Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Steelers’ QB upgrade to Aaron Rodgers has been minimal … so far
It’s been a relatively quiet season with Aaron Rodgers. He’s kept snark to a minimum, preferring the marginally different path of passive-aggressive. He’s been, by all accounts, a great leader that’s 100% respected by the locker room. Rodgers ceremoniously walks off the field after games with Mike Tomlin and Cam...
Mark Madden: If the Steelers can survive the 1st quarter, expect another winnable rock fightVideo
Mike Tomlin’s teams are always prepared. Except when they’re not. Like they weren’t in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last five playoff games, all losses. Last season, the Steelers were down by 21 to Baltimore at halftime. The season before, they trailed Buffalo by 21 midway through the second quarter. In the...
Mark Madden: Myles Garrett holds the NFL sacks record, no matter how Steelers fans spin it
Myles Garrett set the single-season sack record last Sunday when Cleveland beat Cincinnati. Garrett’s feat triggered a few sidebars. • Did anybody in seasons past perform in more record-worthy fashion despite having fewer sacks than Garrett? • Did Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow lay down on Garrett’s milestone sack, effectively giving...
Mark Madden: Aaron Rodgers plays the hero, Steelers win the optics in pseudo playoff victory
The No. 1 story from Sunday night’s playoff to make the playoffs was undoubtedly Aaron Rodgers’ impeccable play late in the game. Rodgers drove the Steelers to touchdowns on their last two possessions, including a six-play, 65-yard march in 85 seconds during what could have been the final moments of...
Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Steelers’ season finale is pass/fail for the Aaron Rodgers experiment
Sunday night’s game is a final exam for the Aaron Rodgers experiment in Pittsburgh. It’s pass/fail. No shades of gray. Rodgers was signed in the unspoken spirit of “all in,” to win now for the Steelers’ 30-something crew of Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, etc. The Steelers had the AFC North...
Mark Madden: Olympics might produce great hockey, but they do nothing for NHL
So much about NHL players in the Olympics makes no sense: • The NHL is releasing its assets to play. Those assets are at risk to injury. If players get hurt, their salaries must still be paid by their employers, who gain nothing by their assets’ participation. • About that...
Mark Madden: Is Malik Willis really the answer at QB for the Steelers?
Every time a backup quarterback on an expiring contract has a good game in the NFL, the usual suspects bleat that the Steelers should get him next year. It’s an extension of a similar exercise practiced during college football, when a good performance by a quarterback evokes cries (or tweets)...
Mark Madden: Steelers’ loss at Cleveland littered with ineptitude
If the Pittsburgh Steelers blow the AFC North championship and the playoffs by losing at home to Baltimore on Sunday, Mike Tomlin should be fired before he gets off the field. But it’s more likely Tomlin will sprint to the office of Art Rooney II and immediately sign a lucrative...
Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Symbolism abounds as Myles Garrett chases T.J. Watt’s sack record
Myles Garrett needs one more sack to break T.J. Watt’s NFL single-season record of 22½. Garrett can set the mark when Cleveland hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Watt won’t be in uniform but figures to be on the sideline watching. He might run on the field and try to...
Mark Madden: Like it or not, NFL needs its fans even more than players
Too many are too quick to say the blue-haired Detroit Lions fan who instigated with DK Metcalf should be banned from games. But that fan paid to get in. Metcalf was paid to be there. If the stadiums are empty and televisions don’t get turned on, the NFL doesn’t exist....
Mark Madden: DK Metcalf has only himself to blame
Only one person is to blame in the DK Metcalf imbroglio. It’s DK Metcalf. Sure, the blue-haired dipstick in the stands at Ford Field was looking to ensnare the Pittsburgh Steelers wideout in a web of stupidity. Shame on Metcalf for letting him. That dope had nothing to lose. Metcalf...
Mark Madden: A fool’s gold start has poisoned the Penguins’ developmental year
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a simple story. It’s not a very good roster. Evgeni Malkin getting hurt triggered the Penguins losing eight straight. But Malkin’s absence wasn’t responsible for their four late-game collapses during those eight defeats. Which felt worse, squandering those leads or getting shut out both games of...
Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Pitt volleyball shouldn’t be shielded from criticism
As soon as Pitt’s women’s volleyball team lost in the NCAA semifinals for a fifth straight season, we saw this sort of blather on social media: “(Pitt) should be incredibly proud for representing the school and Pittsburgh like total pros. Keep those heads up.” “I’m proud of Pitt volleyball. I...
