Gene Collier: Penguins will get what they want, but not at desired price

But, in light of Isle of Capri's slot-license loss, local politicians will determine the cost

Thursday, December 21, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You didn't have to believe in omens to find it a bit odd that on the subway ride toward Mellon Arena yesterday, "I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas" seemed to be squawking in a continuous loop.

This was right at the top of zero hour, when the long-awaited, viciously anticipated casino licensing issue would finally be decided. Twenty minutes later, the Penguins had begun practice on the NHL's oldest living hockey pond, and at precisely 11:27 a.m., the franchise learned it was indeed getting nothing for Christmas.

(Look, it could be worse: You could be the Pirates or their fans -- they're getting Nuttings for Christmas.)

Oh yeah, mommy and daddy are mad, the NHL is mad, even the Rooneys and the NFL are mad, issuing two among the day-long flurry of official tight-lipped statements that included the always vaguely threatening "our options" pill.

Reached later in the day, Steelers president Art Rooney II explained the club's primary disappointment has to do with traffic, parking and infrastructure.

"Our intention is to try to remain involved in the process," Rooney said. "We've been disappointed because we think the decision gave little weight to local interests. We assume there will be an ongoing process in terms of the various approvals that are necessary, and we'll try to protect our interests and the interests of our fans, who need to get in and out of this place."

You'll notice he didn't say that with Isle of Capri not winning the casino license, the city is going straight to hell and the Steelers might just as well move to North Carolina with Bill and Kaye and Lindsay.

Predictably, the maddest bunch were and shall be, for a time, Penguins management and the club's loyal, vocal, emotional, and often enough paranoid fans, including those without media credentials.

When everyone calms down and the bile goes flat, I think you'll see an easily identifiable path now cleared from the huge speculative obstacle that was the licensing issue. By awarding Pittsburgh's sole casino license to the North Shore developer, the state's Gaming board did not put the Penguins on an ice flow and kick them down river.

The Penguins will get what they want, a new arena, at the site they want, adjacent to the old one, by the date they want, 2009. They just won't get it on the terms they want, which was to have Isle of Capri, one of the two losing bidders yesterday, pay for it.

"There's no doubt in my mind this will get done," said mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "If they are as committed as we are, the Penguins should never leave Pittsburgh."

Ravenstahl was standing next to county executive Dan Onorato in the lobby of the old Alcoa building on Sixth Avenue, where Onorato was trying to turn Plan B into Plan A, and Christmas shoppers along William Penn Place peered in from the sidewalk because two guys in dark suits and power ties in front of the TV lights is usually some kind of emergency.

Onorato said he was going straight upstairs to the Sports & Exhibition Authority offices to phone the Penguins as soon as the lights went off, which he did.

They didn't answer.

"Let me reach out to Mario," Onorato said. "I know he's frustrated, saying he's waited [for politicians to get things done] for seven years. But I've only been county executive for three years, and Mayor Ravenstahl's only been here for several months. The mayor and I are going to make it clear we intend to remove the uncertainty."

"The sooner the Penguins are willing to sit down," the mayor said, "the sooner the uncertainty will go away."

Of all the official poses struck yesterday, the Penguins' actually seemed the most measured.
Their statement, in lieu of the presumed news conference, was a beacon of diplomacy compared to the hysterical reaction of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who less than a week ago was so certain Pittsburgh had to be the home of the Penguins that prospective owner Jim Balsillie took his Blackberry and went home.

"The decision by the Gaming Commission was terrible news for the Penguins, their fans, and the NHL," read that statement. "The future of this franchise in Pittsburgh is uncertain, and the Penguins now will have to explore all other options, including possible relocation. The NHL will support the Penguins in their endeavors."

Put the gun down, Gary.

Just as war is the failure of diplomacy, state-sponsored gambling is the failure of public policy. If you've got to have it, you'd better make sure that its proven negative impacts are counterbalanced across the broadest possible landscape economically and socially.

It's a tremendously complicated urban-planning question for which a good faith answer was put forth yesterday, and there is undoubtedly room for the Penguins within the solution.

Parker and 3 other Steelers make Pro Bowl

Polamalu, Faneca selected as starters again; Hampton, Parker will fill reserve roles
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Halfback Willie Parker, having one of the most productive of seasons in the Steelers' storied rushing history, was selected to his first Pro Bowl yesterday.

Parker joins three teammates who are Pro Bowl veterans -- guard Alan Faneca, selected for the sixth time, and strong safety Troy Polamalu and nose tackle Casey Hampton, each for the third time.

Faneca will make his fifth consecutive start for the AFC in the Feb. 10 game against the NFC in Honolulu. Polamalu will make his second.

Hampton and Parker were selected as reserves.

The Pro Bowl squads were selected by a combined voting of fans, players and coaches.

Parker, an undrafted rookie from North Carolina in 2004, has put together consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons since he became the team's starting halfback last season. He set a Super Bowl record with a 75-yard touchdown run last February and is threatening Steelers records this season.

His 1,331 yards this season ranks fifth in club history, and he needs only 101 yards in the next two games to move to third. His 14 touchdowns are one short of tying Louis Lipps' 21-year old team record.

Faneca and Polamalu each led their positions in the fan voting. Faneca has been a perennial All-Pro as well and his sixth Pro Bowl berth gives him more than any Steelers guard in history.

In fact, only Andy Russell (7), Dermontti Dawson (7) and Rod Woodson (7) along with Hall of Famers Ernie Stautner (9), Joe Greene (10), Franco Harris (9), Jack Lambert (9) and Mike Webster (9) made it more as Steelers.

Polamalu leads the Steelers with three interceptions and is fifth with 69 tackles, even though he has missed the past three games with a knee injury.

Hampton, the key to the Steelers' run defense as their nose tackle, also made the Pro Bowl in 2004 and 2006. The Steelers have not allowed a 100-yard runner in the past 46 games, including the postseason.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com. )

Bob Smizik: Coaching decision not an easy one

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bill Cowher continued his very nimble tap dance around his future yesterday, and this time to a Pittsburgh audience. But it's beginning to look a lot like there's a coaching search in the Steelers' future.

Cowher, who made major news last week when he told the North Carolina media he would make a decision on his future at the end of the season, reiterated that position at his weekly news conference, but this time with a dash of humor. He good-naturedly chastised the Pittsburgh media, accusing it of being judgmental, because no one locally had broached the subject of his future with him.

"I've been getting criticized for being terse in regards to my future," he said. "But no one here has ever asked me the question. Before you pass judgment upon me, ask me the question. Guys imply certain things and that's what I think is a little unfair.

"There has been no decision made. It will be something I need to get away from and give some serious thought to. And I will do that at the right time, and now is not the right time."

When he was asked how many seasons he had thoughts of retiring, Cowher became animated and took on the role of comedian as he pretended to discuss his various options. By the time he was through, he was laughing harder than his audience. It was a rare glimpse of Cowher, the personality we see at times in his interaction with players but seldom with the media or public.

Finally, and again with good humor, Cowher ruled out all further talk about his future. That restriction, however, does not apply to this column.

There are two reasons why, in all likelihood, Cowher will not coach the Steelers next season:
Family and money.

He wants to be close to his family. His wife and youngest daughter, a high school sophomore, are living in North Carolina. (His two older daughters attend Princeton.) He is considering making his residence North Carolina, where he has visited his family at least three times this season.
Being a commuter coach won't work in the NFL and if Cowher believes he can do it he's only kidding himself. The Rooney family is too steeped in the NFL to allow such a travesty. They're not celebrity owners dazzled by a coach's resume. They know what it takes to coach in the NFL and living away from the job -- even in the offseason -- won't hack it. A coach's job is not late July to January. It's late July until June. Not only would commuting cut into the effectiveness of Cowher's coaching, it would be the worst example for his players.

As for money, even if he sits out a year, Cowher can make more elsewhere, where his resume would have victory-starved owners ready to pay a salary approaching eight figures.

A lot of people believe replacing Cowher will be easy and already have awarded the job to either offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or assistant head coach Russ Grimm. No doubt, both are worthy candidates. But no team should limit the scope of a job search of this importance. A search of the nation should be mandatory in selecting the next coach of the Steelers, not just a search of the team's South Side complex.

The fact Whisenhunt and Grimm have been serious candidates for other NFL jobs is indicative of their ability. The continuity that either would provide also cannot be underestimated. But the Steelers did not become an elite NFL franchise, the winner of five Super Bowls, by looking around the corner for their next coach.

Few fans or media types had heard of Chuck Noll when Dan Rooney plucked him off the staff of the Baltimore Colts and made him the Steelers coach in 1969. The same could be said for Cowher, when he was signed off the staff of the Kansas City Chiefs in 1992. As good as Whisenhunt and Grimm might be, the Steelers owe it to themselves to see if there's another Noll or another Cowher out there before settling for someone on their own staff.

The four most successful coaches in recent Pittsburgh history were virtual unknown before coming to town: Noll, Cowher, Jim Leyland and Ben Howland.

The NFL is a fairly closed fraternity. The best assistants, and Grimm and Whisenhunt are among them, are well known. The best of the best should be brought in for interviews. If nothing else, it will give the Rooneys and director of football operations Kevin Colbert a chance to pick the brains of these men.

