The Sports Monitor

Call me a Pittsburgh Pirates fan? Yep. Guilty as charged. Can me a fan of the Nutting ownership group? No way. I'm so dissatisfied with the way things are with the Pirates that I haven't been to a game in two seasons. That broke a long-running tradition of attending opening day. Today, we finished decorating our Christmas tree. My one son found a Pirates ornament at the bottom of the box. "Here, you have to put it up," he said. Well, no, I don't, I thought. Instead, I did put it up. It's on the back of the tree however. That still doesn't mean I'll be going back to PNC Park for opening day in 2012.

I agree Joe Paterno had to go at Penn State. Tom Bradley was the logical choice to fill in while the university conducted a search. However, John Smallwood from the Philadelphia Daily News thinks Bradley would be the best choice as the replacement. Penn State needs a clean break from all things Paterno. Bradley has done the right things as the interim coach, but any reminder or link to Paterno or Sandusky needs to go away. If that means losing Bradley, so be it.

Maybe, just maybe, if officials at the Steelers-Jaguars playoff game after the 2007 season had called a holding penalty, Jack Del Rio would have been fired as the Jaguars coach before this week. The Steelers completed a remarkable comeback against the Jaguars in that wild-card game at Heinz Field. Pittsburgh led and had Jacksonville facing a fourth-and-2 late in the game. Jags quarterback David Garrard ran for the first down, but Jacksonville should have been called for holding on the play, setting up a fourth-and-long. Nearly everyone who watched the game knew it, except for the officials. Jacksonville went on to win the game 31-29. Garrard got an extension after that season. So did Del Rio, who was hailed as one of the league's up-and-coming coaches. Since, Jacksonville's franchise quarterback got released just days before the 2011 season started and Del Rio got fired before the season ended. The correct call could very well have sent Garrard and Del Rio into a di...

I never was a big fan of the Mike Haywood hiring by Pitt last year. I thought he was overrated and got too much credit for his Miami (Ohio) team's 9-4 record. Why, nearly a year later do I bring up Haywood? A quote from today's Post-Gazette: Pitt senior Chas Alecxih: "Our first meeting with Haywood, he came in with a wrinkled suit, the worst suit I've ever seen, then acted like we owed him something. He was very arrogant. And when we walked out of the meeting we all said, 'Wow, this is going to be our next coach.' So when he got fired, I was happy, and obviously we got a great coach in Todd Graham to come in." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Haywood. That quote alone should keep colleges leery about hiring Haywood.

Did you watch the Chargers-Broncos game Sunday? Most people will talk about the game Tim Tebow had. That's fine. But I'm sure there are people talking about Nick Novak relieving himself on the sideline. NFL.com has the video here . I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go.

The Pittsburgh Steelers sure know how to make an inferior opponent look good on Sunday night. After escaping a game with the terrible Indianapolis Colts earlier this season, the Steelers survived the Kansas City Chiefs. A defense that had six takeaways all season entering the game took four away from Chiefs quarterback Tyler Palko in Sunday's 13-9 win. The clincher was an interception by Keenan Lewis with less than a minute to go. And you have to thank Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe for his lack of effort on the game-ending interception. Bowe looked deathly afraid to take a hit with the game on the line. But for as strong as the defense looked, the offense never found a rhythm. Throughout Sunday's game, the announcers praised the Chiefs' defense. However, the Chiefs had the 28th-ranked rush defense in the league, and Rashard Mendenhall picked up just 57 yards for the game. However, when Mendenhall did get the ball, he looked strong. Roethlisberger looked fin...

That wasn't a Backyard Brawl in Morgantown, W.Va.,  on Friday. It was a display of how to lose a football game. And it was classic Pitt football from the 2011 season. I bailed on Tino Sunseri as Pitt's quarterback back in September . Pitt escaped with a win against Maine, and Sunseri looked like a quarterback better suited for Division II or Division III, not a team that had aspirations for winning a Big East championship. Nearly two months later, Sunseri hasn't changed. Left with a chance to beat West Virginia, Sunseri looked awful. I'm not sure awful is strong enough, but Sunseri stunk when it mattered most. Faced with a three-man rush, Sunseri got sacked four times on the team's final series and had an intentional grounding call, all of which were poor decisions. Sunseri can't be counted on when the game is on the line. Heck, he can't be counted on to protect a lead. Maybe things would have been different if running back Ray Graham didn't...