It is time the Pro Football Hall of Fame elects Alan Faneca. It is beyond time. Faneca again is among the 25 semifinalists revealed Tuesday, and he’s been among the 15 finalists all six years of his eligibility.
That he has not yet been elected is curious, considering his Hall of Fame career. I know I am preaching, as they say, to the choir to most Steelers fans reading this, but maybe there will be a stray HOF voter out there who happens to catch this and hasn’t realized just what Faneca did during his 13 seasons in the NFL.
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He made six first-team All-Pros and would have made a seventh in 2003 had some of the votes for him not been split between guard and tackle. That’s the season Faneca selflessly moved to left tackle because of injuries. He made first-team every other season from 2001 through 2007. Had he stayed at left guard in 2003, he would have been in the Hall of Fame long ago by making yet another first-team All-Pro.
Do you know how many seven-time, first-team All-Pros have not made the Hall of Fame? One, and that one, Peyton Manning, will make it this year in his first time eligible. Of the 27 position players who made six first-team All-Pros, only two who are eligible have not made the Hall of Fame: Faneca and tackle Jim Tyrer, who played nearly all of his career with the Chiefs and finished up in 1974.
Do you know how many games Faneca missed during his career? Two. One in 1999, the other when Bill Cowher kept him and others out of the season finale that meant nothing to get ready for the playoffs. That’s it. Of the 206 games he played, he started 201, including all three seasons after he left the Steelers, two with the Jets and one with the Cardinals.
As one of the selectors, keeping Faneca out of the Hall of Fame this long is embarrassing.
Five items on my mind
1. It promises again to be a difficult climb for the other Hall of Fame semifinalist who played for the Steelers, Hines Ward. This is the fifth time Ward has been chosen among the semifinal 25, each year of his eligibility. He has never made it to the final 15. He caught 1,000 passes for 12,083 yards and 85 touchdowns in the regular season, and may have been the best and most willing blocker of any wide receiver. He also was MVP of Super Bowl XL. Ward caught another 88 passes for 1,181 yards and 10 touchdowns in 18 post-season games.
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Those who followed Ward’s 14-year career have little doubt about his credentials for Canton.
But wide receivers keep putting up big numbers as the rules loosened to help offenses and coaches more willing to throw than ever. It’s a game of statistics at some positions like receiver, running back and quarterback. Other receivers will soon bypass Ward’s numbers. But they should remember this: Ward played nearly half of his career before the Steelers found him a franchise quarterback, and he played on grass outdoors in the north where no other division team played indoors either. It’s a far cry from playing for the greatest team on turf, and indoors.
2. For years all the sports leagues, the NFL in particular, regarded gambling as a pariah, something dirty, and they did everything they could to keep it out of their games. They threatened to suspend or ban players not only for gambling, but for being associated with fantasy football conventions in Las Vegas. Paul Hornung and Alex Karas were suspended by the NFL for one full season for gambling on sports. You know what happened to Pete Rose. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle threatened to suspend Joe Namath if he did not sell his bar in New York because he said it was frequented by gamblers.
Now, the leagues get in bed with gamblers. Unabashedly so. The turnabout is astounding, but then there’s money to be had by the teams and, well, gambling is legal in many places now, including the home state of the Steelers and Eagles. You may not be surprised then by this press release the Steelers sent out Tuesday, but it still bothers me:
The Pittsburgh Steelers announced today that BetMGM, a leading sports betting and digital gaming company, is the team’s First Gaming Partner. … As a Proud Gaming Partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, BetMGM will have full use of Steelers marks and logos in communications across marketing, product, social media and digital properties. As part of the agreement, BetMGM will become an Official Sports Betting Partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers once their online sports betting product launches later this year.
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3. If you are a journalist of any type, your mailbox gets peppered with those pitching ideas, books, experts on one thing or another, gambling information, interview possibilities and doctors to talk about the latest injuries on your team. Sometimes they’re helpful. Sometimes they’re worth ignoring. Sometimes they’re just weird, like the one I received the other day from a site that will go unnamed. They offered up Sammie Coates as an expert on how the Steelers will go unbeaten the rest of the way. Sammie Coates spent two seasons with the Steelers and caught 22 passes during that time before he was traded to the Browns for a seventh-round draft choice. He was one of those third-round picks (2015) at wide receiver no one includes among the genius choices by the Steelers.
Coates was a good fellow who had a bunch of injuries, and if he’s trying to make it as a broadcaster or whatever, God bless him. But that’s not what this is. This is a reporter telling me he has an “exclusive” interview with Coates (what, Limas Sweed was unavailable?). Here is what the receiver who spent a cup of java with the Steelers said: “Having Ben, when he’s healthy, he’s winning and coach Tomlin gets that team ready to play every week, I’ve been there and every week you are going to be ready to play. … No other team is going to beat them the way they are playing.”
There was more, but we’ll stop here.
