Apparently, Plaxico Burress was knockin dem boots from behind bars, as ESPN point out he's the father of a one-year-old.
He got into a black Range Rover and headed to the nearby Lodge at Turning Stone Resort where he was reunited with his wife, Tiffany, and his son Elijah, 4, and daughter Giovanna, 1. Burress hugged his children before heading into the resort.
Hopefully, Plax's prison allowed for conjugal visits, or else, Tiffany, choo got some 'splainin to do!
Actually, I can't blame fans for being pissed about the ticketing fiasco. It's pretty bush league what happened to them, especially those who were fans of the teams playing.
That said, the NFL, to its credit is going out of its way to minimize the fallout.
Matthew Rush, 40, a Steelers fan originally from Pittsburgh, was one of the 400 or so fans left without a seat Sunday night. After spending the whole day being moved around to different parts of the stadium while officials tried to accommodate them, Rush and the others were eventually moved to a glassed-in bar just below field level where they could watch the game on television monitors, he said.
What view they had of the field was obscured by those standing on the sidelines, he said.
"It was happening 300 feet in front of us, but (it was as though) we weren't there," Rush told CNN on his way back from Dallas on Tuesday.
After halftime, Rush said, he and others were so frustrated that they left the stadium, and he watched the remainder from his hotel room.
Rush said he spent a total of about $5,000 to attend the Super Bowl with his wife. He spent $800 per ticket, which he purchased through the Steelers' season-ticket-holder lottery.
The NFL promised to give free tickets to next year's Super Bowl and a refund of triple the cost of the $800 face value of the ticket to the 400 fans denied seats on Sunday, but Rush said that doesn't make up for the anger, frustration, and disappointment he still feels at missing his beloved Steelers at the big game.
Based on the bare bones SueSuperBowl.com website that is championing the cause, Mr. Rush can use all the cash money he can get his hands on.
Last night, Guinness hosted a party with pitchman and Steelers legend Jerome Bettis to crown the winner of its "Perfect Pour" campaign in North Texas during Super Bowl Week.
Bettis talks about the winning, family-like atmosphere that's been cultivated in Pittsburgh from ownership on town, as well as his feelings on being an observer of the big game rather than a participant.
*Warning, this post contains lame football metaphors in honor of Jay’s campaign commercials*
The political career of former NFL tight end Jay Riemersma came short of the endzone last week. Riemersma lost by an extra point, a slim margin of 1 percent of the vote.
Jay or J.R., which he preferred to be called as people fumbled saying and spelling his last name, came into the race as a flashy new rookie ready to show the old veterans that he was the answer that the people yearned for.
With the fans primed for an outsider to take the state and country to the promise land, he had the wind at his back. However, when the game was on the line, his attempt missed just wide.
Riemersma came out of the tunnel aggressive looking to fight in the trenches. He hired a campaign agent notorious for negative politics, and he got what he paid for (personally too as he dumped a signing bonus in the race).
In the end, the decision to go negative in fan base that is more Kurt Warner than Dick Butkus very well could have been the deciding factor.
Jay’s campaign relentlessly attacked his opponents by pounding the ball against their legislative records. However, when his opponents finally threw a flag in the waning minutes by suing him for defamation and filing a complaint with the FEC for illegally coordinating attack ads, the negative attention was squarely placed on Jay’s shoulders.
Finally, in the last debate, one of his opponents threw a tight spiral right between Jay’s numbers, and Riemersma couldn’t handle it.
Asked whether his campaign illegally coordinated the negative ads against his opponents, he tried to juke, jive and explode through the hole with political rhetoric but ended up with big negative yardage. Enough so, that the crowd turned on him and he had to ask to repeat the question.
After another failed attempt to reach the line of scrimmage, a scrawny DB came from the backfield and sacked Riemersma by yelling out, “Man up!”
When election night came, it went deep into overtime with the final victor being declared around 4 a.m. Riemersma went to the showers 658 votes shy of being a star.
Jay has time on his hands, and with term limits cycling legislators in and out like Broncos running backs, he could soon put on the shoulder pads and give it the old college try again. We will wait to see if the practice paid off and he tries a different playbook.
Even from Canada, Assassin Ave has the pulse on his hometown Pittsburgh fashion trends, passing along the below picture.
At the very least, Ben can hold his head up high knowing he's still a hero to sexually-deviant college kids across Western PA, or perhaps just the piece of mind of still being relevant to a giddy Browns fan with nothing better to celebrate.
Long-time Pittsburgh Sports Writer Bob Smizik, now semi-retired and blogging for the hometown paper, has had a large following in the Steel City for decades. In a remarkable post today, he weights the pros and cons of trading Ben Roethlisberger. During his piece, Smizik makes a fairly strong case for ditching the disgraced quarterback. Smizik pulls no punches in the piece and is upfront it would be a bad move from a pure football viewpoint. However, Smizik notes the move could allow the Steelers to the team to regain ground as the "the moral flagship of the NFL that it once was."
Pluses of the move, in Smizik's eye, include high draft picks (but Ben isn't a Super Bowl MVP, so maybe only a 6th rounder?...) and becoming a running team once again. Negatives include likely becoming a worse football team, and losing the quarterback you waited twenty years for (remember Bubby Brister, Steeler Nation?).
The piece is well done and will certainly make you consider both sides of this argument. As a Steeler fan who looked his Terrible Towel in shame this morning, I can help but think I'd rather lose with pride than win with this guy.
