January 6, 2025 • 24 mins
Labs and Tom talk about the loss to Cincy, the upcoming matchup with Baltimore and then get into this week’s questions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ten and three turned into ten and seven just like that, Labs.
The fourth loss in a four game losing streak suffered
by the Steelers on Saturday night at the hands of
the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm looking for silver linings, So let's
start with this real quick. Cincinnati did not make the playoffs,
so haha nan nanaboo boo. Sucks for you guys, But
that did still sting to see the Steelers. You know,
(00:31):
of course they already clinched the playoffs, Labs. But as
we talked before that game, you won the pregame me
on other shows all week long, people were saying, you
want to look better heading into the playoffs. You want
to have some momentum heading into the playoffs. One side
of the ball did, the defensive side. Unfortunately, the offense
still struggled though.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, because when you said you're looking at the bright side,
I was going to interject and say, I'm interested. I
need some bright side in my life. You know. The
loss of the Bengals was a fourth fourth in a row.
The offense continues to struggle you know, it hasn't scored
(01:08):
more than seventeen points in any of these four games
that they've lost in a row. And so I understand that.
You know, the competition was good, the defenses that they
were competing against, you know, were kind of upper echelon
at least until we got to the Bengals. But I mean,
you're looking for some sort of momentum build for the postseason,
(01:33):
and from an offensive perspective, that did not happen. So,
I mean, what the the Steelers have qualified for the playoffs,
and for me, by definition, that means they belong. If
you qualify, therefore you belong. And so you know they're
going into this now with the chance it's up to
(01:56):
them to make the most of it. You know. And
there are some guys on this roster, Cam Hayward, t J.
Watt who have never won a playoff game, right is
that right? T J. Watt has not, you know, And
(02:18):
Russell Wilson, you know this, he's getting close to the
end of his career. I mean, he's got a Super
Bowl ring, you know, another N of Conference championship on
his resume in addition to that super Bowl ring. So uh,
you know, he's accomplished some things, but you know, again,
(02:39):
time is running short, the sand is running through the
hour glass, and so you don't want to squander opportunities
like this. We'll we'll see what the Steelers make of
this opportunity starting Saturday against the familiar opponent.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yep, you're going to Baltimore for the second time this
year to face off again the Ravens for the third
time this year. And you know, as we're looking for
those silver linings, we're looking for any kind of optimism, labs.
I think the defense is the thing that you have
to look at, because that was an unbelievably good offense
from the Cincinnati Bengals that they held to just nineteen points,
and you're going up against another unbelievably good offense in
(03:17):
Baltimore this Saturday. So a little bit encouragement based on
how the defense played on Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, And another thing that for me about this, particularly
this particular opening assignment in the postseason, you know, the
Steelers have won eight of their last ten against the Ravens,
and Baltimore, you know, is not as intimidating a place
to the Steelers as it might be to other teams
(03:44):
because in Baltimore. The Steelers have won for their last
five and so you know, this is a familiar opponent,
a familiar venue. You know, maybe that helps. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I think that's a lot of the optimism too that
people are trying to is that, hey, you beat this
team nine out of the past eleven times. I know
the last time out that was kind of a one
side of affair. The score at the end looked like
a one sided affair. But this is a team that
you go back and forth with, that you play one
score games with constantly. So in a weird way, I
know that this is a better opponent than the Houston Texans.
(04:17):
But I think a lot of Steelers fans are starting
to look at this matchup and say, this is something
that we win often against this team.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, and you know, I don't know that you would
get this kind of admission from John Harbaugh. Let's until
you unless you gain sodium pentathal. But I don't I
think that they would. The Ravens would rather have played
somebody else. I just do. I mean, you know, if
you're going well as the Ravens are, I don't think
(04:46):
you want to go against a familiar opponent that you've
had trouble with and has made things difficult for you
even in the games that you've won. And one of
the things I've always believe, Eaved is the Ravens are
very successful against teams that they don't play that often
because teams that they don't play that often are not
(05:09):
familiar with the intensity and the physicality that they bring
to every game that they play. The Steelers are ready
for it. They'll stand in the middle of the ring
in trade punches with the Ravens all day and all
night if that. If that's what it takes, so should
it should be an interesting game. And you know, Steelers Ravens.
