December 10, 2024 • 22 mins
Labs and Tom break down the Steelers win over the Browns then get to this week’s questions.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Steelers beat the Browns twenty seven to fourteen at Akershore Stadium,
improving their record two ten and three and setting up
a win and win the AFC North game against Baltimore
in a couple of weeks. But you got the Philadelphia
Eagles before we get there, and before we get to
the Eagles, Labs, what are your takeaways from that game
against the Browns. You know, I gotta be honest with you.
It was tough for me to find a takeaway other
(00:31):
than you took care of business. You won relatively comfortably,
even though there were some sketchy moments throughout the game.
And like I said, you set yourself up for that
big showdown with the Ravens in a couple of weeks. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And I mean one of the things that I you know,
sitting in the press box I was watching, I was,
you know, you're able to see the big picture a
lot easier than you can from TV. And you know,
when I showed up at the stadium, I fully expect
that George Pickens would be playing so okay, So then
he's not playing, and it really be kind of it
(01:06):
really kind of came became clear to me that, you know,
without Pickings early in the game, I didn't think the
Steelers offense had enough to really threaten the Browns, you know,
to move them off the line of scrimmage a little
bit right on defense. And you know, it the way
that the Pickens thing worked out, you know, he wasn't
(01:29):
He didn't go on the injury report until Friday, and
I don't know that there seemed to me a sense
that he was going to try and play and then
he didn't. And so in terms of the game plan,
the game plan was done. You know, they had decided
with how they were going to try to attack the
(01:50):
Browns defense, and then Pickens isn't there. I think it
took them some time to figure out, you know, how
do we adjustice, what's our work around in terms of
playing without this guy? So yeah, I think there was
a little bit of I don't know, maybe trial and
(02:10):
error is a good way to put it, trying to
figure out how to attack this defense and you know,
the Browns defense is not that bad, so a little
nervous about that. But then you know, Russell Wilson got
going again, and this is a guy who he continues
to make big time plays. And I'll just give you
(02:30):
this real quick. My favorite one was that ten yard
past of Van Jefferson. Yeah, there was a read option.
You know, he read the whoever the edge guy was
on that side and didn't give the ball to the
running back, so he took it. And then when he
moved out into the I don't know, the flat area there,
(02:54):
that was a really nice pass that he threw. Again
that was reading the coverage on the run, uh, you know,
and Van Jefferson was coming back slanding from the back
side of the formation and it was a nice throw
to him right on the money, catchable ball touchdown. I
don't think the Browns knew, you know, really what was
going on, and you know, again, to me, that was
(03:20):
a big time play.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I also like to see the connection that he's starting
to form with Pat Fryarmouth Labs Matt Williamson are called.
Brought up a really good point. You know, Russell Wilson.
It feels like he's been a Steeler forever, but he
missed training camp, he missed the first half of the season.
It takes a while to get a rapport with these guys,
especially tight ends. Past two weeks him and Firearmoth's connection
has been awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, and you know, again, there's a lot of stuff
going on in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Right, and that's where you find the tight ends.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You're right, and that's where we also make mistakes. Make
mistakes there, you know, end up in turnovers. And I
like the emphasis on not turning the ball over. I
am a big fan of that. Some people like to, hey,
you know, let's roll the dice, go for it. But
(04:10):
I don't know that the Steelers have the kind of
offense like with Ben. You know, before the injury, Ben
could you know, he could throw an interception and the
other team could score. He could bring you back in
three plays and you know, and erase that mistake. Russell
Wilson's playing very well, But I don't know that the
(04:31):
Steelers offense is like that, even with him. So I'm
a big maybe. You know, Dale Lawley always likes to
call me the Lord of looming in my fears, but
when it comes to not turning the ball over them,
I'm on that. I'm on that train for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well, let's get to this week's patch of questions. There
are a lot of them to get to, and we
start with Edwin Gott from legand Ere, Pennsylvania. As the
temperatures fall in December, it must be difficult for teams
to protect the players on the sidelines from hypothermia and
other related conditions. Are the benches heated or are there
other sources of heat or protection that are employed that
(05:12):
we may not see.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Okay, let me start with this. There's a rule in place.
