Rebirth

Thank you Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers, for restoring a little dignity to the latest summer of shame. Since our only noteworthy sports highlights this month were Matt Morris's home run trot and Paul Maholm's boastings of challenging Barry Bonds, last night's Hall of Fame game was a true elixer. Let the truth be told, the date was August 5th, but this game was far from meaningless. In addition to giving the Black and Gold Nation something to finally smile about, Mr. Tomlin and Co. also answered some already stirring questions:

Will the LeBeau/Tomlin thing work?

Will Bruce Arians know what the hell he is doing and will he make us forget the Whiz?

Will Ced Wilson continue to clammer about no passes in his direction?

Will Willie Reid actually see enough plays to justify all the medical expenses?

Will Lamar Woodley be the next overnight linebacking sensation (ala Kendrell Bell 2001)?

Will one of the reserve running backs lay claim to the number 2 job?

Will Alan Faneca finally run out of things to bitch about?

Of course, one can throw all these answers in the Allegheny, and simply ask the one single question that seriously impacts all of our lives...How will Ben Roethlisberger look?

Without restating facts that you all know by now,...most of these answers, although preliminary, were quite favorable. Now, after watching the game, I'd also like to add some comments and questions of my own:

-Does Michael Irvin actually expect America to believe this good guy turned bad guy turned guy good crap? Can he now just shut up?

sadly, the Hall of Fame chose not to use these mug shots for his enshrinement display

-Obviously the NFL Network still hasn't learned how to broadcast a football game. After a 20 yard side line pass, most of the viewers would prefer to see the replay, but instead we get treated to a split screen of Chris Collinsworth conjuring yet another story of 1981.

-Max Starks continues to be very selective on just who he will block.

-William Gay looked quite hetero with a vicious man hit on rookie wideout Robert Meachem. Meachem looked a little gay on his own by ducking on the next play.

-Carey Davis (...who???) looking a lot like Sid "The Bull" Thorton as he ran roughshod over hapless New Orleans defenders. This, of course, prompted the cerebral Collinsworth to dub him "Bettis Jr." Collinsworth then recited another Bengals story from the early 80's.

-Oh yeah, Big Ben looked like Big Ben.