Kevin Gorman stories, Page 131
Kevin Gorman: Kobe Bryant’s death brings back Pittsburgh memories of his ‘Mamba Mentality’Video
Rick Bell is a hoops junkie, so he was watching the Maryland-Indiana college basketball game when he received a text message from his son, RJ, a junior guard at Geneva. Did you hear about Kobe? No, Bell replied, asking what happened. He was killed in a helicopter crash. That was...
Kevin Gorman: Josh Bell is face of the Pirates, who hope his bubble won’t burstVideo
Josh Bell makes it a point to practice in game-like conditions so he always pops in a mouthful of bubble gum for batting practice, mimicking his motions for facing major-league pitching. When he left the batting cages for a photo shoot Thursday to promote the Pittsburgh Pirates’ new road jerseys,...
Kevin Gorman: Trading Starling Marte might force the Pirates to finally use the R-wordVideo
The Pittsburgh Pirates touted their unveiling of new road jerseys at PiratesFest on Friday at PNC Park as “rewriting the script,” which is one way to use an R-word without using the R-word. Refresh. Recalibrate. Rewrite. Anything but rebuild. The Pirates have a new management team attempting to create a...
Kevin Gorman: Make no mistake, Matt Murray and Jack Johnson push Penguins past BruinsVideo
Perhaps no Pittsburgh Penguins have served as lightning rods for the fan base more than goalie Matt Murray and defenseman Jack Johnson, and both were being blamed for a three-goal, first-period deficit against the Boston Bruins. Murray and Johnson took their share of abuse in the first five minutes Sunday...
Kevin Gorman: Jeff Capel gets cutthroat against Carolina, as Pitt gets sweep to savorVideo
Jeff Capel wasn’t aware of the last time the Pitt Panthers pulled off a regular-season sweep in conference play, claiming he hadn’t studied the program’s history well enough to know. What the Pitt coach does know — perhaps better than any of his players could ever imagine — is the...
Pirates announce CARE-a-van stops will feature All-Star Josh Bell, new manager Derek Shelton
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced the schedule for the Pirates CARE-a-van, which will have stops at 35 public and private community events in 18 cities from Jan. 22-24 leading up to PiratesFest on Jan. 25 at PNC Park. The CARE-a-van features four busloads of Pirates players, including All-Star first baseman Josh...
Kevin Gorman: Why Bill Cowher calls this Mike Tomlin’s best coaching job for the Steelers
As Bill Cowher reminisced about winning Super Bowl XL, he recalled how he was corrected after calling his Pittsburgh Steelers underdogs before playing the Seattle Seahawks. “Someone said, ‘I think you guys are favored,’ ” Cowher said of the four-point odds. “I said, ‘Nope, we’re underdogs. I’m not going to...
Kevin Gorman: After Hall call, Bill Cowher can’t wait for a lights-out Steelers conversation
We watched Bill Cowher’s famous jaw drop Saturday night upon learning of his selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and saw his chin quivering Sunday when his daughter’s social media post was read aloud. Now that the live reactions to his induction in August in the 20-member Centennial...
Kevin Gorman: Sidney Crosby’s comeback game was perfectly Pittsburgh for PenguinsVideo
It was a Pittsburgh Theme Night for the Penguins, and they pulled out all the stops in celebrating the colloquialisms and idiosyncrasies for which the city is famous. Nothing screams that it’s a Hockey Night in Pittsburgh more than hearing Penguins captain Sidney Crosby’s name announced in the starting lineup...
Kevin Gorman: A Pitt, Penn State or WVU national football title unlikely, not impossible
LSU’s decisive 42-25 victory over Clemson in the national championship game Monday night had analysts gushing about how it might be the best team in college football history. Not only did the Tigers beat seven top-10 teams, including the top four in the AP preseason poll, but they also ended...
Kevin Gorman: Pitt needs dynamic duo to trust in each other, teammatesVideo
Xavier Johnson was trying to make a play in the final seconds, with Pitt trailing by a point. What transpired left Jeff Capel fuming and frustrated, trying to make a point about how to play. It wasn’t just because Johnson picked up his dribble at the right elbow or because...
Kevin Gorman: Wrapping a bow on season of adversity for Mike Tomlin’s SteelersVideo
Mike Tomlin was standing before us on New Year’s Eve with an 8-8 record and a second consecutive season of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the outside looking in on the NFL playoffs. The Steelers coach wasn’t ready to wrap a bow on 2019. Nor was he willing to wallow in...
