Admittedly, he was slated to be a back-up, but Asher Allen was by no means on the bubble for secondary-hungry Vikings. He had two concussions since becoming a pro.

Uh-oh. He says it's 90 percent different, and is like the Rosetta Stone.

"Reading is a skill from which all others follow,'' Birk said. "Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, baby sitters ... even Steeler fans ... anyone who has instilled the love of reading in a child, this is for you.''

[Insert Ratbird fan literacy joke here]

This probably does not come as a surprise to our older bloggers, our resident historians or anyone who's read Maryrose's excellent book, but Peter King plays a bit of the "what if" game by recalling that Joe Paterno could have coached the Steelers, instead of Chuck Noll. What if, indeed?

The link to Don Banks' story on SI.com is just a pretext to launch a challenge to those glass-half empty BTSCers with a gift for writing and the imagination to boot. Turn this waking nightmare of mine, and turn it into a plausible precautionary tale for the FO:

"It's 2014: the Pittsburgh Steelers are recovering from a 62-7 drubbing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The once-proud franchise is reeling from the pre-season loss of 3-time Super Bowl winner QB Ben Roethlisberger to a devastating leg injury, for the entire season. After years of trotting ol' no. 7 out there behind a makeshift OL anchored by All-Pro Maurkice Pouncey, and little else, the team appears rudderless at 0-7. Three years of flirting with disaster on the salary cap front, with disappointing vets such as Ike Taylor and Lawrence Timmons, have left the team barren, especially since stalwarts Troy Polamalu, James Harrison and Hines Ward all retired after the 7th championship season of 2012. Remaining vets, like Heath Miller, Mike Wallace and Lamarr Woodley, appear to be sleepwalking, and coach Mike Tomlin, clueless..."

Or not, and convince me I'm dead wrong, and that we ain't the damn Colts, and will never be!

And BTSC was there! (sort of; I was there). 2001 mini-camp invitee Anthony Calvillo (Utah State) never panned out, but became on Monday the most prolific passer in pro football history, passing Damon Allen (Marcus' brother) with 72,382+ yards. Among the four luminaries now behind him, only Brett Favre did not even deign to Skype a message. Dan Marino, Warren Moon and Allen all did, and so did Chris Berman (part of it in French, to the delight of the 23K + present in Montreal).

For those of you yearning to practice your high school French, here's a column I published on the Steelers' first game on the "French ESPN" website Monday.

Provided we can re-sign Ike, there's no reason to. Kerry Byrne certainly does not think so, based on Defensive Passer Rating, where the Steelers finished no. 2 last year.

I understand that Montreal Alouettes QB Anthony Calvillo (Utah State) had a tryout with the Steelers in 2001 or 2002. I do not know why it did not pan out, but if longtime insiders in BTSC would enlighten me, I would be very grateful.

In chatting with a Steeler blogger a few years back (I forget who), I was told that Calvillo was then a better fit for a West Coast offense, rather than our Kordell Stewart/Tommy Maddox/Jerome Bettis engine; also, it was quite apparent to my correspondent that, back then, he did not have the poise before the rush, the arm strength on out patterns and the general precision required of an NFL QB.

Speaking to Calvillo himself on a fan train in 2009, he remembers having had a fair try-out with Cowher and the brass, but beyond the fact that the Steelers *appeared* well set at QB already at the time, he did not speculate as to why he did not make it. Of course, three Grey Cups later, I'm ecstatic that it did not pan out.

Incidentally, the current all-time TD passes leader, Damon Allen, is the brother of Marcus Allen.

Nice little featurette on no. 64, aka The Big, aka Bronco.

I found this column by Kerry Byrne interesting, as usual. What I did find fascinating is that, out of his top 25 PRD teams ever, only the 1975 Steelers made it, out of all six Lombardi championships in team history. The topic of the column being that PRD is a somewhat accurate prediction (56% since 1940) tool for championships, the author still does not address this apparent discrepancy.
Another interesting tidbit: the 1975 Bengals appear at no. 9 on the list, but, having lost to no. 6 Steelers twice that year, they did what we can always expect from any Bungles team in history...

While on "Inside the Actors' Studio", Ed O'Neill revealed how he was cut on July 21, 1969, after failing to make the team as an undrafted FA DE out of Youngstown State.

Poor Ed had "some" competition. The team has just drafted L.C. Greenwood and a certain Joe Greene.

If the date seems familiar, it should: Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon that day.

For those younger fans, Ed is the luckiest old fart on TV these days, he's Sofia Vergara's husband "Yay" on Modern Family.

2007 Steeler 7th round pick WR Dallas Baker is in camp, battling regulars for a spot in arguably the Canadian Football League's deepest WR corps. Throwing to him there is CFL living legend Anthony Calvillo, who tried out for Bill Cowher in 2001 or 2002.

I hope to see Dallas in the Als' only pre-season game in Montreal June 16. Will report to BTSC if anything worth noting happens to him.