There's an NFL rule regarding this, and so when you
play games in any kind of weather, or really any
games anywhere, even in domes, whatever the home team has
on its sideline as a heating element or a cooling
(05:37):
element has to be provided to the visiting team as well. So,
for example, you're at Akrocher Stadium and it's cold. If
the Steelers want heated benches, there have to be heated
benches on the other sideline. If the Steelers want those,
you know, they almost look like jet engine kind of
(06:00):
things that blow that hot air down the sideline. If
you want those, you go to provide those as well.
So whatever the home team has, you got to provide
that to the visitors. Now, the other thing to me
that is huge in this respect is the developments, the developments,
the advances in apparel. What these guys wear. You know,
(06:22):
it may may not look like, you know, they're all
bundled up or anything, but a lot of that Thermo
care or whatever it's called clothing that they wear. It's
very thin, hugs the skin and it's very warm. So
it may not look like they're wearing a lot of stuff,
(06:44):
but they don't have to anymore because of the development
in the apparel. And one last thing, I remember Mike
Tomlin saying that when he was asked about cold. Remember
the Christmas Eve game against the Raider.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, Franco Harris Knight, right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Frank Oharris Knight talking to him about that game. He said,
no matter how cold, no matter how cold it is,
the people in the stands are worse off than the
people on the sidelines because of all the stuff that
they have. So think about that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Chris Hann from Sarasota, Florida. Naji Harris is playing very
well and got more involved in the passing game against Cincinnati.
The Steelers did not exercise his fifth year option entering
this season. What is the difference monetarily if we would
have exercised the fifth year option or if we placed
the franchise tag on him next year to retain his
rights moving forward.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Okay, the fifth year option on Najie Harris's contract would
have been six point eight million dollars. That's guaranteed money. Now,
the franchise tag tenders won't be determined until late February
twenty twenty five. But what I can can tell you
as the franchise tender for the twenty twenty four season
for running backs was eleven point nine to five million,
(08:08):
and that's also fully guaranteed. So if you're looking for
the bargain way to handle it, it would have been
the fifth year option. Franchise tags are very expensive. And
the other thing about the franchise tag is as soon
as you as soon as you put it on the player,
that money is assessed on your cap.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
All of the guaranteed too.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yes, but even if the guy doesn't sign it, you
have to have that like put a side set aside
for that. Like you can't say, well, we'll put the
franchise tag on him, and if the guy doesn't sign
it until July, we can like you know, use this
money until then, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Carl Anderson from Falmouth, Virginia. Mark Moseley won the NFL
MVP as a placekicker in the strike shortened nineteen eighty
two season. I believe Chris Boswell is having a much
better season. Can he win.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
No disrespect to Chris Boswell, but I don't ever believe
I will see a place kicker winning the NFL MVP
award again. I mean that nineteen eighty two season was
so weird. I mean the strike, the way that happened.
