Classic Essays. Your comments are welcome on the message board. More essays on the pages below.

ONE FOR THE THUMB. FINALLY! .......(By Bill Rogan 2-6-06)
As the final moments of Super Bowl 40 wound down and it was apparent the Steelers would own a fifth Vince Lombardi Trophy, I thought about Pittsburgh's previous championship, a come from behind win over the L-A Rams, in Super Bowl 14. Then it hit me like a Mel Blount tackle. That was 26-years ago! Can that possibly be?
There are certain moments in life when you realize that time zips by quicker than a Wille Parker touchdown run. This was one of those reflective moments.
The Steelers of the 70's remain vividly clear in my memory. I can still see Bradshaw throwing to Swann and Stallworth, Lambert breathing fire, the Steel Curtain, Gerela's Gorillas and of course Franco's Army. I can conjure up players and games as if they occurred last week. 
One game that really stands out was a regular season game in 1976. It was my first time at brand new Giants Stadium. The horrid Giants were hosting the Steelers and I knew my team would get slaughtered. The Giants and Steelers probably knew it as well. Pittsburgh prevailed on that rainy Sunday afternoon 27-0 and it wasn't that close. I was, and still am, in awe of those Steeler teams.
A few years later I went to school in Pittsburgh and saw how beloved the Steelers are in Western Pennsylvania. I would wander through the Three Rivers Stadium parking lot on game days and friendly Steeler fans would offer me all sorts of tailgating fare. All I had to do was yell, "Go Steelers", back at them and I had an artery clogging hoagie in my hands in no time. There may be fans of other teams who's passion is equal to that of Steelers fans. But that passion is unsurpassed.
The Steelers may also have the best ownership in sports with the Rooney family at the helm since day one. The Steelers have had two, count them, two head coaches in the past 37-years in Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher. Do you think that would be the case if Dan Snyder or some other petulant big shot owned the team?
Congratulations to the wonderful city of Pittsburgh for their Super Bowl 40 win over the Seahawks.  It was a well deserved victory for Coach Cowher and the Steelers and a fitting exit for Jerome Bettis. It's only been a short 26-years in the making.

PLAY WITH THE LADIES......(By Bill Rogan 2-1-06)
I'm a fan of 16-year old Michelle Wie. What's not to like? She's intelligent, personable, attractive, and could end up as one of the greatest female golfers of all time. Let me repeat. She could end up as one of the greatest FEMALE golfers of all time.
So why is Wie continuing to play in men's tournaments?
I can understand the novelty of Wie, who may one day become the LPGA version of Tiger Woods, entering a men's event.....once. But this May,  in Korea, she will play in another men's tournament, her 8th such venture. She has not made the cut in any of her previous seven attempts.
Wie should concentrate on earning her first LPGA tour win instead of trying to compete with men, which she clearly is unable to do at this stage of her career.
Wie turned pro in October and this high school junior will earn more money in her lifetime than most people can comprehend. She was invited to play in the Korean event and will be paid a hefty sum to do so. But wouldn't it be more prudent for her to shy away from such endeavors and dedicate herself to the women's tour? What is she trying to prove by playing in men's tournaments? That she can make the cut? Is she saying she is too good for the LPGA tour?
I wish nothing but success for Wie. She is good for the game of golf and her future is limitless. However, there are many great golfers on the LPGA tour and until she starts beating them with regularity then her participation against men strikes me as being circus-like, a sideshow and a money grab.
When Wie has carved out a career similar to, or better than, Annika Sorenstam, then maybe I'll take a renewed interest in her competing against the men.
By the way, I'm still waiting for a male golfer to say, "I'm really struggling right now on the tour so I think I'll play in some LPGA events to get my game going again." How would that go over?

