Carl Joseph Rules

I guess this is "Endorse Other People Day" at PSaMP. What with HHR before and Carl Joseph now.

I recently exchanged notes with Carl, a man you probably have never heard about. Unless you saw him on sites like Deadspin and With Leather back in November. Carl is an amazing athlete that you need to know about.


"Born into poverty on a north Florida tobacco farm in 1961, Carl Joseph didn't stand much of a chance in life, even if he'd had a left leg. But through strength in God and unyielding perseverance, he led not only a normal life, but an extraordinary one.

When he removed his bulky prosthesis or dropped his crutches to play sports, he morphed from a gimp into a powerful competitor. In going where no one-legged human had gone before, he sacked quarterbacks, dunked basketballs and soared to victories in the high jump...by hopping on one leg!

In his heroic journey, he transformed himself from the object of pity and ridicule as a child to one of respect and awe in high school, winning over incredulous couches at each hop along the way.

The improbable athletic exploits of this bashful honor student were credited with bringing Madison's black and white communities together during the tense early years of forced integration."


It's not everyday that you hear inspirational stories of one-legged athletes defying the odds. It's even rarer when the story actually relates to Pittsburgh.

In the early 80s, Pitt football coach Jackie Sherrill brought Carl in for a tryout. I asked Carl to recall his time in Pittsburgh for use here. The following is from Carl himself:


"I first met Coach Sherrill, Mark May and Dan Marino when they unexpectedly showed up in my little hometown of Madison, FL, to take part in "Carl Joseph Appreciation Day" in May of 1980. Coach Sherrill then invited me to fall football camp to be a member of the team and inspire his players.

I was at Pitt for about five weeks. I was allowed to suit up and take part in exercises, warmups and drills, but no contact. I was treated as part of the team and had the same rules as the players. The player I was closest with at that time was Rickey Jackson. He showed me a lot of Pittsburgh and he gave me the name "Jackie Sherrill's Boy" because he felt Coach gave me more freedom. That may have been true, but I really couldn't do anything with that freedom. My mobility at Pitt was severely limited by the hills. I wore an artificial leg on campus and had several falls, which was a humiliating thing for me.

So while I loved my time with the Panthers, I was glad to get back to the flat farmland of northern Florida. I don't know how much my presence at Pitt inspired the players, but they did have an 11-1 season."


Sherrill was touched by Carl enough to write a letter of recommendation for the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, for which Carl was recently nominated. Hopefully, the love Carl has recently gotten from the blogosphere will help in the selection process. Carl and the other nominees should find out the results next month.

Below is video of Carl. PSaMP endorses Carl's selection into the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame!

VOTE FOR HHR!

Non-sports story real quick.

Take a minute and vote for my buds over at Hugging Harold Reynolds. They're up for the 2008 Weblogs Awards in the Best Sports Blog category.

I'm doing this because HHR is good friends with PSaMP, and they're facing a nearly insurmountable challenge. The current leaders have thousands of votes. HHR has a few hundred. So come on, people.

KSK SUCKS! APE IS A FAKE STEELERS FAN AND UFFORD IS A SEAHAWKS FAN WHO IS STILL PISSED ABOUT SUPER BOWL XL! THAT SITE IS NOT FUNNY AND SHOULDN'T WIN THE AWARD. ALL SUPPORT GOES TO HHR!

All joking aside, KSK is rightfully winning, because they have the readership and are one of the funniest sports blogs out there. Any other day, they'd probably get my vote. But I can't vote for them when my buds are directly competing.

And you should do the same. Vote for HHR!

Mini Pony of the Day 1-7-09

Aaahhhh! Mutant mini horse! But the little freak is still the cutest mutant alive!

Even cuter than these links:

Some video of Michael Jordan's first acting gig. [NESW Sports]

Sheena's coworker sent this to her this morning, and she just sent it to me. Mini donkeys! [Donkey Directory]

According to Terry Bradshaw, the Steelers still play at Three Rivers. Oh, he might've been drunk when he said it. [OFTOT]

Florida is gonna win the National Championship. [Moondog Sports]

Versus is growing. [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

Five feature films now playing in the NBA. [Cuzoogle]

Throw Music at Your Ears

Cotter started a music blog, and I'm an idiot a contributor. Check out my first post here.

