Dissension Among the Rooney Family? Ben Announcement on Monday

First some facts. Keep reading for a little bit of rumor mongering.

According to a multitude of sources including the Post-Gazette, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fredric D. Bright will announce at a press conference on Monday at 2 PM whether he has decided to charge Ben with sexual assault. The announcement comes very shortly after the case was given to the DA by the police department especially when some experts were saying a decision could be months away. The timing could mean one of two things: Either the case is so flimsy that there is no conceivable way charges could be brought against Ben making it easy for the DA to come to a conclusion so quickly or it was so obvious that there was enough evidence to bring charges that the DA didn't need more than a few days to make his decision.

The fact that a press conference has been called is leading a lot of people to assume that Ben will be charged with sexual assault. Normally, I would believe that to be true because, let's be honest, who calls a presser to announce nothing. But the high profile nature of this case gives me a moments pause. Having Ben Roethlisberger possibly commit sexual assault in a rural county in Georgia is the most high profile thing that will probably ever occur to this DA. He needs to milk the publicity for all its worth. If he is charging Ben, then he will have a long time to get his name out there and be in the papers. If he isn't charging Ben, this is his last chance to be in the public eye. He needs to make a convincing case to the voters as to why he isn't charging Ben and why that is the correct decision.

From the anonymous source department, according to a friend of the Rooney family, Art II and Dan do not see eye to eye on the Ben situation. According to the source, if Ben is charged with sexual assault and Art does not cut Ben, Dan will resign the Ambasadorship to Ireland and return to Pittsburgh to re-take control of the team from Art II and cut Ben himself. Dan is tired of the team's name and the family's name being besmirched and does not want to stand for this type of behavior from the players any longer. Adds a little more excitement to the announcement Monday. I would be interested to see if they wait till his trial is over to cut him if he does get charged.

Will Ben be charged or not? What do you think the announcement means and the timing?

Is the Steeler Way Dead?

Interesting read from Joe Starkey at the Trib. Starkey argues that the Steelers are no longer morally above any other NFL team because we tolerate player arrests and bad behavior just like everyone else. Couple that with the lack of a power running game over the past few seasons and it may seem like Steeler Football as we know it is long gone. What do you think? Do you think the Steelers had good reason to treat the Cedric Wilson and James Harrison situations differently? Should more disciplinary action have been taken against Santonio for his multiple run-ins with the law? Should we cut any player that gets arrested? What do you think the Steelers should do with Ben Roethlisberger?

Two Big Things-Part 2

For the caption contest on this one, leave your best theory on what you think happened inside the bar bathroom in Georgia.

The second big news of the past couple days involves the leader of this team, Ben Roethlisberger. With another sexual misconduct case still pending, another woman, this time a 20 year old college student (she has dropped out of college since the incident), has accused Ben of sexual assault. Unlike in the first instance, the woman went immediately to the police and to the hospital. Ben has once again, through his attorney (the same one who represented Ray Lewis when he was charged with murder), denied the allegations and professed his innocence. Ben is cooperating fully with the police's ongoing investigation. The police and DA should reach a determination by Friday or early next week whether they will charge Ben with a crime.

In the post I penned when the civil suit was filed against him back in July, I wrote about Ben's irresponsibility towards partying and women writing that I thought that he was a dbag personality wise because he thinks he is God's gift to women. He believes that it is a privilege to sleep with him. Any girl that thinks otherwise is crazy. We continue to get evidence that what I wrote was and still is true. Whether he is ultimately charged with a crime, where there is smoke, there is fire. There is one thing I know he is guilty of for sure and that is poor judgment.

Take a look at the above picture. It was taken around his rookie season. I can understand going out and partying when you are 23 years old, the QB of the Steelers and a recent millionaire. I cannot understand continuing this behavior once you are the established leader of a two time Superbowl Champion, 28 years old and you are still in the midst of a prior sexual misconduct suit. Why put yourself in the situation? You have to know you are a target for this kind of stuff. Why risk it with a $100 million contract on the line.

The fact that he is still exhibiting the same behavior as five years and as five months ago leads me to question his judgment greatly. Is this really who we want as the face of our franchise? Should we turn into Bengals fans and look the other way while our players behave like animals for the sake of winning some football games? Do you think that Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees would ever place themselves in the circumstances that Ben continually places himself in? I don't. You know where Peyton is right now? Watching film, trying to win games next year or making another commercial.

His case is not going to be a he said, she said case like the first one. When the girl went to the hospital, they did a bunch of medical tests on her called a rape kit. The results of which are fairly reliable in determining whether a sexual assault occurred. There also are alot of witnesses. How reliable they are remains to be seen. Anyway you look at it, we should know soon whether charges will be brought against Ben. Anyway you look at it, the situation is not ideal. Beyond being repulsive behavior from our QB, it has major implications going forward for our team and for Ben.