A SCHMUCK NAMED BODE......By Bill Rogan (1-27-06)
Name an athlete who has been drug tested as much as Lance Armstrong has? Take your time. Still thinking? Good.
Have you come up with a name yet? I didn't think so. There isn't an athlete alive who has taken more drug tests than the 7-time Tour de France winner. Guess what? Armstrong has passed EVERY test. Every single one.
In the past, Armstrong has had to defend his reputation from other cyclists and so-called journalists and commentators who have an agenda against Armstrong. Perhaps it is too unbelievable that a guy who defeated cancer has also dominated the competition in his sport. Maybe because Armstrong is an American he has to face these accusations. Armstrong is now retired and he still has to hear this nonsense about being a drug cheat.
The latest to disparage Armstrong is some guy named Bode Miller. Who is Bode Miller you ask? Miller is a skier on the United States Olympic team who becomes semi-relavant every four years or so. At least he likes to think so.
Miller, who claims he despises media attention, has proven to the world that he is a first class idiot. In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Miller boasted of racing while drunk. Good for him if he's proud of that. Hopefully he doesn't get behind the wheel of a car afterwards.
Now, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Miller says that Armstrong is a drug cheat. Where is the proof? Where is Miller's evidence? Why is he shooting off his mouth in an attempt to destroy the reputation of one of the most inspirational and beloved athletes ever?
It seems to me that the guy who hates publicity is trying to grab as much attention as he can and what better way to do it than to slander Lance Armstrong?
Bode Miller is a 4-time world champion skier with two silver medals to his credit from the Salt Lake City games in 2002. So what. He's a nobody. Once the Olympics in Italy end in a few weeks he'll be irrelevant for another four years.

RUPP'S KENTUCKY WHITECATS.......By Bill Rogan (1-19-06)
One of the few perks I get from working for a radio station is that I get free tickets once in a while to the movies. Another perk is that I get my pick of parking spots outside the building. Since I arrive at 3:30 a.m. there isn't much competition for choice spots.
Anyway, I'll be heading to the the new film "Glory Road" soon, gratis. If it's free, it's for me! Actually, I turn down most offers to see movies because I'm not interested in most of the rubbish Hollywood churns out these days.
"Glory Road", as most of you know, is the true story of the Texas Western basketball team, which was the first school to start an all-black lineup in an NCAA tournament game. They took on all-white Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA title game. It was a landmark game in basketball and American history.
One thing that has always amazed me about that game is not that Texas Western's starters were all black but that Kentucky's were all white....by choice.
Legendary Kentucky Coach Adolph Rupp didn't recruit black players and didn't want them on his teams. I get the feeling that Texas Western Coach Don Haskins started five blacks because they were his best players.
Adolph Rupp was a great basketball coach as his 4 NCAA titles and 876 wins suggest. Was he a racist? That is up to you to decide.
Rupp's supporters claim he wasn't racist and that he had black players when he coached high school ball in the 1920's. They'll also say that if he had black players at Kentucky then many southern schools would have refused to play the Wildcats. In my opinion, if Rupp wasn't racist, he sure didn't use his lofty platform as Kentucky basketball coach to initiate change and take a stand against racism did he? I tend to believe, at the very least, he had racist tendencies.
If I were a high school basketball standout, especially if I were black, I wouldn't even think of playing basketball at Kentucky. Why would I want to play my home games in a building called "Rupp Arena"?

