New Steelers Owner Trades Hines Ward

Um, so I guess the Steelers were sold overnight, and new owner Stanley Druckenmiller has made a blockbuster deal to trade Hines Ward to the NBA's Orlando Magic for Rashard Lewis. Tradition is gone in Pittsburgh, and the new owner is taking the Tampa Bay Lightning-do-anything-approach to the front office.

I've seen Hines play basketball, about 5 or 6 years ago at a Steelers vs. Faculty charity basketball game at my old high school. Even with no knees, he can hold his own. I'm more concerned with how Lewis' skills will complement the Steelers' WR corps. He is 6-10, so coupled with draft pick Limas Sweed, Lewis should create a pretty tall group of targets for bitchy-ass Big Ben.

In all seriousness, the screengrab is from a Google search for Hines Ward. FSMG, the group responsible for the flub, also has designed websites for Dwayne Bowe, Reggie Nelson, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Ray Lewis, Lito Sheppard and a few other players. Google searches for the other athletes are normal. Is FSMG trying to tell us something?

Next, Sidney Crosby's website will feature Jagr's name, Big Ben will share sites with Tiger Woods and the entire Pirates website will just be a gigantic picture of Sid Bream sticking up a huge middle finger.

I think this is all somehow the fault of bloggers.

Let's Get Some Perspective On This "Tiger's Knee" Business

This is not a knock against Tiger Woods. I find it impossible to root against the guy, as he is a rare superstar that consistently gets good press and love from the fans. Not even an MJ, A-Rod or Tom Brady could remain as socially bulletproof as Tiger. Brady has three Super Bowls, but the Brady lover and Brady haters cancel each other out. The Tiger haters are severely outnumbered, despite the fact that no one on this Earth can touch his talent level.

I can't hope he loses in today's US Open playoffs, although Rocco Mediate is the hometown kid. I went to college a stone's throw from Greensburg (Latrobe. Arnie Palmer, anyone?). So I'll be pulling for Rocco, but a win by Woods wouldn't cause me to run off into a hissyfit. Hell, halfway through yesterday's round, I went out and bought one of Tiger's G2 beverages (ed. - I just found out that Gatorade Tiger and G2 are two separate drinks upon returning from the store. Yesterday, I tried the 32 oz. Quiet Storm. Today, its the same-size Cool Fusion), primarily because I hadn't ever tried one and most reviews I had heard said it tasted like the opposite of absolute dog shit (absolute cat shit).

So you know where I stand. Until Tiger brutally murders a family of 4, he can do little to no wrong in my book.

With that being said, everyone needs to shut up with this bullshit surrounding Tiger's knee. Honestly, on a Google image seach for KNEE, Tiger appears in 7 pictures on the first 2 pages.

He's so courageous. I can't believe he's golfing with a sore knee.

Shut up. Shut up right now. With all the hooplah about Tiger's surgically-repaired right knee, I found myself constantly watching said knee to see if the damn thing was going to implode upon itself. Was he going to take a shot and have the bone rip through the skin based on the amount of twist his shot gets?

I'm no expert on golf. Sure, I've taken lessons, gotten to the course from time to time and absolutely love to hit the range, but I don't know the type toll 72 holes puts on the body. I'm no expert in surgery, too. Aside from a few oral surgeries when I was a tyke, I'm a stranger to scalpels and the like.

Still, I'm amazed by the press Tiger's knee has gotten. Tiger had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair some cartilage two days after the Masters. Recovery time, according to Wikipedia:

Usually a patient can fully load his leg already within a couple of days and after a few weeks the joint function can fully recover. It is not uncommon for athletes who have a beyond average physical condition to return to normal athletic activities within a few weeks.

The Masters was over on April 13th. Tiger had his surgery 2 months ago. And you should take this in the least-gay way possible, but Tiger is ripped. Look at Lefty and Tiger side by side and tell me who is in a state of "beyond average physical condition."

But Nick, isn't this PSaMP? Why does this have to do anything with Pittsburgh?

