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Monday, March 23, 2009

Ravens ducking the Steelers?

Geez, you take a week off after a month of minimal action and all hell breaks loose.

There was plenty happening in Steelers' land in the past week, so let's catch up.

© According to the Baltimore Sun last week, the Ravens have asked the league not to play in Pittsburgh during prime time.

The Steelers should return the favor but they won’t.

When the schedule is released, the Steelers will be playing a full slate of prime time games. If the league had any guts, it would give the Ravens none – or at least none at home.

You don’t want to play your biggest rival in prime time, you pay the price.

© As expected, Dan Rooney was nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

There had been many rumors about this during the season, so it really didn't come as a surprise.

And Rooney's a great choice.

When the Steelers went to Ireland in 1997 to play the Bears, Rooney scheduled a trip for us all to Belfast, taking us to a church there where he had been working with a local priest to help foster negotiations between the Catholics and Protestants.

It's something that's very near and dear to his heart and he makes several trips there per year.

© The Steelers made a number of minor signings last week, all bringing back there own players. The most notable player was Trai Essex, their swing man on the offensive line.

I know, real exciting.

© Louisville center Eric Wood is scheduled to visit the Steelers in the next couple of weeks and it a definite possibility to be the team's first-round draft pick.

In fact, over the past decade or so, you could get a good hint at who the Steelers will draft by looking at the list of who they bring in for a visit.

This year, that list so far includes:

Pitt LB Scott McKillop and center/guard C.J. Davis, Penn State center A.Q. Shipley and now Wood.

The first three, since they are local players, don't count against the team's official visits.

12 comments:

Patrick said...

After going 0-3 Baltimore should have requested to not play us at all.

As much as I like the way those guys play (since its very Steelers like), I could live without all the other stuff from them. Too bad for them they lost half of their defense this offseason.

Anonymous said...

So what do you think about Carr and Galloway dissing the Steelers for "greener pastures"? The reigning world champs aren't a desirable destination all of a sudden?

Anonymous said...

Do you think there will be any other free agent signings coming? Curry perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Dale, do you have a list of which draft prospects have visited the steelers the past few years (or know where to access one)?

Anonymous said...

I hate the Ravens, but I don't blame them. I'm sure they'd rather play home in primetime. They just have to go win a superbowl and start asking.
I know we don't gree agents, but another wr would be nice. Hines may not hold up, Sweed may not hold on.
Hope we get another 3rd today.

Anonymous said...

2 things, for starters, when is the last time the Steelers have played a Prime Time game in Baltimore ????. (2003). We always have to play in Prime Time in Pitt. Lets equal it out a bit.
Secondly, we omly lost the "Weak" half of the Defense. Plus it was only 4 players. Leonard was a backup, McAllister only played in 5 games and sucked, who cares about "Mr. 10 yds off the Ball Rolle", and we already have 3 Line Backers ready to fill Scotts shoes. Now the "D" is only going to be Stronger. The only True Loss was REX RYAN.

Anonymous said...

Ravens are going to suck next year

Joe Fluke-o is about to hit the dreaded sophmore slump haha

Anonymous said...

Dale, did the Steelers re-sign Keyaron Fox? I know he wasn't a starter, but he was a demon on STs and showed more than enough ability to play ILB if needed.

Second, I don't think it's all that great for the Steelers to have half of their games in prime time. 1 or 2 are ok, but it's disruptive when a team is playing Monday night and Thursday night and Sunday night all the time. It's prime time appearance overload and I'm sure fans of other teams get pretty bored seeing the Steelers so much.

Dale Lolley said...

The Steelers have played half their games in prime time the past few years. They have very few 1 p.m. starts.

Fox has not re-signed yet, but it will get done.

As for Galloway and Carr, it's my understanding Galloway was not offered a contract by the Steelers, while Carr took more money to sign with Baltimore.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that the Ravens only requested to avoid the Steelers in prime time, isn't it? I guess they are mocking the players and fans of the Browns and Bengals that they don't intimidate the Ravens like our team/fan base does....

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Ravens got their wish.... We'll open against the Titans Sept. 10th.

Anonymous said...

As someone who is going to school 2,000 miles from Pittsburgh, it is such a blessing to have so many prime-time Steelers games, because I can't afford the all-NFL game package or whatever. I still don't understand why you can't buy the rights to just ONE team to watch all year. So frustrating.