Why The Hell Does Ben Roethlisberger Like To Bowl So Much?

Run for the hills everybody, there's a giant shit-cloud coming!

Big Ben loves to bowl. A lot. Who the hell woulda guessed?

What, you think this one-time video isn't enough to form my own opinion? Well what happens when you couple that with that one video of Ben bowling in his college days? You know...this one?



Multiple videos of the same guy doing the same random thing means he does this a lot. If its been caught on video at least twice, then there's a certain frequency to the habit. Now, I'm not saying that bowling is a bad thing (I rather enjoy it), but its just weird to see the same guy playing the same fringe sport more than once.

Sometimes a bowler just has to face the music.

And that's YOUR FREAKING CONCUSSION, BEN! Watch the top video again. Now 100% believe the Youtube uploader's description of the video:


This was a few days after he got carted off the field on a stretcher on December 28, 2007 in the last regular season game...so he is used to the position he ends up in. This happened at Nemacolin Resort in Farmington Pennsylvania.


Serious? If Ben is fine enough to bowl, he's gotta have the concussion-cobwebs wiped out. So there's no blaming any mistakes on the injury, Ben. We have proof that you're fine.

Or...Ben's fall at the alley only made the concussion symptoms worse. Damn those slippy floors!

I'm stopping now...this is only getting worse as I keep typing.

Mini Pony of the Day 1-6-09

Yikes! Old boy is not feeling something. Maybe he hates that his teeth/gums look like Terrell Suggs'. But the chick...

...Hey, baby (in the Carhartt).

Read these links:

Ben is practicing. [OFTOT]

Check out the progress on the Consol Energy Center. [The Steel City Sports Fan]

Speaking of Consol...they dropped $85 mil on naming rights, and now might lay off ALL of their miners in 84. [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

The past weekend of sports through pictures. [The Sports Culture]

Pens lost again. I'm getting sick of saying that. [The Pensblog]

If you haven't seen Kurt Warner draw God/Jesus, you haven't seen anything. [KSK]

James Harrison = AP Defensive Player of the Year

Congrats to James Harrison, who was just voted as AP Defensive Player of the Year. He beat DeMarcus Ware and Ed Reed, who were the closest competitors. Troy Polamalu got a few consolation votes.

Silverback ended the year with this line. 101 tackles, 16 sacks, 7 forced fumbles and an interception. In 15 games.

Add a shotgun to the mix, and that fern stands no chance.

Normally, when a player gets a weekly award, I'll MSPaint them with a chickadee or two. Since this is a massive award, you get Silverback with guns.

Congrats, James!

Dude, Check Out Pitt

So check it. It's the new year, which means football is finishing up and 90% of my blog content will be leaving me within the month. So this is about the time my mind starts shifting to hockey and Pitt basketball.

The Penguins suck fiercely right now, so I wanna take a look at what Pitt's doing. And boy, my timing couldn't be better.

Pitt is about to assume its first #1 overall ranking in school history. That's right, the team that's been playing for over 100 years with especially ridiculous teams over the last 10 or so is finally about to stand atop the nation. Yeah, it's no national championship, but who can argue with a number 1 ranking halfway through the regular season?

We've gotten close like 14 different times it feels like, only to lose some meaningless game that pushes us closer to the lower rankings. This time, Pitt took care of business BEFORE UNC shat the bed. And by took care of business, I mean held Georgetown to 54 points in a 16 point win over the other Big East power.

Since Pitt is about to get some national exposure over the unbeaten record and top ranking, I feel its time to say it right now:

IF YOU'RE A PITT FAN, STOP MENTIONING HOW TEAMS IN YEARS PAST COULDN'T GET PAST THE SWEET SIXTEEN!

Really, that argument makes about as much sense as saying the Chargers are gonna beat the Steelers on Sunday because San Diego beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs in 94. Look, Pitt has had a bitch of a time in March, seemingly struggling to get past the round of 16. I'll be the first to tell you all about tourney loss after tourney loss, but not now. Not as if it pertains to THIS Pitt team. Dejuan Blair and Sam Young had nothing to do with the 02 Sweet 16 loss.

