September 12, 2023 • 22 mins
Labs and Tom talk about the game Sunday before getting into this week's batch of 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):
Well, twenty twenty three was fun. Well it lasted, Labs.
But it looks like the season is over for the Steelers,
or at least that's the sentiment I'm getting from a
lot of Steelers fans online. Oh, there's no way they
can dig themselves out of this. They look so bad.
Why why after just one week or all of our
hopes down the drain. It was a bad game, Labs,
But come on, there's sixteen more of these to.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Go one week. How about halftime? I mean I was,
I was getting things that by halftime.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Starting your papers, put them in your backpack.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, there's no such time like the present. You know.
Why Wait? Yeah, I mean, but let me say this.
You know there's one thing about Well, I maybe didn't
jump over the ledge of the bridge into the I
almost said in the ocean into the river. I was
walking up towards that railing during that game. I mean,
(01:07):
it was bad, and I didn't expect it. I hadn't know.
I was shocked, you know, And as we know, I'm
a living live in my fears kind of guy. But
I never anticipated that. I mean it, I didn't know.
I wasn't ready to say there's no way the Steelers
(01:30):
lose this game before it kicked off. But I also
didn't think it was going to be thirty to seven.
And in a performance that was bad in every respect,
you could imagine anything you want to choose. I mean,
what it reminded me of was Chuck Noll once said,
(01:56):
when you lose, whatever they say about you is true.
You know, in other words, if they want to say
you stink, or you know, you're playing around whatever. So
there is legitimacy created by that kind of performance in
every criticism. But you know, the as I said, all
(02:18):
I would say to fans is I feel, and I
shared the feeling of walking to the railing of the
bridge to dive into the Ohio River. But I stopped
a little short and I would just say, you know,
as Dick Lebou also once said, I've seen sicker dogs
(02:40):
than this, get well and be okay. So you know,
we're going to see what We're going to see what
they're made of here, maybe as soon as Monday.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Night, when George Pickens caught what seemed at the moment
to be the Steelers first first down. Of course it
got reviewed and they ended up getting the first down
on a play later, and you heard the Bronx cheer
from the Steelers, faithful into the second quarter, finally get
the first down. That's when you knew things were not
going that great.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, you can't well against a team like the forty
nine ers. I mean there has to be ebb and
flow in the game. I mean, and there was too
much ebbing and not enough flowing. I mean you can't.
You can't go, you know, zero for five when your
first five third downs. I mean, they're too good for that.
They're just too good for that. And it ends up
(03:27):
it ends up becoming what we saw and dreaded.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, let's get to this week's batch of questions, and
the first one comes from Lorenzo Keso from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I've never seen Akrosher Stadium with so many wearing the
visitors colors as I did for the game against the
forty nine ers. I believe it effectively weakened the home
field advantage. What happened and can such a thing be prevented?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, what happened was that the people who owned the
seats in the lower two in the lower two levels
of the they put their tickets up for sale and
they were purchased by forty nine Ers fans. Now, I'm
not sure whether all of the people, the people wearing
red actually made the trip from California. One of the things,
(04:15):
you know, we were talking about a little bit in
the press box was, you know, Youngstown, Ohio is close
and that's where you know, the the Barlow family uh
kind of had their headquarters, and that the Barlows owned
that team and Jed York, the current owner of the
team is married to that the Barlow's daughter, the you know,
(04:40):
Eddie Senior, his daughter, Eddie Junior's sister. So you know,
I thought maybe, you know, there would be some of
that maybe left over because of the you know, the
forty nine Ers won a lot of trophies under the
the Barlow ownership group. So you know, I don't, I
don't really know, but yes, to answer Lorenzo's question, there
(05:01):
were a lot of red jerseys UH in in the
Acriture Stadium one Sunday. And you know the only thing
that is that you can prevent it to do to
prevent it is if it doesn't happen because you can't
restrict who buys the tickets once they're put up for sale,
I mean on the secondary market or you know, ticket
(05:25):
exchange or whatever whatever the the owners of the original
owners of those tickets used to sell the tickets. You know,
you can't say no nobody who's a forty nine Ers fan?
