Nobody asked me, but . . .
* Troubling revelations about the Steelers this week: First comes this comment from Ed Bouchette on offensive assistants -- Sean Kugler and Scottie Montgomery -- leaving the Steelers. ``Perhaps not all the offensive coaches could accept the new philosophies of coordinator Todd Haley.’’
* Then this quote from an unnamed Steelers in a Ron Cook column concerning the disappointing season of outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley. ``He (Woodley) was awful. He tells us he works out, but we didn't see it. He wasn't in shape. That has to be a reason why he was always hurt."
* And this from Ryan Clark on the malicious anonymous quote: "My biggest problem with that is not LaMarr, or is not someone's feelings about LaMarr. My problem is now it's public. . . We all have arguments with our brothers, sisters, cousins, but that stays in-house. What you talk about then stays there and it doesn't get out to the public. So that is the problem. ...
``That shows that this team that is normally close, you had the Joey Porters, the Alan Fanecas, just down the line, leader after leader, this team was close-knit. It shows there is a fracture in that. I think that is the most disappointing thing about that coming out."
* I’m going to treat Jeff Karsten's bicep soreness as one of those minor early spring-training aches and not an indication his season is about to again be ruined by injury.
* Give credit to Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim for this: When he goes after the media he doesn’t pick on small-timers. After a loss to Connecticut last week, Boeheim was asked a question by Andy Katz of ESPN. His response: ``I’ll answer anyone’s question but yours ... because you’re an idiot ...
and a really disloyal person ... a few other things I could add there but I’m not going to go there . . .’’ No explanation for the exchange from ESPN or Katz.
* Could you imagine on, say, a critical fourth and 1 near the goal line, an NFL coach calling his team over and drawing up a play for them to run? It would be the height of stupidity. Why go with a drawn-up play when one the team has practiced about 5,000 times could be used? Yet, basketball and hockey coaches continue to pull out the chalkboard to diagram plays in crucial situations. It’s comical and I don’t get it.
* Count me among those flabbergasted by the Olympics decision to drop wrestling. It was, of course, political. There were probably a dozen sports more worthy of dropping than wrestling. Considering the history wrestling has with the Olympics, it should have been untouchable.
* This is how it’s suppose to work: Michigan State’s offensive coordinator Dan Roushar took a job as running backs coach with the New Orleans Saints. Quite the contrast from Montgomery, the Steelers wide receiver coach, taking a job as an assistant at Duke.
* I’d have no problem if the Steelers drafted Manti T’eo -- after the first round. Te’o made a much-publicized mistake. I’ll take my chances on his character over most of the other players in the draft.
* Spring training is underway across Florida and Arizona and Freddy Sanchez is out of work. His agent said last month ``about 20 teams’’ requested the medical records of Sanchez. Presumably, they did not like what they saw. It looks like Sanchez with end his career with, among other things, 1,012 hits, a .297 lifetime average, a batting championship, a World Series ring and a high-level of popularity in Pittsburgh.
* Hiring Hank Poteat as a graduate assistant to help coach his cornerbacks could be a stroke of genius by Pitt coach Paul Chryst. Assuming Poteat can coach, and I’ll trust Chryst on that, Poteat’s Pitt experience, NFL experience and Super Bowl experience should serve him well with his young charges.
