Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
For the second time in four years, the Steelers hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, which means no matter what happens this offseason, Steelers fans have plenty of reasons to be happy. But with an easier 2009 schedule on the horizon and few big names hitting free agency, Steelers fans are ready to start thinking repeat, even if Mike Tomlin won't use that word.
After a slow start, Super Bowl XLIII finished with an explosion of big plays, capped by Santonio Holmes' incredible sideline TD grab to give the Steelers the 27-23 win, as well as Pittsburgh's sixth Super Bowl championship. Relive the big game with our live blog recap.
The fan voting for Super Bowl MVP is an election that any Chicago politician would love. This is one vote where you are encouraged to vote early and often.
You can vote for Mitch Berger if you want (which is just funny), but more annoyingly, you can vote as many times as you want. To check it out, I voted at NFL.com for James Harrison once. Once you vote, the biggest box left is "Vote Again." Vote once more, and it asks you to vote again. This goes on for as long you want to vote.
If you don't mind wasting your time, you can sit and stuff the ballot for several hundred votes. If this was just a fan vote for conversation that didn't matter it would be one thing, but fan voting counts for 20 percent of the voting, so it actually means something.
If the NFL is aiming for getting plenty of fan votes, they are succeeding but at the cost at having legit balloting for the MVP award.
In news that should surprise no one, it's currently snowing in Pittsburgh. By the 6:30 PM ET kickoff, it'll still be snowing, and temperatures are expected to drop into the upper teens. On the upside: wind shouldn't be a factor, although this could be one of those "let's see who can score first and then let the defense take over" get-togethers.
It makes sense that the league's two most dominating defenses could play a huge role in deciding which team will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. And right now, seven hours from game time, it looks like the Steelers have the slight advantage. We've been talkingall weekabout injured Ravens, and two of their key defenders -- Terrell Suggs and Samari Rolle -- teetered between doubtful and out in recent days.
Willis McGahee -- of recent Cowboy-destroying fame -- was kind enough to sit down with FanHouse and talk about Brian Billick v. John Harbaugh, Guns n' Roses, Joe Flacco, bounties on players and how the Ravens got ready for the Cowboys.
Will Brinson: Willis, what's up man? How you doing today?
Willis McGahee: I'm alright, how you doing?
WB: Good man, good -- thanks for taking the time to talk to FanHouse today. First off, how'd it feel to beat the Cowboys in the final regular season game in Texas Stadium?
WM: Ah, it felt good, you know. I know their plan was to have a homecoming in the stadium, but our plan was just to go there and play Ravens football and that's what we did -- play Ravens football.
WB: Right on, right on. Hey, I heard a rumor that Jerry Jonespetitioned the league to play you guys in the last home game in that stadium. Did you guys hear about that beforehand?
You know how the old story goes by now -- defensive back (Frank Walker) tries to take out kicker (Jeff Reed), so punter/holder (Mitch Berger) gets cheesed and goes after defensive back. In the heat of passion, defensive back spits in punter/holder's face, punter/holder pushes defensive back, the media freaks out about it and we all live happily ever after.
Or not. See, Walker has finally admitted that he did spit in Berger's mouth. Except -- get this -- he's trying to play it off as an accident. Or, a "slobber moment", if you will.
Frank Walker acknowledged that he spat in the face of Pittsburgh Steelers punter Mitch Berger, but the Ravens' backup cornerback called it an accident.
"It was just a slobber moment," Walker said.
Berger, naturally, still isn't buying this "accidental" business. That's probably because he was so upset that he spent the next 24 hours basically holding a plunger to his face.
The incident had a lingering effect on Berger.
"I think I kept spitting for 24 hours," he said. "I kept brushing my teeth. To have another man spit in your mouth like that ... it was gross."
And while I suppose you could twist that as homophobic, I'm going to get Berger's back here and say that I would probably be doing the same thing. Of course, he's a punter, so really, this is the most dangerous thing that's happened to him in like 15 years, but still: you never rub another man's rhubarb. Or something like that.
It's seldom (never?) that you see a kicker get slapped with a 15-yard personal-foul penalty, but that's exactly what happened on an extra-point attempt after the touchdown that wasn't. Pittsburgh's Jeff Reed was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after pushing Frank Walker which led to the Steelers having to kickoff from their 15-yard line.