Are you a forty nine Ers fan? You can't buy
those tickets. So once they're put up for sale, it's
it's on the open market, and there's really nothing that
(05:47):
stealers can do to prevent the resale of tickets either.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's on the fans who have those tickets to not
sell them and to go to the game. That's how
you fix it. Mike Federico from Call Your Veil, Call Yourville,
Tennessee asks after Sundays drubbing by a very good forty
nine Ers team, what facet was most alarming to you?
All credit due to San Francisco for being a very
good team, but the Steelers were out done in every
(06:11):
facet of the game. Wave your magic wand and tell
us the most glaring failure that you would fix. First,
I didn't know you had a magic wand.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Labs gateballs the and the you know, I tried the
magic gate ball at halftime. You know, how do you
fix this? And it said you're on your own pal.
You know, the most disappointing aspect of the game to
me was, as Mike wrote, quote, the Steelers were outdone
in every facet of the game. There's nothing you can
(06:43):
point to. I mean, you know, there's no silver lining here.
I mean, I understand TJ. Watt put forth a very
solid effort. Yeah, okay, that's a good word. And you
know he you know, made some history by tying James
(07:04):
Harrison for first place on the franchise all time sack list.
I mean, but you know, I don't consider that a
silver lining, you know what I mean in terms of
what happened on the field. So you know, there is
no magic wand ah, and there's no way to fix
what went wrong during the entirety of that game besides
(07:27):
hard work. I mean, there's no there's no secret to this.
You know, it has to be done in sweat equity.
And again, as I said, they got they got a
big game coming up Monday night. And uh oh, and two,
I don't even want to think about that.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Ken waldrip from Onto Nogun Michigan. Wow, Labs really made
me stretch for that one. There. Can you please explain
the love affair that the Steelers have with a very
very inconsistent punter. At best, he looks like a linebacker
and like one too. That's not an insult, it's just
what it is.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Okay. As we've already established here in this podcast, the
Steelers play poorly in every fact of their opener, and
the forty nine Ers are an NFC power, a very
legitimate Super Bowl contender. I mean that's not just something
that you know, it's a marketing phrase. I mean, they
(08:27):
legitimately are very good. Okay, but the punter really, I
mean I get he wasn't good. Presley Harvin the third
did not have a good game punting. But to complain
about things is one thing, But I mean to go
to the punter, I think that's a reach. So yeah,
(08:49):
as I said, there's other things that were far more
significant contributors to that loss than the punting.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
A very easy way to fix the poor punting scoring
enough points to.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Make first time or convert some third downs. How about that?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You know, that's an easy way to avoid poor punting
on your team. John Wishinski from Clemens, North Carolina. I
don't think that I have ever watched the season opener
at home that was so disastrous since the start of
the chuckn Ole era as opening day at home ever
been so bad.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
You know, this is another one of those ever questions
that I feel it's necessary to remind fans that, you know,
the Steelers' ninetieth season was last year, okay, so, and
they didn't win anything until nineteen seventy two. So there
(09:46):
was a lot of losing in Steelers history, a lot
of bad games, and you know it didn't just stop. Well,
a lot of good things happened once you know, Chuck
Nole was hired in nineteen sixty nine. But I mean,
you know, the Steelers have had only three coaches since
nineteen sixty nine, and you can point to a disastrous
(10:09):
opener for each of them. You know, two of them
are in the Hall of Fame, you know, and Mike
Tomlan I believe, is you know, charting a course to
be inducted as well. So, but anyway, so I'll give
you one of each, Okay, Chuck Noll nineteen eighty nine,
three Rivers Stadium, the Steelers loss to the Browns fifty
(10:30):
one to nothing. Fifty one to nothing. That remains the
most lofsided loss in franchise history.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That makes yesterday Sunday's game looked close.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I was there, Okay, nineteen ninety seven Bill Kaher, another
Hall of Fame coach, Steelers opened their seat. There was
still three River Stadium at the time. Opened the season
at three Rivers Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys, lost thirty
seven and nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
The teams that they're playing in these blowouts too, they
sting extra right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So uh, you know it happens. Both of those teams
went on to make the playoffs, the eighty nine Steelers
and the ninety seven Steelers. Both of those coaches are
in the Hall of Fame. You know what can I
tell you? You know, stuff happens. It's painful, but it does.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I hate to be this guy, Labs, but it sounds
to me like the common denominator and all three of
those losses were your attendance in the building. I don't know,
I know that.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Has anything to do with it, but well, I'll take.
