Haley Leaves Cardinals For Kansas City Chiefs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Whenever conversation at the Haley family dinner table turned to football, it was more than just talk.
It was education. While Dick Haley was personnel director at Pittsburgh and helping craft the great Steelers dynasty of the 1970s, Todd Haley was taking it all in.
Todd Haley rose to prominence this year as offensive coordinator for the NFC champion Arizona Cardinals and on Friday, just weeks shy of his 42nd birthday, was introduced as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
"I would not be where I'm at right now without my father, or without having the father that I did," said Haley.
He replaces Herm Edwards, who was fired at the end of a 2-14 season, and fills the NFL's last remaining head coaching vacancy.
Dick Haley was personnel director at Pittsburgh from 1971-90 before going on to other front office jobs in the NFL.
Copyright (c) 2009 TheLedger.com
Super Bowl or Recession Bowl?
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Super Bowl 43 comes at a time of economic gloom and doom, prompting many fans to wonder: Is this the Super Bowl or the Recession Bowl?
There's buzz that tonight's contest between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals in Tampa, Fla., could be played in a less-than-filled Raymond James Stadium.
Hotels had vacant rooms. Restaurants had empty tables. A gala hosted by former star Warren Sapp slashed the price in half once it started.
The NFL, the richest sports league in America, readily admits it's feeling the crunch.
Super Sunday still promises to be a super show, though.
Bruce Springsteen is set to appear, headlining the halftime show. And hero pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and the crew from US Airways Flight 1549 are to attend, too, after their remarkable landing on the Hudson River.
(c) Copyright 2000 - 2009 WorldNow and KSBY
Rooney runs Steelers the right way
PITTSBURGH - The NFL has been a copycat league as long as the football has had points on either end, but there's one area where 31 teams have failed to copy the success of one.
The Steelers head to their seventh Super Bowl Monday, when they leave to Tampa for installment XLIII. Only Dallas has gone to more and only the Cowboys can match Pittsburgh's five wins.
The difference is ownership.
The Cowboys' success, though, has been achieved under two very different ownership groups. Green Bay, which has made it to four Roman numeral games, is publicly owned. San Francisco, which had a lot of success in the 1980s, is not owned by the same family that led it to those glory days. New England has enjoyed success lately, but the Patriots also were embroiled in the spygate scandal that threatened to rock the entire league.
Here in Pittsburgh, Dan Rooney has been a constant. Rooney hired the last three Steelers coaches and all three have led the team to Super Bowls. Chuck Noll is the league's only four-time Super Bowl winner, Bill Cowher is 1-1 in Super Bowls and now Mike Tomlin takes the team to the big game in only his second season.
So, why do the competitors keep looking for the next Tom Brady or enough big guys to pressure him instead of taking a good, hard look at Rooney's model for success?
Simply stated, if it were that simple, everyone would do it.
"It's a tough league," Rooney said. "To win is a challenge every year. It's not easy, but that's what makes it great."
Modesty and simplicity frame Rooney's game plan, a plan he is passing on to his eldest son, Art Rooney II. It is based on hiring the right people and letting them do the job for which they were hired. Character isn't just a catchword; it is a necessity. First and foremost, the Rooneys and the Steelers do things the right way. It starts at the top and trickles down to the 53rd and last man on the roster.
They're not splitting atoms here, nor are they sending rockets to the moon or curing disease. They are playing a game. But they are playing it for keeps.
"We're here for football," Rooney said. "We're here to have an elite team. Everything else is fun, at least you try to have fun, but the game is what counts. The game is what separates us from other sports."
And the management is what separates the Steelers from the league's other 31 franchises.
At the trophy presentation following last Sunday's AFC Championship Game win over Baltimore, Rooney noted that his franchise could become the first to win a sixth Lombardi Trophy. But for this team, this year, that statement is immaterial.
"Every time we come to the Super Bowl, it's a game in itself," Rooney said. "I don't want to lessen the fact that we're here this time. That's the important thing. I don't want to bunch it up with the others. I handled it the same way three years ago when we were there. It was an important thing for those young players. Really, this is a new bunch, too. Less than half of the players we have now were here before."