Kevin Gorman: Steelers can’t bank on Roethlisberger’s return meaning success
If this season taught the Pittsburgh Steelers anything, it should be that nothing is guaranteed. Not a winning record. Not the playoffs. Not even strong quarterback play, which was the one thing the Steelers could count on for the previous 15 seasons. The Steelers learned how hard it is to...
Artie Burns bids farewell to Steelers, as former first-round pick plans to leave in free agency
Artie Burns packed his belongings into a garbage bag at his locker stall on Monday afternoon, knowing full well that it was his last day inside the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. The 24-year-old cornerback, the No. 25 overall pick by the Steelers in the 2016 NFL Draft, wasn’t shy about...
Kevin Gorman: Stunned Steelers have no excuses (or answers) for missing the playoffsVideo
BALTIMORE — A Pittsburgh Steelers season that began with a blowout at the reigning Super Bowl champion ended with another lopsided loss at the hands of the NFL’s top team. The Baltimore Ravens might have rested seven starters, but their backups were brutal in beating the Steelers, 28-10, amid a...
Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Ravens’ backups better than Steelers’ starters in season finale
BALTIMORE — For a team in a must-win situation in the season finale to qualify for the postseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked like they wanted no part of the Baltimore Ravens. Or the playoffs. Not that the Steelers got the outside help they needed anyway. The first five AFC seeds...
Kevin Gorman: Steelers will watch playoff hopes on scoreboard again in season finale
The Pittsburgh Steelers ended last season clinging to their playoff hopes while watching — and rooting for — the Cleveland Browns to beat the Baltimore Ravens on the Heinz Field video board. That the Steelers will end this season doing some scoreboard watching once again is almost as inconceivable as...
Kevin Gorman: After regaining Steelers’ trust, Chris Boswell is kicking for keeps
Chris Boswell is prepared if this season finale ends the same way it did last year, with the Pittsburgh Steelers kicking a winning field goal for their ninth victory. This time, Boswell would get to be the hero. Even if that’s the last thing he wants Sunday afternoon against the...
Kevin Gorman: In case of emergency, Steelers hope Paxton Lynch can show QB pedigreeVideo
The Pittsburgh Steelers are down to a pair of polar opposites at quarterback in Devlin Hodges and Paxton Lynch, and the latter is everything the former is not. Where the 6-foot-7, 245-pound Lynch has prototypical size for a pocket passer, Hodges is shorter at 6-1, 209. Where Lynch was a...
Kevin Gorman: When it comes to QBs, Steelers are on Island of Misfit ToysVideo
This season Mike Tomlin calls a journey started for the Pittsburgh Steelers with Ben Roethlisberger as their starting quarterback, Mason Rudolph as backup and neither Devlin Hodges nor Paxton Lynch on an NFL roster or practice squad. That the Steelers go into their season finale with Hodges as the starter...
Steelers place Mason Rudolph on IR, sign ex-Ohio State QB J.T. Barrett to practice squad
When the Pittsburgh Steelers make a final push for the playoffs on Sunday at Baltimore, they won’t have second-year quarterback Mason Rudolph around to rescue them. Rudolph’s season officially came to an end when the Steelers placed him on the injured reserve list Tuesday with a left shoulder injury he...
Kevin Gorman’s Who runs the North?: Road to the Super Bowl goes through the GrinchVideo
The Baltimore Ravens don’t just run the AFC North. For the first time, the AFC playoffs run through Baltimore. The Ravens didn’t just win their 11th consecutive game to clinch the conference’s top seed and home field throughout the AFC playoffs for the first time. They eliminated the Cleveland Browns...
Kevin Gorman: Steelers believe they can still make the playoffs, even if chances are so-soVideo
Cameron Heyward gave a cockeye glare as I noted the Pittsburgh Steelers’ playoffs predicament: They haven’t beaten a team this season that has qualified for the playoffs, yet now need to beat the team with the NFL’s best record to qualify. The Steelers defensive captain shrugged his shoulders. “So?” The...
Ravens to sit Lamar Jackson, start Robert Griffin III at QB against Steelers in finaleVideo
The Pittsburgh Steelers were planning to prepare for Lamar Jackson to start at quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens in their season finale, but John Harbaugh took the ball out of his hands. The Ravens coach announced Monday that Jackson is one of a handful of Pro Bowl players who will...
Kevin Gorman: After losing to Jets, the Steelers’ playoff hopes are down to another Hail MaryVideo
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ playoff hopes went from the right hand of Devlin “Duck” Hodges, off the hands of James Washington and through the hands of JuJu Smith-Schuster in the final minute at MetLife Stadium. Now, they are out of the Steelers’ hands. A 16-10 loss to the...
