletes who focus primarily on athletics and spend the majority of their time training, practicing, and competing. For these students, classes often become not only an inconvenience, but a barrier to their career goals. Imagine if a student on an academic scholarship also had to make the team and compete athletically in order to graduate. That wouldn't be fair, as these students aren't looking for athletic careers. Yet thanks to the near-monopoly that the NCAA has on the training and development of professional athletic recruits, we continually force athletes to meet academic standards in order to train for their intended career. This is especially noticeable in the NFL where there is very little international presence and high school graduates are not permitted to enter the draft(and rightfully so, there aren't many 18 year olds that are physically or mentally ready to compete in the NFL).

The NBA has also recently passed a rule that a player must be at least one year removed from high school graduation in order to enter the draft. This has led to a massive increase in the number of athletes who attend school, but after the completion of the basketball season, they declare for the draft and instead of attending class for the second semester, they are focused on training for pre-draft workouts, hiring agents, etc and receive incompletes or fail their classes. Not only have these kids not gained anything by enrolling in those classes, but the team can lose scholarships for the next year because of their academic ineligibility.

The NCAA has been vital in negotiating these agreements with the NBA and NFL to exclude high school graduates, not because they want the kids to get an education or because they don't think they are physically ready to play professionally, but because it allows the schools and the NCAA to make hundreds of millions of dollars from athletics while not having to pay the athletes. College athletics would be much less popular if the premier athletes were allowed to bypass college and enter directly into the pros.

Don't get me wrong, colleges and universities absolutely should have academic standards for students, whether they are attending for a degree in engineering or to play football. But to force athletes who have no business being in school and have no desire to be there is ridiculous. Many athletes end up skating through a communications or business degree while the school assigns 'tutors' to write their papers for them and pressures professors to pass them so that they're eligible to play on Saturday's game. This hurts the athletes because they are forced to spend time in class when they could be preparing for their careers, and it also hurts the academic students, because classes have to move slow enough to allow athletes who don't have the time or focus to fully apply themselves to the classroom work.

Instead, what the NFL and NBA should is create a minor league system. They already have developmental leagues, but they are for players already drafted. Instead, create a league where the players aren't yet affiliated to one of the professional teams. Allow players who have graduated high school but have no desire for college to join and play a 12 game season. Provide them with traveling teachers who teach budget and finance and other basic skills so that when they sign a multi-million dollar contract they are prepared to handle their new life. Also provide them with top of the line nutrition and fitness trainers to prepare them for the next level of competition. Pay them a modest salary and after a couple years let them enter the draft. The guys that made it to the professional level would be better prepared to handle the fame and money, and the ones who didn't could enter college with a little more knowledge and the realization that professional athletics wasn't an option for them and could apply themselves more readily to their collegiate academics.

Steelers win meaningless game, Baseball history is made

The Steelers routed the Saints in Sunday's Hall of Fame game, but before we get to that, congratulations are in order. It was a weekend for the record books in baseball, as we saw Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Tom Glavine all make history.

On Saturday, A-Rod hit a first pitch HR early in the game against Kyle Davies of the Royals, making him the youngest player to ever hit 500 home runs. For comparison, he is nearly 5 years younger than Bonds was when he hit his 500th.

Later that day, Bonds also made home run history as he finally hit his 755th, tying Hank Aaron's all time record. Bonds' hit came off of the Padres Clay Hensley. On a slightly ironic note, two years ago Hensley served a 15 game suspension in the minors for testing positive for steroids. On Sunday, Hensley's luck didn't get any better as the Padres optioned him back to the triple-A Portland Beavers(I may have to go see his next start for the Beavs, there should be some good heckling). Congrats also to the Padres fans, who had a very positive reaction to Bonds' HR. Selig however, merely stood politely with his hands in his pockets and looking slightly constipated as Bonds rounded the bases.

On Sunday, Tom Glavine picked up career win #300 as the Mets beat the Cubs 8-3. Glavine became just the 5th left handed pitcher to hit the milestone and only the 23rd overall. Glavine could very well be the last pitcher to win #300 for a long time, if not ever. Randy Johnson is only 16 wins away, but is 43 years old and currently on the DL after back surgery.

Alright, now on to a sport people can watch without falling asleep. The Steelers put up some good numbers in head coach Mike Tomlins debut. Outgaining the Saints 413 yards to 214 yards, while handily winning 20-7. The few starters who played looked sharp during their brief appearances on the field. Big Ben was 2-3 for 73 yards with both completions going to Cedrick Wilson, before Najeh Davenport punched it in from 4 yds out. The #2 and #3 QB's also were effective as Charlie Batch was 4-6 for 51 yds and Brian St. Pierre was 8-14 for 129 yds as the Steelers outpassed the Saints 205 yds to 32 yds. I'm sure there is a comment in there somewhere comparing the Saints ineffective defense to the New Orleans levies in a Hurricane, but perhaps its still too soon for Katrina jokes.