OBTUSE.......(By Bill Rogan 1-11-06)
I'd like to think I'm a somewhat intelligent person, especially when it comes to sports. However, there are some things in sports that I just don't understand.
I don't understand why the baseball writers continue to keep Rich Gossage and Jim Rice out of the Hall of Fame. Bruce Sutter was just elected into the hall and he deserves it. However, Goose was better. As for Rice (read the 11-10-05 essay), ask any pitcher who faced him if he belongs. Maybe writers should be held accountable for their ballots and explain their reasoning for snubbing Gossage and Rice.
For the life of me, I can't understand how the Giants came out flat for their home playoff game against the Panthers. The G-men showed no intensity, no desire, no fire, nothing. How does that happen with your season on the line?
I don't understand Brent Musburger. I've never met anyone who likes his broadcasts, yet there he is, on my TV screen all the time. Sometimes I wonder if I'm stuck on the Brent Channel, all Brent, all the time.
I don't understand how guys like Marcus Vick and Maurice Clarett can throw such promising futures into the garbage can. Can they possibly be that stupid and arrogant? Apparently so. Maybe its because they've always gotten second, third and fourth chances and they feel like they can do what they want, when they want.
I don't understand why I don't like the NBA anymore. I used to love pro hoops but for whatever reason I've lost interest. It's a chore to watch a game from start to finish. Of course, if an NBA team wanted me to announce their games, I'd be Mr. NBA again.
I'm not a fan of auto racing but I don't understand why the Daytona 500 kicks off the racing season every February. Wouldn't that be like the World Series being played in April or the Super Bowl taking place in September?
With the winter Olympics a month away, I don't understand curling, male figure skating or ski jumping. The first is bizarre, the second uncomfortable and the third is insane. I do like ski jumping, but face it, those guys are missing something upstairs.
Those are just some of the things I don't understand. Maybe I'm not as smart as I'd like to think. Actually, that's probably the smartest thing I've said in a while.

FREAK SHOW CENTRAL.....(By Bill Rogan 12-30-05)
While flipping through the television channels the other day, I happened upon perhaps the most ridiculous thing some people do in the name of sport. More stupid than fantasy football. More idiotic than televised poker tournaments and auto racing. Dumber than extreme bass fishing. I, unfortunately, stumbled upon a body building competition. Like passing a train wreck I had to watch.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why someone would want to look like these freakazoids. I'm all for physical fitness, lifting weights to keep muscles toned and keeping the body in good working condition. However, when these narcissistic numbskulls end up looking like fire hydrants on steroids perhaps they've taken things too far.
Body building isn't a sport. It's posing. Watching these deformed oddities, their oiled up bodies in tiny little underwear flexing before judges, was actually kind of funny and pathetic at the same time.
I remember in college, there was a body builder in our dorm. He would walk around in an undersized shirt all the time, even in frigid weather. He just had to show off those guns. He was always scratching his head too. Either he was confused about why he was so cold or because it gave him an opportunity to flex his biceps.
I'd like to interview one of these mutants someday. I would ask them if they really spend 12 hours a day looking in the mirror? Just how many steroids and supplements have you taken to become that grotesque? For women bodybuilders I'd have a simple question. Come on, be honest, you're a man, aren't you?
So I sat there looking at these freaks, wasting several minutes of my life, time I'll never get back. Finally, one of the posers with wacked out pituitary glands made what appeared to be a show stopping pose. He made his overly developed breasts bounce up and down in alternating fashion. The crowd went nuts, the announcers became delirious and I had to turn away before my dinner came up.
I never want to see another bodybuilder again. Ever. Unless I need a refridgerator moved or if I'm suddenly in the mood to see someone bench press my four-by-four.

NOW PLAYING CF FOR THE YANKEES.....(By Bill Rogan 12-23-05)
Johnny Damon is a Yankee and the people of Boston are fired up. They are angry, hurting and they are venting. Bosox Nation, or whatever those people call themselves, are bemoaning the fact that Damon left their team as a free agent and signed with the hated Yankees.
"Where is the loyalty?" they ask. The problem isn't the lack of loyalty on Damon's part, going from Beantown to the Bronx. Every single one of us would have done the same thing. If you tell me you would have stayed in Boston for 40-million dollars over four years instead of signing with New York for 52-million over the same period you are lying. Three million dollars more per season is a lot of money. If you worked in a hardware store making 12-dollars an hour, would you move to the competitor across the street for 15-dollars an hour to do the same job? Of course you would. If you said no, then you are lying again.
Same thing in Damon's case but only the numbers are a little different. Ok, they are a lot different.
Red Sox fans should also dip into their memory banks and recall that Damon left the Athletics after the 2001 season to sign a free agent deal with Boston. That was kosher but this isn't? They weren't calling Damon Benedict Arnold then were they?
Damon simply had his contract run out and shopped himself to the highest bidder. The Yankees opened up the checkbook as they've done numerous times before and grabbed an available player on the market. The Yankees are playing by the current rules and I can't fault them, and I won't fault them, for trying to win at any cost. The problem, to some, is that the system smells worse than a rotting animal carcass and I understand that. But you can't pin that on Damon or the Yanks.
The game isn't about loyalty and hasn't been for a long time.  It is about taking advantage of the rules and Johnny Damon did just that. That's just the way things work in baseball. Deal with it Boston.

