Yeah but King, you're taking one individual play and applying a rigorous examination of the rules to that one play-- you're not looking at the play in the context of the rest of the game. Offensive players make that move all the time, and Pittsburgh receivers did it all game long. Hines Ward's career is predicated on that kind of pushing off. It's one thing to isolate one play and say "That's a foul, look at the rulebook." It's another to see whether that rule is consistently and fairly enforced a) in that individual game and b) throughout the league over the course of a season. Unless its Randy Moss (who gets those calls against him all the time) 99 times out of 100 that penalty isn't called.

Yeah, but he's still got to get his other foot down and in bounds for it to be a catch.

I don't know if the game was as poorly officiated as everyone says, if only because I couldn't bring myself to pay attention for most of the contest. (The trly terrible call was the holding penalty on the pass that would have brought the Seahawks to the 2 yard line.) What an awful, awful game, living proof that a close game can be a bad game. Sloppy play all around, it was low scoring not because of good defense but just because of terrible execution.

I've been a big defender of parity in the NFL but this season has really made it harder for me. Was there ever a time in this game that you said to yourself "Man, these are some great teams"? I got the feeling in this year's playoffs that the team that would win would be the team that sucked the least, and I think thats what we got. I can't look at this Steeler's team and think that they clearly rose above the competition.

But I still don't agree with you about Ben Roethlisberger: he looked skittish, innaccurate and unfocused all game. I think he's the perfect example of a system guy, someone who's been protected by a system that plays right to his strengths and a team that asks him to do very very little himself.

I think Bleak House is Dickens at his best. It's not his most affecting (which I would give to Great Expectations) or the most enjoyable (which for me is the Pickwick Papers), but it is his most complete, deep and resonant. It is a long book, but I don't think it is a particularly fatiguing read. Dickens writing escapes the grueling slog of its subject matter-- the pointless and never ending work of the Chancery courts. I think anyone can find topical and relevant aspects of the novel; the problem of bueracracy that exists only to perpetuate itself hasn't gone away.

You know I do agree about falling back to the vanilla defense-- I was watching that game against the Colts and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. After leading all day by blitzing, blitzing and blitzing more, they were rushing only three guys! And sure enough, Indy came roaring back.

I know you're really high on Ben Rothlisberger but I'm not sold. He really gets sheltered by not throwing more than 18 times a game. I know you feel they're at their best when he throws a lot, but I have to think that the Pittsburgh coaching staff would want to protect him for a reason.

I also am a big fan of character, and while I don't think its necessary to win, it does help. You can't have charater without accountability-- and all things considered, I'll pick against a guy who fakes injuries when he has bad games.

Pittsburgh has never found itself behind big in these playoffs. A couple quick Seattle scores-- one probably coming off of a Big Ben turnover-- puts the Steelers in a position they haven't faced in the postseason and forces them to play away from their strengths.

Is there any storyline in sports more tired than the whole respect/disrespect angle? I mean it's ridiuculous. It's gotten to the point where you as an athlete pretty much have to say that your opponent is going to win, if you don't want to start controversey. I live in Chicago and before the Panthers game, Adewale Ogunleye got himself into trouble because he *gasp* predicted that his team would win. What's he supposed to say? "They'll win by 13"?

The local sports media attacked him, saying "Oh great! Now you woke them up!" Because apparently playing an NFL playoff game just doesn't do enough to get the Panthers excited. They might have given maybe 85% effort normally. But since they got disrespected, well, watch out. I watched that game and I promise you-- respect or lack thereof had nothing to do with the outcome. Steve Smith and his incredible ability, I think, had a little more to do with it than Adewale Ogunleye's comments to the media.

And now we have Joey Porter, who apparently needs "bulletin board material" to play well in the SUPER BOWL.

Good grief.

That was where I read it.

Oh and I keep forgetting, Salon wants people to post there real names now, so...

-Freddie deBoer

I think on Monday's blog he talked about baldness and syllables... I generally don't like Klosterman much (he writes a monthly column for Spin and Esquire magazines). He tries a little too hard to sell the "smart guy obsessed with pop culture minutia" persona, and I often find that he tries to make his points seem deeper than they really are. But then again I'll read anything.

But not only does Chuck Klosterman touch on the postmodern stuff in his "blog", he also talks about bald quarterbacks and quarterbacks with lots of syllables!