I'll take. I'll start taking off openers from now on,
and I'll and that's what I'll say when the boss says,
where were you? I'll say, well, Tom told me that
I'm the I'm the Jinks.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I'm helping the team win.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I'm helping it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
James Wilding from Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Do you think the Steelers
have seen the last of Benny Snow?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Uh? Okay, I'm going to assume that this question means
are the Steelers going to be bringing him back? And
you know, as of right now, and things often change.
See Okay, let me just explain this real quick. Benny
Snell is a vested veteran. Okay. So if a vested
(12:15):
veteran is on the roster for the first game of
the season, he is guaranteed his salary if you cut him,
if he chooses to claim it. Okay. So that's why
you often see a lot of guys like Benny Snell
(12:38):
kind of be out there in the open market until
after the first game is over, because after the first
game is over, teams can look around to see maybe
there were injuries or maybe they were counting on someone
either as in Benny Snow's case, either as a running
back or a special teams guy that didn't really produce
(12:59):
the way they want him too. And so a lot
of times there's more action for those kinds of players
after the first game. Now, you know that could have happened.
We're doing this on Tuesday, September twelfth. You know, Benny
Snell maybe gets some interest here in the next couple
of days. But in terms of the Steelers, I really
(13:23):
think that they already have their three running backs on
the fifty three man roster that they're going to keep,
Najie Harris, Jalen Warren, Anthony McFarlane. They have three more
on the practice squad, Greg Bell, Xander Horvath and Kadri Olison.
And so I don't really see a spawn for him
on this team or this practice squad unless there would
(13:46):
be injuries at the position.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Dean Florio from Marero Los Angeles asks, I saw that
Zach Gentry was added to the Bengals practice squad. Why
couldn't he be signed to the Steelers practice squad? At least.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
There are no rules that would have prohibited Zach Gentry
from being signed to the Steelers' practice squad, But I mean,
you know this, he and Zach Gentry is also another
vested veteran, so he was not on waivers. So to speak.
When he was released, he was free to sign with
(14:20):
any team that wanted him on the fifty three man roster. Okay,
that did not happen, and so then he was added
to the Bengals practice squad. My sense of it is
that if the Steelers had wanted him on their practice squad,
that would that would have happened. Why they didn't I
don't know specifically, but I do believe that the fact
(14:43):
that Zach Gentry is no longer affiliated with the Steelers
was a team decision, not his personal decision.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Robert Gates from Cheraquita Grande, Panama, I understand a team
is limited to eight players on the injured reserve list
in a S and an individual player can be on
the injured reserve list twice. Can a team put a
practice squad player on IR? Or is that designation only
for the fifty three Okay?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I think Robert here is confusing some various facts about
IR and misstating him them and his submission. So I'm
going to try and clear this up. There's no limit
on how many players a team can put on IR. Okay,
so that's that's not true. The eight players uninjured reserve
(15:34):
list in a season is not true. The eight limit
is for the number of players who can be designated
to return. So you can have twenty people on your IR,
but you can only designate eight over the course of
the season to come back. Okay, So that's that's where
(15:58):
the eight, the number eight comes in. A team is
certainly permitted to put a practice squad player on injured reserve,
I mean, and that's a separate list called practice squad
IR because if you do that, if you put a
practice squad player on high R, then he doesn't count
on your limit of sixteen practice squad players, and so
(16:20):
then you can add another one to the practice squad
so you have sixteen. That's the number. That's the highest
number that you're allowed to have. But just as another
little piece of information, if you're on practice squad IRE,
you're continuing to get paid and that counts on the cap,
so you better have the cap space to do all
(16:41):
of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Ronnie cap from Yankton, San Diego asks how many tackling
practices are allowed during the season. Is there any specialized
times they have to be used or is it all
up to the team's discretion.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Okay? An NFL regular season now is eighteen weeks. Seventeen
games plus the boy week. They all count as a week.
