Unbelievable Observation

NFL from the sidelines: Wednesday update

"Speaking to some different guys in the locker room, I got some
interesting answers to why they thought there hadn't been a holding
penalty called against a Steelers opponent in 23 quarters – a span of
nearly six games.

I'll have that story in Friday's Observer-Reporter."

That. Is. Ridiculous.

Six games? Six f'n games?!? Wow.

2009 AFC NORTH DIVISION CHAMPIONS!

Pittsburgh Steelers 13
Baltimore Ravens 9

The Steelers defeated the Baltimore Ravens 13-9 today to clinch their second consecutive AFC North Division Title.

Once again Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense came through when they absolutely had to. Scoring a TD with under 2 minutes left to go up 13-9. The Steelers scored 10 points in the 4th Quarter.

The Steelers defense once again held their opponents under 300 total offensive yards. With two more games to go the Steelers could set a record that may never be broken if they can hold out two more weeks.

And now just a few observations from me...

• On the first offensive play of the game for the Steelers, Ray Lewis touched an already downed Steelers player seconds after the play had ended. Does anyone else think he'll get credited for a tackle on that play?

• 2.) Willie Parker played much better. His blitz pick-up was pretty solid, he stonewalled Ray Lewis on a blitz when the Steelers were close to their goalline. He also had two decent runs called back by the officials and the offensive line.

• 3.) Every time Joe Flacco throws an incompletion he makes the weirdest face. It's part-sexual frustration, part-sadness, part-anger. Really strange.

• 4.) Quote of the Day: "Joe Flacco and Ben Roethlisberger both like to throw to the open man." - Phil Simms. He's on the number one crew ladies and gentlemen.

• 5.) I gotta give credit to the aforementioned Ray Lewis. He made no excuses and gave the Steelers credit for winning the game in his post-game interviews.

Player of the Game: Ben Roethlisberger. Once again he leads the team to victory when their backs were against the wall and they absolutely had to.

Play of the Game: Lawrence Timmons' strip-sack of Joe Flacco to take the Ravens out of field goal range late in the 4th.

Quote of the Game: "I've never loved a Gay until now!" -- My friend via text message after Willie Gay finalized the game with a pick in the end zone.

Your 2008 AFC Pro Bowl Squad

This comes from the internet, no idea if it's true or not. But it's apparently the results of the fan voting for the Pro Bowl.

QUARTERBACK (3): 1) Brett Favre; 2) Manning; 3) Jay Cutler; 4) Ben Roethlisberger; 5) Kerry Collins.

RUNNING BACK (3): 1) Johnson; 2) Ronnie Brown; 3) LaDainian Tomlinson; 4) Thomas Jones; 5) Marshawn Lynch.

WIDE RECEIVER (4): 1) Brandon Marshall; 2) Randy Moss; 3) Andre Johnson; 4) Reggie Wayne; 5) Hines Ward.

FULLBACK (1): 1) LeRon McClain; 2) Ahmard Hall; 3) Tony Richardson; 4) Carey Davis; 5) Heath Evans.

TIGHT END (2): 1) Tony Gonzalez; 2), Antonio Gates; 3) Dallas Clark; 4) Heath Miller; 5) Kellen Winslow.

CENTER (2): 1) Kevin Mawae; 2) Jeff Saturday; 3) Nick Mangold; 4) Justin Hartwig; 5) Nick Hardwick.

GUARD (3): 1) Alan Faneca; 2) Eugene Amano; 3) Jake Scott; 4) Chris Kemoeatu; 5) Logan Mankins.

TACKLE (3): 1) Jake Long; 2) D'Brickashaw Ferguson; 3) Matt Light; 4) Michael Roos; 5) Joe Thomas.

DEFENSIVE END (3): 1) Mario Williams; 2) Dwight Freeney; 3) Kyle Vanden Bosch; 4) Jevon Kearse; 5) Aaron Smith.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE (3): 1) Albert Haynesworth; 2) Casey Hampton; 3) Kris Jenkins; 4) Shaun Rogers; 5) Richard Seymour.

OUTSIDE LINEBACKER (3): 1) Joey Porter; 2) James Harrison; 3) Keith Bulluck; 4) LaMarr Woodley; 5) Terrell Suggs.

INSIDE LINEBACKER (2): 1) Ray Lewis; 2) James Farrior; 3) Larry Foote; 4) Tedy Bruschi; 5) Jerod Mayo.

CORNERBACK (3): 1) Champ Bailey; 2) Cortland Finnegan; 3) Nnamdi Asomugha; 4) Antonio Cromartie; 5) Ike Taylor.

STRONG SAFETY (3 combined): 1) Troy Polamalu; 2) Bob Sanders; 3) Chris Hope; 4) Yeremiah Bell; 5) Brandon Meriweather.

FREE SAFETY (3 combined): 1) Ed Reed; 2) Michael Griffin; 3) Ryan Clark; 4) Kerry Rhodes; 5) Antoine Bethea.

KICKER (1): 1) Dan Carpenter; 2) Rob Bironas; 3) Adam Vinatieri; 4) Josh Reed; 5) Sebastian Janikowski.