(05:31):
If anybody thought that was going to be one o'clock
on Sunday, they were delusional. I mean, that had night
game written all over it. It's an Amazon game, Amazon
Play Pay, it is Amazon right, It's on Prime. Yeah. Okay, yes, okay,
But I just mean in terms of the NFL, they
(05:51):
want to take care of some of the streaming services
or some of the newer entrance into the you know,
broadcast partnership umbrella, and so you know, Steelers Ravens to me,
was gonna be one of those games that was going
to go to someone you know, not CBS or Fox
(06:12):
or even NBC nationally. I mean because you know you
want to you want to get the new people, the
new entities addicted to your product, you know, because, like
you know, the Heroin Dealers, the first couple is always free.
So but that's so that to me was a no brainer.
(06:35):
As soon as it was going to be the Ravens,
I knew it was going to be a night game.
I'm just glad it's not Monday night. From a personal standpoint.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I'll take that. All of us here at the Steelers
Audio Network are thrilled for sure to have another night
game on our schedule. But you're right. Rather have it
Saturday night than Monday night, even Sunday night. I'd rather
have it on Saturday night. Let's get to this week's
patch of questions. Our first one comes from John Pahala
from Springfield, Virginia. Is it possible that Justin fields this
injury designation because of the trade to acquire him, is
(07:07):
so that the Steelers do not have to send a
higher draft pick to the Bears.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I've dealt with this before, but you know it's it's pertinent.
So let's let's go over it again, absolutely not. Just
as a refresher, the terms of the trade between the
Steelers and the Bears for Justin Fields, the Steelers ohe
the Bears a sixth round pick unless he plays fifty
(07:35):
one percent of the offensive snaps, then it rises to
a fourth round pick. Now at this point that ship
has sailed. It's over because it's just regular season games.
Justin Fields did not play fifty one percent of the snaps,
so the Steelers ohe the Bears a sixth round pick
(07:56):
in the twenty twenty five NFL draft. Now, let me
just say this. I mean, you're talking about a position,
a significant position, quarterback, and that has a lot to
do with the team's chances to win. And you know,
swapping out a couple of third day draft picks is
not going to influence any decision making coach, general manager,
(08:25):
team president when it comes to winning games. So there's
no way that that was a driving force at all
in the quarterback decisions that were made at any point
during the season.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Mike Clapper from Bedford, Pennsylvania. When an NFL team wins
the Super Bowl, is it invited to the White House
to meet the president? Did the Steelers teams of the
nineteen seventies get to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, the whole concept of Super Bowl winners being invited
to the White House didn't begin until the Carter administration,
which for you know, a lot of the youngs listening,
that was nineteen seventy six to nineteen eighty. And you know,
strangely enough, the Steelers' only visit came after Super Bowl fourteen,
which was played at the end of the nineteen seventy
(09:13):
nine football season. Now, earlier that year, the Pirates had
won the World Series in October nineteen seventy nine, so
the invitation from the White House was actually for both teams.
The Pirates and the Steelers were both invited to the
White House sometime in nineteen eighty early nineteen eighty and
(09:37):
to you know, celebrate the City of champions. I think
that's when that phrase was first coined, after the Pirates
and the Steelers post both won championships in the same
calendar year. So yeah, that they only went, that was
the first time they ever went. And as I said,
(09:57):
that was kind of the beginning of that whole tradition, ceremony,
whatever you want to call it. The Steelers also visited
the White House after Super Bowl forty That was George W.
Bush was the president, and they also visited the White
House after Super Bowl forty three Barack Obama was the president.
(10:18):
Then how is that both of us, by the way,
very cool experience.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
The nineteen seventy nine World Series you mentioned by the pirates,
this was the last time they want a playoff series.
What a depressing baseball team we have in this city.
Wallace Horton from Hyattsville, Maryland, do you think teams should
use special assistance just to manage timeouts? More and more
teams are costing themselves games by not using timeouts properly.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know, I think that this is something that may
sound good in theory, but it's not an arithmetic problem.
I mean, a lot of outsiders, analytics people, people, you know,
they want to boil everything down to an arithmetic problem.
(11:04):
You know, this much time left, and you're this far
behind or a head at this part of the field.
This is when you do this, And it's not like that.
I mean, it's just not There are a lot of
other factors that go into it. Now. I'm not disputing
that there are time management mistakes made by head coaches
throughout the NFL. I'm just saying that bringing someone in
(11:28):
and giving them a microphone and sitting them up in
that booth isn't necessarily the answer to this, because I
think you have to have a feel for your team,
for the game, how it's being played, what momentum. You know.