A team is permitted to have up to sixteen padded
practices over the course of the eighteen week NFL regular season,
so that's not even one a week. There is no limit,
(17:15):
or there is no I won't say limit. There is
no rule about when they have to be during the
regular season. So you know, you can a lot of
times coaches like to save them, you know, to either
make a point with the team after a particularly annoying
(17:37):
performance or trend that the coach might kind of get
a sense of that's happening and he wants to, you know,
shake things up. But even during a padded practice during
the regular season, there's no tackling. I mean, it's not
going to be like it was at Saint Vincent, where
you know, you have live tackling every day and you
(17:58):
know that kind of stuff that they put pads on
maybe and you know, bang around a little bit, but
there's no going to the ground or any of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, and it's up to sixteen padded practices. There's nothing
that says that a team doesn't have to put the
pads on again once training camp ends during the regular season, right,
James Parker.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And they don't have to use and they don't have
to have sixteen either, that's not a rule.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yes, James Parker from Springvale, Alabama has our last question
of the day and he wants to know. Although you
have never been one to cry over spilled milk, here
on Aston answered, is there any trade slash not resigned
move the Steelers have made that upset you.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I'm going to change the submission a little bit from
upset me to disappointed me. And that's how I would
describe Rod Woodson not finishing his career with the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
This one.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
You know, Len Dawson and Johnny and Idis were both
drafted by the Steelers in the fifties. Both became Hall
of Fame quarterbacks, super Bowl winning Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Okay,
and letting that get away is never a good thing.
(19:15):
But you know, in Dawson's case, he was traded to
the Browns after the Steelers acquired Bobby Lane, and he
never Dawson never really did anything for the Steelers. I mean,
it's not like you knew what you were losing when
(19:37):
he when you traded him. Unit has never even got
a chance, and so you had no idea what you
were cutting when he was cut after being a ninth
round pick in nineteen fifty five. So you know, those
two again, losing or letting quarterbacks go who win Super
(19:57):
Bowls and win being inducted in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame were painful. But Woodson was already a great
player when he with the Steelers before he left as
an unrestricted free agent. I mean, in nineteen ninety three,
he was voted NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He
had eight interceptions, twenty eight passes defense, a couple of sacks,
(20:18):
couple of forced fumbles that year. And then also in
nineteen ninety four, that was the seventy fifth anniversary of
the NFL, and the NFL picked a seventy fifth anniversary
All Time team, And you know, it was a very
elite group you're talking about. They encompassed the first seventy
(20:41):
five years of the NFL. Okay, so there was a
lot of players, a lot of great players, a lot
of Hall of Fame players. This was a very elite
group that the NFL picked and then honored, and there
were only five active players select for that team. Woodson
(21:02):
was one of them. The other four were Joe Montana,
Jerry Rice, Reggie White, and Ronnie Lott. So this yes,
and you know that guy who's who's now the coach
of Colorado, he didn't make it. Just to put that
in perspective too. You know, I'm not ripping d On
(21:22):
as much as I'm.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Making anyway, you know, I mean, he wasn't he never
really cut in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I'm not ripping d On. I'm just trying to make
the point of how great. Yes, So yeah, the fact
that Woodson didn't end his career in Pittsburgh, to me,
was the most disappointing not re signed move that I've
ever been directly associated with.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well that's all we got for you today on Askton Answer.
Thanks has always for giving us a listen. You can
submit your questions to labs now and hopefully you'll hear
them on a future episode. Steelers must get in the
wind calling on Monday Night, the Browns come to Acroshore Stadium.
Don't want to fall to zero and two to start
the season. So it's a big one on Monday Night
football for Bob Labriola. I'm Tom Afreman. We'll be back
(22:10):
again next week with Aston answered.