Hiring an assistant with no previous head coaching experience is always risky. The best assistants don't always make the best head coach. The fact that outstanding assistants from Cowher's staff, Jim Haslett, Dom Capers and Dick LeBeau, were not successful as head coaches is an example of the risk in hiring someone with no head coaching experience.

Replacing Cowher will be difficult. No short cuts should be involved.

(Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com. )

At last, Cowher discusses his coaching future with local reporters

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bill Cowher could prowl the Steelers' sideline for the final time at Heinz Field Sunday, yet he said it will hold no special significance for him, nor will he reflect on it possibly being his last home game as coach.

"I compliment you for asking the question," Cowher said at his news conference yesterday, five days after the Pittsburgh media was blocked from asking questions about his admitted upcoming decision whether to retire or stay on as the Steelers' coach.

"I said it will be decided after the season, it will not be a knee-jerk reaction. ... There's been no decision made. It will be something I will need to get away from and give some serious thought to, and I will do that -- at the right time. Now is not the right time."

Cowher entertained other questions about his future, but he cut anyone off before they could ask how long it would take him to decide or if the outcome of this season might have a bearing on his decision. He ended further questions when he was asked if money would play into his decision.
"I'm not going to get into that. We're done talking," Cowher said in what generally was a pleasant response by him to a subject that has festered since negotiations to extend his contract ended in August. Cowher essentially ended questions on the topic back then, and he did so again yesterday. "We're done. I tried to answer the question, but I'm not going to elaborate."

For the first time, he revealed that he also was torn whether to retire after the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Although the Post-Gazette has reported that associates said he considered retiring after the 2005 season, Cowher admitted as much yesterday for the first time.

"Yes, I did," Cowher said. "And nobody asked me any questions about that last year."

What about after the previous season, when the Steelers went 15-1 and lost at home in an AFC championship game for the third consecutive time?

"I don't know," Cowher answered. "These are things I've never discussed publicly. I don't think they need to be discussed publicly. I answered the question last week [in a conference call to media in Charlotte, N.C.,] because they are not up here and privy to everybody's understanding of what's taken place."

Cowher and his wife bought a $2.5 million home in Raleigh, N.C., and Kaye Cowher and their youngest daughter have since moved there. That transaction, made last fall, became public in March and began the stream of speculation about the coach's future that has gained momentum the past few weeks as the regular season nears its end.

The Steelers and Cowher ended talks during training camp on an extension to his contract, which runs through the 2007 season. There has been speculation Cowher would retire after this season to spend time with his wife and daughter, Lindsay, who is a high school sophomore in Raleigh, where she enrolled this year and where she plays basketball.

The Cowhers' two eldest girls play basketball at Princeton -- Meagan, a junior, and Lauren, a freshman. Princeton plays at Duquesne Friday night, when the entire Cowher family will reunite.

"It's been killing my dad not to see us playing," Lauren was quoted as saying "... Once the football season is over, he will be at Princeton a lot."

Watching his daughters play basketball would not play into his retirement decision, Cowher said.
"No. I don't want to go into any detail. It would be no different.

"They've been playing basketball up there for a couple of years now. I'll have a chance to see Lindsay. I've already had a chance to see her play once and I'll get to see here again after the season.

"There will be a lot of things to go into [a decision], but now is not the time to talk about it. But I want to at least answer your question so that I don't come across as someone who is being terse."

Cowher said he has not tired of coaching nor gotten "burned out."

"I don't think so. Do I look burned out? Honestly I'm not. I love the challenges and love this time of year."

Cowher insisted he has not decided whether he will return as Steelers coach or not. Asked how long the indecision has been going on, Cowher said jovially, "What, these inner thoughts with myself?

"Me and this little guy, we've been talking quite a bit. I'm not having psychological problems if you're implying that. I'm fine. We do get into arguments every now and then. Go for it? Don't go for it?

"I was even asking a policeman the other day down in Carolina: 'Would you go for it if we're short?' The guy said yeah and pulled out his Pittsburgh Steelers pen. I said, 'Yeah, easy for you to say, you're standing over there.' So I kicked the field goal."

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com. )

Ron Cook : Power play isn't likely to be effective

Last-minute power play by Lemieux, Penguins is unlikely to affect slots license decision

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You knew this was going to be big. The Penguins called a late-afternoon news conference yesterday for Mario Lemieux. As sports owners go, Lemieux is only slightly less reclusive than the Pirates' G. Ogden Nutting, whom no one can say for sure isn't a myth. Lemieux generally only comes out for his retirements from and comebacks to the NHL or when he has a really important self-serving message to deliver.

With the awarding of Pittsburgh's slots casino license due tomorrow, this was one of those times.
"Plan B, in my opinion, is really using taxpayers' money," Lemieux said into the television cameras. "I've never heard of a government turning down $290 million of private money to build a public facility."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

That the person who writes Lemieux's material deserves a big raise?

And that Lemieux has been waiting weeks for just the right moment to deliver that line?

The rest of the Lemieux news conference was mundane. He said repeatedly that Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. should get the slots license because of its $290 million commitment to a new arena.
"It's the best plan out there for our region and the Penguins." That's the same thing team president Ken Sawyer said Friday night after word came that Jim Balsillie had backed out of a deal to buy the team.

But, hey, it can't hurt for the politicians to hear it one final time from Lemieux.

Although this Lemieux appearance was predictable, the announcement about Balsillie's withdrawal was not. The cynic in me can't help but think that both are aimed at the same target -- that slots license for Isle of Capri.

At first blush Friday, Balsillie's decision seemed like welcome news. The man is just slippery enough to cause uneasiness. There he was, a guy with more money than just about anyone on the planet, down from Canada to buy the Penguins. He has no ties here. If it came down to it, he would have no problem moving the team.

That's why the Balsillie announcement seemed anything but alarming. Surely, the NHL had stepped in and told him he couldn't move the Penguins even if Isle of Capri doesn't get the slots license. Surely, the league told him he had to work with government officials on Plan B funding for a new arena, which requires a major financial commitment from Penguins ownership.

That's good news for the team's fans, right?

If it went down that way, it is.

But what if Balsillie still plans on buying the team and he and the NHL are pulling a last-minute power play in an attempt to force the state Gaming Control Board to award the license to Isle of Capri?

That's easier to believe than any sort of mandate from the NHL. Sure, the league values Pittsburgh as a market and doesn't want to lose it. But it's not going to force any ownership group into an onerous arena deal. Certainly, it's not going to send any kind of message now to the local authorities that eases the pressure for a new arena. Balsillie did that earlier last week, presumably by accident, when he testified before the board and said Plan B might be workable.
Isn't it possible that the NHL and Balsillie wanted to regain their leverage?

Isn't it reasonable to think that Balsillie's withdrawal sent a loud and clear message that can be heard all the way to Harrisburg?

Listen up, politicos. Here's a potential deep-pockets owner that has soured on a deal to buy the Penguins. If Pittsburgh wants to keep its hockey team, you had better give that license to Isle of Capri.

Lemieux added to the intrigue by refusing to address Balsillie's problems with the sale, saying only that there were issues between Balsillie and the NHL. Lemieux said he was "obviously shocked and disappointed" with the Balsillie pullout and a statement attributed to him by the team said the deal with him was "unequivocally" done. But, curiously, Lemieux refused to say Balsillie couldn't emerge again as the team buyer.

It's nice to think that the Balsillie/NHL power play -- if that's really what it is -- and the Lemieux bluster will be effective, but it doesn't seem likely. There are plenty of loyal, passionate hockey fans in Pittsburgh, but there aren't enough to scare the government officials. None of the politicians wants to see the team leave -- especially when there's a need for a new arena with or without a primary tenant -- but each will survive if it happens. Ed Rendell, Dan Onorato and Luke Ravenstahl will justify it by saying they did everything they could with Plan B.

Isle of Capri still might get the license, of course. The board could decide it really does have the best plan or that the traffic congestion at the proposed casino sites at Station Square and on the North Shore are deal breakers for the other bidders. But Isle of Capri won't get the license merely because of pressure from the NHL and the Penguins. Neither has that kind of clout.

If Isle of Capri wins, the story has a happy ending. The Penguins will stay for the long haul, regardless if Lemieux, Balsillie or someone else owns them. But if Isle of Capri doesn't get the license, don't be shocked if Balsillie jumps back into the picture.

Not to work with Rendell and Co. on Plan B.

To move the team.

Steelers looking for some 'get-back' vs. Ravens

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

More Coverage:
Steelers Notebook: Conference record is holding Steelers back

The Steelers feel pretty good about themselves after running away with their third consecutive victory and their fifth in six games. They're playing their best football of the season and are among the hottest teams in the NFL.

"We're still Super Bowl champions," receiver Hines Ward declared. "Right now we're playing good football. We just have to continue doing it. What better way than winning five out of six games."

Unfortunately, they needed to win six of their past six to have a more realistic chance to make the playoffs, and the team that prevented them from doing so appears in Heinz Field Sunday.
"We definitely have to avenge a tough loss against Baltimore next week," linebacker Joey Porter said.