I remember one time being in a stadium where the
(11:51):
Steelers got ripped for not being more aggressive with timeouts
in a game against as a City. Now this was
a little while ago, but people who are criticizing that
never wanted to consider that Landry Jones was the quarterback
and not Ben Roethlisberger. And so it's a different you know,
(12:15):
it's a different approach, it's a different mindset. Is your
offense beat up? Is their defense beat up? Is you
know you know what I mean? How has the game
been going lately? Who gets the second half kickoff? If
this is in the first half. So it's just not
as easy. It's it's not a formula. It's not a
(12:35):
recipe like making chocolate chip cookies, where you know, you
put this, you put this amount of morsels into it
and then bake them for so long. It just doesn't
work that way. It's not that simple. So no, I
don't think more teams should go to special assistance for
(12:56):
that job. It needs to be done better, but that's
not the answer in mind, opinion.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Ledo Arballo from Cavina, California. Roman Wilson has barely been
on the field this season. Are there any updates on
Roman Wilson?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, just to recap, because this Roman Wilson thing goes
all the way back to when me and you were
talking every day for me St. Vincent College. Yes, sixth
snap of the first day in pads, by the way,
just to be especially specific, So you know, since then,
(13:33):
Roman Wilson really hasn't been on the field at all.
He didn't play in any preseason games. He hasn't played
in any regular season games, obviously. But on December thirty,
first New Year's Eve, you know, when you were out
Tom painting the town red. Of course, the Steelers announced
that they had opened the twenty one day practice windows
(13:55):
for inside linebacker Cole Holcombe, who had been on physically
able to perform, Roman Wilson, and defensive lineman Loganly. Loganly
is also a rookie. Both of them are on injured reserve.
So just to go back a little bit. What this
means is those guys have The Steelers have twenty one
(14:17):
days from December thirty first to decide whether they want
to activate any of those three players. Now they would
the steps would be adding them to the fifty three
man roster, and then the question would be do they
get a game day helmet. But just looking at the
(14:37):
reality of this, you know, Cole Holcom, I think what
they're trying to do is get him a little bit
of on field because he's been out for a long
time and he had a very serious knee injury. I
think you want to let him run around a little bit,
practice a little bit a lot, get a look at him,
but also allow him to get a feel for getting
(15:01):
back into this thing. I don't perceive that Cole Holcombe
is going to be activated to the fifty three man
roster before the end of this season. Roman Wilson, his
issue is he doesn't know it. He doesn't he doesn't
know what he's doing. You can attend meetings, you can
(15:22):
watch practice, but it's not the same as doing it
at high speed, making split second kind of adjustments reads
decisions that have to take place for the modern day
NFL kind of passing attack and Logan Lee a defensive lineman.
We could just look at the Bengals game. There were
(15:45):
two healthy defensive linemen who were inactive, So there's no need. Again,
he's a rookie, he doesn't he doesn't really have any experience,
nothing that you would want to say where we need
to add this to the mix. So that's the story
(16:05):
with these guys. After the twenty one day window, if
they're not activated to the fifty three main roster, they
just go back to the list that they were on
and that's where they finish. And I really believe that
at this stage, the next time we see Cole Holcombe,
Roman Wilson or Logan Lee on a practice field for
the Steelers or on a field for the Steelers, it'll
(16:27):
be OTA's next may.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Raoul Casas from North York, Ontario, Canada. Is it possible
for the Steelers to come to Toronto to play an
international game?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's possible. And then Steelers actually played a preseason game
in Toronto. It was August fourteenth, two thousand and eight.
Back in that time, the Buffalo Bills were, you know,
they had a series of I think it was eight
games where they played them preseason games and regular season
(17:02):
games in the Rogers Center in Toronto. I think it
was an effort to kind of for the Bills to
try and expand their fan base to Toronto because that's
very close geographically to Buffalo. That experiment, that series ended,
and since then, this is my view of things, the
(17:25):
NFL has been very careful and thoughtful about games in
Canada because the NFL views the Canadian Football League as
not a rival league, but as a complementary league maybe
that promotes American football outside of the borders of the
United States, And so the NFL doesn't want to kill
(17:47):
off the CFL, which I think is what would happen
if you'd start bringing games with real teams playing real
games in Canada. So, you know, I just I'm not
saying it's never gonna happen. I'm just saying that at
this point, I think the initiative that the NFL has
(18:07):
to try and grow the game globally will be concentrated
in different cities in Europe, Mexico of course, and as
we saw at the beginning of this season, South America.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And our final question today comes from Jim Anderson from Toledo, Ohio.
