Five or six times over the past few months, I've sat down and tried to pen my thoughts on the latest news about the NFL lockout. Every time I've failed. It's not that I wouldn't be upset if there is no 2011 season or that I don't pay attention to the news. I would be pretty bored and certainly upset if there was no professional football to watch this fall. But unlike everything else I write about on this site, I simply cannot get passionate about the NFL lockout. 

I've never had much interest in the business side of sports. The NFL at this point isn't true sport as much as it is a for-profit business. There isn't anything necessarily wrong with that, but all I really care to read and talk about is what happens on the football field, not in a board room or courthouse. 

Like a lot of fans, I feel left out by the whole lockout process this summer. A bunch of stiffs in suits are arguing over amounts of money that 95% of NFL fans will never even sniff of having in their own bank accounts. You have the filthy rich owners arguing with the filthy rich players over money (I know it isn't quite as simple as that, but that is the foundation of the whole lockout). Meanwhile, the average fan who is responsible for building the NFL's brand and for lining the pockets of both sides faces the prospect of a long, cold fall and winter without football. 

It doesn't seem very fair. When the Steelers win a game or sign a free agent or do anything football related, I the fan at least feel like maybe I played a little role in that success. I'm emotionally invested in the football franchise and spend a few hours every week living and dying with what happens with the Steelers. 

I don't get that seem feeling with injunctions and motions and whatever hell else is going on with the lockout. I feel deserted and don't really care to invest much time in a legal battle that will end with both parties making even more money in the end whenever they finally decide enough is enough. 
 

While the NFL Network's ongoing series profiling the top 100 NFL players of today has been interesting to follow, I've been equally curious on Peter King's top 100 list. The SI writer his been delivering his picks each week in his column. King gets a lot of criticism from people -- some of it deserved -- but I've found him to be one of the most cerebral and enjoyable reads among NFL writers. 

However, he messed up pretty big in today's edition of MMQB in which he listed numbers 50-41 in his version of the top 100 players. Steelers SS Troy Polamalu was listed as number 50.

I'm admittedly a homer for the Steelers 90% of the time, but this isn't one of them. Ask almost any NFL writer or fan if there are 49 better football players than Troy Polamalu and they will tell you no. (Aside: Mike Wallace finished 44 on King's rankings.) 

We'll likely find out on Tuesday (when King publishes reader feedback from his Monday column) King's reasoning for putting Polamalu so low, but I have my theories. King was highly critical of Polamalu for his play during the Steelers Super Bowl run last year. Polamalu also struggled in the Super Bowl, including getting blatantly beaten on a Jordy Nelson touchdown catch. That's surely the lasting image from last season for King and he probably feels that Polamalu is overagressive and now overrated.

Polamalu played through the entire playoffs with a slight tear in his Achilles tendon, but I guess that doesn't really matter in King's eyes.

I'm not making a top 100 list, but if I was, Polamalu would probably be the only Steelers in the top 10, with Roethlisberger just outside. As a Steeler fan and blogger of many years, I can say that Polamalu is pretty clearly the best player on the Steelers roster and the most talented football player I've seen don a Steelers jersey in my lifetime. He does struggle to stay healthy at times, but he had enough impact in 14 games last year to win the defensive MVP and 2008 has been the only year in his career where he missed a bulk of the season due to injury. 

Letting one bad game have that drastic of an impact on Polamalu's ranking simply isn't fair. There is no way guys like Mike Wallace, Ray Rice, Justin Smith and Bart Scott are better football players than Troy Polamalu. Ask a Ravens fan who the think is better -- Rice, Scott or Polamalu? I know what their answer would be. 

King screwed his list up in a big way.  

Every year, EA Sports adds a few different things into Madden, their NFL franchise. This year the big thing is Dynamic Player Performance. It's a pretty radical update to the traditional attributes used in the Madden franchise. In the past, players in the game are given scores on things like agility, speed, throwing power, etc. While those stats get the job done, they make the game a little stale -- and unrealistic. 

