Wolfie's Rundown

-I was surprised to see ESPN and a lot of media members and fans alike not understand Santonio Holmes TD celebration. He was doing the LeBron. Powdering the hands then throwin it up like the King does pregame, and in the Browns commercial. Stuart Scott thought it was hot sauce or something. The dudes I was watching the game were on it immediately, but sometimes I forget that a lot of my crew is made up of fantasy sports monsters and degenerate gamblers. Which, when put together, makes one of the most potent sports fans known to man. Not only do they watch every game like something is on the line, they know all the numbers behind it, deadly stuff and very awesome.

-Damn it, I just got home and was going to write the same post Perkins just did. I was thinking about it today and to me, this is probably a good thing for Phelps. I hated that guy a couple weeks ago. You got to be an enormous ted to win 8 golds and have me hate you, for real. Is Phelpsie (I picture his yes-men entourage calling him that) still a tool? I say yes. But, today he is a little less of one. Today Michael Phelps is a little more human. Today I know Michael Phelps is young man who likes to get high once in a while (even if hes holding the bong like a rook, read Gambees comment). The person that turned this picture in was probably a tattle tale. Or that person might have been insightful enough to know that this is just what the doctor ordered.

-Shannon Sharpe didn't get in to the hall of fame on the first ballot. What the eff? I don't really care for that talking horse but hes the best tight end of all time. Its not even worth ranting or arguing about because its just ridiculous. He should have been a first ballot hall of famer no sweat.

-This is a brag but I think its relevant. Remember when I brought up that the winning team is gonna love going to meet Obama in the recap? Well I heard that was the theme at the celebration after the win on Sunday night. Almost all of the players were saying that the best part of winning it is going to be visiting the white house. Remember Tomlin is African American too so that must be ill for him. Couple other things I heard about post game were that the Steelers all got championship robes, Ric Flair style, which is awesome to me. And I also heard that Tomlin didn't even touch the trophy because he said he sees 5 of them when he comes to work everyday and its not a big deal. What a beast. Oh yea one more thing, Snoop showed up at the celebration too and fired off a freestyle that everyone loved. That guy is universally loved, very sweet.



Above: Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding) was also on the loose in Tampa. I stole the pic from another blog but so what.

-Someone blogs about the ESPN SB party, pretty cool. Im doing the same thing some day and I dont care if you believe me or not.

- J. Wolfe

Enough About Hines

Enough about Hines Ward. Listen…he’s playing, OK?

And if he doesn’t, to be honest, it doesn’t really matter. I know he had solid numbers this year (80+ grabs and over 1,000 yds) but he’s really not the focal point he once was.

In fact, you could argue that Santonio Holmes is more important to the offense, especially considering his production as both a wideout and a punt returner in the postseason. He’s the deep threat and the only Pittsburgh receiver who should command double coverage.

Hines is a warrior and a great possession receiver. But he’s lost a step. Or two. And his injury won’t help that. Pitt is still going to do what it always does: pound the ball with the run, hit a little play action to Heath Miller and toss a few bombs down the field to Holmes. They literally do the same thing on offense every game.

And if it’s tied or the Steelers are trailing late in the fourth, the ball is going to Nate Washington. Seriously, the amount of times Pitt has been on TV here in the Northeast, everytime they needed a late 3rd-and-15 or 4th-and-8, there was Washington making a circus catch for 17 or 10 yards and the first. He could be quiet all game but he always – ALWAYS – was making plays in the clutch. It was eerie actually, because you started to expect the ball to go to him in those situations.

This is no knock on Hines. He’s a great player and all, but I just think I little too much has been made of a player who will have less impact on the game than everyone thinks. The real benefit of having him out there is it keeps Limas “Timeout killer” Sweed off the field.

Prediction for today: Pittsburgh 24 – Arizona 17.
Get your Pitt bets in at -6.5, or if your guy is stuck at 7, try to work a teaser.

Banned Super Bowl Commercial

Here's the first (and only I think) commercial banned from this year's Super Bowl, broadcasted by NBC. It's actually a PETA commercial of all things. I hate PETA, but maybe not anymore:

A Tribute to....The Super Bowl

And no...I'm not talking about THIS Super Bowl in general, this is a tribute to the whole event that IS the Super Bowl. It is one of the great man days of the year (right up there with national blow job day...a holiday I'm still trying to create).

For dudes this means sitting around together watching the big game, getting drunk, eating awful food, talking about chicks, and farting. In other words, its heaven. The only way it could be improved is if lingerie models were there to serve us all the buff chicken and doritos that we wanted.