During the twenty twenty five NFL Owners meeting, do you
think they will discuss scheduling so that a team does
not have to play three games in eleven days in
the future.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
You know, the whole three games in eleven days thing phenomenon,
I guess i'll call it. It was two things. It
was a result that the NFL decided to make an
attempt to take over television sports on Christmas Day. And
then you couple that with December twenty fifth, in twenty
(18:59):
twenty four landed on a Wednesday. And so then now,
if you're going to play games on Wednesday, which they
were because that's Christmas Day, and they're going to play
them on Christmas Day next year. To write it down,
you got, this is what you have. So they sold
them to a lot of money to netflix the two
(19:21):
games Steelers Chiefs and Ravens Texans. And just for a
little evidence that this is not coming to an end
anytime soon, this is I'm going to give you some
of the ratings numbers. Okay, the Ravens beat Houston thirty
one to two. Okay, blowout game, it was never really close.
(19:46):
Average thirty one point three million viewers. Kansas City's game
twenty nine to ten over the Steelers. Again not not
competitive far into the game where you would hold viewers. However,
two more marquee teams thirty million worldwide averaged according to
(20:08):
Netflix's data. Okay, then once you know, the rest of
the numbers start getting in. I mean it was streamed
and then also telecasted, and so the Nielsen company gets
involved in that because they are also part of the
ratings determination procedure. That the Ravens Texans had an updated
(20:33):
average of twenty seven point two million viewers, Chiefs Steelers
was at twenty five point eight million, and Nielsen also
said that there were sixty five million viewers in the
United States who tuned in for at least one minute
of one of the two games. Netflix in the NFL
(20:54):
also said viewers from two hundred and eighteen countries and
territories turned into at least one of the games. Those
are huge numbers, huge numbers, and so again it's going
to continue. The revenue is going to be high for
them as a result. And let me just say this,
I mean there's a lot of you know, players sometimes
(21:17):
complaining about it, and I get it. I mean it's
very difficult on their bodies, and who knows what the
ramifications are going to be for them, you know later
in life. However, this money is split fifty to fifty
between the owners and the players. So let's broadcast revenue.
So whatever the owners are getting out of it, the
(21:38):
players are getting half. And that's what drives a salary
cap up. So you know, if you don't want to
play the games, okay, maybe the players have to take
a stand or whatever, but then you're not getting the
money either. So there's that. Uh, that's why I'm saying
(21:58):
when you look at these numbers, the success that the
league has, it's going to continue. Now. As I said,
next week is their excuse me. Next year is a
little easier because Christmas is on a Thursday. Well there's
always NFL games on Thursdays, so you know that's more
of a normal kind of but you know, next time
(22:18):
Christmas is on it Tuesday or Wednesday, buckle it up,
because here we go. It's going to happen. And and
the first the first group that wantes to step away
from the table and not cash those chips. Hey have
ad it. But in terms of the fans, enjoy it.
(22:39):
Three games in eleven days it beats watching NBA games,
you know.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
It did beat watching NBA games.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
A lot, and I firmly believe that the College Football
Playoff is going to learn this lesson too. Figure out
another time to play your games if you want a
lot of eyeballs on TV.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
For instance, like when they're playing their semi final this
coming week on Thursday night and Friday night, because you
do not want to go up against Super wild Card
weekend starting on Saturday. So yeah, right, everybody needs to
avoid the NFL at all costs if you want good ratings.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Because even if the Steelers, you know, losers of four
in a row and all that other tough you know,
and all due respect to the college football programs that
made it this far, but do you think more people
well some of them more than others, But do you
think Ohio State or Penn State, or Texas or hid State,
(23:47):
Penn State, a Notre dame even you think they have
more of a national or worldwide following than an NFL team.
Come on, that's just it's financial suicide. Don't do it.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Eight o'clock Saturday on Amazon Prime, locally on WPXI. Steelers
and Ravens and yet another edition of their storied rivalry,
another chapter being written in the playoffs. Labs is on
the air with the Steelers Audio Network at six pm
with Jerry Dulac and Bob Labriola, and that leads you
right in to kickoff. For Bob Labriola, I'm Tom Opferman.
(24:21):
Thanks as always for getting your questions in. Get him
in now if you want him rerid on a future edition.