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well, twenty twenty three was fun. Well it lasted, Labs.
But it looks like the season is over for the Steelers,
or at least that's the sentiment I'm getting from a
lot of Steelers fans online. Oh, there's no way they
can dig themselves out of this. They look so bad.
Why why after just one week or all of our
hopes down the drain. It was a bad game, Labs,
But come on, there's sixteen more of these to.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Go one week. How about halftime? I mean I was,
I was getting things that by halftime.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Starting your papers, put them in your backpack.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, there's no such time like the present. You know.
Why Wait? Yeah, I mean, but let me say this.
You know there's one thing about Well, I maybe didn't
jump over the ledge of the bridge into the I
almost said in the ocean into the river. I was
walking up towards that railing during that game. I mean,
(01:07):
it was bad, and I didn't expect it. I hadn't know.
I was shocked, you know, And as we know, I'm
a living live in my fears kind of guy. But
I never anticipated that. I mean it, I didn't know.
I wasn't ready to say there's no way the Steelers
(01:30):
lose this game before it kicked off. But I also
didn't think it was going to be thirty to seven.
And in a performance that was bad in every respect,
you could imagine anything you want to choose. I mean,
what it reminded me of was Chuck Noll once said,
(01:56):
when you lose, whatever they say about you is true.
You know, in other words, if they want to say
you stink, or you know, you're playing around whatever. So
there is legitimacy created by that kind of performance in
every criticism. But you know, the as I said, all
(02:18):
I would say to fans is I feel, and I
shared the feeling of walking to the railing of the
bridge to dive into the Ohio River. But I stopped
a little short and I would just say, you know,
as Dick Lebou also once said, I've seen sicker dogs
(02:40):
than this, get well and be okay. So you know,
we're going to see what We're going to see what
they're made of here, maybe as soon as Monday.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Night, when George Pickens caught what seemed at the moment
to be the Steelers first first down. Of course it
got reviewed and they ended up getting the first down
on a play later, and you heard the Bronx cheer
from the Steelers, faithful into the second quarter, finally get
the first down. That's when you knew things were not
going that great.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, you can't well against a team like the forty
nine ers. I mean there has to be ebb and
flow in the game. I mean, and there was too
much ebbing and not enough flowing. I mean you can't.
You can't go, you know, zero for five when your
first five third downs. I mean, they're too good for that.
They're just too good for that. And it ends up
(03:27):
it ends up becoming what we saw and dreaded.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, let's get to this week's batch of questions, and
the first one comes from Lorenzo Keso from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I've never seen Akrosher Stadium with so many wearing the
visitors colors as I did for the game against the
forty nine ers. I believe it effectively weakened the home
field advantage. What happened and can such a thing be prevented?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, what happened was that the people who owned the
seats in the lower two in the lower two levels
of the they put their tickets up for sale and
they were purchased by forty nine Ers fans. Now, I'm
not sure whether all of the people, the people wearing
red actually made the trip from California. One of the things,
(04:15):
you know, we were talking about a little bit in
the press box was, you know, Youngstown, Ohio is close
and that's where you know, the the Barlow family uh
kind of had their headquarters, and that the Barlows owned
that team and Jed York, the current owner of the
team is married to that the Barlow's daughter, the you know,
(04:40):
Eddie Senior, his daughter, Eddie Junior's sister. So you know,
I thought maybe, you know, there would be some of
that maybe left over because of the you know, the
forty nine Ers won a lot of trophies under the
the Barlow ownership group. So you know, I don't, I
don't really know, but yes, to answer Lorenzo's question, there
(05:01):
were a lot of red jerseys UH in in the
Acriture Stadium one Sunday. And you know the only thing
that is that you can prevent it to do to
prevent it is if it doesn't happen because you can't
restrict who buys the tickets once they're put up for sale,
I mean on the secondary market or you know, ticket
(05:25):
exchange or whatever whatever the the owners of the original
owners of those tickets used to sell the tickets. You know,
you can't say no nobody who's a forty nine Ers fan?