PUNTER (1): 1) Shane Lechler; 2) Craig Hentrich; 3) Mitch Berger; 4) Mike Scifres; 5) Brian Moorman.

KICK RETURNER (1): 1) Darren Sproles; 2) Leon Washington; 3) Joshua Cribbs; 4) Mewelde Moore; 5) Maurice Jones-Drew.

SPECIAL TEAMER (1): 1) Brendon Ayanbadejo; 2) Anthony Madison; 3) Patrick Cobbs; 4) Larry Izzo; 5) Kassim Osgood.

- Who the hell is Dan Carpenter?

- I don't like to root for injuries but maybe some folks will decide not to participate and some deserving Steelers players can get in. I'm talking guys like Woodley, Ike Taylor and Anthony Madison.

- Carey Davis is the #4 FB in fan voting? That's a joke.

- Faneca's selection should net the Steelers a 3rd round compensatory pick. Nice.

If the Pro Bowl selections were up to me, this would be my roster...

QB: Chad Pennington, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger
HB: Ronnie Brown, Thomas Jones, Steve Slaton
FB: Le'Ron McClain
WR: Randy Moss, Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Hines Ward
TE: Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates
C: Kevin Mawae, Nick Mangold
G: Alan Faneca, Jake Scott, Logan Mankins
T: D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Michael Roos, Jake Long

DE: Mario Williams, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Aaron Smith
DT: Casey Hampton, Albert Haynesworth, Kris Jenkins
OLB: James Harrison, Joey Porter, LaMarr Woodley
ILB: Ray Lewis, James Farrior
CB: Cortland Finnegan, Nnamdi Asomugha, Ike Taylor
Safety: Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, Ryan Clark

Kicker: Jeff Reed
Punter: Shane Lechler
Kick Returner: Josh Cribbs
Special Teams: Anthony Madison

Pirates Sign Non-Indian Player

The Pirates today announced that they've signed Infielder Javier Ramon Vazquez to a 2-year deal.

From MLB.com...

Vazquez, 32, reportedly will earn $4 million in the deal and is Pittsburgh's first Major League free agent pickup since the end of the season. He spent the past two seasons as a backup infielder for Texas and for now projects to the same role in Pittsburgh, though that could change if the team were to deal shortstop Jack Wilson or second baseman Freddy Sanchez, two players discussed at the Winter Meetings this week.

In eight big league seasons with five teams, Vazquez is a .257 hitter with 21 home runs and 160 RBIs. He has experience at all four infield positions but mostly has appeared in the field as a shortstop, playing there in 247 games, including 183 of his 446 career starts.

Very interesting. Too bad it likely won't matter one bit.

A Friendly Rivalry

So YardBarker.com Maven, and Baltimore Ravens blogger Dewey Hammond recently posted an interesting, and very funny post about Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Someone in the comments section wondered if we'd see a response from Steelers fans. We here at AMTW are more than happy to oblige.

We scoured the net (well Google) for the best pictures of Ravens fans we could find. And we're going to post them in no particular order. Through the course of the research for this assignment we found that there are mainly two types of Ravens fans....fans who are crying (probably because they realized they root for the Ravens) and fans who well...look like gay Raiders fans. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

So without further ado...

#1. Intimidating
Have you ever seen a group of more intimidating fans? The guy in the middle looks like a Kabuki Quantum Fighter or something. And don't forget...stuffed cartoon birds = manly.

#2. !!!

There is nothing I could say that could do this one justice. Seriously I wish this was bigger. What the hell is that? It looks like The American Dream Dusty Rhodes got dipped into a whole vat of Kool-Aid.

#3. Help Wanted

The sign originally said "Updating my look to the 1990s." But he couldn't figure out how to spell 1990. Nice mustache Lawrence.

#4. Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!

What is he supposed to be? A chef? A party girl during Mardi Gras? Oh I know...a complete toolbag! Hey, why is Brian Posehn holding a sign that says "Sizzle" in the background? How homo erotic.

#5. Redneck Christian Bale
Nice mullet.

#6. Haw Haw
I didn't realize Nelson Muntz was a Ravens fan!

#7. BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Aaron Neville + Village People + Mad Max + Gay = This Guy

*NOTE: Upon further inspection it appears that this guy has attended some kind of creepy super hero sex orgy. In the background is Fudge Packers Fan.*

We also realize that using "Village People" and "Gay" to describe the same guy is rather redundant.

#8. Which Way To The Gay Bar?
We left our dignity back that way.

Mission Statement

Hello and welcome to The Al Martin Experience (working title). In addition to following a trend by naming our blog after a hilarious or embarrassing aspect of Pittsburgh sports, we also will be following a trend by mixing humor and sports (and other stuff) to create a well...(Merril) Ho(d)ge Podge of hopefully entertaining material.

Things that will be covered on our blog include the Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, Pitt Panthers, Penn State, anything major in Pittsburgh (or Pennsylvania) sports, and anything else we find relevant.

We are not affiliated with any sports team, group, or media outlet. We are completely independent and make absolutely no money from this. In fact we are libel to up and leave at any moment. But we have no lives so we won't. So please stick around and enjoy yourself as we begin this journey to chronicle, make fun of, rant about, share our love for, and generally discuss the wonderful world that is Pittsburgh sports.