You know, the season opened as scheduled, they played two
games based on the schedule, and then the strike was
(09:31):
called and then there weren't games played until late November again,
and it was such a mess. I mean, they kind
of because of the large gap, and then you just had,
you know, some regular season games left, and then you
wanted to have the playoffs. What the league ended up
(09:52):
doing was pretty much scrapping the whole division system and
they just created you know, each conference. It was like
a I don't remember how many teams are worth it,
but like let's say there were twenty eight teams. There
were fourteen teams in the AFC, and fourteen teams in
the NFC, and they just put them all in one
(10:12):
big group, you know, and then they instead of dividing
them up. And then the way the playoffs came about
was at a tournament like the NCAA Tournament basketball, and
that's how that all worked. So that was weird. That'll
never happen again. So Mark Moseley his MVP season, he
(10:36):
was successful. He made twenty one field goal attempts, but
he attempted none from longer than forty nine yards.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
That's the only ones bas attempts.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And he missed three extra points that season, when you
know extra points were not you know, they moved it
back now, so it's almost like a thirty yard field
goal kind of, but then you kicked it from the
two yard line. So you know, Mosley's year, judging by
(11:08):
or if it's judged by contemporary placekicker standards, wasn't even
really that good. I just think voters didn't know who
else to vote for. Well.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I think unfortunately the quarterback up in Buffalo, or maybe
even the running back you're going to see this weekend
in Philadelphia, seemed to be closing in on the MVP
award this year. But Chris Boswell was well on his
way to an All Pro first team not.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I mean it seems a way to me. Yeah, should be,
you know, but it's a vote. You never know what
happens in those votes.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Chris Lamont from Lewistown, Idaho. My dad just got back
from Green Bay and he said that during the lambeau
Field Tour, his tour guide gave Art Rooney Senior credit
for saving the Packers franchise. Dad was a little iffy
on the details. Could you perhaps explain what the tour
guide was talking about.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I'll take a guess. I mean, you know, the Steelers
joined the NFL nineteen thirty three. Founder Art Rooney, the
Art Rooney Senior was always act involved, you know, with
trying to make the franchise the best that it could be.
But he was also very involved in things having to
(12:21):
do with growing professional football because at the time, the
premier sports in America were Major League Baseball, College football
and even boxing were all way ahead of professional football
in terms of attracting the best players, keeping the best
(12:42):
players fan attendance. You know, there wasn't TV yet, but
you know, radio broadcasting those kinds of things. So you know,
the NFL was very much an afterthought, and so Art
Rooney Senior was very involved than trying to grow the league. Now,
(13:03):
one of the things that Art Rooney the senior and
New York Football Giants owner Wellington mara were both very
much in favor of was once well it was sharing
revenue period. Now they didn't share ticket revenue back in
those days, but things like broadcasting. That was when the
(13:26):
first revenue sharing kind of thought process went into came
into being. And you know, Wellington Marat deserves a lot
of credit because as the owner of the New York Giants,
he could have cashed in big time if revenue broadcast
revenue wasn't shared, but he was, you know, a league guy.
(13:52):
Art Rooney was a league guy. So once that was
instituted and they got that kind of thought process involved
in past, the NFL was able to have you know,
successful or teams in small markets. Green Bay, Wisconsin is
won was able to compete with New York, the New
York Football Giants, the Chicago Bears, another juggernaut at the time,
(14:17):
even the Philadelphia Eagles, although they weren't very good successfully
but they had a large market. So I think that
that's what probably the tour guide was referring to in
terms of saving the Packers, because I don't think there's
another league that would could have a team in that
(14:39):
small of a market, Like there's no baseball teams in
those kind of places, there's no hockey teams, there's no
NBA teams. So the NFL revenue sharing market a method
definitely saved the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
No, the MLB team plays in Milwaukee, the big city
in the state of Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Not great, right, and they're considered a small market thing.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Exactly, even though, yeah, compare Milwaukee to Green Bay.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
David Glode from Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. During the Bengals game, their
right offensive tackle seemed to move early almost every play.
He got called for a penalty maybe twice, but it
seemed like many more could have been called. How do
the officials handle that? And shouldn't they call it every
time until he stops?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, they should call it every time until he stops.
But you know, I do believe that there was some
thought among teams that they're just going to get called,
They're going to get tired of calling it, you know.
I remember, I think it was early in Belichick's years
(15:48):
in New England, you know, when they had tie law
and some of those defensive backs they would I wouldn't
say interfere necessarily, but a lot of illegal use of
them and kind of stuff, and just do it all
the time. How many are they gonna call three five?
You know, you never see that many of them. So
(16:12):
I just think that we're gonna do it all the time,
and let's see what stomach the officiating crew has for
calling it every time. And I don't know how the
grading of officials go. I'm not going to pretend I know,
but I just think that if a game, let's just
(16:33):
pret okay, the Cincinnati game, if they call that every time,
how long before the people started complaining, the fans, the broadcasters, whatever,
and the blame goes to the officials, not to the player.