It seemed kind of ticky-tack at the time -- the Steelers and Ravens were beating the crap out of each other all afternoon, to penalize the kicker for shoving a defensive back is, well, odd -- but apparently Reed was defending punter Mitch Berger's honor. You see, Berger, who also serves as Reed's holder, allegedly got a loogie right in the grill, courtesy of the aforementioned Walker.
"The guy dove, he tried to take out Jeff's knee," said Berger, who holds for Reed's kicks. "I went over there and he got up and he spit in my face -- and they called it on Jeff for pushing him!"
"That's the first I heard that. I don't believe it for one second," Harbaugh said yesterday ..."Frank Walker wouldn't do it; none of our players would do it. I don't believe it for one second."
I don't know what it is with NFL players and spitting, but, if history's any guide, Berger's accusations aren't completely implausible. That said, spitting is so mid-2000s. If Walker really wanted to make his point, he would've started chucking shoes.
If Paul Ernster ever punts in the NFL again, it will be because he's managed to make every last copy of his disastrous game against the Bengals disappear (and it's not happening Paul, as I have socked away a copy you can't have).
But thankfully, the Steelers have fixed one of their worst decisions of the year by cutting the worst punter the team has employed in decades. Pittsburgh re-signed Mitch Berger, who had punted for the first nine games of the season before the Steelers decided his pulled hamstring was limiting him too much.
Punting with a pulled left hamstring, Berger averaged 36.3 yards per punt against the Redskins. That was five yards off of his season average, which was enough to convince the Steelers that they had to make a change. All that was good and logical, but by picking Ernster, they found the one punter who couldn't outkick a one-legged man. Ernster averaged only 31.3 in his three games. In 12 punts, he never booted one longer than 43 yards, and his finale against the Bengals set new standards for awful. Five punts, none longer than 34 yards and an average of 28.4 yards per punt. It's safe to say that your average college punter can do better.
There's no word whether Berger is fully recovered from his hamstring injury, but even if he's not, he's proven he'll be a better choice than Ernster.
Berger has been hampered by bad hamstrings in both legs. Those injuries may have caught up to him in Monday's win over the Washington Redskins and cost him his job. Berger had punts of 25, 32 and 35 yards in that game and was seen wincing in pain during warmups.
Pittsburgh was Berger's seventh team since being drafted back in 1994.
Ernster is no stranger to the Steelers. With Berger winning the punting gig, Ernster was released in the last round of cuts during the preseason.
Sunday's biggest NFL game was determined in large part by the two events you see in the video below:
First, Steelers long snapper Greg Warren suffered a knee injury on the field and then aggravated it trying to walk off under his own power instead of getting carted off. The next time the Steelers tried to punt, linebacker James Harrison tried to snap but sent the ball over punter Mitch Berger's head for a safety. We all learned who Warren is -- and how important long snapping is.
Warren kind of reminded me of Cookie Fleck from Best in Show as he walked off the field on a knee so wobbly that it could give out at any moment. The Steelers will audition long snappers tomorrow.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The fan voting for Super Bowl MVP is an election that any Chicago politician would love. This is one vote where you are encouraged to vote early and often.
In news that should surprise no one, it's currently snowing in Pittsburgh. By the 6:30 PM ET kickoff, it'll still be snowing, and temperatures are expected to drop into the upper teens. On the upside: wind shouldn't be a factor, although this could be one of those "let's see who can score first and then let the defense take over" get-togethers. 
You know how the old story goes by now -- defensive back (Frank Walker) tries to take out kicker (Jeff Reed), so punter/holder (Mitch Berger) gets cheesed and goes after defensive back. In the heat of passion, defensive back spits in punter/holder's face, punter/holder pushes defensive back, the media freaks out about it and we all live happily ever after.
It's seldom (never?) that you see a kicker get slapped with a 15-yard personal-foul penalty, but that's exactly what happened on an extra-point attempt after the touchdown that wasn't. Pittsburgh's Jeff Reed was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after pushing Frank Walker which led to the Steelers having to kickoff from their 15-yard line. 
If Paul Ernster ever punts in the NFL again, it will be because he's managed to make every last copy of his disastrous game against the Bengals disappear (and it's not happening Paul, as I have socked away a copy you can't have).
The Pittsburgh Steelers have released punter Mitch Berger and replaced him with Paul Ernster.