Are you a forty nine Ers fan? You can't buy
those tickets. So once they're put up for sale, it's
it's on the open market, and there's really nothing that
(05:47):
stealers can do to prevent the resale of tickets either.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's on the fans who have those tickets to not
sell them and to go to the game. That's how
you fix it. Mike Federico from Call Your Veil, Call Yourville,
Tennessee asks after Sundays drubbing by a very good forty
nine Ers team, what facet was most alarming to you?
All credit due to San Francisco for being a very
good team, but the Steelers were out done in every
(06:11):
facet of the game. Wave your magic wand and tell
us the most glaring failure that you would fix. First,
I didn't know you had a magic wand.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Labs gateballs the and the you know, I tried the
magic gate ball at halftime. You know, how do you
fix this? And it said you're on your own pal.
You know, the most disappointing aspect of the game to
me was, as Mike wrote, quote, the Steelers were outdone
in every facet of the game. There's nothing you can
(06:43):
point to. I mean, you know, there's no silver lining here.
I mean, I understand TJ. Watt put forth a very
solid effort. Yeah, okay, that's a good word. And you
know he you know, made some history by tying James
(07:04):
Harrison for first place on the franchise all time sack list.
I mean, but you know, I don't consider that a
silver lining, you know what I mean in terms of
what happened on the field. So you know, there is
no magic wand ah, and there's no way to fix
what went wrong during the entirety of that game besides
(07:27):
hard work. I mean, there's no there's no secret to this.
You know, it has to be done in sweat equity.
And again, as I said, they got they got a
big game coming up Monday night. And uh oh, and two,
I don't even want to think about that.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Ken waldrip from Onto Nogun Michigan. Wow, Labs really made
me stretch for that one. There. Can you please explain
the love affair that the Steelers have with a very
very inconsistent punter. At best, he looks like a linebacker
and like one too. That's not an insult, it's just
what it is.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Okay. As we've already established here in this podcast, the
Steelers play poorly in every fact of their opener, and
the forty nine Ers are an NFC power, a very
legitimate Super Bowl contender. I mean that's not just something
that you know, it's a marketing phrase. I mean, they
(08:27):
legitimately are very good. Okay, but the punter really, I
mean I get he wasn't good. Presley Harvin the third
did not have a good game punting. But to complain
about things is one thing, But I mean to go
to the punter, I think that's a reach. So yeah,
(08:49):
as I said, there's other things that were far more
significant contributors to that loss than the punting.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
A very easy way to fix the poor punting scoring
enough points to.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Make first time or convert some third downs. How about that?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You know, that's an easy way to avoid poor punting
on your team. John Wishinski from Clemens, North Carolina. I
don't think that I have ever watched the season opener
at home that was so disastrous since the start of
the chuckn Ole era as opening day at home ever
been so bad.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
You know, this is another one of those ever questions
that I feel it's necessary to remind fans that, you know,
the Steelers' ninetieth season was last year, okay, so, and
they didn't win anything until nineteen seventy two. So there
(09:46):
was a lot of losing in Steelers history, a lot
of bad games, and you know it didn't just stop. Well,
a lot of good things happened once you know, Chuck
Nole was hired in nineteen sixty nine. But I mean,
you know, the Steelers have had only three coaches since
nineteen sixty nine, and you can point to a disastrous
(10:09):
opener for each of them. You know, two of them
are in the Hall of Fame, you know, and Mike
Tomlan I believe, is you know, charting a course to
be inducted as well. So, but anyway, so I'll give
you one of each, Okay, Chuck Noll nineteen eighty nine,
three Rivers Stadium, the Steelers loss to the Browns fifty
(10:30):
one to nothing. Fifty one to nothing. That remains the
most lofsided loss in franchise history.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That makes yesterday Sunday's game looked close.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I was there, Okay, nineteen ninety seven Bill Kaher, another
Hall of Fame coach, Steelers opened their seat. There was
still three River Stadium at the time. Opened the season
at three Rivers Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys, lost thirty
seven and nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
The teams that they're playing in these blowouts too, they
sting extra right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So uh, you know it happens. Both of those teams
went on to make the playoffs, the eighty nine Steelers
and the ninety seven Steelers. Both of those coaches are
in the Hall of Fame. You know what can I
tell you? You know, stuff happens. It's painful, but it does.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I hate to be this guy, Labs, but it sounds
to me like the common denominator and all three of
those losses were your attendance in the building. I don't know,
I know that.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Has anything to do with it, but well, I'll take.