RAMBLE ON.......By Bill Rogan (12-16-05)
What in the world was J. Whyatt Mondesire thinking when he was taking potshots at Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb? Mondesire sounded like an angry, bigoted white guy instead of the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP. His racial remarks were unwarranted and reprehensible. Perhaps Mondesire is on the Terrell Owens payroll in charge of denigrating McNabb. By the way, when I see the name Mondesire, I immediately think of another knucklehead, Raul Mondesi.
Speaking of Owens, he showed everybody that one player, no matter how talented, can drag an entire team down the path of destruction. Owens selfish antics ruined the Eagles season. With that in mind, the Denver Nuggets are insane if they deal for Ron Artest. The Pacers problem child is not worth the risk. I've liked Artest ever since his St. John's days. But, just like Owens, one man can destroy a team. If the Nuggets insist on obtaining Artest, who would be shipped to Indiana? How about Kenyon Martin and a few tattoos to be named later?
Does anybody else out there think that tattoos look stupid? Why anybody would desecrate their bodies like that mystifies me, especially women. Ladies, stop getting tattoos.
There are other things that mystify me besides tattoos. That list would include indoor lacrosse, why someone would want to be an offensive lineman and males who possess tremendous skating ability but choose figure skating over hockey.
The hockey season is going well for me. I'm enjoying the new rules and the Rangers are actually having a great season. Thus far.  If the season ended today, the Blueshirts would be in the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade!
As far as seasons ending, does the golf season ever end? Seriously, does the PGA Tour ever take a break?
I'm done rambling. For now.

SOFTIES.....By Bill Rogan (12-7-05)
I started my Christmas shopping early this year. Normally, I wait until December 24th but decided to shlep myself to the mall the other day.
While wandering around and hating every minute of it, I stopped to rest my weary feet.
A kid, about 10-years old and his mom who was busy chatting on her cell phone, soon joined me on the bench.
I asked the kid, "So, what do you want for Christmas?"
He said he wanted an I-Pod, a new computer, video games and some other gadget that I had never heard of.
Then I asked the youngster if he wanted any football stuff or hockey equipment.
He looked at me as if I had an eye in the middle of my forehead. Probably the same look I gave him when he rattled off the things he wanted for Christmas.
I came to the following conclusion....kids these days are tissue paper soft.
I don't mean to sound like some stuffy old geezer, because I'm not. Not yet anyway. But it wasn't that long ago that I was that same 10-year old kid. All I wanted for Christmas was sports stuff. A football helmet and pads. Hockey sticks, skates, basketballs, boxing gloves. I wasn't much into toys but my favorite toy was Rock'em Sock'em Robots. I despised getting clothes unless it was the Giants wool hat I got just about every year or a jersey of some team I loved. One thing I never got for Christmas by the way was a toy car. I never had a toy car growing up. Never wanted one. Maybe that is why I hate auto racing. Anyhow, as soon as the family was done opening presents, I was out the door to play with the stuff I got. I surmise the modern day kid rushes off to some corner of the house play with his I-Pod, whatever that is.
Back to my trip the shopping mall. There were kids everywhere. Some were with their parents, some of the older kids were hanging out with their friends. When I was younger, you would have had to drag me kicking and screaming to go to the shopping mall. Not much has changed since.
Enjoy the holidays everyone. And parents, it's alright to buy your son a football or get your daughter a pair of figure skates.