So I just think that there's a line of thinking
(16:55):
to some degree. Let's you know, if if you're tackle,
it's trying to block TJ. Watt and he can't do
it well if he can line up maybe a little
in the backfield too much, or if he gets that
quick start or half a second jump on things. Every time,
(17:16):
let's do it every time. See how many times they call.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
It Harvey Heaton from Dartmouth, Nova, Scotia, Canada. Would it
be legal for Joey Porter Jr. And other players to
wear gloves that are close to or the same color
as their opponent's jerseys.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Okay, the wardrobe police will allow you during games to
wear stuff that is any of the primary colors assigned
to your franchise by the league. And you know, teams
have some input into this as well. But for the Steelers,
(17:55):
their primary colors are white, black, and gold, so you
can wear any thing of those colors. So if you
know the Steelers are at home and the other team
is wearing white, you can wear white gloves. But for example,
in Cincinnati they wore orange jerseys. In Cleveland, the Browns
(18:19):
wore brown jerseys. You can't wear like a Steelers player
couldn't wear orange or brown. So it depends on, you know,
what what the other team is wearing. For example, in
Baltimore or in Philadelphia this week, they can't wear green
(18:41):
in Baltimore. If the Ravens wear purple, can't wear purple.
But if they wear black, you could have black gloves.
So you know, it depends. It's it's it's not something
that you can do as a as a regular thing.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And our final question today comes from Jeff mar from
Bryceon City, North Carolina. I usually come up once a
year to a home game. This year I had to
choose the last week versus the Bengals. That is obviously
a flex week. When does the NFL actually schedule that week?
And one are the possible Saturday time slots?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Okay? You know Week eighteen of the NFL schedule is
always a TVD. They don't even you know, make anything.
Every every game that week is scheduled tv D days,
times whatever. Okay, So there's two Saturday games that will
be played, and the time slots on Saturdays for the
(19:43):
Saturday that week are four thirty and eight. And then
then there's you know the other the regular schedule. On Sunday,
you'll have some one o'clock games, some four o'clock games,
and the night game. There is no Monday night game
the last week of the regular season. Now, the NFL
will not announce the Week eighteen schedule until after the
(20:08):
Monday night game is over from the previous week. So
Week seventeen now it may come earlier. If you know,
there's some obvious things that the league wants to. You know.
For example, if there are a bunch of games between
teams that are out of it, they may announce those
(20:31):
because you know, the league likes to get those out
of the way. You're trying to you don't want scoreboard
watching too much, or scoreboard watching before your team plays.
For example, if the Steelers were playing for playoff seeding
(20:52):
at let's say four o'clock on Sunday, well, you wouldn't
want a one o'clock the outcome of a one o'clock
game to determine the playoff seeding for the Steelers before
kickoff of their game. That's what the league does not want,
so that's why they wait. So the answer to the
(21:12):
question is Monday, December thirtieth, is the Monday night game
of Week seventeen. It could be as late as after
that game before you'll know when the Steelers play the
Bengals at home, if.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm not mistaken. Last year, the Steelers did catch that
Saturday game against the Ravens in the last week of
the season, and of course, as everything is made for
TV these days, they announced it at halftime of that
Monday night football game. You know, a big reveal at
the halftime show. What's the schedule going to look like
a week eighteen? I might put a little chip down
that it's going to be the same thing this week
this year. Halftime a Monday.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Night could be, could be, But again they reserve the
right to wait until after the Monday night game, and
that that Monday night game because it's Detroit at San
Francisco to NFCA, there could be some AFC games announced
at halftime or maybe even before that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, the Steelers game this week is against an NFC
opponent for twenty five kickoff in Philadelphia, Labs. They haven't
won there since nineteen sixty five, but you ready for
the stat. Russell Wilson's three to zero in Philadelphia in
his career, so something's got to give here. On Sunday
in Philadelphia, Labs goes on the air two twenty five
with the Steelers Audio Network pregame Show with Jerry Dulac
(22:28):
and Mike Perzuda. Thanks has always for giving us a listen.
