Three Days

Steeler Bill beat me to it, but JJ Cooper talked to Wexell about Steelers training camp. Which, in case you missed it, starts Friday.

'Expert' Thinks Big Ben is Telling the Truth

I don't want to make light of this, but WPXI, Pittsburgh's NBC affiliate, brought in a body language expert to weigh in on Ben's press conference. It was just like Lie to Me but without Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction.

Oh, and for what it's worth, she thinks Big Ben is telling the truth.

More on Big Ben, Erin Andrews, ESPN

Will Brinson and I do a weekly (or so) podcast over at FanHouse and yesterday we talked to Newsday's Neil Best about all the sports-media silliness from the past week. Feel free to listen if you need to kill 20 minutes at work.

Big Ben Might Be in Deep Do-Do

Well, this is certainly a shit storm. I have no idea what to think, partly because I don't want to unfairly assume this woman is lying, but also because I just don't want to think about it.

I talked to my lawyerin' buddy yesterday after we both looked over the civil complaint and he basically said this (he's a litigator at a corporate firm, for whatever that's worth -- HSS legal counsel John can correct any mistakes I make here):

Big Ben looks really, really bad no matter what actually happened. If his lawyer is smart, this will never go to trial, Ben will settle (probably sometime after the season), no one will admit anything, and no one will be allowed to talk about it.

Now, I don't know how Rog Goodell handles this from a player-conduct-policy perspective, but if Ben isn't accused of anything and settles a civil suit out of court, I'm not sure where there's a violation. But again, I'm not a laywer.

I've never heard rumors that Ben was a slut, but let's be honest: he's in his mid-20s, worth $100 million, and has women throwing themselves at him.

One thing kept coming back to me yesterday as I read the complaint: Mike Tomlin's words to his team before they left for the summer: "Don't be that guy."

Not Long Now

The Hall of Fame game is in three weeks. I know the Steelers aren't playing, but that's unreal. (It's Bills-Titans, in case you're wondering.)

In the meantime, training camps start next week and we'll get our first glimpse at the Steelers' revamped offensive line. Wait, what -- it's the same cast of characters and Kraig Urbik? Actually, I've given up hope that Pittsburgh will one day have an above average o-line, although, at the very least, I wouldn't mind Willie Colon getting a little competition. I don't think that's asking too much. But, hey, it could be worse: I could be a Browns fan.

Random dog update: Gabe is 14 weeks today, and when I took him to the vet last Tuesday, he was 23 pounds. (He was 12 pounds when we got him at 12 weeks.) He's fantastic on walks, although the first month of leash training was not a lot of fun. He'll occassionally go after the two-year-old, but only to play. Of course, my son insisting on sticking his hand in Gabe's mouth probably doesn't help. So there you go. You're welcome for the update even though I'm quite sure you could have done without it.

I'm Not Dead...

...Just extremely lazy -- but you already knew that. Luckily, I have other excuses, so here goes: I was on vacation last week. That doesn't explain the previous month of inactivity, but I have that covered, too: we got a puppy.

For those of you who don't have dogs, or are adept at raising them, that might not sound like much, but my schedule -- staying up till 1-2AM and getting up around 7:30 -- abruptly changed the day we brought Gabe (yellow lab! great with kids! officially a middle-class automaton!) home. I now try to be in bed by 11PM because I know I'll be up at 5AM (at the latest) to start the day.

Oh, and then there's the whole "As a 10-week-old puppy, I will try to eat your two-year-old son -- but just know that I'm playing!" daily routine. Although, now that Gabe is 13 weeks, has learned a few commands and walks pretty well on a leash, he's starting to understand that my son's leg isn't a chew toy.

So, yeah, that's what I'm going with.

Anyway, training camp is a couple weeks off, and, Lord willing, I hope to be around for it. And who knows, maybe even the 2009 season, as well. In the meantime, any dog advice is welcome (encouraged even), and feel free to use this thread to discuss what happens to the Steelers offense if Limas Sweed wins the No. 3 WR job. (I don't think it'll be a problem -- Heath can be the unofficial No. 3, or Arians can find ways to get Mendenhall involved coming out of the backfield. Or, who knows, maybe Sweed will make the second-year jump and won't ever drop another touchdown pass during the conference championship.)