I'll take. I'll start taking off openers from now on,
and I'll and that's what I'll say when the boss says,
where were you? I'll say, well, Tom told me that
I'm the I'm the Jinks.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I'm helping the team win.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I'm helping it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
James Wilding from Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Do you think the Steelers
have seen the last of Benny Snow?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Uh? Okay, I'm going to assume that this question means
are the Steelers going to be bringing him back? And
you know, as of right now, and things often change.
See Okay, let me just explain this real quick. Benny
Snell is a vested veteran. Okay. So if a vested
(12:15):
veteran is on the roster for the first game of
the season, he is guaranteed his salary if you cut him,
if he chooses to claim it. Okay. So that's why
you often see a lot of guys like Benny Snell
(12:38):
kind of be out there in the open market until
after the first game is over, because after the first
game is over, teams can look around to see maybe
there were injuries or maybe they were counting on someone
either as in Benny Snow's case, either as a running
back or a special teams guy that didn't really produce
(12:59):
the way they want him too. And so a lot
of times there's more action for those kinds of players
after the first game. Now, you know that could have happened.
We're doing this on Tuesday, September twelfth. You know, Benny
Snell maybe gets some interest here in the next couple
of days. But in terms of the Steelers, I really
(13:23):
think that they already have their three running backs on
the fifty three man roster that they're going to keep,
Najie Harris, Jalen Warren, Anthony McFarlane. They have three more
on the practice squad, Greg Bell, Xander Horvath and Kadri Olison.
And so I don't really see a spawn for him
on this team or this practice squad unless there would
(13:46):
be injuries at the position.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Dean Florio from Marero Los Angeles asks, I saw that
Zach Gentry was added to the Bengals practice squad. Why
couldn't he be signed to the Steelers practice squad? At least.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
There are no rules that would have prohibited Zach Gentry
from being signed to the Steelers' practice squad, But I mean,
you know this, he and Zach Gentry is also another
vested veteran, so he was not on waivers. So to speak.
When he was released, he was free to sign with
(14:20):
any team that wanted him on the fifty three man roster. Okay,
that did not happen, and so then he was added
to the Bengals practice squad. My sense of it is
that if the Steelers had wanted him on their practice squad,
that would that would have happened. Why they didn't I
don't know specifically, but I do believe that the fact
(14:43):
that Zach Gentry is no longer affiliated with the Steelers
was a team decision, not his personal decision.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Robert Gates from Cheraquita Grande, Panama, I understand a team
is limited to eight players on the injured reserve list
in a S and an individual player can be on
the injured reserve list twice. Can a team put a
practice squad player on IR? Or is that designation only
for the fifty three Okay?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I think Robert here is confusing some various facts about
IR and misstating him them and his submission. So I'm
going to try and clear this up. There's no limit
on how many players a team can put on IR. Okay,
so that's that's not true. The eight players uninjured reserve
(15:34):
list in a season is not true. The eight limit
is for the number of players who can be designated
to return. So you can have twenty people on your IR,
but you can only designate eight over the course of
the season to come back. Okay, So that's that's where
(15:58):
the eight, the number eight comes in. A team is
certainly permitted to put a practice squad player on injured reserve,
I mean, and that's a separate list called practice squad
IR because if you do that, if you put a
practice squad player on high R, then he doesn't count
on your limit of sixteen practice squad players, and so
(16:20):
then you can add another one to the practice squad
so you have sixteen. That's the number. That's the highest
number that you're allowed to have. But just as another
little piece of information, if you're on practice squad IRE,
you're continuing to get paid and that counts on the cap,
so you better have the cap space to do all
(16:41):
of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Ronnie cap from Yankton, San Diego asks how many tackling
practices are allowed during the season. Is there any specialized
times they have to be used or is it all
up to the team's discretion.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Okay? An NFL regular season now is eighteen weeks. Seventeen
games plus the boy week. They all count as a week.