Get your questions into Labs now, and we'll be back
again next week with another edition of Aston Answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Steelers beat the Browns twenty seven to fourteen at Akershore Stadium,
improving their record two ten and three and setting up
a win and win the AFC North game against Baltimore
in a couple of weeks. But you got the Philadelphia
Eagles before we get there, and before we get to
the Eagles, Labs, what are your takeaways from that game
against the Browns. You know, I gotta be honest with you.
It was tough for me to find a takeaway other
(00:31):
than you took care of business. You won relatively comfortably,
even though there were some sketchy moments throughout the game.
And like I said, you set yourself up for that
big showdown with the Ravens in a couple of weeks. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And I mean one of the things that I you know,
sitting in the press box I was watching, I was,
you know, you're able to see the big picture a
lot easier than you can from TV. And you know,
when I showed up at the stadium, I fully expect
that George Pickens would be playing so okay, So then
he's not playing, and it really be kind of it
(01:06):
really kind of came became clear to me that, you know,
without Pickings early in the game, I didn't think the
Steelers offense had enough to really threaten the Browns, you know,
to move them off the line of scrimmage a little
bit right on defense. And you know, it the way
that the Pickens thing worked out, you know, he wasn't
(01:29):
He didn't go on the injury report until Friday, and
I don't know that there seemed to me a sense
that he was going to try and play and then
he didn't. And so in terms of the game plan,
the game plan was done. You know, they had decided
with how they were going to try to attack the
(01:50):
Browns defense, and then Pickens isn't there. I think it
took them some time to figure out, you know, how
do we adjustice, what's our work around in terms of
playing without this guy? So yeah, I think there was
a little bit of I don't know, maybe trial and
(02:10):
error is a good way to put it, trying to
figure out how to attack this defense and you know,
the Browns defense is not that bad, so a little
nervous about that. But then you know, Russell Wilson got
going again, and this is a guy who he continues
to make big time plays. And I'll just give you
(02:30):
this real quick. My favorite one was that ten yard
past of Van Jefferson. Yeah, there was a read option.
You know, he read the whoever the edge guy was
on that side and didn't give the ball to the
running back, so he took it. And then when he
moved out into the I don't know, the flat area there,
(02:54):
that was a really nice pass that he threw. Again
that was reading the coverage on the run, uh, you know,
and Van Jefferson was coming back slanding from the back
side of the formation and it was a nice throw
to him right on the money, catchable ball touchdown. I
don't think the Browns knew, you know, really what was
going on, and you know, again, to me, that was
(03:20):
a big time play.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I also like to see the connection that he's starting
to form with Pat Fryarmouth Labs Matt Williamson are called.
Brought up a really good point. You know, Russell Wilson.
It feels like he's been a Steeler forever, but he
missed training camp, he missed the first half of the season.
It takes a while to get a rapport with these guys,
especially tight ends. Past two weeks him and Firearmoth's connection
has been awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, and you know, again, there's a lot of stuff
going on in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Right, and that's where you find the tight ends.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You're right, and that's where we also make mistakes. Make
mistakes there, you know, end up in turnovers. And I
like the emphasis on not turning the ball over. I
am a big fan of that. Some people like to, hey,
you know, let's roll the dice, go for it. But
(04:10):
I don't know that the Steelers have the kind of
offense like with Ben. You know, before the injury, Ben
could you know, he could throw an interception and the
other team could score. He could bring you back in
three plays and you know, and erase that mistake. Russell
Wilson's playing very well, But I don't know that the
(04:31):
Steelers offense is like that, even with him. So I'm
a big maybe. You know, Dale Lawley always likes to
call me the Lord of looming in my fears, but
when it comes to not turning the ball over them,
I'm on that. I'm on that train for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well, let's get to this week's patch of questions. There
are a lot of them to get to, and we
start with Edwin Gott from legand Ere, Pennsylvania. As the
temperatures fall in December, it must be difficult for teams
to protect the players on the sidelines from hypothermia and
other related conditions. Are the benches heated or are there
other sources of heat or protection that are employed that
(05:12):
we may not see.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Okay, let me start with this. There's a rule in place.