The Baltimore Ravens are the AFC North Division rulers. They have won seven of their past eight and sit atop the division at 11-3, in the lead for one of the top two seeds in the AFC and a first-round playoff bye. Their victories include a 27-0 spanking of the Steelers in Baltimore Nov. 26 that was not as close as the score might indicate.

Coach Bill Cowher called it "a very pitiful performance."

The Steelers used some choice words to describe that game, "embarrassing" the most prominent as the Ravens sacked Ben Roethlisberger nine times and were firmly in control by the half when they led in total yards, 215-36. The Steelers' 21 yards rushing that day were their fewest in the past 34 years.

"Now we're a totally different ballclub from that team," Ward insisted. "We're playing with confidence and this, for us, is kind of like get-back. We really want to face them again."

Ward played that day even though he had an hyperextended knee the previous week in Cleveland. He left the game in Baltimore and had knee surgery the next day. He missed two games but returned to start Sunday in Carolina, where he led Steelers receivers with four receptions for 59 yards.

After the game Sunday, he thought about the team's next two games against division foes, games the Steelers could win and still not make the playoffs.

"Yes, there are games we could have had back, but that's the past," Ward said. "We can only look forward. What better way than to have Baltimore and Cincinnati next? This is kind of our get-back game. We didn't play particularly well in the first meeting, so guys are really going to get up for this game.

"There's no need to have any bulletin-board talk. We know what's at stake. We finish the year out with two divisional games and that's what's important. I think all the guys realize that."

Ward was wrong last week when he predicted safety Troy Polamalu would return to play in Carolina, where he missed his third game in a row because of a sprained knee ligament.

"Troy will come back healthy, I'll be healthy," Ward said again after the Steelers whacked Carolina, 37-3. "We'll play with a lot of confidence, and we got them at home. Our crowd will be behind us. It'll be an exciting game. You won't want to miss this one."

The Steelers must defeat the Ravens to keep their playoff hopes alive, and that might not even do it, depending on what else happens around the AFC.

"It's hard," defensive end Brett Keisel acknowledged. "You look back and you see the games we let slip away. But we're on a roll right now and we're not thinking about that, we're thinking about the future and winning these last two games and hopefully getting a shot."

Even if the Steelers do not make it, they'd like to send the Baltimore Ravens into the playoffs with a loss they might remember and return the favor handed to them over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"It's going to be a great game," Keisel said. "They did take a big bite out of us down there and I think we all taste that a little bit. Yeah, Sunday's going to be a big game."

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com. )

Reeling Panthers fall short in everything but ineptness

Monday, December 18, 2006

By Pat Sutherland, The Charlotte Observer


Don't even think about ripping Carolina fans for ceding the bleachers at Bank of America Stadium. The Panthers also ceded the field. Consistency is good, right?

Pittsburgh dominated the grass and the cheap seats and the good seats and probably the luxury boxes. If Carolina had an edge anywhere, it was at the concession stand. This loss was so lopsided -- the Steelers won, 37-3 -- it felt like a concession.

When you think of Pittsburgh, you think of steel and Steelers and ketchup and Heinz Field and Hines Ward and Terrible Towels. The Panthers were worse than those towels ever were.

Carolina has devolved from promising to decent to average to abysmal to, perhaps, the worst team in the NFL.

And they still can make the playoffs.

You don't think they are the league's worst team? Who would you pick them to beat?

Film might indicate that a Panther or two played well, but the naked eye did not pick up those performances, and neither did my $19.95 binoculars, binoculars so cheap they make players look smaller.

Or maybe it was the Steelers that made the Panthers look small.

"It's frustrating," fullback Brad Hoover said. "I feel like we're not a bad football team, but we're playing like it. We're just playing bad, and it's showing through. And all the hard work and dedication you put into it, it should hurt a little more."

Added Hoover: "There has to be a sense of pride and urgency that come into it, and players have to put their foot down because it hurts so bad. We have guys like that. But not enough are stepping up."

The locker room was so quiet you could hear voices behind the thick walls in the shower, and the voices weren't loud. In this room, the muffled sound of a helmet or pads falling to the carpet was jarring.

What's there to say?

Mike Minter -- Media Mike -- can explain everything. I asked him if he can explain this loss in a few sentences.

"No," he said.

Carolina has lost four consecutive games, the past two at home, where they are a mediocre 4-4. Pittsburgh has won only one other road game all season.

As if to add injury to insult, defensive end Mike Rucker, who has played all eight of his NFL seasons with the Panthers, hurt his knee badly. At 31, who knows if he'll play again?

Rucker is as honorable and unpretentious as any man who has stepped onto the field. He's also the biggest Ric Flair fan in the house. His absence on the line and in the locker room will be enormous. He is one of those athletes who has been good not only for the team, but for our town.

Attendance Sunday was 68,947. Most came to cheer the Panthers. But they had no reason to stay, and, by the third quarter, even the adults who paint their faces were leaving.

Pittsburgh fans still might not have left. Even the ushers wore black and gold. Black and gold was so pervasive I figured some of the fans wore the colors of Appalachian State. But they all came for Pittsburgh.

So impressive were the Steelers fans that, as a reward, beer vendors should have replaced the local brew with Iron City. It felt like Pittsburgh South out there.

You would think the scene would be a bizarre end to the home season.

You'd be wrong. It was perfect.

Nothing could be finer than Parker's mood after his scintillating performance

Monday, December 18, 2006
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


CHARLOTTE. N.C. -- Willie Parker has had bigger days on the football field in the state of North Carolina. But it had been a while since he rushed for this many yards in his home state. And, safe to say, with this amount of satisfaction.

There were smiles and appreciable measures of contentment scattered all through the locker room yesterday after the Steelers won their third game in a row and fifth in the past six starts with a 37-3 victory against the Carolina Panthers. But there wasn't a player who loved what transpired at Bank of America Stadium more than Parker, a native son who had not rushed for this many yards in the Tar Heel state since he was a senior at Clinton High School.

"The game was real big," Parker said.

"I had to just keep my composure coming into this game. A lot of my teammates kept me well-grounded. I had never done anything in the state of North Carolina before, so you know how much that meant to me, coming back here playing."

To be accurate, Parker has done some big things in the state of North Carolina. He just didn't get to do them once he went to the University of North Carolina, where he was under-used and under-appreciated for three years.

Yesterday, though, he took out all his Tar Heel frustration on the Panthers, rushing for 132 yards on 23 carries and scoring on a 41-yard run in the third quarter. It was the most yards Parker had gained on North Carolina soil since he gained 221 yards on 14 carries and scored two touchdowns Oct. 17, 1998, when Clinton beat East Duplin High School.

Parker had only one 100-yard rushing game in a quiet three-year career at North Carolina, and that was when he gained 131 yards against Auburn in the 2001 Peach Bowl.

"For him to come back to North Carolina, where it didn't go too well for him when he was here, to come back now and have a dominating performance like this was a big game for him," said offensive left tackle Marvel Smith. "When he broke that long run, that was like redemption for him for everything he had been through."

Indeed, Parker was never given the chance to do much of anything at North Carolina. He carried only 43 times for 181 yards in nine games as a senior -- numbers not that far removed from what he did in one afternoon against the Panthers -- and had 817 yards rushing in his career.

Now, just three years later, he is on his way to one of the best rushing seasons in Steelers history. His performance against the Panthers was his sixth 100-yard game this season, though his first on the road, and pushed his season total to 1,331 yards. With two games remaining, he has a good chance to finish with the third-best season in franchise history, eclipsing the 1,431 yards by Jerome Bettis in 1996.

Parker would need two games like he had against the Panthers and Cleveland Browns -- 355 yards on 55 carries -- just to approach the club-record of 1,690 yards by Barry Foster in 1982.
"The days didn't go real well for Willie in college," said Hines Ward, who had two 21-yard catches against the Panthers. "He really wasn't given an opportunity. Willie is a great story. A lot of people didn't give him a chance and to come back home and to get a victory ... I couldn't be more proud of Willie than I am."

"Willie is a special back," coach Bill Cowher said. "I think he's one of best backs in the game today, and there are some good ones out there."

Parker, though, is closing in on another team record. His 41-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was his 11th rushing touchdown of the season and 14th overall. The franchise record for touchdowns in a season is 15, set by Louis Lipps in 1985.

It was also a thing of beauty.

The play is the team's signature running play -- "Boss," which stands for back on the strong side -- and was executed almost exactly the way it appears in the Steelers' playbook.

Parker cut through a hole on the left side created when tight end Heath Miller blocked the defensive end and guard Alan Faneca pulled and sealed strongside linebacker Thomas Davis. All that was left to do was outrace safety Mike Minter to the end zone.

"I just waited, and they kind of hit the holes," Parker said of his lineman. "I just had to be real patient and hit it up at the last minute."

Then, he added, "It's kind of like being in a fight. You never remember what happened till you see it on tape."

Nonetheless, Parker is having a season to remember. He already is the first back in franchise history to have two 200-yard games in a season. Yesterday, with runs of 21 and 41 yards, he ran the number of 20-yard-plus runs to 11, including six longer than 31 yards. And only San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson (29) and Kansas City's Larry Johnson (15) have scored more touchdowns in the AFC.