A team is permitted to have up to sixteen padded
practices over the course of the eighteen week NFL regular season,
so that's not even one a week. There is no limit,
(17:15):
or there is no I won't say limit. There is
no rule about when they have to be during the
regular season. So you know, you can a lot of
times coaches like to save them, you know, to either
make a point with the team after a particularly annoying
(17:37):
performance or trend that the coach might kind of get
a sense of that's happening and he wants to, you know,
shake things up. But even during a padded practice during
the regular season, there's no tackling. I mean, it's not
going to be like it was at Saint Vincent, where
you know, you have live tackling every day and you
(17:58):
know that kind of stuff that they put pads on
maybe and you know, bang around a little bit, but
there's no going to the ground or any of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, and it's up to sixteen padded practices. There's nothing
that says that a team doesn't have to put the
pads on again once training camp ends during the regular season, right,
James Parker.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And they don't have to use and they don't have
to have sixteen either, that's not a rule.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yes, James Parker from Springvale, Alabama has our last question
of the day and he wants to know. Although you
have never been one to cry over spilled milk, here
on Aston answered, is there any trade slash not resigned
move the Steelers have made that upset you.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I'm going to change the submission a little bit from
upset me to disappointed me. And that's how I would
describe Rod Woodson not finishing his career with the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
This one.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
You know, Len Dawson and Johnny and Idis were both
drafted by the Steelers in the fifties. Both became Hall
of Fame quarterbacks, super Bowl winning Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Okay,
and letting that get away is never a good thing.
(19:15):
But you know, in Dawson's case, he was traded to
the Browns after the Steelers acquired Bobby Lane, and he
never Dawson never really did anything for the Steelers. I mean,
it's not like you knew what you were losing when
(19:37):
he when you traded him. Unit has never even got
a chance, and so you had no idea what you
were cutting when he was cut after being a ninth
round pick in nineteen fifty five. So you know, those
two again, losing or letting quarterbacks go who win Super
(19:57):
Bowls and win being inducted in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame were painful. But Woodson was already a great
player when he with the Steelers before he left as
an unrestricted free agent. I mean, in nineteen ninety three,
he was voted NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He
had eight interceptions, twenty eight passes defense, a couple of sacks,
(20:18):
couple of forced fumbles that year. And then also in
nineteen ninety four, that was the seventy fifth anniversary of
the NFL, and the NFL picked a seventy fifth anniversary
All Time team, And you know, it was a very
elite group you're talking about. They encompassed the first seventy
(20:41):
five years of the NFL. Okay, so there was a
lot of players, a lot of great players, a lot
of Hall of Fame players. This was a very elite
group that the NFL picked and then honored, and there
were only five active players select for that team. Woodson
(21:02):
was one of them. The other four were Joe Montana,
Jerry Rice, Reggie White, and Ronnie Lott. So this yes,
and you know that guy who's who's now the coach
of Colorado, he didn't make it. Just to put that
in perspective too. You know, I'm not ripping d On
(21:22):
as much as I'm.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Making anyway, you know, I mean, he wasn't he never
really cut in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I'm not ripping d On. I'm just trying to make
the point of how great. Yes, So yeah, the fact
that Woodson didn't end his career in Pittsburgh, to me,
was the most disappointing not re signed move that I've
ever been directly associated with.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well that's all we got for you today on Askton Answer.
Thanks has always for giving us a listen. You can
submit your questions to labs now and hopefully you'll hear
them on a future episode. Steelers must get in the
wind calling on Monday Night, the Browns come to Acroshore Stadium.
Don't want to fall to zero and two to start
the season. So it's a big one on Monday Night
football for Bob Labriola. I'm Tom Afreman. We'll be back
(22:10):
again next week with Aston answered.
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