Are Steelers Doing Disservice to Troy?

Good morning,

The Atlanta Falcons received more of a pat on the back than a slap on the wrist for pumping in crowd noise at home games in the Georgia Dome. The NFL docked them a 2016 fifth-round draft choice and a $350,000 fine. Oh, and Rich McKay will be suspended for three months from the competition committee beginning tomorrow. Ooooh. The competition committee does NOTHING during that period.

The $350,000 fine means only that it might cost you another 5 cents for paint at Arthur Blank’s Home Depot.

The discipline should have been tougher. It’s bad enough that normal crowd noise gives dome teams a huge advantage without them reverting to illegally pumping in more. In fact, if it were true crowd noise during that December game against the Steelers, it would have come more from Steelers fans, who were there in large numbers.

This tactic has been going on for years with dome teams. I reported after a 2005 regular season game that the Indianapolis Colts pumped in crowd noise in that dome and the NFL cracked down on them and it was not done during the Steelers playoff game there that season.

The NFL once had a rule against excessive crowd noise and actually would mark off a penalty against the home team if, after a warning, the noise did not subside. I’ve written several times about seeing Chuck Noll on the sideline at Three Rivers Stadium waiving his arms up and down for the home crowd to be quiet while the opposition had the ball. Quaint.

Now the NFL encourages crowd noise by allowing home teams to beg for it on the scoreboard to the blatant point of some teams simply to flash “MAKE NOISE” on their boards. Is it any wonder the Falcons went to such length or that the NFL did little in its punishment to prompt the Falcons or others to not try it. What’s more cherished to an NFL team, a fifth-round draft choice and $350,000 fine or a victory in a home dome in a key game or championship game?

--- As for the Ray Farmer suspension in Cleveland, if I’m coach Mike Pettine, I’m more concerned about the general manager bugging me with suggestions during a game than I am him violating some NFL rule. It’s called micro managing and I’ll bet it goes much deeper than just texting during a game. I could not imagine Kevin Colbert or Tom Donahoe before him sending their coaches suggestions during a game, or even at halftime. You hired him to be the coach, let him coach.

--- Just watched that Greatest Game series on NFL Network that featured the Steelers’ Super Bowl XLIII victory over Arizona six years ago. Ben Roethlisberger admitted he never should have thrown the pass to Santonio Holmes over triple coverage in the end zone that won that game in spectacular fashion. Having watched it several more times, he was correct, he should not have thrown it. The Cardinals wish he had not.

--- Chat today at 1:30 p.m. at www.post-gazette.com/chat where you can also send up questions early.

--- Onto your Ask Ed questions:

--- YOU: While the Steelers may not want to cut Polamalu out of respect, if he’s not in their plans for 2015, they greatly limited his chances to catch on with another team. It’s Troy’s decision whether or not he wants to continue to play beyond his Steelers years, not the teams. If Troy decides to play, didn’t the Steelers do him a disservice by waiting to release him?

ED: In that sense, yes, but he IS under contract and there is no real obligation for them to do anything. Maybe in the long run, they are doing him more of a service. They cut L.C. Greenwood during training camp.

--- YOU: With James Harrison signed, do you feel more comfortable with their immediate (2015 only) plans at OLB. Jarvis Jones, Harrison and Arthur Moats can at least put viable bodies on the field with one adequate back-up. I’m not saying they don’t still need to address the OLB position early in the draft, but I no longer think it’s as “mission critical” as before they signed Moats. Do you agree?

ED: I’ve said and written all along that they should sign Harrison immediately and the Tennessee Titans and his apparent willingness to go there, forced the Steelers hands to do so. Remember that they signed the kid from the CFL and Akron, and they have Howard Jones, a player they kept on their practice squad after he had a decent training camp. Look for them to draft one in the first two rounds.

--- YOU: I’m curious to see if the Steelers sign a veteran WR, and for how much. I still think claiming Jacoby Jones of waivers would have been a viable and relatively cheap move. I’m presuming you don’t agree?

ED: I thought adding Jones would have been a good move but they re-signed Darius Heyward-Bey instead.

--- YOU: Good for Ben and the Steelers. How many comments are you getting from readers suggesting Ben should have taken less money “for the benefit of the team”? I wonder how many of them would be willing to take less money at their jobs? Although that’s not a complete apples to apples comparison when talking about the kind of “legacy wealth” NFL quarterbacks can make, it’s still obnoxious to question to what someone else can make.

ED: Was it “good for the player” when the Steelers cut Hines Ward and Aaron Smith and, maybe soon, Troy Polamalu? It works both ways. As I’ve written, all the great quarterbacks earn big paydays and most of the teams who wound up in Super Bowls are there predominantly because they had good or great quarterbacks. Roethlisberger could have held them up for more if he’d liked.

--- YOU: You don't have to print this, but I forgot, is RB DeAngelo Williams contract for 2 years or 1?

ED: Two.

--- YOU: In days gone by coaches would routinely pull their starting QBs in the 4th quarter of lopsided games. This practice allowed the second stringer to get some semi meaningful snaps while the starter stayed out of harms way. In an era where franchise QBs absorb a hefty percentage of their team's salary cap, one might expect to see this done more frequently. Curiously the trend has swung the other way. Does the starters ego get in the way of sound coaching decisions?

ED: You are correct that they seemed to replace them more often years ago, although I can remember many times people wondering why Chuck Noll did not pull Terry Bradshaw more often. The Steelers did it once last season when they replaced Ben Roethlisberger with Bruce Gradkowski for the final few snaps of their 37-19 victory in Carolina. It is the only time Gradkowski has played in the regular season for them over two years and he still has no regular-season pass attempts. He did complete two of three during that late series in the playoff game when Roethlisberger was shaken up.

But in answer, I really do not know why they do not do it more often. It cannot be ego or for quarterbacks to add more to their stats because late in the game with a big lead, they’re not throwing the ball much anyway. It may just be increasing coach paranoia that no lead is a safe one.