So while other teams busy themselves trying to emulate the 3-4 defense or trying to find the next Larry Fitzgerald, the Steelers continue practicing the Rooney way. Not because it's fashionable, but because it's the right way.
(c)The Herald Standard 2009
St. Louis seems upbeat after Rams hired Steve Spagnuolo
The St. Louis Rams have hired ex-Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as their new head coach and the early returns on the web among Rams watchers appear to be good. I'm looking at this poll on STLToday.com and 85 percent of voters say Spags is the right guy. Even pre-inauguration Barack Obama probably doesn't pull approval ratings that high.
I count three columns on STLToday.com this AM that are thumbs-up on Spags. Here's one from Bryan Burwell:
It was so obvious that this was the sort of happy ending for which most Rams loyalists were pining.
The New York Giants' defensive coordinator was among that select group of high-profile up-and-coming assistant coaches on every NFL coaching wish list. Once it was clear the finalist list was being cut down to "Spags,'' Rex Ryan and Leslie Frazier, any of them would have worked. But concluding that "Spags'' would end up the man was sort of like watching a good murder mystery, in which they dangled the best clue in front of you in the first scene and you had to figure it was just too darned obvious to be true.
The Rams hiring the right guy?
Nahhhhh. It never could happen.
And the weirder-than-weird, eleventh-hour visit to Rams Park by [Dallas offensive coordinator Jason] Garrett only cemented the belief by all incurable Rams skeptics that a cloke-and-dagger plot twist was on the way.
The Rams hiring the right guy?
Exit stage left, Garrett. Enter stage right, Spagnuolo.
Did the Rams really just hire the right guy?
Call me cautiously noncommittal. We'll see. But I'm hopeful, and I haven't been hopeful around the Rams in a long time.
Rams fan blogger Turf Show Times is also convinced:
Spagnuolo has a big job ahead of him, but he's comes with a proven track record as a leader and, more importantly, someone who knows what it feels like to win and is unwilling to settle for anything less.
[snip]
Looking at his background and his aggressive playing philosophy, things are really looking up on both side of the ball. There's a lot more to talk about, such as what players Spagnuolo might be able to lure to St. Louis. Now it's time to start thinking about the turnaround. There a few things left to do, but with the leadership in place the Rams can start thinking about repeating the turnarounds we saw this season in Miami and Atlanta and kicking off a new era of Rams football.
As for Giants fans on the web, they seem to be down but appreciative of Spagnuolo's contribution.
OK, so Spagnuolo is gone. Who do you want as your next defensive coordinator?
(c)2008 New Jersey On-Line LLC
Fans help clear snow from Giants stadium
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - January 11, 2008 -- A fleet of snowplows, salt spreaders and at least 150 shovelers have been working through the night to clear snow and ice from Giants Stadium in time for Sunday's showdown against the Eagles.
The New York Daily News reports in its Sunday editions that several Giants fans were among the volunteers looking to make extra money. They worked alongside stadium crews who used 20,000 pounds of salt to clear the stadium field and parking lot.
Hasheen Clark of Jersey City tells the newspaper that the shovelers were planning to work through the night clearing snow and ice off the field to make sure it was ready by game time.
Saturday's winter blast was milder than forecasted, dropping about an inch of snow in Northern New Jersey.
Copyright (c)2009 ABC Inc
Ravens may see better Miami 'D'
Miami -- The Dolphins know the show everybody saw Oct. 19 at Dolphin Stadium. They saw it, too. They've saw it on film the following Monday and on DVD several times this week.
There's Baltimore running back Willis McGahee, hurtling up the gut of the Dolphins' defense for five yards a pop. There's rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, operating with the security blanket of the running game, completing play-action passes to Derek Mason. There's Baltimore pushing the Dolphins around on the way to a 27-13 victory.
But the Dolphins figure Sunday's sequel at Dolphin Stadium, the Dolphins return to the playoffs will be different because of what you didn't see.