Mark Madden: Mario Lemieux doesn’t need to save the Penguins again
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ ownership transition from Fenway Sports Group to the Chicago-based Hoffmann Family of Companies could be tricky. (Like any transfer of a business worth over a billion dollars.) But one thing is certain: Mario Lemieux will not ride in on a white horse to save the Penguins. Hasn’t he...
Mark Madden: Is this Steelers team better than last season’s?
After Monday night’s comfortable home win over Miami, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said “belief is starting to pick up.” He seemed to be trying to talk himself into it. Or perhaps his teammates. Maybe the citizens. It feels like the Steelers are headed to the same destination as last...
Mark Madden: Choking away 3rd-period leads brings clarity to Penguins’ situation
As bizarre as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ choking streak may be, and wholly inexcusable, it may provide clarity to an oft-debated situation: This is not a team capable of making the playoffs, let alone a playoff run, and president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas should proceed accordingly. If that means stripping...
Mark Madden’s Hot Take: With future in mind, the Penguins had to trade Tristan Jarry
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ dressing room perhaps wasn’t overjoyed by Friday’s trade of goalie Tristan Jarry to Edmonton. He was popular and mostly played well this season. But president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas did the right thing. At 21, Sergei Murashov may not be the present of the Penguins’ goaltending...
Mark Madden: The version of Aaron Rodgers many expected has shown up
The NFL’s quarterbacking situation is nuts. Forty-four-year-old Philip Rivers is making a comeback with Indianapolis. He’s got a fat backside and extra chins, so he’s my favorite quarterback ever. Steelers reject Kenny Pickett is likely to start Sunday for Las Vegas against Philadelphia, another of his former teams. Cleveland rookie...
Mark Madden: Pirates are making free agency headlines, but is it all for show?
Some offers are meant to be refused. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ reported four-year, $100 million-plus offer to free-agent slugger Kyle Schwarber, for example. The Pirates knew Schwarber would get better offers. He ultimately re-upped with Philadelphia: Five years, $150 million. The Phillies dangled more cash and, obviously, a better chance to...
Mark Madden: Steelers’ lead in AFC North is restored, along with the Mike Tomlin narrative
The Pittsburgh Steelers are back atop the AFC North, and the narrative is back in place. It ranges somewhere between Kevin Bacon screaming “All is well!” in “Animal House” and Aaron Rodgers saying, “Means maybe (the media) will shut the hell up for a week.” It doubtless involves every talking...
Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Penguins can’t sacrifice development
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ place in the standings, perhaps unfortunately, dictates that a tightrope be walked between developmental (the primary goal) and contending for a playoff spot (the showbiz goal). But some decisions serve both masters. When Rickard Rakell returns from hand surgery in 3-4 weeks, he can’t resume his old...
Mark Madden: Roster construction, not rink size, should be priority for U.S. Olympic team
The rink for this coming February’s Olympic hockey tournament in Milan, Italy will reportedly be 3 feet shorter and 3 inches wider than the NHL’s regulation size of 200 feet long and 85 feet wide. The rink isn’t yet finished. Construction is behind schedule. But the bigger concern is the...
Mark Madden: It’s time to admit the unpleasant truth about Mike Tomlin’s Steelers tenure
The Pittsburgh Steelers are bad. Prehistoric offense. Rotten defense that costs $163 million. Old and getting older. Stars fading fast. Awful decisions piling up. It’s time to form a narrative. That narrative is: It’s not Mike Tomlin’s fault. That’s the vibe, especially on the national front. There are several forks...
Mark Madden: The Steelers are broken, and it falls on Mike Tomlin
When Aaron Rodgers is hopped up on ayahuasca, or whatever truth serum he’s taking that enables him to play (not very well) with three fractures in his left wrist, it would be fun to ask him if the situation in Pittsburgh is what he’d hoped for. Here’s betting it’s not....
Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Trading George Pickens was still the right move for Steelers
As the Pittsburgh Steelers stay embedded in the mushy middle with no escape in sight, the new blame-game sidebar is the trade of wideout George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys for two draft picks this past offseason, that the Steelers shouldn’t have done it. Pickens is having a great year...
