New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has a new book out in which he addresses the rumors that his former teammate with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kordell Stewart, is gay.
Burress says that while he doesn't personally know or care if Stewart is gay, he does think that the rumors affected Stewart. From Pro Football Talk:
"People were talking about [Kordell] being gay," Burress writes in Chapter 5. "The players heard that, but we never talked about it. I don't know if Kordell is gay or not. It was none of our business. If ever we would have talked about it, it would have made everybody uncomfortable. If some player was gay, I don't think he could come out while he was still playing. It would be real hard. It would mess a team up mentally and it wouldn't be good for that person."
If Burress is right that a player couldn't come out while he was active in the NFL, that's a sad commentary on the NFL. I'd like to think that we're enlightened enough as a society that in most workplaces, coming out to a co-worker wouldn't be a big deal. Burress seems to think NFL locker rooms are among our society's least-enlightened workplaces, and I fear he's right.
When the Wall Street Journal first reported that an outside investor may buy part of the Steelers, the news seemed discouraging, but not disastrous.
Since then, the news just keeps getting worse.
Now we've learned that instead of there being a likelihood that Dan Rooney would be able to buy back all of his brother's shares, there's the potential that an outside buyer will actually take over a majority share. The Associated Press is reporting that the deal could happen within the next week. While potential new owner Stanley Druckenmiller sounds like a diehard Steelers fan who is willing to let Rooney continue to run the team, that doesn't change the fact that any kind of ownership change is a pretty significant switch.
The shocking news yesterday that the Pittsburgh Steelers could be for sale got even more shocking today when multiple media outlets reported that the billionaire financier Stanley Druckenmiller has already been identified as the likely buyer, with a sale possibly being agreed upon as soon as this week.
First, the bad news for Steelers fans: The beloved Steelers chairman Dan Rooney is frequently referred to as the team's owner, but in reality Rooney owns only 16% of the team. His four brothers each also own 16%, and relatives of the late Jack McGinley own 20%. That means that if some billionaire -- Druckenmiller or anyone else -- comes along and can persuade the McGinleys and two of the Rooneys to sell, that billionaire can become a majority owner.
But the good news for Steelers fans is that in reality, it just doesn't work that way. NFL teams can't be sold without the consent of a three-fourths majority of the other NFL owners, and Rooney is held in such high esteem by his fellow owners that there's no way that anyone can get approval for a sale unless Rooney is OK with it.
The Steelers are one of the few teams in sports where the owners are actually a bigger deal than the coaches and the players. But if a Wall Street Journal story is true, that might change.
The WSJ says that the Steelers have been secretly shopped around by the Rooneys, largely because some of original owner Art Rooney's grandkids want to see how much money they could make if the team was put on the open market.
We've seen Chuck Noll and Bil Cowher retire, but the thought of anyone but the Rooneys owning the Steelers is worse news than finding out that Terry Bradshaw was retiring and the Steelers' new quarterbacks were Cliff Stoudt and Mark Malone. Some Steelers fans may have been upset at the Rooney's supposed stinginess over the years, but the reality is that the Steelers have had as much stability and success as any team in football over the past 40 years, and the credit for that goes to the ownership.
There are a lot of things that ESPN can be rightfully slammed for--Who's Now will live in our nightmares for years to come. But there is one summer series worthy of praise. Not only is the My Wish series good TV, it's also a great experience for the kids who get to fulfill their dreams..
If you're a Steelers fan and you haven't seen the story of paralyzed teenager Akeem Havens' day as a Steeler, it's well worth checking out. After watching him score a touchdown, maybe Willie Parker should be worried.
As has been noted several times, the Steelers offensive coordinator doesn't like fullbacks. It was one of the reasons that the Steelers drafted tight end Matt Spaeth last year, and it was why Dan Kreider was phased out for Carey Davis--a more versatile fullback who isn't the blocker Kreider is.
But what hasn't really been explained is whether Arians' preference for tight ends is paying off. According to stats compiled by Stats Inc., it is.
Last year, Willie Parker was a better running back when he ran out of two tight end sets, and Ben Roethlisberger was a better passer as well. Whether it's because of Spaeth, or because the two tight end sets gave teams more to worry about, the Steelers were a better team when they left their fullbacks standing on the sideline.
It looks like Dan Kreider's days as a Steeler are officially done.
The writing had been on the wall ever since the Steelers didn't make him a contract offer of any sort when he became an unrestricted free agent. But now the Lancaster New Era is reporting that Kreider is going to sign a contract with the St. Louis Rams, even if his chances of making the Rams roster are pretty remote.
By saying goodbye to Kreider, Pittsburgh appears ready to go into next season with only Carey Davis on the roster as a true fullback. New offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has de-emphasized fullbacks in general, and he seems to prefer guys like Davis--a runner and a blocker, instead of Kreider's pulling guard in a fullback's body approach.
There's something said for being thorough, as the Steelers now have another scouting report on Jones to stick into his file. But beyond that, I can't think of any logical explanation for why the Steelers would bother to show up, when 28 other teams didn't.
Jones would be no better than the team's No. 3 running back (behind Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall) if he signed, and because Mewelde Moore will return punts, Jones would likely not even dress on gamedays. Even if he's struggling to find a job, some team should be able to do better than that.
There are instances where the Steelers have taken unwanted guys and turned them into something--Charlie Batch is a great example. But in Jones' case, it's hard to think of any reason the Steelers would be interested. Hopefully Steelers scouts are even more thorough when it comes to scouting offensive linemen.
Former Detroit Lions running back Kevin Jones, a free agent recovering from a serious knee injury, invited the entire NFL to a workout Saturday. Only four teams showed up.
Among those four teams -- the Lions, Dolphins, Packers and Steelers -- the best option might be for Jones to sign a deal to return to Detroit, assuming the Lions offer him one. In Miami, Green Bay and Pittsburgh he'd have almost no shot of rising any higher than third on the depth chart, and third-string running backs who don't play special teams don't have much job security.
In Detroit he'd at least have a shot at the starting job, although the Lions don't seem particularly interested in bringing him back -- they've even given away his jersey number.
Jones once looked like one of the league's up-and-coming young running backs, rushing for 1,133 yards and 4.7 yards a carry as a rookie. Since then he's never had even 700 yards or four yards a carry. At age 25, there's a chance that he's done.
Schefter and Pro Football Talk had previously reported that the Steelers were shopping to trade Davenport, but not surprisingly, no team was willing to send even a conditional draft pick to Pittsburgh for a backup tailback. Right now, Ron Dayne, Shaun Alexander, Kevin Jones and Travis Henry are all available as free agents, so it would have made no sense for someone to spend a pick on Davenport--who the Steelers picked up when the Packers waived him two years ago. Nothing Davenport has done in the past two years has really removed him from being that guy who's not that far from being waived at any point. The reality if that running backs, especially backup backs, don't have much job security.
New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has a new book out in which he addresses the rumors that his former teammate with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kordell Stewart, is gay. 
When the Wall Street Journal first reported that an outside investor may buy part of the Steelers, the news seemed discouraging, but not disastrous.
The shocking news yesterday that 
The Steelers are one of the few teams in sports where the owners are actually a bigger deal than the coaches and the players. But if a Wall Street Journal story is true, that might change.
Maybe Bruce Arians is on to something.
It looks like 
A day after they 
Former Detroit Lions running back 
The Steelers have decided to drop the Dookie.