HANG UP THE HEADSET KEITH......By Bill Rogan (11-28-05)
My final memory of Willie Mays as a player was of him stumbling and staggering around in centerfield for the Mets in the 1973 World Series. It was a very sad image.
My last recollections of Patrick Ewing as a player were of him hobbling up and down the court for the Magic, a shell of his former self. Good, I never liked him anyway.
But my point being, sometimes a great athlete hangs on way too long. However, athletes aren't the only ones who don't know when to quit.
I am saddened to say this, it hurts, it really does, but legendary college football broadcaster Keith Jackson needs to hang up the microphone. It's time.
Jackson is perhaps the greatest college football announcer ever. With his distinctive voice and colorful phraseology, you knew it was a big game as soon as you heard him open a telecast. Listening to him say, "Hershel Walker of the Georgia Bulldogs" or "The big uglies up front for the Wolverines" gave me chills.
No more however. All the "fumbleeeeeeeeeee" or "Ohhhhhhhhh Nelly" calls doesn't do the trick anymore. Keith Jackson is no longer the premier voice in college football and someone at ABC sports needs to intervene. Intervene, a nice word for telling Jackson it's over.
The recent Notre Dame-Stanford broadcast was probably the worst broadcast of Jackson's storied career. He sounded confused and at times disoriented. He made numerous careless mistakes. He continually misidentified players. Jackson even said the Stanford placekicker was attempting a game winning extra-point, even though there was still 1:47 to play.
Jackson is 77-years old. I don't expect him to be as sharp and as crisp as he was 10 ,15, 20, 40-years ago. But the legend has lost his fastball. It was painful to listen to this great broadcaster, this man whom I have admired for as long as I can remember, self-destruct before my very eyes and ears.
This is not a pleasant essay for me to write. It really isn't. But I am not writing it to mock or assail Jackson. I write it out of respect and admiration. I write it because I don't want Jackson to embarrass himself or become a punchline for late night comedians. I write it because I want Keith Jackson, a man who abetted my love for college football, to leave the booth with dignity and grace. Even the greats have to step aside sometime. That time, for Keith Jackson, is now.

IF I RAN THE NFL......By Bill Rogan (11-22-05)
I'd love to have NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's job. I wouldn't just take the job, sit back with my feet on a credenza and let the league run on cruise control. No way. I would roll up my sleeves and get to work.
First order of business, I would award the Super Bowl to the defending champions. If the Packers win the Super Bowl, the big game would be played in Green Bay the next year. Doesn't matter if its a cold weather city or a crummy one. You win, you host. Plus, the fans who own season tickets in that stadium would get first dibs on Super Bowl ducats.
Dome stadiums bother me. The game should be played in the elements, be it the heat of Miami or the chill of Pittsburgh. Weather is part of the game and makes it a more manly challenge. Therefore I would decree that all current dome teams must rip the roof off their stadiums.
Since the NFL is making more money than the U-S mint can print up in a year, I would also enact a bylaw that tells owners that if they want a new stadium, build it. The league will even help. However, taxpayer money will never be used to build a new facility.
I'm a big "tradition guy" but one tradition I would terminate would be the Lions playing every Thanksgiving Day. The Lions continue to be dull, boring and inept. I'm sick and tired of watching the Lions every single Turkey Day and I can't take it any more. Detroit on Thanksgiving Day? No thanks.
As an experiment, I would take one week during the exhibition season and not allow punting in any of the games just to see what it would look like. Teams would have to go for first downs all the time. Wouldn't it be exciting if a team had a 4th and 7 on their own 8-yard line and had to go for it? Perhaps the punters union would object but face it, who likes punters?
Other changes I would put in place include forcing the Chargers to permanently switch back to their baby blue uniforms with the white helmets and yellow lightning bolts. Also, owners would never be allowed on the sidelines during games, each team would get at least one possession during overtime and Shannon Sharpe and Michael Irvin would be taken off television until they learned how to speak in an intelligible manner.
There you have it. I would suggest you write Paul Tagliabue and ask him to step down to make way for me, your new NFL Commissioner.