And until next time, this has been Askeden answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ten and three turned into ten and seven just like that, Labs.
The fourth loss in a four game losing streak suffered
by the Steelers on Saturday night at the hands of
the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm looking for silver linings, So let's
start with this real quick. Cincinnati did not make the playoffs,
so haha nan nanaboo boo. Sucks for you guys, But
that did still sting to see the Steelers. You know,
(00:31):
of course they already clinched the playoffs, Labs. But as
we talked before that game, you won the pregame me
on other shows all week long, people were saying, you
want to look better heading into the playoffs. You want
to have some momentum heading into the playoffs. One side
of the ball did, the defensive side. Unfortunately, the offense
still struggled though.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, because when you said you're looking at the bright side,
I was going to interject and say, I'm interested. I
need some bright side in my life. You know. The
loss of the Bengals was a fourth fourth in a row.
The offense continues to struggle you know, it hasn't scored
(01:08):
more than seventeen points in any of these four games
that they've lost in a row. And so I understand that.
You know, the competition was good, the defenses that they
were competing against, you know, were kind of upper echelon
at least until we got to the Bengals. But I mean,
you're looking for some sort of momentum build for the postseason,
(01:33):
and from an offensive perspective, that did not happen. So,
I mean, what the the Steelers have qualified for the playoffs,
and for me, by definition, that means they belong. If
you qualify, therefore you belong. And so you know they're
going into this now with the chance it's up to
(01:56):
them to make the most of it. You know. And
there are some guys on this roster, Cam Hayward, t J.
Watt who have never won a playoff game, right is
that right? T J. Watt has not, you know, And
(02:18):
Russell Wilson, you know this, he's getting close to the
end of his career. I mean, he's got a Super
Bowl ring, you know, another N of Conference championship on
his resume in addition to that super Bowl ring. So uh,
you know, he's accomplished some things, but you know, again,
(02:39):
time is running short, the sand is running through the
hour glass, and so you don't want to squander opportunities
like this. We'll we'll see what the Steelers make of
this opportunity starting Saturday against the familiar opponent.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yep, you're going to Baltimore for the second time this
year to face off again the Ravens for the third
time this year. And you know, as we're looking for
those silver linings, we're looking for any kind of optimism, labs.
I think the defense is the thing that you have
to look at, because that was an unbelievably good offense
from the Cincinnati Bengals that they held to just nineteen points,
and you're going up against another unbelievably good offense in
(03:17):
Baltimore this Saturday. So a little bit encouragement based on
how the defense played on Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, And another thing that for me about this, particularly
this particular opening assignment in the postseason, you know, the
Steelers have won eight of their last ten against the Ravens,
and Baltimore, you know, is not as intimidating a place
to the Steelers as it might be to other teams
(03:44):
because in Baltimore. The Steelers have won for their last
five and so you know, this is a familiar opponent,
a familiar venue. You know, maybe that helps. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I think that's a lot of the optimism too that
people are trying to is that, hey, you beat this
team nine out of the past eleven times. I know
the last time out that was kind of a one
side of affair. The score at the end looked like
a one sided affair. But this is a team that
you go back and forth with, that you play one
score games with constantly. So in a weird way, I
know that this is a better opponent than the Houston Texans.
(04:17):
But I think a lot of Steelers fans are starting
to look at this matchup and say, this is something
that we win often against this team.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, and you know, I don't know that you would
get this kind of admission from John Harbaugh. Let's until
you unless you gain sodium pentathal. But I don't I
think that they would. The Ravens would rather have played
somebody else. I just do. I mean, you know, if
you're going well as the Ravens are, I don't think
(04:46):
you want to go against a familiar opponent that you've
had trouble with and has made things difficult for you
even in the games that you've won. And one of
the things I've always believe, Eaved is the Ravens are
very successful against teams that they don't play that often
because teams that they don't play that often are not
(05:09):
familiar with the intensity and the physicality that they bring
to every game that they play. The Steelers are ready
for it. They'll stand in the middle of the ring
in trade punches with the Ravens all day and all
night if that. If that's what it takes, so should
it should be an interesting game. And you know, Steelers Ravens.
