And another bullshit call. Love how the NFL network won’t show the play again. Ahh, the Goodell era.
*** Update ***
Oh hey, look. They punched him in the nose again and won’t show the replay and the refs called… nothing. But if James Harrison thinks about hitting a QB…
JenJen
Remember, the spread in this game is 14.5, last time I checked.
But who checks? Certainly not me.
mgordon
Probably part of his agreement with Goodell and the DA to keep him in football and away from prison shower rape.
Bnut
I suspect James Harrison could pull out a pistol and shoot someone in the face and John Cole would tell us he doesn’t deserve the coming suspension.
Calming Influence
Football, right?
MattR
This is not part of a conspiracy against the Steelers. This is the result of the NFL Network sucking ass at broadcasting football games. Their announcers have been atrocious all year and the rest of their coverage is so bad that it still hurts to watch on mute.
Cat Lady
The NFL has their own narrative. Steelers take cheap shots so Roethlisberger pays instead of being in jail, Tom Brady runs up the score, Brett Favre is a hero and plays like a kid for the love of the game, Mike Vick is being redeemed, etc. etc. etc. It’s all a soap opera for men who sit on couches with beer. Deal.
Ailuridae
Steelers’fans complaining about calls is, honestly, the most pathetic thing ever.
Yutsano
@Cat Lady:
To be fair, there are female fans of the NFL. That’s the only inaccuracy in your statement however.
Susan Ross
“But if James Harrison thinks about hitting a QB…””
Nah, he’s too busy hitting his wife.
I hate the Steelers. Bunch of thugs.
Elvis Elvisberg
Your resolute cantankerousness, even in the face of a 10-0 lead against a team seemingly without weapons, is most impressive.
ADDED: Holy shit, the Caps tied this game up. OT ahead.
p.a.
Well John, now you know how Raiders fans felt for more than 20 years. (Not that I’m a Raiders fan. I’m a Pats fan, and Pat’s opponents get roughing-the passer calls if defenders get close enough for Brady to smell their b.o. Life is good.)
R. Johnston
If Pittsburgh wins this game by less than 30, they didn’t try, no matter what the refs’ actions. Carolina is really, really, really awful; after all, they managed to beat Arizona only by a touchdown.
That Arizona has managed to win four games this season will eternally remain one of the great mysteries of the universe.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I am Michael Wallace!
Cat Lady
@Yutsano:
None bigger than me, but I think a lot of what the NFL is and does gets lost on men. As big a fan as I am of the sport, and I’m a big fan, they don’t consider women in their marketing or PR. If they were really smart they’d ask me what I think, but I won’t hold my breath.
JPL
Just so you all know…NewsCorp is playing Black Swan on theaters all over the country on Christmas Day…. Whatever happened to the Christ in Christmas.,,
John, Your team is ahead by seventeen at half..give up the whining..
ajr22
If you don’t think Harrison has at least 3 hits worthy of fines this year you just don’t care if guys get hurt. The guy leads with his head, and should be watched by the NFL. Just like if John Lynch still played, the NFL would watch him also, too.
JenJen
Caps-Pens going to shootout, by the way. Just sayin’ is all, since it’s early in the football game and the Stillers are gonna win anyway by like 97 points. No big whoop, don’t change the channel just for like a minute, if it’s an inconvenience, or anything, seriously.
steppy
Wee fucking wee.
Rabble Arouser
Dude, I know, right?!? Didja see that hit that Hasselbeck took in the face in the endzone last week? Yeah, neither did the refs. It sure does suck when the refs seems to be picking on your team…
Yutsano
@Cat Lady: It’s like they think it will kill the golden goose if they even try marketing to women. One Men of the NFL calendar, say, would definitely increase interest in the sport.
The Dangerman
@p.a.:
Are you saying the Immaculate Reception was … not a reception? Who touched the ball before Franco?
BruceFromOhio
Lessee, 20-zip at the half, looks safe to move on to something modestly entertaining.
And dittoes on the NFL channel mokes, that some clueless ex-athlete yutz collects a paycheck for inane nattering is a demonstration of the idiocy of Jerry Jones.
GO BROWNS
alwhite
John, I love ya like a brother but the incessant whining about refs is getting to as entertaining as firebagger v. obot.
