The Sports Monitor

It's time to face the facts, Steelers fans. The team just isn't that good. Really. They stink. Bad. There's no other conclusion to draw after Thursday's 13-6 loss to the Browns. It looked that way after the Steelers' loss to the Chiefs. It was easy to chalk it up one game up as an aberration. It wasn't the time to panic. Sure enough, the Steelers dropped a heartbreaker on Sunday to the Raiders. They made Oakland's season with a defensive effort in the fourth quarter that was as bad as the Pitt Panthers' collapse against Cincinnati. In the Panthers' defense, they were at least up against an undefeated team. If the Steelers managed to hit a low with the Oakland loss, they topped themselves Thursday. Against a team that ranks 32nd in rushing defense, the running back Rashard Mendenhall managed 16 carries for 53 yards. Against a team that widely is regarded as one of the worst in football (the Chiefs and Raiders are included in that e...

The Cleveland Browns are bad. Terrible. Pitiful. Awful. Horrible. Yeah, I like to pile on sometimes. But back to the Browns. During their loss to the Steelers on Sunday, it got me thinking that it would be terrible being a Cleveland Browns fan. I know a few at work, and the Steelers' domination combined with the Browns' ineptitude has taken all of the fun out of a Steelers win in the rivalry. Those fans are miserable. They expect bad things to happen. They don't expect good luck. Again, it would be terrible being a Cleveland Browns fan. Their ownership stinks, their management stinks, their players stink. But I stopped myself. I'm a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I have it just as bad, or perhaps, worse. Our ownership stinks, our management stinks and our players stink. So, I simply ask this: Would you rather have the Nutting ownership running your favorite team or the Lerner ownership that has run the Browns?

It's typical to argue about officiating in any sport. One bad call there, another missed call here, and, who knows, maybe the other team could have won. At least that's how it works if your team is on the losing side of the equation. Then there are the blown calls. You know the type, the ones where everyone in the stadium knows it was a terrible call. Then, television replay confirms it and your blood pressure goes through the roof. Meanwhile, the officials just stand there waiting for the commercials to end and for the next play to begin. But what happens when the officials enforce a bad rule? That's what happened after Hines Ward caught a touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger in the Steelers' win over the Browns. Only in the world of the NFL can a player have possession of the ball, get two feet in bounds, roll over and have it not called a touchdown. The official said Ward did not maintain control of the ball. Presumably, he meant after Ward did his second rollover...

There was a time not so long ago that the Steelers-Browns game was an event. When you mentioned the Cleveland Browns, the eyes got red, steam billowed out of one's ears and a general dislike was a polite term to call it. Now, however, the Browns are a joke in the NFL. I'm not sure what that means to Buffalo Bills fans, who endured a 6-3 loss to the Browns last week. But that's besides the point. The Browns stink. They have stunk for a long time. And that's killing the once-great rivalry with the Steelers. Pittsburgh has won something like 113 straight games against the Browns, or so it seems. So it comes with no surprise that Sunday's game against Cleveland isn't drawing much of a buzz. How could it? The Browns starting quarterback, Derek Anderson, is coming off a game where he went 2-for-17 with 23 yards passing. And, yes, that's for the entire game. Somehow they won. Will they be able to manage it again? I wouldn't count on it. It is a rivalry game, so...

If you're a Steelers fan, naturally you have a strong dislike for the Browns. The dislike has waned since the Browns' return, mainly because the Browns haven't been able to beat the Steelers. How can your dislike for a team grow if you continually beat up on them? Well, until the Browns beat the Steelers, I found one reason to dislike them: Eric Mangini. The guy thinks he's mini Belichick, which is reason enough. But now that he's the man in Cleveland, it firmly plants the dislike label on his forehead. But look how he handled his quarterback situation. Mangini said earlier this week that he would not announce his starting quarterback for the season, leaving Week 1 opponent the Minnesota Vikings to guess as to who it would be. Mangini also said he wouldn't tell his team who his hand-picked guy would be. So much for having faith in your team. Tight-lipped Mangini didn't quit. Did he tell his QBs? Let's ask Brady Quinn. "He talked to us about it, but ...