There's an NFL rule regarding this, and so when you
play games in any kind of weather, or really any
games anywhere, even in domes, whatever the home team has
on its sideline as a heating element or a cooling
(05:37):
element has to be provided to the visiting team as well. So,
for example, you're at Akrocher Stadium and it's cold. If
the Steelers want heated benches, there have to be heated
benches on the other sideline. If the Steelers want those,
you know, they almost look like jet engine kind of
(06:00):
things that blow that hot air down the sideline. If
you want those, you go to provide those as well.
So whatever the home team has, you got to provide
that to the visitors. Now, the other thing to me
that is huge in this respect is the developments, the developments,
the advances in apparel. What these guys wear. You know,
(06:22):
it may may not look like, you know, they're all
bundled up or anything, but a lot of that Thermo
care or whatever it's called clothing that they wear. It's
very thin, hugs the skin and it's very warm. So
it may not look like they're wearing a lot of stuff,
(06:44):
but they don't have to anymore because of the development
in the apparel. And one last thing, I remember Mike
Tomlin saying that when he was asked about cold. Remember
the Christmas Eve game against the Raider.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, Franco Harris Knight, right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Frank Oharris Knight talking to him about that game. He said,
no matter how cold, no matter how cold it is,
the people in the stands are worse off than the
people on the sidelines because of all the stuff that
they have. So think about that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Chris Hann from Sarasota, Florida. Naji Harris is playing very
well and got more involved in the passing game against Cincinnati.
The Steelers did not exercise his fifth year option entering
this season. What is the difference monetarily if we would
have exercised the fifth year option or if we placed
the franchise tag on him next year to retain his
rights moving forward.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Okay, the fifth year option on Najie Harris's contract would
have been six point eight million dollars. That's guaranteed money. Now,
the franchise tag tenders won't be determined until late February
twenty twenty five. But what I can can tell you
as the franchise tender for the twenty twenty four season
for running backs was eleven point nine to five million,
(08:08):
and that's also fully guaranteed. So if you're looking for
the bargain way to handle it, it would have been
the fifth year option. Franchise tags are very expensive. And
the other thing about the franchise tag is as soon
as you as soon as you put it on the player,
that money is assessed on your cap.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
All of the guaranteed too.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yes, but even if the guy doesn't sign it, you
have to have that like put a side set aside
for that. Like you can't say, well, we'll put the
franchise tag on him, and if the guy doesn't sign
it until July, we can like you know, use this
money until then, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Carl Anderson from Falmouth, Virginia. Mark Moseley won the NFL
MVP as a placekicker in the strike shortened nineteen eighty
two season. I believe Chris Boswell is having a much
better season. Can he win.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
No disrespect to Chris Boswell, but I don't ever believe
I will see a place kicker winning the NFL MVP
award again. I mean that nineteen eighty two season was
so weird. I mean the strike, the way that happened.
You know, the season opened as scheduled, they played two
games based on the schedule, and then the strike was
(09:31):
called and then there weren't games played until late November again,
and it was such a mess. I mean, they kind
of because of the large gap, and then you just had,
you know, some regular season games left, and then you
wanted to have the playoffs. What the league ended up
(09:52):
doing was pretty much scrapping the whole division system and
they just created you know, each conference. It was like
a I don't remember how many teams are worth it,
but like let's say there were twenty eight teams. There
were fourteen teams in the AFC, and fourteen teams in
the NFC, and they just put them all in one
(10:12):
big group, you know, and then they instead of dividing
them up. And then the way the playoffs came about
was at a tournament like the NCAA Tournament basketball, and
that's how that all worked. So that was weird. That'll
never happen again. So Mark Moseley his MVP season, he
(10:36):
was successful. He made twenty one field goal attempts, but
he attempted none from longer than forty nine yards.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
That's the only ones bas attempts.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And he missed three extra points that season, when you
know extra points were not you know, they moved it
back now, so it's almost like a thirty yard field
goal kind of, but then you kicked it from the
two yard line. So you know, Mosley's year, judging by
(11:08):
or if it's judged by contemporary placekicker standards, wasn't even
really that good. I just think voters didn't know who
else to vote for. Well.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I think unfortunately the quarterback up in Buffalo, or maybe
even the running back you're going to see this weekend
in Philadelphia, seemed to be closing in on the MVP
award this year. But Chris Boswell was well on his
way to an All Pro first team not.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I mean it seems a way to me. Yeah, should be,
you know, but it's a vote. You never know what
happens in those votes.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Chris Lamont from Lewistown, Idaho. My dad just got back
from Green Bay and he said that during the lambeau
Field Tour, his tour guide gave Art Rooney Senior credit
for saving the Packers franchise. Dad was a little iffy
on the details. Could you perhaps explain what the tour
guide was talking about.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I'll take a guess. I mean, you know, the Steelers
joined the NFL nineteen thirty three. Founder Art Rooney, the
Art Rooney Senior was always act involved, you know, with
trying to make the franchise the best that it could be.