"I knew it would be a feast-or-famine game because they got a tough defense," Parker said. "But the offensive line and tight ends kept pounding and kept pounding. A lot of my teammates come up to me and they always tell me, 'You're going to break one,' and that's something I start to believe in. I don't know I'm going to break one, but it happens."

It even happened in North Carolina.

Gene Collier: Steelers get a kick out of Harrison

Monday, December 18, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Nobody in the National Football League has more experience punting the ball away than these Carolina Panthers. Punter Jason Baker's high leg kick has been seen so often by so many people this fall that he has been made an honorary Rockette.

The thick body of video evidence on Carolina's punt-coverage team gives opponents plenty to study each week, and once in a while, that couple of hours of overtime pays big.

"We weren't doing anything different, but I played it a little bit different," James Harrison was explaining in the Steelers' locker room a couple of hours after the punt he blocked jerked open the spigot on a 37-3 Steelers victory. "I rushed instead of just trying to hold my guy up. Some guys with speed like that want to get out of there fast instead of wrestle with you, so I just figured that's what he was going to do."

When Chad Brown left the game early with a knee injury, Harrison was switched from his usual slot in the middle of the Steelers' defensive front on punt coverage to the right defensive end location, which put him head-up on longtime Panthers special teams captain Karl Hankton, a former Louisiana prep track star.

With the Steelers leading, 10-0, and showing little inclination to take this game by the throat -- an 84-yard drive stalled at the 1 and Joey Porter had just dropped an interception -- Carolina lined up at its 20 for Punt No. 86 of the forgettable 2006 season.

Seriously, 86 punts.

Harrison blasted past Hankton and vaulted Baker's only backfield protector, swatting the punt toward the Steelers' sideline. Ike Taylor, who has been kicked around almost as much as a Carolina football this year, had only to collect it at the 12 and jog to a touchdown, but the ball took just the kind of goofy bounce necessary to make Taylor leap at it, and the ball and Taylor went out of bounds at the 10.

"That's the way it is," Taylor said. "Things'll turn around, though."

That Najeh Davenport jumped on the Alan Faneca Expressway and lugged a screen pass 13 yards to a touchdown three plays later represented the kind of emotionally seismic pivot that clearly did not escape the admiration of Bill Cowher.

"I thought we did a lot of good things today, [but] I think one of the biggest plays was probably James Harrison's blocked punt," Cowher said after the Steelers won for the fifth time in the past six games. "He's just been unbelievable in the kicking game and he's been very much an inspiration to this team."

The third-year linebacker out of Kent State has done just about everything that's possible for Cowher and Dick LeBeau's defense except displace either Porter or Clark Haggans as a starter, and that includes body-slamming a Browns fan for trespassing near the Steelers' sideline last year. Harrison got that fella banned from Cleveland Stadium for life, but probably didn't know he was doing the guy such a huge favor at the time.

As it happens, the Steelers' first punt block in more than four years (Chris Fuamatu Ma'afala got one against Oakland Sept. 15, 2002) came while they were trying to set up a return.

"We saw some things that they were doing and we had the block on a couple of times, but that was all James," said Steelers special teams captain Sean Morey. "A lot of those speed guys don't want any part of him. He mauls people."

"That was just a hell of a play by James Harrison," special teamer John Kuhn said. "He did that pretty much by himself."

It was that rare splendid afternoon for the Steelers' special teams, who buttressed this victory not only with a punt block but a punt-return touchdown by Santonio Holmes, one play after another of his turnovers was nullified by a Carolina penalty.

"It was nice to contribute something positive for a change," special teams coach Kevin Spencer said wryly.

Cowher's team got serious contributions from every area, including a defense that allowed neither Steve Smith nor Keyshawn Johnson a catch longer than 19 yards, but the biggest contribution came from the Panthers. Nobody needed to be reminded, for example, that Chris Weinke, playing a second consecutive game in lieu of starter Jake Delhomme, had just watched his record as a starter burrow to 1-17.

Few teams in this league can lose because they don't punt enough, but Carolina did it yesterday.
The Panthers finished the day with 89 punts on the season, but they wish that figure was 90 this morning, and that James Harrison hadn't slapped one like it was a Cleveland fan.

Ron Cook: They're super again with little hope

Steelers at top of their game, but the climb up playoff mountain a bit too steep
Monday, December 18, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- How's this for a conspiracy theory?

"Some of us were joking around last week that Indianapolis lost on purpose [to Jacksonville] because they don't want to play us in the playoffs," Steelers linebacker Larry Foote was saying yesterday.

Silly speculation that even Oliver Stone wouldn't touch?

Sure.

But no one was laughing in the Steelers' locker room after they put a 37-3 whipping on the Carolina Panthers, winning a third consecutive game for the first time all season, climbing back to .500 for the first time since they were 1-1 in September and leaving no doubt they are playing their best football.

The thought of sitting out the postseason -- still a virtual certainty despite the impressive tail-kicking here -- hurt too much to laugh.

"Hanging on the respirator," linebacker James Farrior described the Steelers' position.
Actually, it's much worse than that.

The Steelers got a little help yesterday when Jacksonville lost at Tennessee, but that was more than neutralized by the New York Jets' win at Minnesota and Denver's win at Arizona.
Regardless of what happens in the Cincinnati-Indianapolis game tonight, four teams will have fewer losses than the Steelers, five if Kansas City beat San Diego last night. Only two from that group will qualify for the playoffs.

"We put ourselves in the situation that we're in," linebacker Joey Porter said.

It's true. You know it's true. You lose six of your first eight games, you don't deserve to make the playoffs. Shoot, you manage to find a way to lose to the Oakland Raiders, you don't deserve to be within a million miles of the playoffs.

But that doesn't mean it won't be a crying shame in at least one big way if the Steelers don't make it. They suddenly have the look of, as Foote and so many others were quick to point out, a team that would be a tough out. Their defense has given up 13 points in the past three games.
Their offense didn't commit a turnover yesterday and got 132 more rushing yards from Willie Parker. Their special teams, which have improved dramatically, got a blocked punt by James Harrison and a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown by Santonio Holmes.

"Now, we just want a shot," defensive end Aaron Smith said. "Just give us a shot. I said the same thing last year. We got in and you saw what happened."

The Steelers won the Super Bowl.

It's not preposterous to think they could make another deep run if they somehow lucked into a miracle in the next two weeks.

The defense sacked Carolina quarterback Chris Weinke five times, the second time in three games it had five. It held the Panthers to 43 rushing yards. It limited the great Steve Smith to five catches for 56 yards.

The offensive line played its third consecutive strong game. It didn't just open holes for Parker, it gave quarterback Ben Roethlisberger time to convert four third downs of 9 yards or longer.
Better yet, Roethlisberger didn't throw an interception for the second consecutive game.

The Steelers even used a trick play that brought back wonderful memories.

"It was the same play as in the Super Bowl," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "The only difference was the safety stayed back this time so I couldn't run by him."

Cedrick Wilson -- playing the part of Antwaan Randle El -- took a handoff from Roethlisberger and started around right end before pulling up and hitting Ward with a rope for a 21-yard gain.
"He's got a stronger arm than I do, I think," Roethlisberger said of Wilson.

Throw in the huge plays by the special teams and the fact the Steelers took only two penalties for 10 yards and it was a perfect day.

Well, almost.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't playing the what-if game," Foote said.

Who isn't?

Mornings like this, you can't help but think about Ricardo Colclough's fumbled punt against Cincinnati, Nate Washington's flinch at Atlanta, Roethlisberger's four interceptions at Oakland and the burnt toast that was Ike Taylor against Denver.

If the Steelers had won any one of those games, they might not be sitting pretty in the playoff chase, but they'd certainly have a much stronger pulse.

Here's Foote:

"We're still in it until they say we're out of it."

It ain't over until it's over, either.

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Hey, it's all the Steelers have to grasp at the moment.

"All I know," said Smith, the big defensive end, "I wouldn't want to play us in the playoffs."

Sadly and almost certainly, no team will have to.

Ed Bouchette: Recent signs indicate Cowher may retire

Ed Bouchette on the Steelers: Recent signs indicate that 'it's time' for Cowher to escape into retirement
A weekly look inside the team, the issues, the questions
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's time.

That's what Chuck Noll told me when I asked why he was retiring as Steelers coach in December 1991. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's time."

Now it's Bill Cowher's time. I have the same feeling now as I had near the end of the 1991 season when I believed Noll was ready to hang it up. I think Cowher will "retire" soon after this season ends.

First, here's some history on Noll's retirement, the only end to a head coach's career with the Steelers in the past 37 years.

Noll nearly quit after the 1988 season because Dan Rooney forced him to make changes on his coaching staff after the Steelers went 5-11. He relented, accepted the changes and coached the team to within a whisker of reaching the AFC championship game in 1989. That would be the only season over Noll's final seven that the Steelers made the playoffs because they did not make it in '90 or '91.

This time, Noll realized there would be more changes, particularly in management, and the coach felt it was time for him to step down.

"It would have been great to have had 10 victories and been in the playoffs and have gone all the way, and then said, 'Goodbye,' but it didn't work out that way," Noll said at his final news conference.

