The Bell Tolls for the Pro Bowl

Good morning,

Let’s not have a rush to judgement on whether the New England Patriots cheated yet again and deflated the footballs they used on offense for the AFC Championship game.

That would be an advantage if they did because a football with less air in it than required is easier to grip and thus easier to throw passes, especially in the kind of rainy weather that was forecast for Foxborough on Sunday.

But if the Patriots are guilty of doing that – read, Bill Belichick – then they should be punished to the extreme, including the loss of draft picks and heavy fines. If they are guilty, and we still are talking about IF, it shows an unbelievable arrogance on the part of Belichick, who was guilty of cheating previously in SpyGate.

Maybe the Patriots did not need to deflate the footballs to beat the Colts, and maybe the Patriots did not need to illegally use video tape to cheat in the first half of this century, but Richard Nixon also did not need to cheat to defeat George McGovern in 1972 yet he still did it.

Onto some stuff:

--- Le’Veon Bell has removed himself from the Pro Bowl after saying he believed he would be healthy enough to play in it. Saner ideas prevailed. He joins Ben Roethlisberger, who also took himself out. Thus, the fans should not fret the next time they feel a Steelers player was “snubbed” for Pro Bowl selection. The players do a good job of removing themselves from that game over the smallest aches and pains, and sometimes they do not even need that as an excuse. This is the third time Roethlisberger either bowed out or declined to go after other quarterbacks bowed out.

--- Maybe the fact the Pro Bowl will be played in Arizona Sunday and not Hawaii has something to do with so many players declining the invitation.

--- It’s time to dump the Pro Bowl and do what I suggested a few years back, have them play it on Madden Football.

--- The Steelers have signed defensive lineman Shawn Lemon, 26, of the CFL Calgary Stampeders to a contract. He had 13 sacks in 2014 for Calgary and eight forced fumbles, which tied a CFL record.

--- Does anyone at this point believe that Roger Goodell’s NFL would rule against Robert Kraft, even if they find the footballs to have been deflated? My guess is that they will find the footballs were not deflated on purpose and wash their hands of the whole thing.

--- The Steelers will play both Super Bowl teams in 2015, both on the road. The only other team that plays both New England and Seattle next season is Dallas, which gets both at home.

--- The Green Bay Packers shocking collapse in their NFC Championship game against Seattle was felt not only in Wisconsin, but in Pittsburgh as well.

At least by those members of the media who will cover the Super Bowl, including me. The Packers had so many more Pittsburgh-rich stories than do the Seattle Seahawks.

It would have begun with Packers coach Mike McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native in the neighborhood of Greenfield, whose first job was breaking empty whiskey bottles at his dad’s bar.

His defensive coordinator, Dom Capers, was Bill Cowher’s first defensive coordinator on his original staff in 1992 who, along with secondary coach Dick LeBeau and linebackers coach Marvin Lewis, put together the Steelers 3-4 defense.

That Packers staff also includes offensive coordinator Tom Clements from McKees Rocks, Pa, and the former quarterbacks coach of the Steelers, Munhall’s Luke Getsy, New Castle’s Scott McCurley, former Steelers player and coach Darren Perry, former Pitt quarterback and Pittsburgh native Alex Van Pelt and special teams coach Ron Zook, who was a special teams coach under Cowher with the Steelers in the 1990s.

And that is just the coaching staff.

Fullback John Kuhn is as popular in Green Bay as Heath Miller is in Pittsburgh and you could hear the “Kuuuuuhn” chants whenever he was involved.

Kuhn, who played at Shippensburg, signed with the Steelers as an undrafted rookie in 2005 and spent some time on their practice squad. He opened the 2006 season on their practice squad but made their roster in October.

He went to training camp with the Steelers in 2007 and Myron Cope wrote a letter to then first-year coach Mike Tomlin advising him to keep Kuhn. My last conversation with Cope occurred that August and among the topics was Cope’s passionate plea for the Steelers to keep Kuhn.

They did not. They released him and he went on to the Packers, where he became their starting fullback and earned a Super Bowl ring in their victory against the Steelers in the 2008 season.

Kuhn remains with the Packers, where he is among their most popular players and at age 32, would have been a good story at this year’s Super Bowl.

Oh, well.

--- Chat today at 1:30 and now a few Ask Ed questions, at least some of them are:

--- YOU: Way to go Steelers, cut Blount and let him resign with the Patriots the next day and now we’ll likely watch them win the Super Bowl on the back of Blount carrying the ball. And cut him, with no backup plan at running back if Bell gets hurt, which of course he did. No, Tomlin couldn’t instead meet with Blount to iron it out, fine him, suspend him a game, whatever, no, that’s not the Steeler way. Maybe even use him more, like he was probably promised by Tomlin in order to get him to originally sign with the Steelers as a free agent. And, which would have probably kept Bell healthy. Interesting how Belicheck never seems to have a problem with him.

ED: I see you have no real question here, just a rant. The Steelers had not choice but to release Blount, however, your point about what they might have promised him when he signed is a valid one, even though we do not know what that was, if anything.

--- YOU: Hi Ed. Great article on the Steelers' cap situation. I never get a chance to make it to the chats, but I was hoping you could clear something up for me. Is it true that if a player is signed for, let's say $500,000, the cap hit for that player is actually less than $500k? I remember hearing or reading that somewhere semi recently and I didn't think much about it until I read your article. I'd appreciate if you could let me know. Thanks.

ED: If the $500,000 comes in the form of a signing bonus, the player gets that money right away but for salary cap purposes, the accounting is pro-rated over the life of the contract. In other words, if he receives that as part of a two-year contract in 2015, $250,000 counts in 2015 and $250,000 in 2016. If it were a five-year deal, that $500,000 signing bonus would count $100,000 each of the five years. Whatever salaries he earns in addition to that would count in the year he earns them.

--- You can send your questions to me at ebouchette@post-gazette.com