FanHouse Jeff Reed

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

---

Back in the 1970s, the Steelers had plenty of characters and flakes. Running back Frenchy Fuqua had shoes with live goldfish in the heels. Defensive tackle Ernie Holmes was always a couple of bricks shy of a full load -- he suffered a breakdown on a trip to Ohio that ended with him shooting at a police helicopter. In both cases, the Steelers overlooked the craziness because they were key members of the team.

Now in the 2000s, the craziest Steeler is the kicker.

Jeff Reed is in trouble for the second time in less than a year. Just hours after the Steelers beat the Browns at Heinz Field, he was cited for public intoxication outside a bar.

Before Jeff Reed arrived in Pittsburgh, field goal kicking was sometimes a scary event for Steelers fans. Any Pittsburgh fan who has been around a while can't help but remember Kris Brown's four missed field goals in a 13-10 loss to the Ravens in 2001. It was one of those rare cases where a field goal kicker can truly be blamed completely for a loss.

Reed has never had a game like that. Two years ago, he missed two field goals for the entire season. Before Sunday, he hadn't missed two field goals in one game in five years. So it's worth cutting Reed a little slack after he botched two makeable field goals in the Steelers' 17-14 loss to the Bears.

CHICAGO -- Words aren't necessary. The images alone Sunday are sufficient portraits of why football might be the ultimate gratification mind game. There was Jay Cutler, managing a rare laugh as an official accidentally knocked his helmet off his head, punching the air in victory after a hellish week in which he threw four interceptions and was crucified again by the NFL coaching establishment. There was Robbie Gould, as in gold, calmly making yet another game-winning field goal in a volatile meteorological swirl on a cow-pasture surface pockmarked by two U2 concerts.

And there, on the Pittsburgh sideline, was Jeff Reed, literally looking ready to cry. Few professions in sports, or life, are more thankless than that of the placekicker. When you convert a kick, it's taken for granted. When you miss a potential winner, you're a bum. Reed, whose 82.8 percent conversion rate makes him the league's 10th-most accurate kicker ever, missed two such biggies on the oversized Brillo pad that is Soldier Field. And with those blunders came the first loss of the season for the Steelers, your defending Super Bowl champions, who might have begun to make their case for repeating if even one of Reed's kicks hadn't swerved wide left.

---

---

On the strength of hard-hitting defense, Jay Cutler's right arm and Robbie Gould's clutch kicking, the Chicago Bears won their home opener in an extremely tough fight with the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers outgained the Bears 308 to 275 in a gritty defensive battle. They had 21 first downs to the Bears' 17. They, unlike the Bears, were able to effectively run the football. In the end, though, the Bears won on the strength of something the Steelers lacked: the ability to hit a big field goal.

PITTSBURGH -- He stood behind a podium dressed in a collared shirt with blue jeans. Kerry Collins, the Titans quarterback, looked more like a country singer talking about an album that just isn't selling well.

Collins, instead, was talking about missed opportunities following a 13-10 overtime loss to the Steelers Thursday night.

"Yeah, it was a shame," Collins said. "We let that one get away. But on the road, against a good football team, if you make the mistakes we made, you're going to lose more ball games than you win. So it's disappointing. It's one of those things where you have to learn from it and move on."

PITTSBURGH -- The Steelers won the Super Bowl last season, thanks in part to their poise while handling a difficult regular-season schedule.

In 2008, Pittsburgh played against seven playoff teams -- a grind that helped them prepare for the postseason. The Steelers celebrated that postseason on Thursday night, dropping a huge championship banner behind one of the Heinz Field goal posts before they took on Tennessee in the NFL's season opener.

The fans went crazy, but their team strolled onto the field as if that Super Bowl title never existed. There would be no ring ceremony. There would be no marching the Lombardi Trophy around at midfield.

Last year was last year, and if the Steelers are going to repeat, they have to play it cool.

The Steelers had a pretty lengthy to-do list for the offseason, but a little over a day before training camp starts, they've managed to check off nearly every key task.

The announcement that tight end Heath Miller has signed a six-year extension worth $35.3 million does a very good job of getting the Steelers ready for training camp. Since the Super Bowl, Pittsburgh has re-signed or extended the contracts of James Harrison, Chris Kemoeatu, Trai Essex, Max Starks, Heath Miller, Charlie Batch and Hines Ward assuring that most of the team that won last year's Super Bowl will be around for years to come. And they also managed to get all of their draft picks signed before training camp.

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet the...
Team with more Super Bowl titles than any other franchise in existence. Fresh off of their sixth Super Bowl title, the Steelers return in 2009 with a solid shot at a repeat performance. The stellar defense is still around and the main keys to the Pittsburgh offense are back and healthy.

While the NFL version of the Steelers is a force to be reckoned with, the Steelers, as fantasy assets, are just average.