Cowher must feel the same way, too, although he's had much more success recently than Noll had at the end of his career. Perhaps if he had it to do over, Cowher would have retired next to Jerome Bettis in Detroit.

circumstances with Cowher are unlike those that drove Noll into retirement. Management isn't demanding change, the coach is. He wants it in the kind of form where he can live in Raleigh, N.C., and work in Pittsburgh. And, likely, he wants more money than the Steelers offered before negotiations ended in August. That may be why his agent has been placing calls to the Rooneys lately.

Cowher or his agent can talk all they want about the coach's living arrangements not detracting from his job. Maybe that's so, but it's also unusual and unnatural, and it's difficult to believe he would continue to work in this town on a full-time basis while his wife and daughter live in Raleigh, N.C. He has made the trip there at least three times during this season and likely will spend much of his offseason there as well. As close as he has been with his daughters, it's hard to believe that he will kiss off his youngest's final three years at home while she attends high school.

Football is a year-round business. It requires a head coach not only to be with his team from August through at least the end of December, but at most other times as well -- in late January, when the weeklong Senior Bowl practices take place; in February when the combine workouts are held and decisions are made on free agents; during March, when free agency begins and preparation for the draft takes place; during April, which is consumed by the draft and the start of voluntary workout sessions, and during May and early June, when the more structured voluntary practices occur.

Steelers coaches traditionally get time off from early or mid-June to late July. Other than that, they're around their club or working players out or attending meetings or watching video of other NFL teams and players. The Steelers may want Cowher to remain their head coach, but they don't want him as a commuter from Raleigh.

Those who work with Cowher say he's different this year, that he does not speak with people in the front office as often as he has in the past. Rooney has spoken with him behind a closed office door a time or two recently, and the guess by others is that those two discussed his future.

Probably the most telling thing lately is that Cowher is discussing his future publicly -- although not with the media in Pittsburgh. He did it with the NFL Network's Cris Collinsworth 10 days ago and he did it again this week with the media in Charlotte.

Whenever anyone has asked him about it here, Cowher would not elaborate other than to say he was taking things "year to year" and showed aggravation at the questions. But he was more expansive Wednesday when he told the media in Charlotte that he has a decision to make at the end of the year. When the Pittsburgh media asked to talk to him about that, to ask their own questions of him the next day, a Steelers spokesman refused the request.

Collinsworth paraphrased Cowher as telling him his decision is "not about the money. He just wants to be like an ordinary guy, go somewhere and have a beer and have nobody ask about football."

There may be no way for him to do that, even if he retires to Raleigh, because he and that famous jaw are so well known now. But if that's how he truly feels, he won't coach much longer, at least not before taking a few years off.

It says here, it's time.

Therrien says nobody in NHL is playing better than Crosby

Therrien says nobody in NHL is playing better than Crosby
Friday, December 15, 2006
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Sidney Crosby can't quite decide who is the best player in the NHL.

He figures it might be Atlanta's Marian Hossa, who ranked second in the league in goals and fourth in points before last night.

Or maybe Jaromir Jagr, the No. 2 man in the scoring race before his New York Rangers visited Dallas.

Trouble is, Crosby thinks a case also could be made for left winger Alexander Ovechkin of Washington. Same with Philadelphia center Peter Forsberg, at least when he is healthy. Even teammate Evgeni Malkin.

"There are so many great players," he said yesterday.

But Penguins coach Michel Therrien has a much shorter list of candidates. And it doesn't include any of the guys Crosby mentioned.

Probably because the one name on it -- Sidney Crosby -- is the one who was conspicuously absent from Crosby's collection of contenders.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Therrien said. "There are a lot of good players in this league, but, right now, the way that young man is playing on the ice and focusing on the way he's concentrating is phenomenal. In my mind, he's the best player in the NHL right now."

While rating players is a subjective exercise, it is easier to build a case supporting Therrien's contention than one disputing it. Especially for those partial to by-the-numbers analysis.

Crosby, 19, enters the Penguins' game at 7:38 p.m. today against the New York Islanders at Mellon Arena with 15 goals and 32 assists, good for first place in the NHL scoring race before last night. And Crosby has done all that damage in just 27 games, fewer than anyone else in the top 20.

He ascended to the top spot on the strength of a one-goal, five-assist performance in the Penguins' 8-4 victory Wednesday against Philadelphia, when he joined Wayne Gretzky (twice) and Jimmy Carson as the only teenagers in league history to ring up six points in a game.

Not that such a feat was reason for Crosby to do something outrageous. Like go clubbing until dawn. Or be one of the first 15 guys off the ice after practice yesterday.

"It's a special night, there's no doubt," he said. "But that's something you can think about later on, maybe over Christmas break or after the season. You just want to keep going right now."
In Crosby's case, that means trying to extend a six-game scoring streak, in which he has recorded five goals and 10 assists.

Therrien, though, was quick to say that his praise for Crosby wasn't rooted solely in scoring stats, but in his work all over the ice. He noted the improvement in Crosby's performance on things like faceoffs and defensive positioning that make it possible for him to be relied on in any situation.

"We talk about how many points the guy could get," Therrien said. "But as far as I'm concerned, he's playing as well defensively as he is offensively.

"It's a good thing because he can play against top players. He's at the point now where he's so sharp defensively that you know you're not going to get hurt defensively [by using him]."

Crosby likely will win a few Art Ross trophies as the NHL's leading scorer before he gets a Selke Trophy as its top defensive forward. Balanced as his game is, setting up goals -- and, occasionally, scoring them -- remains his greatest strength. And great motivation to play well defensively.

"When you spend less time in your own end, that's more time you can spend trying to create chances and having the puck," he said.

Therrien has been Crosby's coach for all but the first few months of his NHL career, and no one has a better feel for the nuances of his game. Consequently, his response when asked how, as an opposing coach, he would try to defend Crosby, is revealing.

"That's a tough question," Therrien said, laughing. "Can I have another question, please."

OK, how about this one: Is there any chance that Crosby is peaking at age 19, about a decade earlier than most players?

"He'll get better," Therrien said.

He already has since entering the league in 2005, as frequent linemate Mark Recchi noted.

"He's bigger, he's stronger, he's faster," Recchi said. "Everything. He's more confident. Last year was just a little steppingstone for him. It's incredible, the steps he's taken."

And the ones he's intent on taking in the weeks and months and years to come.

"You have to take what you do seriously," Crosby said. "No matter what you do in life, you have to want to do it to your potential."

Which nobody in the NHL is doing better right now.

(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )

Gene Collier: Putting casino politics aside briefly, Sid is vicious against the Flyers

Thursday, December 14, 2006
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

One week of presumed exactness separated the Penguins from a fateful political convulsion as they appeared on the ice against Philadelphia last night. They looked no worse for the anxiety, but there was more than one political consideration as the day-to-day countdown to a casino resolution began in earnest.

It wasn't by scheduling happenstance, for example, that county executive Dan Onorato spent enough time on local radio yesterday to get a master's in traffic reporting. His mission was clearly to cool tensions over the impending decision by the Gaming Control board, specifically in the event that Pittsburgh's sole casino license is awarded to one of Isle of Capri's competitors.

Meanwhile, Penguins owner-to-be Jim Balsillie was in Harrisburg for a second chat with the Gaming operatives, this time offering that Plan B "could be" the solution to the hockey club's long-term Pittsburgh stability if the $290 million for a new arena in the Isle of Capri package somehow doesn't hold sway. That represented something of a political softening, as the hockey club had pretty much regarded anything but an Isle of Capri victory as plunging the franchise directly into the ninth circle of hell.

No wonder a virulent strain of pessimism still cooks among Pittsburgh's ever-skittish hockey fans that any decision which would disappoint Isle of Capri next Wednesday will immediately trigger competing bids from moving companies anxious to help the Penguins vacate the region.
Stoking that uncertainty, and as a baseline for the public dialogue yesterday, Daniel Rothschild and Kenneth Doyno articulated in a muscular op-ed piece in your good morning Post-Gazette how the North Shore site proposed by Majestic Star, one of Isle of Capri's two casino rivals, "has remarkable advantages when it comes to influencing additional development" and "advances the grandest vision for our region's future."

Of course, Rothschild and Doyno are merely architects, urban designers, and teachers at Carnegie Mellon University's Urban Lab. It's not like they're packing the comprehensive expertise of, you know, hockey fans.

Fans prefer their politics a little more visual, a little more tangible, such as the who-gets-what of basic puck management. When Sidney Crosby took the Philadelphia Flyers' R.J. Umberger (the former Plum High School star) behind the net and just kind of left him there, throwing it into reverse and leaking back in front of the Philadelphia goal like a phantom, the audience inside the old Uptown barn had the kind of politics it came for.

Crosby backhanded one past beleaguered Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki for the second Penguins goal in a one-minute span of the first period last night, triggering an 8-4 spanking that further separated the Atlantic Division rivals in just about every dimension, most particularly hope. The Penguins virtually bristle with promise, arena politics notwithstanding. The Flyers, clinging to a 40-year tradition of fists and fury and even a couple of long ago Stanley Cups, are 8-19-4 in Act II of the new NHL, their notable moments essentially limited to occasional criticisms of Sid the Kid.