Well, Rocco is Tiger's opponent in today's playoff. But more importantly, other Pittsburgh athletes have had the same procedure, and haven't been pampered the way that Tiger has.

Three years ago, Josh Miller, PUNTER for the Steelers, had the same surgery and expected to miss two weeks maximum. This is a dude who uses his legs/knees to kick for a living. And punter's are in arguably equal physical shape to Tiger.

But what about more high-risk players. Later in that same season, Ben Roethlisberger had arthroscopic knee surgery. He missed two weeks of games. If I was a betting man, I'd have put money on a golfer coming back from arthroscopic knee surgery faster than an NFL quarterback!

Now, for the sake of fairness, the Steelers lost the first three games in Big Ben's return. However, the team went on the tear of all tears, winning the Super Bowl as the Wild Card.

So what's Tiger's deal? Is the concern over his knee a mere media fabrication to help more people sympathize with Woods? Then what of the grimaces? Is Tiger just a wuss? How can a quarterback, who is the sole focal point of an entire defensive line, recover from a surgery in 1/4 of the time it takes the world's most physically fit golfer? I don't get it.

As I've said, this isn't me knocking Tiger. I can't fault him if he wins today, even though he'd have to beat the fan-favorite, local elderly guy in Rocco Mediate.

But can we quit it with all the nonsense surrounding Tiger's knee?

Apologies Over, Now Back To Blogging

hey hey, the pirates won. i still get excited when the buccos win, mainly because its something i havent seen a whole lot of in my day. by taking the final game of the series with the reds, the buccos avoided being swept, and their record stands at 4-2, which leads the central with the reds. jack wilson homered (see above picture), jason bay homered, and so did big country. i said before, that brad eldred needed to make the pirates opening day roster, instead of starting the season in the minors again. big country proved me right, by homering in his first game this season, and for the first time since 2005. it was eldred's 12 career homer. i saw his 10th career home run, in a game that andy pettitte won in pittsburgh, on september 20, 2005. my buddy evan, who is from boston and looks like joe thornton, as ive pointed out in the past, hung out and talked with pettitte's dad throughout the game. we had seats right behind the astros dugout, and evan, a hardcore pats/bosox fan, kept talking with mr pettitte about boston sports, and mr pettitte kept looking at his friends like, "whos this dude?" dont know why thats important, but it was memorable...and eldred homered.

we are about 50 hours to the drop of the puck in pittsburgh's first playoff game in some time. i cant wait, and im not that worried that the game will be in ottawa. we just won there, so that shouldnt be too much of an obstacle to overcome. scott burnside of espn.com, who has written some pro-penguins pieces in the past, has picked the sens to win in 5 games. boo. he names the lack of experience and the questionable blue line as reasons for his pick. i just think he has the hots for sens coach bryan murray.

zach johnson won the masters. he outlasted tiger, who couldnt seem to hit the right shots. it is impressive, however that tiger played so poorly, yet still put himself in a position to win another green jacket. i was unimpressed by johnson, and i didnt want him to win. he seemed like a tool on the golf course, and he was making me mad by constantly taking the sunglasses off the back of his head in a deliberate fashion, and quickly putting them on his face. it kept distracting me from his putting and short game, which was unbelievable. he laid up on every par 5 the entire weekend, and used short irons to set himself up with makeable puts. pretty smart way to win the masters with the highest score in tournament history (289).

the pirates home opener is currently going on, against the struggling cards. ian "im gonna strike out 11 astros" snell is pitching against braden "im supposed to pitch in the first 5-6 innings?" looper. this will be looper's second start of his career, after spending the past years as a reliever and closer. the cards are up 1-0, and chris duffy has the only pirate hit. UPDATE: jason bay just got pittsburghs second hit, moving adam laroche, who walked, to second. with only 1 out, hopefully x-man nady or paulino will knock in a couple runs. UPDATE: nady hit into an inning-ending double play. that sucks.

more later...