(05:31):
If anybody thought that was going to be one o'clock
on Sunday, they were delusional. I mean, that had night
game written all over it. It's an Amazon game, Amazon
Play Pay, it is Amazon right, It's on Prime. Yeah. Okay, yes, okay,
But I just mean in terms of the NFL, they
(05:51):
want to take care of some of the streaming services
or some of the newer entrance into the you know,
broadcast partnership umbrella, and so you know, Steelers Ravens to me,
was gonna be one of those games that was going
to go to someone you know, not CBS or Fox
(06:12):
or even NBC nationally. I mean because you know you
want to you want to get the new people, the
new entities addicted to your product, you know, because, like
you know, the Heroin Dealers, the first couple is always free.
So but that's so that to me was a no brainer.
(06:35):
As soon as it was going to be the Ravens,
I knew it was going to be a night game.
I'm just glad it's not Monday night. From a personal standpoint.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I'll take that. All of us here at the Steelers
Audio Network are thrilled for sure to have another night
game on our schedule. But you're right. Rather have it
Saturday night than Monday night, even Sunday night. I'd rather
have it on Saturday night. Let's get to this week's
patch of questions. Our first one comes from John Pahala
from Springfield, Virginia. Is it possible that Justin fields this
injury designation because of the trade to acquire him, is
(07:07):
so that the Steelers do not have to send a
higher draft pick to the Bears.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I've dealt with this before, but you know it's it's pertinent.
So let's let's go over it again, absolutely not. Just
as a refresher, the terms of the trade between the
Steelers and the Bears for Justin Fields, the Steelers ohe
the Bears a sixth round pick unless he plays fifty
(07:35):
one percent of the offensive snaps, then it rises to
a fourth round pick. Now at this point that ship
has sailed. It's over because it's just regular season games.
Justin Fields did not play fifty one percent of the snaps,
so the Steelers ohe the Bears a sixth round pick
(07:56):
in the twenty twenty five NFL draft. Now, let me
just say this. I mean, you're talking about a position,
a significant position, quarterback, and that has a lot to
do with the team's chances to win. And you know,
swapping out a couple of third day draft picks is
not going to influence any decision making coach, general manager,
(08:25):
team president when it comes to winning games. So there's
no way that that was a driving force at all
in the quarterback decisions that were made at any point
during the season.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Mike Clapper from Bedford, Pennsylvania. When an NFL team wins
the Super Bowl, is it invited to the White House
to meet the president? Did the Steelers teams of the
nineteen seventies get to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, the whole concept of Super Bowl winners being invited
to the White House didn't begin until the Carter administration,
which for you know, a lot of the youngs listening,
that was nineteen seventy six to nineteen eighty. And you know,
strangely enough, the Steelers' only visit came after Super Bowl fourteen,
which was played at the end of the nineteen seventy
(09:13):
nine football season. Now, earlier that year, the Pirates had
won the World Series in October nineteen seventy nine, so
the invitation from the White House was actually for both teams.
The Pirates and the Steelers were both invited to the
White House sometime in nineteen eighty early nineteen eighty and
(09:37):
to you know, celebrate the City of champions. I think
that's when that phrase was first coined, after the Pirates
and the Steelers post both won championships in the same
calendar year. So yeah, that they only went, that was
the first time they ever went. And as I said,
(09:57):
that was kind of the beginning of that whole tradition, ceremony,
whatever you want to call it. The Steelers also visited
the White House after Super Bowl forty That was George W.
Bush was the president, and they also visited the White
House after Super Bowl forty three Barack Obama was the president.
(10:18):
Then how is that both of us, by the way,
very cool experience.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
The nineteen seventy nine World Series you mentioned by the pirates,
this was the last time they want a playoff series.
What a depressing baseball team we have in this city.
Wallace Horton from Hyattsville, Maryland, do you think teams should
use special assistance just to manage timeouts? More and more
teams are costing themselves games by not using timeouts properly.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know, I think that this is something that may
sound good in theory, but it's not an arithmetic problem.
I mean, a lot of outsiders, analytics people, people, you know,
they want to boil everything down to an arithmetic problem.
(11:04):
You know, this much time left, and you're this far
behind or a head at this part of the field.
This is when you do this, And it's not like that.
I mean, it's just not There are a lot of
other factors that go into it. Now. I'm not disputing
that there are time management mistakes made by head coaches
throughout the NFL. I'm just saying that bringing someone in
(11:28):
and giving them a microphone and sitting them up in
that booth isn't necessarily the answer to this, because I
think you have to have a feel for your team,
for the game, how it's being played, what momentum. You know.