Crosby torments Philadelphia even when the clock stops. Gliding innocently back toward a new between-the-benches location for between-periods interviews last night, he somehow drew a penalty from Flyers winger Todd Fedoruk, who gave him a shove after the horn just for the heck of it.

The Penguins did not score on the resulting power play that began with the second period, but scored on almost everything else on a night it appeared to be using a successful road trip to catapult toward the long winter with plans for consistent accomplishment.

Crosby, for one, was not going to allow an unplanned spasm of goaltender switching by Michel Therrien to curdle the club's concentration.

Jocelyn Thibault appeared in net for the Penguins as the second period began for reasons related to Marc-Andre Fleury's equipment, a kind of wardrobe malfunction without the nipple and without any lingering disruption. Fleury returned just before the six-minute mark of the second period, or smack in the middle of a sequence when Crosby was adding the second, third and fourth assists of another spectacular performance.

Just past the three-minute mark of the third period, Crosby added a fifth. Is this legal?

Maybe the Flyers should look into it.

In five games this season, Crosby has seven goals and eight assists against them, and in 13 career appearances against Philadelphia, he has 14 goals and 15 assists. Nearly a third of his 47 points this season are against Philadelphia.

Sid nearly added a sixth on a two-on-one as time was running out, as "Go Home Flyers" was getting its third chorus. Crosby came here through the ridiculous random politics of ping-pong balls, and the prospect of watching him through 10 or 15 years of brilliance, accompanied by the growing luminescence of Fleury and Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal, makes the next couple of weeks around here awfully compelling.

(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com. )

Joe Starkey: Therrien pushing right buttons

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Joe Starkey
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

You might not agree with everything Penguins coach Michel Therrien does - I certainly don't - but you better believe this:

He is closer to being the NHL's Coach of the Year than he is to the firing line.

In a way, it's understandable that people wonder about Therrien's job security seemingly every time the Penguins have a bad shift. There is no getting around the fact he was forced upon new general manager Ray Shero, just as Shero, Therrien and everyone else in the Penguins organization soon will be thrust upon new owner Jim Balsillie (and he upon them).

When you weren't hired by the guy in charge, you're in a tenuous situation.

But unless this team disintegrates - and that seems unlikely for a club that was strong-willed enough and well-coached enough to erase a 4-0 deficit and win at Washington two nights ago - all questions related to Therrien's job status should cease.

Fact is, the Penguins (13-11-5) are on pace to finish with 88 points, 30 more than last season. They stormed back against Washington largely because Therrien, seeing that Evgeni Malkin was on the ice for three of Washington's first four goals, revamped his lineup. He moved defensive-minded Jordan Staal into Malkin's spot on the second line and put Malkin with Sidney Crosby and Ryan Malone.

About an hour later, the Penguins scored one of the more dramatic victories in recent franchise history on Malkin's mind-bending shootout goal.

It wasn't Therrien's only well-timed move of the trip. He also inserted breakaway specialist Erik Christensen into the leadoff spot in the shootout Monday and had a productive heart-to-heart talk with Malkin on Friday in Atlanta.

OK, "talk" might be stretching it. Therrien is a French-Canadian who speaks splintered English. Malkin is a Russian who speaks almost none. The two might have trouble saying hello without a serious misunderstanding, so Therrien used a league stat sheet to illustrate his point. He directed Malkin's attention to the scoring leaders. There are 30 listed on the daily report.

"I said, 'Where's your name?' " Therrien recalled Tuesday after practice at Mellon Arena. "I said, 'I want you to be in the top 15. Find a way to get there.' We shook hands. He left. He was a dominant player that night."

The move easily could have backfired, but Therrien handled it perfectly. He saw how Malkin had flourished in Sidney Crosby's absence and how Malkin seemed too willing to slink into Crosby's shadow once The Kid returned.

"Sid might be the best player in the league right now," Therrien said. "I want to make sure Malkin has the mentality to be side-by-side with him. My goal is to make sure I'm raising the bar high. Good athletes, when you give them a challenge, force themselves to get better."

Good teams do that, too, which is why Therrien needs to make sure the bar is raised for everyone. The Eastern Conference is jammed like never before. NFL-style parity has hit the NHL, making gigantic one-year improvements possible.

The Penguins should challenge for a playoff spot. They should finish over .500. That's why I like what Shero has to say, as he attempts to walk the line of pushing patience without poo-pooing the playoffs.

Shero must allow for the possibility of something special to happen this season without mortgaging part of the future to try to fill holes.

"Let's see where this goes," Shero said before the game in Washington. "I don't want to lower the bar in terms of what the team's expectations are. To make the playoffs should be the goal, and we're close. We're in every game. What I'm looking for is improvement, and that's what I've said from day one. It's going to be a process. You have to have patience."

Is he considering changing coaches?

"No, I'm not," Shero said. "It's not on my mind. It really isn't."

Nor should it be.

Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com

Penguin's Recchi Aging Gracefully

Wednesday, December 13, 2006
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

More Coverage:
Penguins Notebook: Team savor comeback win

Practice at Mellon Arena yesterday was supposed to last 30 or 40 minutes, but after the routine drills, many of the Penguins' players got into a four-on-four scrimmage that lasted another half-hour and ended because they were ordered off the ice.

Missing from the whole session were just three players -- defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney, who lead the team in ice time, and the old guy.

That would be Mark Recchi, who often skips optional skates and occasionally is given days off when the team is in a busy stretch while his younger teammates rarely miss a chance to practice.

Now that winger John LeClair's career with the Penguins -- and perhaps in the NHL -- appears to be over, Recchi is the last old man standing. He's at least six years older than all of his teammates and could be the father of many.

Don't, however, expect him to trade his hockey stick -- the composite Warrior model he started using last spring -- for a walker anytime soon.

Recchi might have been born the year Richard Nixon was elected president, but he is 38 going on 28, judging from the jump in his legs and his spot on the stats sheet.

"I'm really impressed with Mark Recchi, the job that he's doing on the ice, the job that he's doing in the dressing room with those young kids," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said of Recchi, who is tied for third on the team with 22 points, including seven goals, and is plus-5.

"You want to have leaders, and he's a true leader. But to be able to lead, you've got to perform. Recchi's doing a fantastic job."

Since a four-game stretch in early November with no points, Recchi has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in 15 games going into a home game tonight against Philadelphia, one of three other teams Recchi has played for in the NHL between his three stints with the Penguins.

While LeClair, 37 -- whose skates and equipment hang almost symbolically in the locker stall next to Recchi's -- saw his ice time dwindle and his role diminish this season, Recchi has consistently played on the first or second line, sometimes switching from his natural right wing position to the left side, and is averaging more than 19 minutes per game.

"I feel good out there," Recchi said.

"I think I'm faster now than I was when I was younger. I think a lot of it is learning how to do it. You don't have to spend a ton of time; you just have to do the right things. I've been fortunate to be able to stay healthy and do those things to keep my legs to where they need to be."

Recchi has played a good bit with Sidney Crosby, the team's leading scorer who is half Recchi's age.

Crosby can't vouch for Recchi's claim of being faster now than in years past, seeing as how Crosby was a year old when Recchi broke into the league with the Penguins in the 1988-89 season. He doesn't need the comparison to know Recchi isn't over the hill.

"For him to be flying the way he is, it's unbelievable," Crosby said. "It shows how hard he works off the ice and how committed he is to making sure that he competes at this level.
"He's skating well out there, so we can create plays fast."

And create points -- 1,287 in his career.

"It's nice. It means you're helping," Recchi said. "But I don't always look at that. I know I've played really good games and haven't gotten a point."

Recchi is durable, with his days off rarely coinciding with game days. He has averaged 76 games per season since 1989-90 for a total of 1,285 NHL games and set a league record by playing in 570 consecutive regular-season games between 1991-98. He and the New York Rangers' Jaromir Jagr, 34, are the only players from the Penguins' 1991 Stanley Cup championship team still active in the league.

At 5 feet 10, 190 pounds, Recchi hasn't had the benefit of a long reach or a big frame. It hasn't limited him.

"He's such a competitor," Therrien said. "He's not 6-4 and over 200 pounds, but he's been around the league for a long time. He competes and competes and competes. For the young players to see he's 38 years old and he still has the passion to play the game, he sets such a great example for the young players."

Even if he needs to rest those old bones once in a while.

(Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.)

Advancing to playoffs unlikely for Steelers; reasons abound

Tuesday, December 12, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

More Coverage:
Steelers Notebook: Spawning head coaches not new thing for Cowher
Ed Bouchette's Daily Question
Ron Cook: Porter's words go too far

Winning four of their past five games has put thoughts of making the playoffs into many a Steelers fan's head, and, perhaps, even the Steelers believe they still have a shot.
More likely, they soon will think of what might have been.

The Steelers will be eliminated from playoff contention this weekend even if they win Sunday as long as Jacksonville and Cincinnati both win, according to the NFL. The Steelers would lose tiebreakers to either team in any scenario if all three finish 9-7. Two wild-card teams make the playoffs from each conference.

Even coach Bill Cowher wondered aloud about some of his team's close losses during his news conference yesterday.