To become a true elite team, the loser stigma needs to go out the door with the cake non-conference schedule. Someone is always complaining about Pitt, whether it be about the tourney losses or that the team seems to always play gravy opponents at home to start the season. Well, the non-conference schedule is over, pushed away by clutch wins over Rutgers and G-town. And Pitt has used the always-there defense (Rutgers posted a Pitt-opponent season record 72 points) to compliment 3 guys averaging double figures.

So just as Pitt quieted the critics regarding their easy early-season schedule, so too must this team quiet the idiots who probably picked Pitt to go far in a number of past tourneys. And it starts with the fans leaving the past, and never using the former failures to justify any future struggles.

Mini Pony of the Day 1-5-09

This picture looks like it comes from an old magazine. And now its on a blog. Cool media jump.

And cool links:

The Chargers. [OFTOT]

Win a Jose Calderon jersey. [Cuzoogle]

Where do the Athletics stand? [Sharapova's Thigh]

Michael Jordan's mom can slam dunk. [NESW Sports]

Titans RB Chris Johnson reacts to the ROY voting. [Staal Tactics]

Some douche is still hating on Sid. [The Pensblog]

Happy Birthday Hannah

Today is my sister's birthday. No, this birthday wish isn't belated, like the video says. I've used the video before, and happen to love the song. So deal.

Its the weekend, but anyone trolling around on the Internet should go to Hannah/Sheena's site.

Happy Birthday.

Tyrone Carter = AFC Defensive Player of the Week

With New Years and all, this got lost in the shuffle. Tyrone Carter was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts in the Steelers' Week 17 win over the Gowns. He nabbed his first two interceptions of the year, returning the second one for a touchdown. Pretty solid for the guy called off the bench to replace the hurt Ryan Clark.

When Clark went down with the injury against Tennessee, did you envision Carter getting MSPainted this week? Don't lie.

Now, Aaron Smith was tough, but I still think I found the one picture on the Internet of Smith with a female fan. In a kitchen.

LaMarr Woodley I can kinda understand, since he's still only in his second year. But not one picture on the World Wide Web? Weak. (That link has the greatest MSPaint of all time)

So I had to think about giving Carter the MSPaint treatment this week. I know he's been a backup for the majority of his 9 years in the league, but you'd at least think his Super Bowl XL ring could provide at least ONE picture with a member of the opposite sex. You'd be wrong.

So for a PSaMP first, Carter gets the business with a dude on either side of him.

Congrats on the first-time honor Tyrone (and dudes).

Mini Pony of the Day 1-2-09

Hat tip to my buddy Ben for the picture and accompanying story. Read all about miniature horses as guide pets.

And then read these links:

Some kind words from Stephanie about blogging, friendships with other bloggers and the death of blogs. [The Steel City Sports Fan]

The first MPIE of 2009. [OFTOT]

Happy New Year from my buddy Isaac. [The World of Isaac]

And one from Moondog. [Moondog Sports]

HHR got a response about their inquiry to be Jets head coach! [Hugging Harold Reynolds]

The 2010 Winter Classic should be Caps/Rangers. [Going Five Hole]

Happy New Year!

The title of this Youtube is:

Scooter's First Saddle to start the New Year 2009.

You can kiss my ass if you were expecting more today.

Happy New Year 2009!

Steelers Fans Are Drunk, Good at Dizzy Baseball

I've played dizzy baseball before, but never drunk dizzy baseball. From the looks of it, you pour beer down the hollow end of a banana wiffle bat, drink it, spin a bunch and try to hit a baseball. Puking is like 10 extra points or something. I suck at the game even without getting alcohol involved.

But these Steelers fans are much better individuals than I. Not only do they stay upright, but they make total contact with the pitch. Now, I know you're probably saying that you could do sooo much better, but imagine spinning around right now. Then imagine you're drunk on top of that. By the time I'd take my head off the bat, I'd most likely be falling into a crowd of friends rather than focusing on a small projectile.

On a side note, wiffle ball is badass.