As if Brett Favre needed another reason for people to disdain him, we found this video of the 'ol gunslinger making light of Roethlisberger's latest unfortunate situation.
When his family owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, apparently you get him an officially licensed team Snuggie.
Photo: Politico via Rooney's Office
From Politico, Rep. Tom Rooney's (R-Fla.) staff bought him one for his 39th. whose extended family owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, thus ensuring some of the best Super Bowl seats in the house?
When asked "Would he ever wear a Snuggie in public," the Congressman responded, "I would wear a maroon Snuggie. People might think I was a monk or something cool like that."
What we hadn't reported was this nugget from the Post-Gazette:
Mr. Harris suffered his knee injury during college, while running through the woods during a live-action battle sponsored by NERO, the New England Roleplaying Organization. He had been into the medieval fantasy games since he was 16 and read about them in a magazine for Dungeons & Dragons fans.
Riemersma is a former tight end from the University of Michigan that played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills who is probably best known as an available tight end on the waiver wire during your tight end's bye week in fantasy football.
After retirement from the NFL, Riemersma came back to coach his former high school team. However, his return to the roots story won't be seen anytime soon on E:60 as word is he quit the fledging team over a dispute to become the school's Athletic Director trying to force out the long-time, near retirement AD.
Riemersma is touting his "outsider" credentials; however, he has already shown shrewd inside the Beltway tactics in his quest for the congressional seat. He has inflated his fundraising numbers by giving a personal loan to the campaign and proclaiming it as grassroots support. He has hired the seediest campaign consultants in the state of Michigan. Also, he penned a letter to the editor in the local paper asking how any Christian could have voted for Barack Obama.
Former University of Michigan Head Football Coach and Russell Crowe BFF Lloyd Carr is schedule to do appearances for his candidacy. Also rumored to appear down the line is Ben Roethlisberger who currently is busy running his own PR campaign.
His NFL experience will be a mainstay talking point during the chicken dinner circuit. As well it should be as plenty of former and current players know the importance of community service.
Riemersma faces a tough primary battle going against experienced candidates in a state that is desperate for someone to make an immediate impact. He may see that celebrity status only goes so far.
However, we appreciate it when a sports-related figure jumps into the political seen here at HHR. It is one of our bread and butter topics. So, to keep his flame alive, we would appreciate hearing your stories about Riemersma on how he touched people's lives so that he can use those thoughtful memories on the campaign trail and also to get the racier locker room stuff out in the open now before he takes down his Republican teammates while in Congress.
We will be sure to follow his candidacy closely as the opportunity to use tight end jokes for the next year makes us giggle.
Why am I not surprised that in the bizarre world of grooming your pet to look like a panda, camel, buffalo, or whatever else these unstable people choose, someone felt it necessary to pay homage to their favorite NFL franchise:
Guh, they even gave him a jersey name. The irony is this mutt probably has a better command of the playbook than several of the starters, and unlike Jeff Reed he is trained not to dryhump people in public.
Here's the background: Vallerybrook is a country club in the Pittsburgh suburbs. St. Vincent is where the Steelers have training camp.
Email from a local: "The rumor at Valleybrook is that Michael Vick is in Latrobe. We were there tonight for dinner and the manager said that one of the valets is a student at St. Vincent, and his buddy is working up there doing something to set up for the Steelers. He said that Michael Vick is up there tonight. we'll see if it turns out to be true."
Three trophies marking three recent titles won by Pennsylvania teams were on display together, for the first time, today at the Capitol: the tall, silvery Stanley Cup, won by the Penguins last month; the silvery football of the Vince Lombardi trophy, won by the Steelers in February; and the gold-colored Major League Baseball World Series trophy, won by the Philadelphia Phillies in October
UPDATE 11:40 AM
One little problem pointed out by @davelozo: "Gov. Ed Rendell. Not a reliable source."
Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president's event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn't come in.
Parent Barbara Stine: "Here we have President Obama and his administration saying, 'Here we are for the common, middle class people,' and here he is not letting 150 5- and 6-year-olds into the White House because he’s throwing a lunch for a bunch of grown millionaires."
Actual NBC Local caption on this photo: "President Obama enjoys his new Steelers jersey after making children cry."
The President asks, "Where's Dick?" (LeBeau not Cheney). Be much funnier if he asked "Where's James?" ala Dubya's "Manny Ramirez isn't here, I guess his grandmother died again'?
Well done by the White House and the Steelers with the charitible tie-in:
"After a pivotal speech this morning, the President took a moment this afternoon to welcome the Superbowl Champions to the White House, along with approximately 50 Wounded Warriors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center and their families. Afterwards they all joined up to work with USO to assemble 3,000 care packages for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Recently Ben Roethlisberger wrote on his Twitter account:
I am sorry to all my friends cause I have not been on here in a while. As you may soon find out, I have been diagnosed with skin cancer. It is not too serious, but will need further (sic) attention. This has taken up most of my time. I will try to get on here more. I would appreciate your prayers!
Problem is, according to his agent, he has neither cancer nor a Twitter account. "Ben positively does not have Facebook or MySpace pages, nor a Twitter account! Any such postings are imposters and should be disregarded. We are actively working to end this problem with those companies."
Apparently, Plaxico Burress was knockin dem boots from behind bars, as ESPN point out he's the father of a one-year-old.