"I can think of two or three games that probably a year ago we would have won," Cowher said. "Who can say what those two or three games would create, momentum-wise, and what that creates opportunity wise?"

Forget the momentum, two or three more victories would have given the Steelers a record of 8-5 or 9-4 and in the lead for at least a wild-card playoff berth or hot on the heels of Baltimore for the AFC North Division title. Instead, they are 6-7 and must win their final three games to have a small chance at making it as a wild-card team at 9-7.

"We understand where we are," Cowher said. "It's the same place we've been. We have no margin of error. We have three games left and three very tough opponents beginning this week with Carolina."

Three, possibly four losses, rank among the most galling to them this season:

The Bengals beat them, 28-20, Sept. 24 in Heinz Field, even though the Steelers outgained them in yards, 365-246. A turning point came early when, with a 7-0 lead and a first down on Cincinnati's 6, Ben Roethlisberger threw an interception in the end zone. That happened twice among his three interceptions. The Steelers also lost two fumbles, one by punt-returner Ricardo Colclough in the fourth quarter, when the Steelers led, 17-14, that set up a touchdown.

The Falcons beat them, 41-38, in overtime in Atlanta Oct. 22, although the Steelers outgained them, 473-399. There were no interceptions, but there were three lost fumbles by the Steelers, each of which the Falcons converted into touchdowns. The Steelers had a 17-7 lead in the second quarter.

Officials called a false-start penalty as the Steelers were spiking the ball near the end of regulation to try a 51-yard field goal and, by rule, 10 seconds were run off the clock to send the game into overtime. That prompted Dan Rooney to say, "These officials should be ashamed of themselves."

The Steelers never led in a 20-13 loss at Oakland Oct. 29, but they outgained the Raiders, 360-98. The Raiders returned two Roethlisberger interceptions for touchdowns, one for 100 yards, two of four interceptions he threw. Oakland has not won a game since and is 2-11.

Denver won, 31-20, in Heinz Field, although the Steelers outgained the Broncos, 499-336.
Roethlisberger threw three interceptions, and the Steelers lost three of their six fumbles.

Most NFL teams can point to games they should have won. Even the Steelers could do so last season despite winning the Super Bowl -- 23-20 at home to New England, 23-17 in overtime at home to Jacksonville, 16-13 in overtime in Baltimore and 38-31 to Cincinnati at home, despite outgaining them 474-324.

That's why, when Cowher said that last season they might have won the close games they're losing this season, it is not necessarily so.

"Going into last week's game we were 5-7, and somebody asked what was the difference between last year," Cowher said. "Last year, we were 7-5. You're talking about a two-game difference."

Of course, they won a close game too, 24-20, in Cleveland.

"We are where we are and we're dealing with it," Cowher said. "We have the opportunity ahead of us now. We will need help.

"But we've got to take care of business, and those other things will take care of themselves."
They always do; there's just not much chance they will take care of themselves in the Steelers' favor this time.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com. )

Ward says he'll be ready to start at Carolina

Ward says he'll be ready to start at Carolina
Also predicts that Polamalu will play
Monday, December 11, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two weeks ago today, a surgeon pulled a bone fragment and loose cartilage out of Hines Ward's knee, another bump in a rocky road for the defending Super Bowl champs.

Neither that road, nor his play has come to an end, Ward said, because he plans to return to the starting lineup Sunday when the Steelers visit the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, N.C.

And he predicted Troy Polamalu will join him.

"Troy and myself, we want to come back," Ward said. "There are three games left."

Ward and Polamalu are among the ironmen on the Steelers. It's the first time Ward has missed two consecutive games and just three total in his nine-year career. Polamalu missed the first two games of his four-year career with a second-degree MCL knee sprain.

Between them, they have been to six Pro Bowls, and Ward is the reigning Super Bowl MVP and owns the Steelers' record with 631 pass receptions.

Polamalu continues to lead the fan-balloting at strong safety and, Ward, after a slow start, was back in Pro Bowl form at flanker. He has 57 receptions and six touchdowns in his 11 games, and his 13.8-yard average per catch is the third highest since he became a starter in 1999.

Ward's knee was hyperextended at Cleveland Nov. 19. He started the following week in Baltimore and caught four passes before his new injury developed. He was taken out of the game and had surgery the next morning.

"They took out some bone fragments that broke, and cleaned up some loose particles," Ward said. "It was just an extra piece of bone that was there, it's not like I needed it. While they were in there, they cleaned it all up. I shouldn't have a problem, it feels good, and the swelling's going down."

He planned to start running over the weekend. Ward said he could have played against the Cleveland Browns if the game were yesterday rather than Thursday.

"In the long run, I need to feel a lot better now and in the next couple of years."

After he caught just nine passes for 99 yards in the first three games, Ward heard whispers that he was either hitting a wall at age 30 after eight punishing years as the most physical wide receiver in the NFL or that his success had somehow made him fat. He even dropped a couple of passes, a rarity.

But the Steelers had fewer than 200 yards passing in each of the first four games, and Ward halted further talk of his play as he hit stride in October. Over a stretch of five games, he caught 35 passes for 546 yards and five touchdowns that ended with him being helped off the field at the end of a comeback victory in Cleveland with a hyperextended knee.

No matter how coach Bill Cowher lists him on the injury report this week, Ward has no doubt he will play against the Panthers Sunday.

"It's just a pride thing," Ward said. "It stinks being on the sideline, it eats at you.
"Playing Cleveland and Tampa Bay, there was no need [to rush back], those are teams we're supposed to beat. Now we have a stretch coming down to Carolina -- a lot of people picked them to win the Super Bowl -- and then Baltimore and Cincinnati to finish out.

"We're still mathematically in this thing, and we're going to take it one game at a time. We're getting 10 whole days until we play our next game."

The Steelers would have to win all three to go 9-7 and, even then, their playoff chances look bleak with five other teams ahead of them for the two AFC wild-card playoff spots.

No matter, there are games to be played, and Hines Ward wants to be part of them.

NOTES -- Willie Parker's rushing touchdown against Cleveland was his 10th of the season to go with three receiving scores. He moved ahead of Ward and three others on the Steelers' record books into a tie for third-most in a season with Jerome Bettis, who scored 13 in 2002. Louis Lipps holds the record with 15 in 1985. With 1,199 yards rushing, Parker is only 3 yards from his second-year total of 1,202, which is sixth on the list. He needs 233 yards in his final three games to move up to third. Barry Foster holds the club record with 1,690 in 2002, and Bettis is second with 1,665 in 1997.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.)

Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry heats up tonight

But it sizzles only on the ice; off it, everything is cool
Monday, December 11, 2006
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


More Coverage:
Penguins Notebook: Capitals' other Russian a star, too

WASHINGTON -- Yes, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are rivals. They have been for a while now, and probably will be for the rest of their careers.

They have competed mostly for individual honors and trophies so far. Someday -- maybe this season -- the stakes will be raised to a playoff berth. Perhaps to an Olympic gold medal in 2010. And, eventually, to a Stanley Cup.

And those two will battle every second of every shift, because neither has a non-competitive corpuscle in his body. Both are driven to be the best at what they do, and any differences between them to this point have been nothing more than subtle shadings in magnitudes of greatness.

So it's only natural that anytime Crosby and Ovechkin share a slab of ice, as will happen when the Penguins face Washington at 7:08 tonight at the Verizon Center, a lot of people pay attention.

Tickets sales and passions and TV ratings spike, as even casual fans are captivated by what these two extraordinary young talents can do, and how they compare.

But, for all the emotion and energy Crosby and Ovechkin bring to every one of their meetings, one thing is conspicuously absent: A genuine, deep-seated dislike of the other.

While they don't pal around -- Ovechkin didn't invite Crosby out for sushi in Georgetown last night -- they seem to have a true appreciation for what the other can do, and what he means to his team and the sport.

"We have an 'opponents' relationship,' " Crosby said. "It's not a relationship like [a player has] with a teammate or anything like that. I know him. He's a guy I say 'Hi' to. I respect him as a player, but it's nothing beyond that."

It's also nothing personal. Crosby and Ovechkin will go at it ferociously on the ice, but theirs is not a rivalry that will be settled with bare knuckles in a dressing-room hallway or switchblades in the parking lot.

"Some people might want that," Crosby said, smiling. "But it's just not there."

The game tonight will be the fifth time Crosby has faced Ovechkin since they entered the NHL in the fall of 2005. Crosby took their personal season series by outscoring Ovechkin, 9-6, while the Penguins won three of four games, but Ovechkin took the biggest prize by claiming the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.

Tonight, though, will mark the first time a Crosby-Ovechkin confrontation will have any real significance in the standings. Going into last night, the Capitals were eighth in the Eastern Conference with 32 points, the Penguins 13th with 29.

"The Capitals and Penguins will meet this year, not Crosby and Ovechkin," Ovechkin said.
That, Washington coach Glen Hanlon said, should only enhance the evening.

"I think it's more enjoyable, because it's not just two guys," he said. "Knowing their personalities, they likely don't want any of it to be one person against another person.
"They want it to be their teams that are playing. It's two good young teams that are playing."