I remember one time being in a stadium where the
(11:51):
Steelers got ripped for not being more aggressive with timeouts
in a game against as a City. Now this was
a little while ago, but people who are criticizing that
never wanted to consider that Landry Jones was the quarterback
and not Ben Roethlisberger. And so it's a different you know,
(12:15):
it's a different approach, it's a different mindset. Is your
offense beat up? Is their defense beat up? Is you
know you know what I mean? How has the game
been going lately? Who gets the second half kickoff? If
this is in the first half. So it's just not
as easy. It's it's not a formula. It's not a
(12:35):
recipe like making chocolate chip cookies, where you know, you
put this, you put this amount of morsels into it
and then bake them for so long. It just doesn't
work that way. It's not that simple. So no, I
don't think more teams should go to special assistance for
(12:56):
that job. It needs to be done better, but that's
not the answer in mind, opinion.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Ledo Arballo from Cavina, California. Roman Wilson has barely been
on the field this season. Are there any updates on
Roman Wilson?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, just to recap, because this Roman Wilson thing goes
all the way back to when me and you were
talking every day for me St. Vincent College. Yes, sixth
snap of the first day in pads, by the way,
just to be especially specific, So you know, since then,
(13:33):
Roman Wilson really hasn't been on the field at all.
He didn't play in any preseason games. He hasn't played
in any regular season games, obviously. But on December thirty,
first New Year's Eve, you know, when you were out
Tom painting the town red. Of course, the Steelers announced
that they had opened the twenty one day practice windows
(13:55):
for inside linebacker Cole Holcombe, who had been on physically
able to perform, Roman Wilson, and defensive lineman Loganly. Loganly
is also a rookie. Both of them are on injured reserve.
So just to go back a little bit. What this
means is those guys have The Steelers have twenty one
(14:17):
days from December thirty first to decide whether they want
to activate any of those three players. Now they would
the steps would be adding them to the fifty three
man roster, and then the question would be do they
get a game day helmet. But just looking at the
(14:37):
reality of this, you know, Cole Holcom, I think what
they're trying to do is get him a little bit
of on field because he's been out for a long
time and he had a very serious knee injury. I
think you want to let him run around a little bit,
practice a little bit a lot, get a look at him,
but also allow him to get a feel for getting
(15:01):
back into this thing. I don't perceive that Cole Holcombe
is going to be activated to the fifty three man
roster before the end of this season. Roman Wilson, his
issue is he doesn't know it. He doesn't he doesn't
know what he's doing. You can attend meetings, you can
(15:22):
watch practice, but it's not the same as doing it
at high speed, making split second kind of adjustments reads
decisions that have to take place for the modern day
NFL kind of passing attack and Logan Lee a defensive lineman.
We could just look at the Bengals game. There were
(15:45):
two healthy defensive linemen who were inactive, So there's no need. Again,
he's a rookie, he doesn't he doesn't really have any experience,
nothing that you would want to say where we need
to add this to the mix. So that's the story
(16:05):
with these guys. After the twenty one day window, if
they're not activated to the fifty three main roster, they
just go back to the list that they were on
and that's where they finish. And I really believe that
at this stage, the next time we see Cole Holcombe,
Roman Wilson or Logan Lee on a practice field for
the Steelers or on a field for the Steelers, it'll
(16:27):
be OTA's next may.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Raoul Casas from North York, Ontario, Canada. Is it possible
for the Steelers to come to Toronto to play an
international game?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's possible. And then Steelers actually played a preseason game
in Toronto. It was August fourteenth, two thousand and eight.
Back in that time, the Buffalo Bills were, you know,
they had a series of I think it was eight
games where they played them preseason games and regular season
(17:02):
games in the Rogers Center in Toronto. I think it
was an effort to kind of for the Bills to
try and expand their fan base to Toronto because that's
very close geographically to Buffalo. That experiment, that series ended,
and since then, this is my view of things, the
(17:25):
NFL has been very careful and thoughtful about games in
Canada because the NFL views the Canadian Football League as
not a rival league, but as a complementary league maybe
that promotes American football outside of the borders of the
United States, And so the NFL doesn't want to kill
(17:47):
off the CFL, which I think is what would happen
if you'd start bringing games with real teams playing real
games in Canada. So, you know, I just I'm not
saying it's never gonna happen. I'm just saying that at
this point, I think the initiative that the NFL has
(18:07):
to try and grow the game globally will be concentrated
in different cities in Europe, Mexico of course, and as
we saw at the beginning of this season, South America.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And our final question today comes from Jim Anderson from Toledo, Ohio.