4. Why are the Steelers still allowing fans at Heinz Field on Thursday? The pandemic is raging like never before not only all over the country, but right here in good old Allegheny County, Pa. the numbers of those with COVID-19 have skyrocketed, and the state is advising everyone to stay home for Thanksgiving and not even have relatives over. Yet, the Steelers will open their doors to another 5,500 fans or so for their game against the Ravens. The team released this statement: “Our priority remains the health and safety of our players, coaches, staff, game day workers, and our fans.” If their priority were their fans, they’d tell them to stay home.
5. JuJu Smith-Schuster (and his dog Boujee) is one of three NFL players hired by Amazon Prime to pump up their new series “The Pack.” Apparently, these promotions can be seen on Instagram, if you’re interested. I love dogs and we tuned in to the first episode of The Pack. It’s some sort of competition involving a bunch of dogs and their masters. You must more than like dogs to enjoy this one. We stopped watching before the first episode ended.
Just the facts
• Not only does T.J. Watt have a wide NFL lead in quarterback pressures, according to Next Gen Stats, three Steelers are among the top five, and second place is manned by a Pittsburgh native. Watt has 57; Bud Dupree is tied for third with 41, and Stephon Tuitt is fifth with 40. Pittsburgh native Aaron Donald is second with 42.
• Time to start a new stat? JuJu Smith-Schuster’s 265 receptions are the second-most ever by an NFL receiver before his 24th birthday. Since he turned 24, Sunday, it’s time for an update on those who have the most before their 25th, no?
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• If the Steelers win Thursday night, we’ll be reminded that at 11-0 they are off to the best start in franchise history. Just as they were when they went 8-0, 9-0 and 10-0.
• You can only get this here (because we read all of the Steelers press releases): T.J. Watt needs four more sacks to join Pro Football Hall of Famers Reggie White (four seasons) and Derrick Thomas (three) as the only players to record at least 13 sacks in three of their first four seasons since 1982, when sacks became an official NFL stat. Watt had 13 in 2018 and 14.5 last season.
• Not necessarily a good omen: The Steelers’ record on Thursday night is 11-11, which includes a 2-6 record on Thanksgiving. This will be the first time they play a game at home on Thanksgiving. They did win their last appearance on the holiday in 2016 at Indianapolis, 28-7.
• When the Steelers came back from a 17-7 halftime deficit to beat the Ravens 28-24 on Nov. 1, it marked only the third time a team has rebounded from 10 points down or more at the half and win in Baltimore. And the Steelers did it twice, trailing 24-7 in 1997 (at old Memorial Stadium) to win 42-34. The Bengals also did it in 1996.
Stick to sports, Ed
• This happened a long, long time ago, when I worked at a smaller paper. I covered a high school basketball game where the home team traditionally had a student sing the national anthem. This fellow didn’t do a very good job. He stopped, laughed, restarted, stopped, laughed. I worked it somehow into the lead of my story on the game, writing without naming the kid, that he sang it as written by Francis Scott Off-Key. Oh, the hot water I had to swim through the next day.
• My iPad won’t charge. The little charging hickey won’t stay in the tiny hole. Tried everything, sprayed air, used a toothpick. The same two chargers work on my iPhone. Understand, my iPad is my brother. I take it everywhere, my main source of information, entertainment, tweet-ee. We have an appointment with the Geek Squad on Saturday, if I don’t break down and buy a new one before then, although I only bought this one, my third, earlier this year.
• My AAA bill just arrived with the same annual fee as always. Shouldn’t they, like the car insurance companies, give us a break since we don’t drive much anymore? My insurance company gave me a whopping 15 percent off while I drive about 75 percent less. My lease allows 10,000 miles per year. I got it in the middle of August 2019. I have 7,200 miles on it, most of that driven before March.
• I love Christmas lights, during Christmas season. Before Thanksgiving? Not so much. One holiday at a time, please.
Tweetables
• Today is a day I’ve been dreaming about for a long time! We’ve officially opened our application for our first-ever college scholarship! Open to high school seniors committed to leadership and community service. $10,000 for the next 4 years! Apply here: http://b3foundation.org/scholarships — @ZBNFL (Zach Banner)
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• If the Steelers really pull this off and run the table, they’ll finish with the same number of wins as the Pirates. — @ChrisMuellerPGH
• The Pittsburgh Steelers have the easiest schedule in the NFL…. because they don’t have to play the Pittsburgh Steelers — @MattLight
Quotables
• “The Ravens offense is slow … and they’re also kind of soft. This Baltimore team ain’t the 2019 Baltimore Ravens. This Baltimore team doesn’t walk into stadiums and scare people.” — Ryan Clark
• “We just need to go 1-0 this week. We don’t bear any burden, if you will, or worry about any cumulative records or what lies ahead.” — Mike Tomlin, on maintaining a perfect record.
• “We’ve already made history, what’s the pressure? We’re not tripping if we were to lose a game. That’s why we don’t talk about it. We don’t care that we’re 10-0. We have one purpose and that’s to win a Super Bowl. We don’t care what people say.” — Eric Ebron
• The Steelers remain on track for perfection. Even if not nearly enough people notice, or care.” — Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk.
(Top photo: George Gojkovich / Getty Images)