Soloman Wilcotts is the first....

[Ambridge]

NFL media person to my knowledge to go on the record as saying the Steelers "will not" repeat as Superbowl Champions.
He said this and cited on NFL Total Access last night that the loss of Jerome Bettis's leadership both on and off the field will be too much for the Steelers to overcome.

Something tells me Soloman didn't pick the Steelers to win the Superbowl last year with Jerome on the team and something also tells me he wouldn't have picked the Steelers this year if Jerome was still playing.

Soloman is an ex-Bengal idiot and he can stand at the front of the line of Jerkoff NFL Experts who will dismiss the Steelers winning it again in '06.

[clevestinks]

I watched that myself, and I cursed the TV. Its one thing to say that tha Steelers will probably not repeat, or to talk about how tough it could be to repeat. But to just say we will not repeat????? Nobody else has the oppurtunity to repeat this season, I like our chances

[Livinginthe past]

Thats pretty brave - picking one team out of 32 to not win it all.

There seem to be two types of pundits - ones that make the kind of low-risk non-predictions like the one above and who crow about it when it comes in, and the other that makes crazy-stupid predictions like Cards to win it all - in the hope that one of these crazy ass picks will actually pan out so they can make a living from it.

Get used to people writing off the holders - the majority really of people dont want to see the Champs repeat, which holds true for ANY team in the NFL - predictions like this give the no hopers succour in the pre-season fantasy football stakes.

NM

[tony hipchest]

adam shein picked cinci over panthers (the loss of jerome and el seems to be popular sentiment) and peter king has picked the cowboys over the patriots. its still early. im just glad chris berman finally stopped picking the bills and 49ers.

[Haiku_Dirtt]

If this were true then we don't deserve to win another Super Bowl. I really don't get the hyperbole surrounding Jerome. The Bettis lovefest is over and done. Thank you Jerome. But it's over.

Between Hartings, Faneca, Ben and Hines there is plenty of freaking leadership on offense. I'm sure Hartings Faneca and Hines would agree that this is the year that Ben firmly takes control of the reigns in the huddle. Period. Or he's not all 'that'.

The hard and fast reality is that Jerome rushed for about 250 yards. If it were any other player in the league replacing that kind of production with someone who can go 16 games would be considered an upgrade...not the reason a team isn't going to the Super Bowl.

I hear alot of wishful thinking out there.

[RoethlisBURGHer]

Wow will he be eating crow when we're lifting our sixth Lombardi trophy!

I loved Jerome,he was the face of this orginization.However,on the field he wasn't a huge contributor.His 9 TD's can be replaced by Duce and/or Haynes taking over the goal-line job.Hartings,Faneca,Ben,Duce,and Ward are all leaders on the offense.

[tony hipchest]

polamalu and porter have both been heard lobbying for goal line carries.

[RoethlisBURGHer]

Originally Posted by tony hipchest

polamalu and porter have both been heard lobbying for goal line carries.

I'd love to see Troy take one in,that'd be fun to watch.

Does he take it over the top or does he run over people?

[MattsMe]

Originally Posted by tony hipchest

polamalu and porter have both been heard lobbying for goal line carries.

I could definitely see Troy giving it a shot. The way he flies around, him going over the top into the endzone would be like the second coming of Walter Payton.

I don't know if it's worth risking injury for though.

[Black@Gold Forever32]

I'd love to see Troy take one in,that'd be fun to watch.

Does he take it over the top or does he run over people?

That would be cool to see but I don't want to chance hurting Troy. Seymour got hurt doing that with the Pats last year. Troy is just to valuable to risk injur with goal line carries.