During the twenty twenty five NFL Owners meeting, do you
think they will discuss scheduling so that a team does
not have to play three games in eleven days in
the future.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
You know, the whole three games in eleven days thing phenomenon,
I guess i'll call it. It was two things. It
was a result that the NFL decided to make an
attempt to take over television sports on Christmas Day. And
then you couple that with December twenty fifth, in twenty
(18:59):
twenty four landed on a Wednesday. And so then now,
if you're going to play games on Wednesday, which they
were because that's Christmas Day, and they're going to play
them on Christmas Day next year. To write it down,
you got, this is what you have. So they sold
them to a lot of money to netflix the two
(19:21):
games Steelers Chiefs and Ravens Texans. And just for a
little evidence that this is not coming to an end
anytime soon, this is I'm going to give you some
of the ratings numbers. Okay, the Ravens beat Houston thirty
one to two. Okay, blowout game, it was never really close.
(19:46):
Average thirty one point three million viewers. Kansas City's game
twenty nine to ten over the Steelers. Again not not
competitive far into the game where you would hold viewers. However,
two more marquee teams thirty million worldwide averaged according to
(20:08):
Netflix's data. Okay, then once you know, the rest of
the numbers start getting in. I mean it was streamed
and then also telecasted, and so the Nielsen company gets
involved in that because they are also part of the
ratings determination procedure. That the Ravens Texans had an updated
(20:33):
average of twenty seven point two million viewers, Chiefs Steelers
was at twenty five point eight million, and Nielsen also
said that there were sixty five million viewers in the
United States who tuned in for at least one minute
of one of the two games. Netflix in the NFL
(20:54):
also said viewers from two hundred and eighteen countries and
territories turned into at least one of the games. Those
are huge numbers, huge numbers, and so again it's going
to continue. The revenue is going to be high for
them as a result. And let me just say this,
I mean there's a lot of you know, players sometimes
(21:17):
complaining about it, and I get it. I mean it's
very difficult on their bodies, and who knows what the
ramifications are going to be for them, you know later
in life. However, this money is split fifty to fifty
between the owners and the players. So let's broadcast revenue.
So whatever the owners are getting out of it, the
(21:38):
players are getting half. And that's what drives a salary
cap up. So you know, if you don't want to
play the games, okay, maybe the players have to take
a stand or whatever, but then you're not getting the
money either. So there's that. Uh, that's why I'm saying
(21:58):
when you look at these numbers, the success that the
league has, it's going to continue. Now. As I said,
next week is their excuse me. Next year is a
little easier because Christmas is on a Thursday. Well there's
always NFL games on Thursdays, so you know that's more
of a normal kind of but you know, next time
(22:18):
Christmas is on it Tuesday or Wednesday, buckle it up,
because here we go. It's going to happen. And and
the first the first group that wantes to step away
from the table and not cash those chips. Hey have
ad it. But in terms of the fans, enjoy it.
(22:39):
Three games in eleven days it beats watching NBA games,
you know.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
It did beat watching NBA games.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
A lot, and I firmly believe that the College Football
Playoff is going to learn this lesson too. Figure out
another time to play your games if you want a
lot of eyeballs on TV.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
For instance, like when they're playing their semi final this
coming week on Thursday night and Friday night, because you
do not want to go up against Super wild Card
weekend starting on Saturday. So yeah, right, everybody needs to
avoid the NFL at all costs if you want good ratings.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Because even if the Steelers, you know, losers of four
in a row and all that other tough you know,
and all due respect to the college football programs that
made it this far, but do you think more people
well some of them more than others, But do you
think Ohio State or Penn State, or Texas or hid State,
(23:47):
Penn State, a Notre dame even you think they have
more of a national or worldwide following than an NFL team.
Come on, that's just it's financial suicide. Don't do it.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Eight o'clock Saturday on Amazon Prime, locally on WPXI. Steelers
and Ravens and yet another edition of their storied rivalry,
another chapter being written in the playoffs. Labs is on
the air with the Steelers Audio Network at six pm
with Jerry Dulac and Bob Labriola, and that leads you
right in to kickoff. For Bob Labriola, I'm Tom Opferman.
(24:21):
Thanks as always for getting your questions in. Get him
in now if you want him rerid on a future edition.
And until next time, this has been Askeden answered
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com