I would be shocked if Ben isn't called in for a sitdown with Roger Goodell at some point in the near future. I am not sure if it will be made public or not, but it will happen. Goodell can suspend Ben without criminal charges being filed and without a conviction if they are filed. Goodell has usually waited for cases to make their way through the legal system before he takes any action. The team has I'm sure starting making contingency plans if Ben can't play this season. The Rooneys are a conservative bunch. They are definitely asking themselves whether they want Ben as the face of their franchise. He should have learned from his past run-in and didn't. What does that say about him? Is football more important to him or are the spoils of being a football player what matters most? It is pretty obvious to me.

For the team's future, I think we would be ok with Batch for next year. Just OK. Not a Superbowl contender. Maybe Dennis Dixon beats out Batch but Dixon is still a work in progress. Or we could sign a free agent QB. I don't even know anyone worthwhile to bring in. Derek Anderson just got released but who the hell wants him? Not even the Browns. We could draft someone this year as an eventual replacement. I have heard Tim Tebow thrown around. He is a project but he is also a proven winner. Colt McCoy's name has surfaced as a possibility in the second round. The problem is, this team is ready to win now. Those QB's are not. We need Ben to pull it all together. But first he needs to pull his life together and figure out where his priorities lie. I hope he does it sooner rather than later. I really hope that he does not have to do it from a jail cell. If he did what he is accused of, he deserves jail and he will never wear the black and gold again. Even if he is found innocent, I still think he is a dbag and I will remain skeptical of him until he exhibits some sound judgment. I may be waiting awhile.

Leave your thoughts in the comments. What are your theories?

Two Big Things-Part 1

Leave your thoughts in the comments on these moves and how it effects us going into the draft for the comment contest.

Two big things have been going on in Steeler's land the past few days. First, the Steelers have actually made some waves in free agency. Normally, they only sign their own free agents and maybe bring in one outsider. This year, they have made more signings in one day than in the past 5 off-seasons combined. They started off as they usually do, by signing one of their own in Ryan Clark. Many reports had Clark effectively gone. He had scheduled a visit to the Dolphins. Meanwhile, the Steelers seemed to be bringing in his replacement by interviewing Will Allen of the Bucs. Much to everyone's surprise, a new 4 year, $14 million contract was reported between the Steez and Clark yesterday afternoon. Even more surprising was that Will Allen was also signed. Bringing in Allen provides safety depth and also helps to improve the special teams. Allen was a special teams standout for Tampa as the special teams captain. Due to this move, you can probably kiss Tyrone Carter goodbye. Allen signed for 3 years, $4.4 million and is only 27 years old.

My Read: I love both of these moves. Ryan Clark is a perfect fit to play alongside Troy. Without Troy, he isn't so great, but Troy allows Clark to roam around the deep middle and crush anyone who dares enter his territory. As for Will Allen, some have compared his current situation to the one that allowed us to get Ryan Clark at next to nothing from the 'Skins. Plus, we could definitely use the special teams help.

Continuing on with the improving the special teams theme, the Steelers signed WR and special teams ace Arnaz Battle, formerly of the 49ers to a three year deal. The move seems fitting since we imported the 49ers' special teams coach to replace Bob Ligahesky, earlier this off-season. You would think the Steez would be done with moves but they weren't. An old face is coming back to the burgh in Antwaan Randle-El. He signed a three year deal and was the Redskins second leading receiver last season.

My Read: While in the 'burgh Randle-El was great on special teams as a returner and probably will challenge Stefan Logan for that position next season. Unless Logan can get himself involved in the offense (I would love to see him get in there and catch screens but since we are the worst screen team in the league, I am not holding my breath), he may not be back next season. But with the departure of Willie Parker, he could stay on as Kick Returner and backup RB. Then Randle-El can handle the punt returning duties and third WR slot. Randle-El's return could also mark the return of the trick play since he was featured prominently in most of them in his first stint as a Steeler. No one can forget his picture perfect pass to Hines in the Superbowl. It was better than any pass Ben threw in that game. I am very happy to have him back. Our four receivers are better than almost any other in the league right now. Hines, Santonio, Mike Wallace and Randle El. I'd love to see Randle-El in the slot. Lastly, signing Randle-El and Battle could signal the end of Limas Sweed's time with the team.

In their final move of a very busy day, the Steelers added some O-line depth by bringing in Jonathan Scott of the Bills, reuninitng another player with a former coach. Our new O-line coach, Sean Kugler, was the Bills O-line coach last season. Scott is a versatile lineman, starting two games at right tackle and six at left tackle last season for the Bills.