The Dynamic Player Performance system makes players more like real athletes. Some are better late in the game. Others tend to play extra aggressive. Two of the best examples of these types of unique athletes are the Steelers Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu. EA Sports is using both as great examples of their new attributes system:

From Kotaku:

To give an example, Young uses Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"We spent a lot of time on Big Ben; I never felt like he really played like Ben, to be honest," Young said. "But now he's got a trait—'senses pressure'—and it's set to ‘oblivious.' He will end up taking so many hits and sacks because he's now sitting back there playing the schoolyard ball he likes. ‘Tuck and run' is another trait, and Ben's is set to ‘sometimes,' so every once in a while he will take off on a broken play. It starts to feel like it's Big Ben, not just a large guy who doesn't play like Ben."

Another Steeler, safety Troy Polamalu, will play very aggressively, going for "hit stick" tackles and interceptions that can change the course of the game. On the flip side, that puts Polamalu at risk of over-running a play or getting dusted when his try for the pick-six comes up empty.

**** 

Whether you get into video games or not, it's pretty cool to see this much thought going into the process. They have both players pegged pretty well I think. 

Plaxico Burress will be released from prison on June 6th. He'll also be reinstated into the NFL by Roger Goodell and will be a free agent. 

Burress will be 34 years old and hasn't played a snap of football since the 2008 season. Plenty of teams will still be interested in him. Should the Steelers be one of them?

I didn't watch the show a single time (including the finale). I also vowed not to post anything about it on the blog, but since Hines won the whole thing we at least owe him this much. 

He's come a long way.





Congrats Hines! 



EDIT:

Always amusing, here are Chad Ochocinco's thoughts on Ward's win..

 

Bill Cowher and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl to conclude the 2005 NFL season, and much of that squad still remains intact. Star players like Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, and Hines Ward are all still performing at a high level for the black and gold. But there are 33 players that were in Detroit that Sunday, celebrating a Superbowl championship, who didn't remain with the team through this past season. 36 if you count free agent defections and returns by Bryant McFadden, Larry Foote, and Antwaan Randle El.

Those three players returned to the Steelers. The remaining 33, though? Well, they've found a variety of things to do. Six former Steelers are currently playing elsewhere in the NFL, a handful are playing football outside the NFL, and many have either retired or gone unsigned for a few years now.

This will be a series of six posts each about 5 or 6 former Steelers and what they've done with their time since Superbowl XL. We'll headline each post with an active NFL player from 2010 and add a handful players that might have slipped through the cracks in your memory.

Major props to pro-football-reference.com for tracking players' NFL action. Jump for the final installment.

Bill Cowher and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl to conclude the 2005 NFL season, and much of that squad still remains intact. Star players like Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, and Hines Ward are all still performing at a high level for the black and gold. But there are 33 players that were in Detroit that Sunday, celebrating a Superbowl championship, who didn't remain with the team through this past season. 36 if you count free agent defections and returns by Bryant McFadden, Larry Foote, and Antwaan Randle El.

Those three players returned to the Steelers. The remaining 33, though? Well, they've found a variety of things to do. Six former Steelers are currently playing elsewhere in the NFL, a handful are playing football outside the NFL, and many have either retired or gone unsigned for a few years now.

This will be a series of six posts each about 5 or 6 former Steelers and what they've done with their time since Superbowl XL. We'll headline each post with an active NFL player from 2010 and add a handful players that might have slipped through the cracks in your memory.

Major props to pro-football-reference.com for tracking players' NFL action. Jump for Part 5.

Bill Cowher and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl to conclude the 2005 NFL season, and much of that squad still remains intact. Star players like Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, and Hines Ward are all still performing at a high level for the black and gold. But there are 33 players that were in Detroit that Sunday, celebrating a Superbowl championship, who didn't remain with the team through this past season. 36 if you count free agent defections and returns by Bryant McFadden, Larry Foote, and Antwaan Randle El.

Those three players returned to the Steelers. The remaining 33, though? Well, they've found a variety of things to do. Six former Steelers are currently playing elsewhere in the NFL, a handful are playing football outside the NFL, and many have either retired or gone unsigned for a few years now.

This will be a series of six posts each about 5 or 6 former Steelers and what they've done with their time since Superbowl XL. We'll headline each post with an active NFL player from 2010 and add a handful players that might have slipped through the cracks in your memory.

Major props to pro-football-reference.com for tracking players' NFL action. Jump for Part 4.