At least, what you didn't see beyond the first quarter. That's when nose guard Jason Ferguson suffered a rib injury that took him out of the game. And nobody saw Ferguson's backup, Paul Soliai, that day. He was serving a one-game team suspension that came down the day before.
If you control the nose guard in a 3-4 defense, it's Saturday at the dragstrip for the running backs.
"In a 3-4, the nose starts everything," Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder said. "The nose is the main thing. You see any big 3-4 defenses, the good defenses -- the Steelers with big Casey Hampton, San Diego with Jamal Williams -- any good 3-4 team has got a dog at nose."
Defensive tackle Randy Starks and rookie Lionel Dotson slid over to play the nose. Nose guards work between where 4-3 defensive tackles make their living, but they're in a very different business, requiring different builds.
Ferguson, in his 12th year, measures 6-3, 305. Soliai, in his second year, lists at 6-4, 355. Dotson's also 6-4, but only 290. Starks' official height and weight are identical to Ferguson's, but their bone structures are very different. Starks has a more vertically-oriented build with longer limbs, while Ferguson fills more space horizontally.
The next Ravens possession, McGahee went for 17 yards, then three yards.
sltrib.com
Raiders ruin Buccaneers' playoff hopes, 31-24
TAMPA, Fla. -- Oakland's Michael Bush broke two tackles, rambled through a gaping hole in the right side of the defense and headed upfield to put a dagger in Tampa Bay's slim playoff hopes.
The 245-pound third-string running back rushed for a career-high 177 yards and scored on a 67-yard fourth-quarter jaunt that helped the Raiders rally to end the Buccaneers' season with a 31-24 victory Sunday.
Even with a win, the Bucs (9-7) would have needed help to make the playoffs and avoid one of the biggest collapses in franchise history. They were 9-3 and tied for first heading into December but finished with four consecutive losses.
The Raiders (5-11) overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to win for the second straight week and make their final case for interim coach Tom Cable to retain his job. They improved to 4-8 since Lane Kiffin was fired four games into the season, winding up with their most wins since going 5-11 under Norv Turner in 2004.
JaMarcus Russell threw for 148 yards and two touchdowns for the Raiders, who looked as though they were out of the game after being outgained 168-21 in the third quarter and watching Tampa Bay go up 24-14 with a field goal and touchdown in the first four minutes of the fourth period.
But Oakland's young quarterback rebounded from throwing an interception that Sabby Piscitelli returned 84 yards to the Raiders' 11 to set up Carnell "Cadillac" Williams' 8-yard TD run.
A 43-yard pass interference penalty led to Russell's 12-yard TD pass to Johnnie Lee Higgins that trimmed Oakland's deficit to 24-21, and that was just the beginning of the end for Tampa Bay.
Williams, who missed the first 10 games of the season because of a career-threatening injury to his right knee from September 2007, hurt his left knee at the end of a 28-yard gain in front of the Bucs bench.
The drive stalled on downs at the Oakland 33, and Bush took over from there. He beat would-be tacklers Kevin Carter and Jovan Haye on his 67-yard TD burst and carried repeatedly on the Raiders' next possession to burn the clock and set up Sebastian Janikowski's 25-yard field goal that made it 31-24 with 1:09 to go.
Tampa Bay's offense struggled to move the ball against a defense playing without injured Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, and the defense once again failed to get consistent pressure on an opposing quarterback and had difficulty getting off the field on third down.
The Bucs gave up 564 yards rushing and allowed Carolina, Atlanta and San Diego to convert 21 of 37 third downs the previous three weeks. Oakland finished with 192 yards rushing and converted 6 of 13 first downs.
Jeff Garcia threw for 257 yards, including a 58-yarder to Michael Clayton for a third-quarter touchdown that erased Oakland's 14-7 halftime lead. Williams finished with a season-best 78 yards rushing on 12 carries.
Russell was 14-of-21 for Oakland and was intercepted once. Bush averaged 6.6 yards per carry on 27 attempts with the Raiders' other two running backs, Justin Fargas and Darren McFadden, hobbled by injuries.
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