But he was also very involved in things having to
(12:21):
do with growing professional football because at the time, the
premier sports in America were Major League Baseball, College football
and even boxing were all way ahead of professional football
in terms of attracting the best players, keeping the best
(12:42):
players fan attendance. You know, there wasn't TV yet, but
you know, radio broadcasting those kinds of things. So you know,
the NFL was very much an afterthought, and so Art
Rooney Senior was very involved than trying to grow the league. Now,
(13:03):
one of the things that Art Rooney the senior and
New York Football Giants owner Wellington mara were both very
much in favor of was once well it was sharing
revenue period. Now they didn't share ticket revenue back in
those days, but things like broadcasting. That was when the
(13:26):
first revenue sharing kind of thought process went into came
into being. And you know, Wellington Marat deserves a lot
of credit because as the owner of the New York Giants,
he could have cashed in big time if revenue broadcast
revenue wasn't shared, but he was, you know, a league guy.
(13:52):
Art Rooney was a league guy. So once that was
instituted and they got that kind of thought process involved
in past, the NFL was able to have you know,
successful or teams in small markets. Green Bay, Wisconsin is
won was able to compete with New York, the New
York Football Giants, the Chicago Bears, another juggernaut at the time,
(14:17):
even the Philadelphia Eagles, although they weren't very good successfully
but they had a large market. So I think that
that's what probably the tour guide was referring to in
terms of saving the Packers, because I don't think there's
another league that would could have a team in that
(14:39):
small of a market, Like there's no baseball teams in
those kind of places, there's no hockey teams, there's no
NBA teams. So the NFL revenue sharing market a method
definitely saved the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
No, the MLB team plays in Milwaukee, the big city
in the state of Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Not great, right, and they're considered a small market thing.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Exactly, even though, yeah, compare Milwaukee to Green Bay.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
David Glode from Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. During the Bengals game, their
right offensive tackle seemed to move early almost every play.
He got called for a penalty maybe twice, but it
seemed like many more could have been called. How do
the officials handle that? And shouldn't they call it every
time until he stops?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, they should call it every time until he stops.
But you know, I do believe that there was some
thought among teams that they're just going to get called,
They're going to get tired of calling it, you know.
I remember, I think it was early in Belichick's years
(15:48):
in New England, you know, when they had tie law
and some of those defensive backs they would I wouldn't
say interfere necessarily, but a lot of illegal use of
them and kind of stuff, and just do it all
the time. How many are they gonna call three five?
You know, you never see that many of them. So
(16:12):
I just think that we're gonna do it all the time,
and let's see what stomach the officiating crew has for
calling it every time. And I don't know how the
grading of officials go. I'm not going to pretend I know,
but I just think that if a game, let's just
(16:33):
pret okay, the Cincinnati game, if they call that every time,
how long before the people started complaining, the fans, the broadcasters, whatever,
and the blame goes to the officials, not to the player.