My Read: Nice to see depth being brought in that is experienced. I think it speaks highly of Scott that his former coach wanted to keep working with him. I think Tony Hills is probably gone after the move and this should be a wake up call to Urbik to get his stuff together.

Leave your thoughts in the comments for a chance to win some tickets to the Carnegie Museum.

Steezbros Contests

Steezbros has recently entered into a marketing partnership that will be provide us with prizes to give away to readers we select. The way we are going to choose the winners will be via comment contests. Comments help our blog to become more popular and enable it to get searched more often when people are looking for Steeler blogs. You can sort of look at as a partnership between us and our readers as well. We give you prizes for supporting our blog and helping it grow. It is also a way to show our appreciation for everyone out there that devotes time to read our blog.

Our first prize to be given away is:

Two Carnegie Museum Passes (Carnegie Museum is in Pittsburgh for those wondering)

The sponsor of the prize is PittsburghBudgetCars.com. They are known for their used cars in Pittsburgh.

What you have to do to win is, post comments on any of the posts we put up by the end of the week. After Friday, we will choose what comment we like the best and award the passes to that commenter. You may enter as many times as you like. There are going to be many more opportunities to win prizes throughout the rest of the off-season and into the season so keep reading and keep sending in comments. Good luck!

Casey Hampton Gets His Wish; Reed Franchised

This is probably how I would react if I were given $11 million guaranteed. Especially the shirt off part.

After publicly stating his desire not to be franchise tagged, Casey Hampton got his wish today by signing a 3 year, $21 million deal, with $11 million of that being guaranteed. Not sure what I think about this just yet. Not having a salary cap next season probably helps to make better sense of this deal. I for one was hoping he got tagged. I think a pissed off Big Snack would come to camp more motivated next season since he would be playing for his next deal. Now, he has nothing to worry about and may come to camp as a hot air balloon. On the other hand, we have no viable replacement for him at the moment so I am glad he is back on the team. I would be surprised if he lasts the duration of the deal though unless he really gets in shape the next few years. Thoughts? I will comment back to anything worthwhile.

Also, I realize we haven't posted in a while but it is the off-season for us as well. Not that much relevant has happened since we failed to make the playoffs. More posts will be coming with the start of free agency and the draft approaching. Some things that should have been mentioned but weren't due to general malaise and depression from not making the post-season:

1) Dick LeBeau making the Hall of Fame-apologies to St. Dick. This is a much deserved honor that was too long in coming. He is still in the top ten all time for interceptions and he is a defensive innovator. Congrats.

2) Omar Khan not named GM of the Seahawks. Our front office flies under the radar most of the time because we rarely make a splash in free agency, trade anyone or doing anything flashy. This is a good thing in my opinion because our personnel rarely gets pillaged. Our chief negotiator and cap guru, Omar Khan, was up for the Seahawks GM gig but was not selected. Good news for us. In that same vain...

3) We lost Doug Whaley, the pro scouting coordinator to the Buffalo Bills Assistant GM position. Brandon Hunt was hired as his replacement. Hunt was with the Steelers from 2005-2007 as a scout, then was with the Texans until we hired him back after Whaley departed. I think this is something to be concerned about a little. Our scouting department is generally superb so losing one of our top guys could result in a drop off.

4) New coaches hired:

a) Scottie Montgomery, WR Coach-played for Denver and Carolina, held same position with football powerhouse Duke from 2006-2009
b) Al Everest, Special Teams Coordinator, formerly held the same position with SF
c) Jerry Olsavsky-Defensive Quality Control Coach, played LB for the Steez from 1989-1997
d) Sean Kugler-Offensive Line Coach, Bills O-line coach from 2008-2009. The Bills gave up 46 sacks last season, leaving them only 4 behind our total of 50. With Ben at the helm, I bet we can reach 50 again next year.
e) Randy Fichtner-QB Coach, replaces Ken Anderson who retired. Fichtner was our WR coach


BREAKING NEWS


While I was typing this post, Jeff Reed was designated our Franchise Player, earning him a $2.8 million dollar pay day next season. No cap. No worries. Push this off tell 2011, if there is a season. I am a Reed fan. He is very reliable and he provides endless hours of entertainment with his internet pics and Sheetz rage incidents. The downside is he stinks at kicking off. Josh claims he was ranked as 40th in the league last season. Please sign a kickoff specialist and give him a chance in camp. Then we can finally cut Tony Hills and have someone he actually contributes to the team taking up a roster spot.

Firings Continue

According to the Post-Gazette, Special Teams Coordinator, Bob Ligashesky, has been fired. It really should not come as a surprise since our coverage and return units were both ranked near the bottom of the league. Although Logan did set the record for return yards for the Steelers he almost never had decent running lanes. As mentioned in the article, Bobby April is available who would be an awesome get for the Steez.