ESPN's Hall of Fame Picks

ESPN released their list of 50 current NFL players they believe will make the Hall of Fame. 3 Steelers made it: Alan Faneca, Troy Polamalu, and Hines Ward. Interestingly enough, they left Ben Roethlisberger off the list. Apparently having one bad year after almost dying twice is enough for everyone to write you off forever. I'm sure the other quarterbacks on the list are all stellar quarterbacks who have shown they can and will win consistently. The top 3 on the list are Brett Favre, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning. Absolutely no argument from me there, 3 quarterbacks that are probably shoe-ins for the Hall as of now. The next quarterback on the list is Carson Palmer. Another very good quarterback, but he has yet to prove that he can consistently lead his team to victory and hasn't won a playoff game yet either. He also plays in an offense that would put up big numbers regardless of who was under center. Now here's where the shit gets interesting. Vince Young and Matt Leinart make the list. Ummm, excuse me?? Two very talented athletes yes, but until they actually do something there's no way you could possibly rank them above Ben. Ben went 14-0 as a rookie, including a win over Tom Brady and the defending champion Patriots that broke their streak of 21 straight games, and led the Steelers to the AFC Championship game. He followed that up with a 9-3 sophomore outing where 2 of his 3 losses were against Brady and Manning. He had a poor outing in the Super Bowl, but 1) he still won the game and 2)he won 3 playoff games on the road. In the playoffs, he handily beat the Bengals(Palmer was injured early on in that game), was destroying Manning and the Colts until the worst call in NFL history overturned Polamalu's interception and nearly gave the game to the Colts. Then Roethlisberger beat a very strong Bronco's team at Mile High to get to the Super Bowl. This all came after the Steelers won 4 straight to end the regular season and make the playoffs. Ben struggled last year, but considering he was run over by a fucking Buick and then had emergency appendicitis, I'm gonna go ahead and wait to see what he does this year before I decide he's washed up.

Oh yeah, ESPN also put Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson on the list despite the fact that they have yet to play a single down in the NFL. Nice list ESPN...FOR ME TO POOP ON!

X-Games Crash!!

An absolutely horrific crash from the X-Games last night. Jake Brown pulls an amazing Backside 720(At least that's what they called it, I probably couldn't tell you the difference between that and a 540 McTwist if my life depended on it), but then things went very wrong. Keep in mind that the height of the ramp is approximately 30 feet and Jake was another 15-20 feet above that. You can't really see it from this, but his shoes literally exploded off of his feet.

Listen to Tony Hawk announcing at about the 0:28 mark. And if you still don't think skateboarders are hardcore, 2 minutes later, Jake Brown walked off the ramp almost completely under his own power.

KSK's Steeler Prekkake

Since we can all agree that the boys over at Kissing Suzy Kolber are much better writers than I could ever hope to be, I give you the KSK 2007 NFL Season Prekkake: Pittsburgh Steelers by their very own Steelers fan, Christmas Ape. Merely by posting this link, I will immediately raise the overall quality of the Copperhouse to unprecedented levels. This will serve to raise everyone's expectations to a sufficiently high standard, allowing me to continue to drastically disappoint and underachieve without too much effort.

Footballs Here!!!

I've been holding off on any real football stuff lately. Mostly because at this time of year, there is rarely enough interesting stuff to make for consistently good stuff, so I end up getting excited and then nothing happens for 2 weeks and I fall into a deep depression and all the bloody marys and PBR's in the world aren't enough to make Sunday mornings without football feel normal. It's almost enough to make a guy take up a religion. Almost.

But this Sunday marks the beginning of the preseason with the Hall of Fame game that will pit New Orleans against the Pittsburgh Steelers(which thanks to those fuckers at Comcast I will likely have to go to a bar to see). We will get our first look at whether we will get Big Ben circa 2005 back behind center, or if last years concussed, appendicitised, and generally sub par Ben will make show up again. We also get to see how the team handles with both a new head coach(Mike Tomlin) and a new offensive coordinator(Bruce Arians). With Arians, who was promoted from wide receivers coach, calling the plays, Roethlisberger will likely get more freedom in throwing the ball. We'll see soon enough if that is a good thing.

Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau is still around, but defensive captain Joey Porter was released in salary cap move. Mike Tomlin will also add more 4-3 schemes to the defense as they begin the transition away from the Steelers usual 3-4.

It's time to start getting excited. After we see how a couple preseason games go, I'll predict every one of the Steelers regular season games, as well as my picks for the division winners, playoff teams, and eventual Super Bowl Champion. After you have those picks, you can take your life savings, head to Vegas, and bet the exact opposite. You should have enough to retire by next February.