This is dated. Just saw it, but I know many of you don't get to the fanshots section of the site so I imagine a number of you didn't see this. Outstanding read. Drew Brees for President. -Michael B.-

***********

I know, I know, I loathe even mentioning the lockout these days as much as the next person. But it's hard to argue with Brees' analysis that there is a pattern of premeditated lockout actions dating back to 2008 on the part of the owners. And, as a former antitrust lawyer, I can tell you that it's exactly the kind of evidence of monopolization that a sympathetic judge would be looking for.

Excerpt from Peter King's MMQB, itself quoting a Boston Globe piece (

"1. I think Greg Bedard made a very strong point in his Boston Globe piece Sunday about the efficacy of the commissioner helping a coach play-act to build a good relationship with a player. That's what Jets coach Rex Ryan claims Goodell helped him do with Santonio Holmes before the season last year.

In his new book, Ryan wrote about getting Roger Goodell to come to the Jets' facility in New Jersey. Ryan said he told Goodell he wanted him to "rip my a-- in front of Santonio ... Then I asked if he would turn and give both barrels to Holmes ... He chewed us out, and I think it actually brought Holmes and me closer.'' As Bedard asks, what business is it of Goodell's to help a coach get closer to a player? Goodell told Bedard he was simply trying to help Holmes stay on the straight and narrow, and maybe that's his view of what happened. But it's certainly not how Ryan portrayed it.

Two other points: By Ryan writing about this the way he did, he's clearly not going to make the commissioner happy, because the way he writes about the nudge-nudge/wink-wink incident is going to draw the ire of teams around the league who think Goodell favors the New York franchises anyway. And when Holmes reads about this -- if he does -- how will he feel about his coach wrangling the commissioner into the building to play-act a scene to make Holmes feel closer to his coach?

2. I think it's one thing for Ryan to have done this, but to write about it totally compromises the effect of it with his player, and it certainly won't endear Ryan to him. Imagine Goodell doing a favor for a coach like that, and then Ryan crowing about what a great idea it was in his book."

Boston Globe piece can be found at: http://www.boston.com/sports/football/articles/2011/05/29/goodells_play_with_jets_looks_to_be_out_of_bounds/?page=full

Wonder if Ryan will still be able to boast that every player in the NFL wants to play for the Jets, as he does in his book, same time next year?

Wonder how Tone, who's a proud man, will take this?

A short item on Sean Kugler's likely happy dilemma (if Colon is resigned) when the madness is over and camps can start.

Those of you not living in Pittsburgh (like me) may not have seen this KDKA report.

There's a lot to think about here: Colbert's post-draft statements that he drafted 2 CBs assuming Ike would be gone (which is kind of twisted into a negative for Ike - But it's not really put to him in the piece); his special relationship with Pops Rooney (his words) but also his desire to be paid market value. Now, what market value means this year, with Asomugha, Joseph, Cromartie, etc out there may be a positive for us; if he was top dog out there in FA, we'd be screwed. But who can forecast the economics of the game right now, for the 3rd or 4th rated FA CB?

One thing is for certain: I want the FO to start scouting Ivan Taylor, his 4-year old son, for the 2028 draft (Seton Hall Steelers?). Look at him go through the hoops! What footwork!

A DWB - Driving With Blonde - incident :-)

I've been on record a few times as valuing quality over quantity in this year's draft, basically because the Steelers are relatively set and cannot afford to have to waive propects like they've been doing too many times.

However, recent readings about the uncertainty over all our FAs coming back (combined with yesterday's court ruling) and this article at SI.com are well on their way to making me swing my opinion. Looks like trading down if BPA and need don't coincide might be wise, given the impossibility to sign college FAs immediatly after the draft.

This article argues that there might be a flurry of trades well into the 6th and 7th rounds, as teams cannot afford to hope to lock up that UFA who wasn't drafted, fast after the draft. So organizations which do their homework (like ours) won't get the early mover advantage in 2011.

Guffaw of the day: Colbert ignores BPA to go for need, and forgets about CBs...Some guy even has us trading up for Green or Jones, in a year where players can't even be traded!

A good Q&A on the case, that will appeal to both experts and lay people.

I don't normally pay much attention to the anonymous "insider" reports, especially given the intro of this paragraph stating that the "insider" preferred the Packer defense as a whole over the Steelers, but this last one worried me. Any grounds to this remark? Is that a tendancy, or did Ziggy just have a bad game?

"Ziggy Hood is so stiff that he cannot rush the passer, and he does not play the run very well outside a very short area."

From Peter King's MMQB:

"Regarding Roethlisberger, Goodell said when he was investigating what to do with the quarterback, he talked to "I bet two dozen [Steeler] players ... Not one, not a single player, went to his defense. It wasn't personal in a sense, but all kinds of stories like, 'He won't sign my jersey.' ''

After having read his letter to fans earlier in BTSC, I'm wondering what this guy's angle is in "revealing" this the week before the Super Bowl. And by "guy", I mean either Goodell or King.

A hilarious, light piece on the perennial misery of Bungle fans.

Don Banks puts forth a short and blunt explanation for this likelihood: the injuries to both our lines will do us in, with the lineup of games still coming at us, especially if Hines misses any time. I don't necessarily agree with him, just posting it.