Not much going on this Wednesday, but SI has got former Steeler great Jerome Bettis “writing” a column for them and it’s not pretty as far as Steeler related stuff goes.
Bettis provides an insider’s prespective to the NFl through six points in his column this week.
Two of the six items are problems he has with the Steelers.
All in two swoops, he manages to rip the secondary, James Harrison (says he’s not a playmaker), Willie Parker, Rashard Mendenhall, Frank Summers, Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin, etc.
Here’s some quotes:
People will say, “Well, they still have James Harrison and Casey Hampton and so on…” Irrelevant. Troy’s really the only guy on this defense that I see as a full playmaker. Sure, James Harrison gets after the QB. But Troy is all over the field. He can change the outcome of a game in one play. Without him, this becomes a good defense with a very ordinary secondary.
How did they rationalize not doing anything about it? Well, they won a Super Bowl. They won’t be so lucky twice in a row. If Ben continues to get hit the way he did Thursday — the same way he did last year, then this will come back to haunt the Steelers. Ben will get hurt. Ben will miss games. And they don’t have a line to run behind without Ben. Pittsburgh can’t repeat with the line playing like this.
I actually agree with some of his points, but I really don’t think all of this is necessary. Bettis spent hours mentoring and helping Willie Parker, and now he’s doing the same thing I do from my parent’s basemen – make judgement calls. I doubt Parker is happy to see one of his greatest teammates calling him out in the media.
Look, Bettis can do pretty much anything and I’d still love the guy. But he really doesn’t need to go out of his way to bash the Steelers. Let’s not forget that they did win the game on Sunday against the team who had the best record in all of football a season ago.
With all of the drivel going around, you’d think the Titans blew them out.
Again, lots of love to Bettis and it hurt to type this next paragraph but I got to say it here:
Maybe Bettis should spend his time writing about other teams and not devoting the majority of an entire column to nitpicking a Steelers victory and bashing the same guys that won him a Super Bowl while he watched on the sidelines.
What are your thoughts on Bettis’ column and the media’s reaction to the win over Tennessee?