Two young teams that happen to feature the finest young players in the sport. Guys who were absolutely great as rookies -- and have gotten significantly better since.

Forget that Crosby was tied for fourth in the NHL scoring race before last night, even though he missed three games with a groin injury. Points are the one thing coach Michel Therrien doesn't even mention when discussing the evolution of Crosby's game.

"He's more mature," Therrien said. "He understands the game more. He's gotten better on faceoffs. We believe he's quicker than last year. He's able to shift gears from fourth to fifth; I don't see many guys in the NHL who can do that.

"Defensively, he's one of our best in our own end. He's the type of kid who wants to be the best at everything. It's pretty simple. Right now, the way he's playing is amazing."

Ovechkin, who scored 52 goals as a rookie and is tied for third in the league with 18 this season, is renowned for his ability to put the puck in the net, but Hanlon is most impressed by the way he has picked up on the details of other facets of the game, like defensive-zone coverages.

"Alexander wants to do anything he can to win the Stanley Cup," he said.

Yeah, well, that's at the top of Crosby's to-do list, too. And if, ultimately, that means breaking Ovechkin's heart in the process, well, so be it.

Still, Crosby allows himself to think what it would be like if he and Ovechkin end up as linemates in the All-Star game. About what a lethal combination such a gifted playmaker and lethal goal-scorer could be.

"It would be fun," he said. "When you have a guy who can shoot the puck like that and you know people are pulling for you to score goals together ... it's nice to have an event like that.

"We'll see how it goes. Who knows? We might not be good together. But it would be cool to be playing with someone like that."

Almost as cool as most other people think it is to watch them play against one another.

(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )

Parker Rushes Past Hall-Of-Famers

By ALAN ROBINSON
8 December 2006
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Franco Harris. Jerome Bettis. John Henry Johnson. They are among the top rushers in NFL history - two are Hall of Famers, and Bettis may join them some day - and each is high up on the Pittsburgh Steelers' single-game yardage list. Remarkably, none ever had a game like Willie Parker did. Make that two games.

In less than a month, Parker has the No. 1 and No. 3 single-game rushing performances in Steelers history. He ran for a club-record 223 yards Thursday night against the Browns in little more than three quarters, a big night that followed up a 213-yard game against the Saints on Nov. 12.

"It means a lot, I'm not going to sit here and say it don't," Parker said of a performance that also gave him a second straight 1,000-yard season. "I came a long way."

Until this season, the Steelers had only a pair of 200-yard games in their 74-season history, John "Frenchy" Fuqua's 218 yards against the Eagles in 1970 and Johnson's 200-yard game against the Browns in 1964. Now, Parker has doubled that list by himself.

Which raises this question: Considering how easily the yards came to Parker during the Steelers' 27-7 victory Thursday, could he have threatened the NFL record of 295 yards by Baltimore's Jamal Lewis against - you guessed it, the Browns - in 2003?

Parker ran only three times in the fourth quarter for 11 yards, enough to get the team record before sitting down. The 223 yards are the most by an NFL running back this season.
"Coach (Bill) Cowher didn't come to me and say to set the NFL record, he said the Steelers record, so I guess the NFL record is out of the books," Parker said.

Steelers linebacker Joey Porter badmouthed the Browns during a lengthy postgame rant in which he suggested Parker could have gotten as many yards as he wanted.

"He ran the ball well and they couldn't stop him," Porter said. "At some points in time, they had nine, 10 people in the box and he was breaking it."

That he is breaking records in his third NFL season seems a bit preposterous to Parker, one of the few NFL players who can say he was signed on the recommendation of the owner's son.
Parker got considerable playing time as a freshman running back at North Carolina in 2000, but found himself getting the ball less and less as his career under coach John Bunting wore on. He had only 181 yards as a senior, a number he reached Thursday by the third quarter.

As a result, Parker didn't get much attention from NFL scouts. But North Carolina-based Steelers scout Dan Rooney Jr. - the son of the Hall of Fame owner - remembered the speed Parker first displayed as a high school running back. So the Steelers signed Parker as a non-drafted rookie in the hours immediately after the 2004 draft.

That speed so intrigued Cowher that he kept Parker on the 53-man roster, even though the Steelers had just signed Duce Staley to be their starting running back and also had Bettis, the No. 5 rusher in NFL history.

Parker's signing, little noticed at the time, might have won a Super Bowl for the Steelers.

After Bettis and Staley were hurt in training camp a year ago, Parker won the starting job, rushed for 1,202 yards during the season, then had a Super Bowl record 75-yard TD run in the 21-10 championship game victory over Seattle.

"I always say I came a long way and it means a lot," said Parker, who signed a $13.4 million, four-year contract extension in August.

When Parker broke the record, he and Cowher hugged along the sideline. Coincidentally, Parker's record game came during the same week the Steelers released Staley, who was hurt halfway through the 2004 season and, partly because of Parker, never was a starter again.

"He (Cowher) told me how proud he was of me and of how far I came," Parker said. "It was like a father-son relationship. He embraced me. It got emotional."

Another name on the Steelers' list of single-game rushing leaders also had a hand in Parker's success.

Dick Hoak, who had a 169-yard game against the Saints in 1969, has been a Steelers player or assistant coach every year but one since 1961, working the last 35 years as their running backs coach. He was a teammate, coach, or both, of every player on the top-10 rushing list.

So when Parker was asked about Fuqua - best known as the intended receiver on Harris' Immaculate Reception against the Raiders in 1972 - the name wasn't unfamiliar to him.
"Coach Hoak talks about him all of the time," Parker said.

No doubt Hoak will be talking about Parker for a long time, too.

A very happy birthday for Alan Faneca

By Mike Bires
Beaver County Times
12/08/2006

In a perfect world, Alan Faneca would have celebrated his 30th birthday quietly with his wife and daughter. Instead, he spent the day working.

Thursday morning, he woke up at the downtown hotel where the Steelers stay the night before home games. After breakfast, lunch and meetings to review the game plan, it was on to Heinz Field for Thursday night's frigid confrontation against the Cleveland Browns.

The Steelers' star left guard would have preferred to share a cozy dinner with Julie and Anabelle Kathryn, the couple's 2-year-old girl. But because the NFL wants to expand its visibility - specifically its own NFL Network - it scheduled five Thursday games (as well as three Saturday games) in November and December.

So Faneca spent his birthday blocking the Browns into submission on a night when brisk winds and a 20-degree temperature made the wind-chill factor zero degrees on the North Shore.

A Pro Bowl selection in each of the past five seasons, Faneca certainly looks as though he'll make it again. He sure had a monster night in the Steelers' 27-7 win over the Browns. Time after time as Willie Parker set a franchise single-game rushing record with 223 yards, Faneca blew open holes by blasting Cleveland defenders.

He's already being endorsed by pro football fans across the country, who've given Faneca more votes than any other guard in the league in the NFL's three-way Pro Bowl selection process.
"That's nice to know," the man nicknamed "Red" by his teammates because of his thick red mane, said. "But right now, it's a little too early for me to be thinking about the Pro Bowl."

Even though there've been some whispers that maybe Faneca isn't the same dominant force he's been the past five years, we'll find out in a few weeks when players and coaches in the league cast their Pro Bowl ballots.

To be sure, the Steelers' offensive line collectively - center Jeff Hartings, Faneca and Kendall Simmons at guard, and Marvel Smith and Max Starks at tackle - has been inconsistent this year and heavily criticized for it. Going into last night's game, the Steelers ranked 17th in rushing. That's quite a drop for a team that finished fifth in the league last year. That's quite a slide for a team that's ran for more yards than any other NFL team since Bill Cowher was hired as coach in 1992.

Faneca, though, likes to think his play for the 6-7 Steelers is just as solid as it's been in recent years.

"You can always work on your trade," he said. "There are always ways of getting better and playing smarter. But I'd like to think I'm holding my own."

Faneca is at least one of the top three offensive linemen in franchise history. The other two played center - the late Mike Webster, who played in nine Pro Bowls during his 15-year-pro career (1974-88) and Dermontti Dawson, a seven-time Pro Bowler whose 13-year career (1988-2000) was cut short due to a nagging hamstring pull. Webster is already in the Hall of Fame, Dawson will get in someday, maybe as early as next year.

Faneca sure looks like he has Hall of Fame potential. But first, he still has a lot of playing to do.

"There've been quite a few lineman over the years who've played a lot of years in this league," Faneca said. "Look at Bruce Matthews (who played for the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans). How long did he play, 18, 19 or 20 years?"

Matthews, who played for the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, spent 19 years in the pros.

"I'm not going to play 18, 19 or 20 years," said Faneca, a ninth-year pro who's managed to excel despite battling epilepsy since he was 15 years old (he still takes six pills a day to combat the illness). "But I might get close. I'm only 30 and I feel great. I've been lucky, I've never been seriously hurt before. So if I stay healthy, who knows how long I'll be able to play?"

As far as playing on the day he turned 30, Faneca said he didn't remember ever playing on his birthday before. But he has once before. On Dec. 7, 2003, the Steelers blew out the Oakland Raiders, 27-7.

So Faneca is a perfect 2-0 on his birthday.

Mike Bires can be reached online at mbires@timesonline.com