As the World Turns

All My Hotties, Beneral Hospital, Capital City, Love in the Ladies' Room, The Sins of Number Seven,...just a few candidates for the naming of the soap opera that stars Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and has engulfed the watchful eye of not only Steeler Nation, but basically every sports fan with nothing better to be engulfed by. Tune in at 4:00 pm today, as the newest episode shoots on location from Milledgeville, GA Police headquarters, scene of the forthcoming press conference. "Did Ben do it?" is the hottest question since "Who Shot JR?" riveted the airwaves nearly 30 years ago. This press conference, just like an old X Files rerun, promises to answer all.

The Milledgeville incident, involving accusations of sexual assault against His Bigness, appears to have set a flame to the Pittsburgh media. Not sure if you all are following this as closely as me (I understand that you all have lives), but there seems to be some tit-for-tat banter going back and forth between Post Gazette writers Ron Cook and Bob Smizik. A few days ago, Cook, the writer with the poison pen, wrote a scathing essay about Ben's lack of judgement. This morning, Smizik, who apparently is not on Cook's Christmas card mailing list, posted an equally damning article, however, his wrath seemed to be directly aimed at Cook's criticism.

The latest Roethlisberger fiasco is attaining pure polarization, an effect that all medias dream of. While Steeler Nation is a proud family that honors it's numerous triumphs and embraces it's heroes, we are a group that will quickly garner criticism from all of our wanna-be neighbors. You can't walk around with tee shirts emblazoned with the likeness of a half dozen Lombardi Trophies without producing a little animosity along the way. Yeah, the "Got Six?" tee shirts do tend to piss some people off. For as much as us towel twirlers hope these accusations are false, I have to believe that Hater Nation would just love to see an arrest warrant bearing the name Roethlisberger.

Let's hope that the 4:00 pm press conference absolves Ben of any wrongdoing, and puts this latest installment of unnecessary drama to bed. If not, prepare for sweeps week...