I don't have time to wait around for the Steelers to officially announce their final cuts. It's Labor Day weekend and I
got shit to do, including work on my official Steelahs.com 2009 predictions and preseason power rankings.
The Steelers
decided yesterday who would be on their 53-man roster, but won't reveal all the cuts until sometime today. It's not because
Mike Tomlin has developed a Belichickian ego and is being all secretive. It's because the Steelers want to be on even footing
with all the other teams in terms of assessing and acquiring players cut by other teams.
Because the Steelers start
their season on Thursday, they had to let everyone know who was on the team and who wasn't. They and the Titans have less
time than everyone else to prepare for the season opener. As soon as the clock hit 0:00 Thursday night in Charlotte, the Steelers
were in regular-season mode.
So based on what I know, here's my take on the Steelers' cuts:
I really
don't understand why they cut fullback Isaac Redman and kept Frank "The Tank" Summers. No one gushed over Summers
more than me when he was drafted in the fifth round in April. But Redman, an undrafted free agent, led the Steelers with three
touchdowns and 145 yards rushing in the preseason, and he kicked ass in goal-line drills during practice. Does Tomlin not
remember all the times the Steelers were stuffed at the goal line when the games counted last season? Summers has been injury-prone
during camp. If he's hurt during the season, and the Steelers bring back Najeh Davenport, I'm going to be one pissed off dude.
That's my only real beef with the Steelers' cuts so far. It's a little tough to see Anthony Madison go. He led the
team in special teams tackles last season. But this isn't an easy team to make, and the Steelers have a lot of good and/or
promising cornerbacks. And good corners are like good pitchers. They're hard to find, so you can never have too many of them.
Seventh-rounder A.Q. Shipley is another draft pick I went cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs over in the spring. But Doug Legursky
beat him out for the backup center's job. He still might make the practice squad. One of the scouting reports on Shipley called
him "the kind of guy you hate to doubt." Perhaps we haven't heard the last of this Penn State guy. As the late Jim
Valvano would say: Never give up, A.Q., never, ever give up.
My least favorite pick of the Steelers' 2009 draft,
tight end/fullback David Johnson, looks like he'll make the team because Sean McHugh is injured.
While I was rooting
for Bruce Davis to catch on, it can't hurt the Steelers that he's handing in his playbook. He kind of reminded me of the pretty
boy who was Tony's driver in the sixth season of "The Sopranos." After he recovered from being shot by Junior, Tony
kicked the guy's ass to show that he was his old self. And Davis got his ass kicked out the door.
Davis was taken
in the third round of the 2008 draft. After the euphoric first day in which they took Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed,
I saw Davis' name and wondered who the hell he was. He was nobody.
Season starts in six days. I need to step on
it with those predictions. Here's a sneak preview. I think the Steelers will be good.
Steelers owner Dan Rooney, now the U.S. ambassador to Ireland,
was among the many who had kind words regarding Ted Kennedy, who died last week at age 77.
Edward M. Kennedy, who had served as a Massachusetts Senator since Buddy Parker coached the Steelers, was buried
yesterday. By now you've probably heard countless times that the Kennedy
family is the closest thing America has had to a political dynasty.
Well, right now, the Steelers are the closest thing the NFL has to a dynasty. They are the reigning Super Bowl champions
and have won two of the last four Lombardi Trophies. But they're not
a dynasty. Not yet, anyway.
Look it up
Webster (no, not Mike Webster) defines "dynasty" as "1. a succession of rulers of the same line of
descent. 2. a powerful group or family that maintains its position
for a considerable time."
So that means the Rooneys
fit the definition of a dynasty. But it doesn't really help us figure out what the Steelers need to do if they're to be considered
a dynasty.
I did a Google search on the word "dynasty"
and the first thing that came up was the Wikipedia page for the TV series. The show aired on ABC from Jan. 12, 1981-May 11, 1989. It was a cultural icon of the 1980s, a decade in which the Steelers wallowed in
mediocrity.
In the fall of 1989, when "Dynasty"
was finally off the air, the Steelers made the playoffs for the first time in five years. It was a turning point for the franchise.
Bill Cowher came on board three years later, and you know the rest.
So it's quite clear that the Steelers were cursed in the 1980s
by the existence of the "Dynasty" TV series. Therefore, it stands to reason that the show offers no insight into what makes an NFL dynasty.
Since there are few issues affecting our world more than the definition of an NFL dynasty, I've given the matter
a lot of thought. I explored the issue before Super Bowl XLIII. Since
then, I've simplified my dynasty criteria.
To be recognized
as a dynasty, an NFL team needs to have won three of the previous four Super Bowls or four of the previous six. The means
the Steelers need to win at least two of the next three Super Bowls to become a dynasty.
Let's be wildly optimistic and say the Steelers win the next two Super Bowls (XLIV and XLV), becoming the first team
to win three straight Super Bowls. The dynasty would be in effect.
Then let's say they don't win Super Bowl XLVI. Their dynasty would still be in power by virtue of owning three of the previous four titles. But to maintain the dynasty, the Steelers would have
to win Super Bowl XLVII. If they didn't, the dynasty throne would be vacated
because the three-titles-in-four-years requirement would no longer be satisfied. However, they would have a chance to restore
the dynasty by winning Super Bowl XLVIII, giving them four titles in six years.
This four-titles-in-six-years requisite for a dynasty is much more stringent than the four-titles-in-a-decade option
I provided in my pre-Super Bowl post. A team can win four titles in a decade without winning any back-to-back, and I think
repeating as champions is a crucial skill for any team with dynastic aspirations. So I'm closing the loophole. No way around
it, unless you've at least won three of the previous four Super Bowls, or four of the previous six, you're not a dynasty.
But you can still be Team of the Decade.
A team of the people
By repeating as Super Bowl champs, the Steelers can make a case as
Team of the Decade, or at the very least muddle the Patriots' claim to that honor. In that scenario, both teams would have won three Super Bowls since 2000.
Unfortunately, the Patriots currently occupy the Team of the Decade perch. If anyone but the Steelers wins Super
Bowl XLIV, the Patriots would be the undisputed Team of the Decade.
So the Steelers have a moral obligation to save mankind from that indignity by successfully defending their title.
There has been an unquestioned Team of
the Decade for each full decade of the Super Bowl Era: The Steelers of the '70s (titles in '74, '75, '78 and '79), the 49ers of the '80s ('81, '84, '88 and '89), and the Cowboys of the '90s
('92, '93 and '95). The Steelers and Cowboys were dynasties, too. The 49ers
never were, however, because they didn't bunch their championships closely enough.
After winning championships in 2001, 2003 and 2004, the Patriots had a chance to seize Team of the Decade status
and leave the rest of the NFL to fight over the crumbs. But they haven't
been able to close the deal, thanks to the Steelers.
Not
only have the Steelers threatened to spoil the Patriots' anointment as Team of the Decade with their two Super Bowl titles
since 2000, they also were the ones to unseat the Patriots' dynasty
and make the NFL a democracy again.
The Patriots had a dynasty going after winning Super Bowl XXXIX. It was a corrupt regime that rose to power through espionage. But the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, so
the Patriots no longer had three titles in four years.
Now, the Steelers have designs on their own dynasty. There's some work to do, to
be sure. But unlike the previous monarchy, it would be a benevolent rule.