Football is a game played by men wearing super tight pants trying to violate each others ‘end zone’ – enjoy it for what it is.
meh
qqmoar – up 20 something and whining – I understand that it’s tough for Ben – getting hit in the face by a grown man is a lot different than
rapinghaving your way with an underage coed…he deserves every hit he gets…
Cat Lady
@Yutsano:
That’s one way to the women’s market, but seriously, I’m talking about in game strategy and demystifying the terminology for women. Nickel and dime packages, slot receivers, possession receivers, vertical routes, slant routes, screens, two deep safeties, all depending on down and distance, etc. are what I enjoy understanding because I understand the game that’s being played in real time as I watch it. Once in a while I can even predict the outcome of a play because I can see how each side is lining up. To most women, and probably a lot of men too, the game looks like one after another of random pig piles of chaos. Like I said, there’s a game within a game, and the NFL is missing an opportunity to expand their viewership because they’re pushing a different kind of narrative.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Calm down, if the call is bad enough it might even get its own Wikipedia page.
JenJen
You know, we could make a “Friday Night Lights” episode out of this thread. At least one! Probably more.
burnspbesq
Jeez, you’re a whiner, Cole.
You’re worse than a Maryland fan.
Cat Lady
Just to keep the ridiculousness of what the NFL does and is, there is only 11 minutes of action in an average football game. That’s right. Think about that. No wonder they need their narratives.
Craig
@burnspbesq: Really. Who would have thought that the NFL Open Threads would have become, by far, the most awful posts on this blogs. Jesus, on the one hand I know that half of this is Cole just giving the people what they want at this point but on the other hand I also know that he believes this shit.
burnspbesq
@JenJen:
You’re right. Cole’s behaving like Buddy Garrity.
Moonbatting Average
@alwhite: Steelers and Ravens fans are in some kind of victimhood competition; it’s an AFC North thing.
That said, the Steelers D and kicker Schwan Schweeschwam are doing well for my fantasy team, so I’ll give it a pass.
Morbo
Harrison could shank someone on the field and Cole would still complain that the police are picking on the poor Steelers when they arrest him.
Andy K
Again, John? Seriously?
You’re starting to make troofers look sane.
newhavenguy
Cole, I’m still pissed off that your rape-o QB couldn’t beat the !^&*%* Jets last week.
Enjoying tonight’s game because, hey. as a Fins fan watching a competently managed pro football team is a rare treat. I don’t think it’s just me— the 2010 Miami Dolphins are an interesting .500 team, in that one wonders how they managed to avoid going 4-12 at the same time as wondering why they couldn’t go 11-5 with their talent.
Jesus, it’s gotten so bad that I actually enjoy watching the Hated Patsies blow out good teams on national TV, but the Pats (I hate to admit) have the best coaching staff in the NFL and a smart front office.
You guys? Basically = Baltimore+ Troy Polamalu (when healthy). So there!
Actually, I’m pretty jealous.
Happy Happy and Merry Merry, and all that shit. I’m going to watch Bad Santa again, and suggest y’all do the same.
Cheers, and a toast to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama. This 111th Congress was frustrating, it was ugly, the Senate is broken, the GOP has gone full metal Rockwell/Thurmond, we had to make many nasty compromises. And we had to swallow some very bitter defeats, like the DREAM act.
That said, looking back on the last two years, I am very fucking proud to be a Democrat. Never prouder. Not because the Republicans have gone insane, but because I think we did more good than harm, a hell of a lot more in fact. (I think we’d do better still if the game weren’t rigged in so many itty-bitty ways, but that’s another story.)
Never mind the bollocks, we pushed a lot of good policy past the goal line. This has been a historically productive Congress. We might be stuck in a world of shit, with a Herculean mess to clean up, but I’m glad for the quality of our leadership.
Seriously, I doubt that LBJ could have gotten this much out of the rotten, broken Senate of today; Pelosi got HCR through the House by sheer force of will. Obama’s quiet storm/rope a dope thing… seems to get more done than not.
So, Cheers to them, and to the rest of you, too. Enjoy the Holidays, don’t drive drunk, good luck with the right wing uncle, etc.
Bad Santa now.
dr. bloor
Being a Stillers fan means no lead is to big to quit whining.
mr. whipple
Man, this whining about the Stillers is pathetic. It’s sort of like the football version of firebaggers. Bitch, bitch, bitch.
General Stuck
Precious
Po pretty boy stillers.
Ben
Are you talking about the game or what Rapelesburger does in bathrooms? Heh.
MoeLarryAndJesus
I’m waiting for the big John Cole post about how corrupt refs gave the Steelers a 9 yard first down.
Oh, right, that won’t happen.
