News n'at

The Steelers announced that they came to terms with first round pick Evander "Ziggy" Hood yesterday, which means that all 80 players on their roster will be under contract at the start of camp.

Hopefully now that all of their players are under contract they can focus on getting Heath a new deal.

The second bit of news and such is that the Steelers will reveal the sixth "Lombardi Column" in the Great Hall at Heinz Field on Tuesday August 11. Admission is free, so if you're around Pittsburgh, this may be something you want to check out. The column ceremony will begin at 6pm.

Full Story

For those that haven't been to Heinz Field and beheld the Great Hall, it features five (soon to be six!) 26-foot tall "columns" shaped like Lombardi Trophies with display cases for Super Bowl memorabilia and the Lombardi Trophies.

Links n'at

Ed Bouchette highlights the Top 5 "Issues" facing the Steelers as they head into camp.

Interestingly, in his discussion of the offensive line, Bouchette doesn't mention that after October 19th (when this version of the line started playing together) Ben was sacked 28 times, an average of 2.54 per game. However, in the first 5 games of the season (when Marvel Smith and Kendall Simmons were playing), Ben was sacked 18 times, an average of 3.6 per game, including that 8-sack disaster against Philadelphia. Though this line is far from "elite," they did cut the sacks-per-game down by over 1 from the previous alignment.

The 80-man Roster
The cut-down to 53 is going to be tough. There's a lot of potential on this roster.

Everything You Need To Know About Attending Training Camp

We've been out to training camp before, and it's a great experience for kids. So if you have kids, you should try to take them. We haven't gone for a while, but if our relative schedules permit, maybe one or both of us will make it out there.

Finally, and somewhat regretably, I guess we have to touch on the Big Ben issue.

For those who haven't heard, Ben was in Reno for a charity golf event. After the trip, a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her. There were some shaky details, and different stories have been floating around about possible settlements, etc. Rather than be a rumor beacon, we're probably just going to sit back and let this thing run its course.

Let's set the record straight. We're not going to make excuses for Ben. If he's guilty, then we thoroughly do not approve. We don't think athletes should have higher standards or be "above the law." That being said, if he is found to be innocent, then we do hope the allegations won't tarnish his reputation. We do our best around here not to delve too much into the personal lives of the players, but this has been all over ESPN, so it's something we felt we needed to touch on.