So I just think that there's a line of thinking
(16:55):
to some degree. Let's you know, if if you're tackle,
it's trying to block TJ. Watt and he can't do
it well if he can line up maybe a little
in the backfield too much, or if he gets that
quick start or half a second jump on things. Every time,
(17:16):
let's do it every time. See how many times they call.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
It Harvey Heaton from Dartmouth, Nova, Scotia, Canada. Would it
be legal for Joey Porter Jr. And other players to
wear gloves that are close to or the same color
as their opponent's jerseys.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Okay, the wardrobe police will allow you during games to
wear stuff that is any of the primary colors assigned
to your franchise by the league. And you know, teams
have some input into this as well. But for the Steelers,
(17:55):
their primary colors are white, black, and gold, so you
can wear any thing of those colors. So if you
know the Steelers are at home and the other team
is wearing white, you can wear white gloves. But for example,
in Cincinnati they wore orange jerseys. In Cleveland, the Browns
(18:19):
wore brown jerseys. You can't wear like a Steelers player
couldn't wear orange or brown. So it depends on, you know,
what what the other team is wearing. For example, in
Baltimore or in Philadelphia this week, they can't wear green
(18:41):
in Baltimore. If the Ravens wear purple, can't wear purple.
But if they wear black, you could have black gloves.
So you know, it depends. It's it's it's not something
that you can do as a as a regular thing.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And our final question today comes from Jeff mar from
Bryceon City, North Carolina. I usually come up once a
year to a home game. This year I had to
choose the last week versus the Bengals. That is obviously
a flex week. When does the NFL actually schedule that week?
And one are the possible Saturday time slots?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Okay? You know Week eighteen of the NFL schedule is
always a TVD. They don't even you know, make anything.
Every every game that week is scheduled tv D days,
times whatever. Okay, So there's two Saturday games that will
be played, and the time slots on Saturdays for the
(19:43):
Saturday that week are four thirty and eight. And then
then there's you know the other the regular schedule. On Sunday,
you'll have some one o'clock games, some four o'clock games,
and the night game. There is no Monday night game
the last week of the regular season. Now, the NFL
will not announce the Week eighteen schedule until after the
(20:08):
Monday night game is over from the previous week. So
Week seventeen now it may come earlier. If you know,
there's some obvious things that the league wants to. You know.
For example, if there are a bunch of games between
teams that are out of it, they may announce those
(20:31):
because you know, the league likes to get those out
of the way. You're trying to you don't want scoreboard
watching too much, or scoreboard watching before your team plays.
For example, if the Steelers were playing for playoff seeding
(20:52):
at let's say four o'clock on Sunday, well, you wouldn't
want a one o'clock the outcome of a one o'clock
game to determine the playoff seeding for the Steelers before
kickoff of their game. That's what the league does not want,
so that's why they wait. So the answer to the
(21:12):
question is Monday, December thirtieth, is the Monday night game
of Week seventeen. It could be as late as after
that game before you'll know when the Steelers play the
Bengals at home, if.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm not mistaken. Last year, the Steelers did catch that
Saturday game against the Ravens in the last week of
the season, and of course, as everything is made for
TV these days, they announced it at halftime of that
Monday night football game. You know, a big reveal at
the halftime show. What's the schedule going to look like
a week eighteen? I might put a little chip down
that it's going to be the same thing this week
this year. Halftime a Monday.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Night could be, could be, But again they reserve the
right to wait until after the Monday night game, and
that that Monday night game because it's Detroit at San
Francisco to NFCA, there could be some AFC games announced
at halftime or maybe even before that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, the Steelers game this week is against an NFC
opponent for twenty five kickoff in Philadelphia, Labs. They haven't
won there since nineteen sixty five, but you ready for
the stat. Russell Wilson's three to zero in Philadelphia in
his career, so something's got to give here. On Sunday
in Philadelphia, Labs goes on the air two twenty five
with the Steelers Audio Network pregame Show with Jerry Dulac
(22:28):
and Mike Perzuda. Thanks has always for giving us a listen.
Get your questions into Labs now, and we'll be back
again next week with another edition of Aston Answered
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