Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
After what seemed like about 15 straight seasons heading into the year as the trendy "sleeper" pick of the NFL, the Arizona Cardinals finally realized their potential, winning a home playoff game for the first time in the life of many football fans (myself included) and heading to the first-ever Super Bowl. Now, all of a sudden, expectations are at an all-time high. Can the team thrive, or will they disappoint?
To think, when the Steelers announced that Mike Tomlin -- not Russ Grimm -- would replace Bill Cowher, the biggest concern was that the former Vikings defensive coordinator who had learned the intricacies of the Cover-2 while serving as Tony Dungy's secondary coach in Tampa Bay would get rid of zone-blitz architect Dick LeBeau and scrap the 3-4 defense.
On Monday, the NFL announced its preseason schedule for 2009, and the most intriguing game -- as intriguing as preseason games can be -- might be between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals on Thursday, Aug. 13.
Over the past two weeks we've heard all about the numerous connections between Pittsburgh and the Arizona Cardinals, and there are plenty. So many, in fact, that the Cardinals are jokingly referred to as "Pittsburgh west" by Steelers fans.
TAMPA, Fla. -- Russ Grimm has more than the Super Bowl on his mind this week. Yes, as the Arizona Cardinals' assistant head coach, he's thinking mostly about getting his players ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But as a former Washington Redskins offensive lineman, he's also a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he'll find out if he's been chosen on Saturday.
If you had asked me last week, I would have said Grimm was a long shot to get into the Hall of Fame. But in talking to Hall of Fame voters this week, I'm starting to get the feeling that Grimm's presence in Tampa as a coach is making some voters give a second look to his career as a player.
When the Steelers were trying to find a head coach to replace Bill Cowher, it appears that they couldn't have made a wrong choice.
The man they chose, Mike Tomlin is getting ready to coach in the AFC Championship game having taken the Steelers to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. The man they didn't, Ken Whisenhunt, has just managed to take the Cardinals to the Super Bowl, which has to rank somewhere just short of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon among amazing feats.
You'd think a second-year offensive lineman who had started all 16 regular-season games and both playoff games for a team that's just one game away from the Super Bowl would be hearing nothing but praise right about now. But for Arizona right tackle Levi Brown, the most common question he gets is some version of, "How much do you think the Cardinals regret drafting you?"
On Tuesday, the NFL announced the finalists for the 2009 Hall of Fame class, a list that contains the NFL's all-time sack leader, a current owner, a former commissioner, and six first-time finalists.
The voters will select a minimum of four and a maximum of seven new members on January 31. The complete list of finalists after the jump.
With Joe Gibbs retiring, could the Redskins take a look at another coach who brought a Super Bowl championship to the mid-Atlantic? An interesting name that could come up is former Ravens coach Brian Billick, who was recently fired in Baltimore.
Billick is a big name and he's a winner. He's still stunned by his firing from the Ravens, but his résumé is hard to ignore. Having worked in Baltimore, he knows the media market, which is an asset for the owner.
In Billick's nine years in Baltimore, he won two AFC North titles, went to four postseasons and won Super Bowl XXXV. In that same time frame, Washington won the NFC East title once and won just two playoff games. They've eclipsed the 10-win mark twice; Billick's Ravens hit that four times, with a franchise record 13-3 mark in 2006.
Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.
This week I sat down with Mike Boyko of The Steel Tradition, a Most Valuable Network column that covers the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dan Benton: "Do the Steelers or their fans harbor any ill will toward Ken Whisenhunt or Russ Grimm? From a fan prospective, what will it be like facing them for the first time?"
Mike Boyko: "The Steelers shouldn't have any ill feelings towards Ken Whisenhunt or Russ Grimm, considering they were here for so long. They were also the other two finalists for the Steelers job. Now Ben Roethlisberger may have a different opinion about Whis. Roethlisberger claims that Whisenhunt wasn't fair to him last season, through everything. Despite Roethlisberger's troubled offseason in 2006, he thought in that season he should have been given the full load, but Whisenhunt tried to protect Roethlisberger. Whisenhunt's handling of Roethlisberger's rookie year was tremendous and his handling of keeping Big Ben healthy in 2006, hasn't been given enough credit.
Facing them for the first time will be odd, but this team has moved on with Mike Tomlin and their 3-0 shows it."
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
When the Steelers were trying to find a head coach to replace 
With 
Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.