Why do so many Steelers fans whine so much and so loudly despite the fact that their franchise has been so successful?
We Patriots fans are much more dignified about such things.
P.S. After all these years I still get a laugh just thinking about Kordell Stewart.
Old Dan and Little Ann
If Big Ben had played for Belichick we could have had it all on tape. : )
Go Stillers.
Lots of bitterness towards the most successful franchise in football.
James E Powell
If the Steelers were honest and just, the 2005-2006 team would have given rings to the officials.
p mac
I call Wanker!
Jets beat Steelers with a Safety, forcing Steelers to go for touchdown, who fail with two incomplete passes in the endzone.
JC: Damn those refs!
Steelers obliterate Panthers, 26-3 in an almost meaningless game:
JC: Damn those refs!
Derek
Waaaaah. My time isn’t going to completely shut out the worst team in football because the refs….
No. It doesn’t happen. It’s not a real phenomenon. James Harrison is a just dirty player who has bad fundamentals and goes for a blow up hit on every play. Do I have to show the video of Harrison beating up on Aaron Fransisco completely unpunished in the Super Bowl? Which should’ve gotten him ejected?
Even If it did? Still shut up. Six Rings. No. Just no. Don’t bitch because your quarterback doesn’t get the Brady calls. They are doing fine anyway.
Boo the hell hoo.
Thlayli
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
The only mention of the most successful franchise in football was in #28.
The NFL started playing in 1920, there’s no reason to only count championships from 1966 onward.
Packers 12
Bears 9
Giants 7
Steelers 6
alwhite
@Cat Lady:
While visiting England I discovered that the show every NFL game there on Monday night. They cut out everything between the tackle & the snap and average 4 games an hour. Football is much more exciting that way!
fucen tarmal
@Thlayli:
yes those hard fought battles with the staten island stapletons must not be forgotten, never mind that they didn’t have even a championship game or post season until 31. or a draft until 36, even at that, teams could join the aafl post ww2 and out pay the going rate the nfl paid for college talent.
ignore the fact that many of the best college players could make more money gravy training for some alum as a flunky, than they could playing in that nfl…
or how about the nfl champion 1930 new york football giants, to put that nfl in perspective, consider this, they played a post-nfl exhibition game against area alums, not the varsity mind you, just guys living in new york who had once played at notre dame, in order to grow the public perception of nfl football circa 1930.
in short, what happened then is nothing like what has happened post-tv, post-merger, post baseball falling flat on its face as the american pass-time…
its only been about 50 years or so that the nfl, and afl, were able to field the best football players, and only more recently than that, that football got many, or most of the best athletes who might have, and in times past, focused on other sports.
comparing the nfl pre 1960 or 1970 to today is like comparing heart surgery in 1960, or 1970, to today…
Save me from the in-laws
@fucen tarmal: If you’re just considering the NFL after 1960, the Packers still wind up tied with the Steelers.
Thlayli
@fucen tarmal:
That’s kinda like saying the NHL’s most successful team is the Edmonton Oilers, because you can’t count anything before all the expansion and the influx of European players. I guarantee you that you will not find a hockey fan anywhere who would say that.
The Steelers have been around since 1933. Their inability to win anything from 1933 to 1973 counts against them.
fucen tarmal
@Save me from the in-laws:
i would agree that the packers of the 60s were damned impressive, in their era. that era was leaps and bounds ahead of the pre-ww2 era. the era that followed the merger, ahead of the pre-merger, and so on, into the salary cap era being ahead of the pre-mid 90s era.
as the game has grown, so has the difficulty in winning a championship.
in the last 40 years, the steelers are every bit, and in my opinion more impressive, than the teams of the previous 50.
before then,they sucked. so you have that going for you.
i mean don’t get me started on the year they drafted and cut len dawson, and cut free agent john unitas, while letting a little back by the name of jim brown fall to cleveland the pick behind dawson.
fucen tarmal
@Thlayli:
lol, i think most evolved hockey fans can recognize the difference between a league of 6 where 4 make the playoffs, sticks weren’t curved, and the game had almost no american, let alone european players, and the modern nhl.
so what you are saying is, everyone who runs a 4 minute mile should be treated like roger bannister?
you have to keep in mind the era, sports fans are a whistful bunch, by and large, there tends to be tons of nostalgia for the “old-time” but its unrealistic to think that accomplishments are equal despite the massive growth of a sport, over all.
humans tend to learn from what humans did before, and improve upon it.