The Pittsburgh Steelers just suffered one of the franchise’s worst losses ever at Acrisure Stadium. Diontae Johnson celebrated a meaningless touchdown.
The Penguins look as old as we feared that they would. And Sports Illustrated is rewarding empty hype in college football.
All we need now is the annual December salary dump by the Pirates, and everyone will be in the perfect holiday mood.
Give it a few more days. I bet it happens.
In the meantime, here’s this week’s “U mad, bro?” Are we getting holly-jolly yet?
Last week, I ripped Sports Illustrated’s decision to name Deion Sanders “Sportsperson of the Year.” Tim agreed with my assessment.
Deion Sanders hype train pic.twitter.com/GhGlZt5sB1
— TJofJTW (@TimLikestoFish) November 30, 2023
Actually, Tim, I think it’s clear that the hype train is still rolling. It’s just the entire Colorado team that derailed by the end of the season.
“Shep” tagged me in a response to a “Benstonium” post about Diontae Johnson’s ill-advised touchdown celebration while the Steelers were getting smoked at home Sunday by the lousy Arizona Cardinals.
What's hysterical is he drops the ball before throwing it in the air, how fitting is that.
— shep (@rsheppie) December 4, 2023
Did he run backward three yards before starting the celebration as well?
Speaking of Johnson, Jim has a trade idea he wanted to bounce off Mark Madden and me.
“I’m interested in your and MM’s opinion about an even-up trade of Diontae Johnson for Jordan Addison? Might be a good move for both players and both teams.”
Well, Jim, I can’t speak for Mark’s opinion. But I can speak for mine. And I think I can probably speak for Minnesota’s too. It goes a little something like this:
“Why on God’s green earth would the Vikings make that trade??!!”
In his rookie year alone, Addison has seven touchdowns. Johnson has two over the past two years combined. Addison has more receptions, yards and a higher average yards per catch than Johnson.
He also gets to play under a roof at least eight to 10 times per year between playing at home and in Detroit. And he gets to be a No. 2 receiver next to Justin Jefferson whenever Jefferson comes back and is healthy. So why would he want to leave, as you suggest (not that it would matter if he wanted to do so)?
Hey, I get that Minnesota’s QB situation is a question mark next year. But do you really think being reunited with Kenny Pickett is that big of a deal to Addison based on how things have gone for Pickett this year?
Plus, Addison is only 21 years old and will make just $3.1 million against the cap next year. Johnson is 27 and is scheduled to make $15.8 million.
But aside from all that, sure, what a perfect trade for the Vikings!
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I got this message from someone on social media about the state of the Penguins.
“Aged-out. The nostalgia tour is a flop … as occurs after every NHL powerhouse clings to the past instead of tearing it down & rebuilding. This was predictable and only lengthens a rebuild. Start selling whatever can be moved.”
The problem is everything that can be sold is pretty much bolted to the floor. And all the veterans they decided to keep want the accessory parts around them to stay on board as well.
That includes Bryan Rust, Mike Sullivan and probably Jake Guentzel this offseason.
The new ownership signed off on the decision by Ron Hextall, Brian Burke and Sullivan to delay any sincere rebuild and let these star players sail off into the sunset together.
Now that Kyle Dubas is the one steering the ship, though, it’s up to him to avoid the iceberg once it gets dark.
— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) December 6, 2023
I mentioned Wednesday that it feels as if the Steelers are starting to wander into the post-Big Ben quarterback desert. This guy seems to think it’s already worse than that.
They're swallowing sand.
— xoundmind (@xoundmind) December 6, 2023
I thought that was worthy of a response.
And it looks something like this….. pic.twitter.com/E8BCwkvc53
— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) December 6, 2023
We end with Tom. He doesn’t seem to understand how my job works. He was mad at me because I was live tweeting from the press box during the Steelers-Cardinals game.
Tim you are way ahead of the broadcast. Can you kindly shut up
— Tom Whetsel (@TomtheToolman18) December 3, 2023
Or you could’ve kindly logged off.
Look, I was doing a public service that day. I was telling you exactly how bad things were going to get so you didn’t have to watch.
Based on how things turned out, you should be thanking me.