So enjoy the game this weekend, and even though the lingerie bowl (due to the nudist colony which was holding it) was cancelled, make sure you put on some halftime show which showcases a bunch of dimes, because I don't know about you, but Bruce Springstein is NOT an adequate replacement for half naked hot chicks.

- The STILL Internet-less JPerk

Best In The Business; Larry Fitzgerald

I think its official now. Larry Fitzgerald is the best in the world at his profession

Playoff version of Fitz is a monster. His playoff performances didn't just tell us hes a big game player, they screamed it.  His 419 yards are the most ever in a single postseason already, and he has a Superbowl to play. The way he has done it is just as impressive as the raw numbers. You can't cover him on a fade at the goal line, he is ripping down any ball up for grabs, downfield home runs, and even running with bad intentions with the ball in his hands. 

What really makes him great? Greatness for a receiver requires more than just being big and fast, and Fitz can pretty much do it all. But the secret to Fitz, and what he really has more of than anyone else is body control. His insane body control allows him to catch balls in any position whether its jumping, falling, twisting, diving, etc. Its also what allows Fitz to adjust to poorly thrown balls, get it at its highest point, keep his balance, get feet down in bounds, get position on the db, and more. Its the body control that makes Larry a pass catching genius.

The thing that Im not used to is the physicality after the catch I've been seeing from Fitzgerald. Not that Fitz has ever been soft, but it took Richie pointing it out for me to know why. With Boldin hurt and less effective, Fitz has been going over the middle more. Usually Boldin is running amok underneath, but it was cool to see Fitz lowering the dreads to deliver a pop, then churning the legs, and bucking like a bronco while hes trying to get to that invisible yellow line. 

The bloggers were with some friends watching the Ravens/Steelers game afterward, and early on someone goes up for a ball in traffic but didn't come down with it. Williams says. "It almost sucks watching Fitz the game before this because I expect these guys to come down with balls like that. I forget that they aren't mega machines like Fitz". And it was really true. The rest of these guys are only human. For the rest of the game we dropped about 19 more "Fitz woulda had it" references.

Kurt Warner and his high flying Christian Army just beat a good defense in Carolina and a very good defense in Philadelphia, but can they now beat a great defense in Pittsburgh? Fitz made Ken Lucas and Asante Samuel look like Earthwind Moreland and Duane Starks, so if AZ can protect Warner (Pitt only had 3 more sacks than Philly this yr) then Fitz might do more of the same. Especially if Polamalu is roaming underneath attempting to shut down a rested Boldin and his Centaurian lower body. We'll see.

Eary line: Pittsburg -7 with an o/u of 47

-J. Wolfe

Paying Homage: Kurt Warner

Im not going to rip off a thousand word column like I've been guilty of lately. Actually in general I am going to try to save the long posts for articles, not blogs. 

I do want to give homage to my boy Kurt Warner today.  In fantasy football I drafted Leinart very late and then picked up Warner off waivers and planned on playing whoever won the starting job but I was rooting for Warner. I came up with the strategy because I looked at how Warner had a better 2nd half of 2007 than Tom Brady. Plus that AZ system was going to get 4000 through the air with 30 td's.

So what happened? Warner was in the MVP debate this year after throwing for 4583 yards with 30TD's and the highest qb rating since he posted with the 2001 Rams and third in the NFL this season (ahead of Brees, Peyton). He carried my fantasy team to a 2nd place finish. And if it didn't snow in Foxboro in week 15, it might have been a first place finish. But this wasn't meant to be about fantasy, it was meant to be about how under appreciated Warner has been throughout his career.

I knew the majority of these stats anyway but I was reminded of them when I was reading an article on espn today. Warner has always posted good QB ratings but people have still thought of him as a stopgap in NY and AZ. A lot of people forget he even played for the Giants. Well how about the fact that the passer rating Warner posted in his one year in NY is higher than any rating Eli has posted since. 

So Warner had the third highest career QB rating in the NFL this year right? Well he also has the third highest career QB rating in the history of the game. 28,591 yards? 65.4 career completion percentage (2nd all time)? A superbowl ring, a superbowl MVP, 2 time NFL MVP, 4 pro bowls?

I think Warner is a hall of famer, no joke. He wins one or two more games this postseason and Canton is an absolute lock. Plus it would take a few more paragraphs to explain how charitable of a man he is. Heres to you Kurt, good luck Sunday my angel in shoulder pads...

-Wolfie