AGRI Biz

I have changed my daily routine.   I generally love to read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PG+ online, then watch Dan Patrick as I work.   Today, I swapped my online reading for a good book and I left the TV off because I want to get some distance from hearing about Ben Roethlisberger. My opinions have bounced back and forth as I think about what a great player he ...

Mike Tomlin's reflections and analysis of the 2009 season are cloudy.áHe is still too close to the confusion that comes from finishing a disaster of a season on an upswing. At one point, the season was truly capable of standing as a gorgeous parallel to the championship season of 2008. In the end, crude execution through November left every player on this team with a share of the blame.á2009 revealed a ...

The Super Bowl hangover was bounced around when the Steelers' 2009 season began, though thoughts of an actual meltdown were the farthest thing from most people's imagination. The season began on a breezy evening at Heinz Field, as the Steelers finally got their chance to exact revenge on those disrespectful of the Terrible Towel, the Tennessee Titans. However, the atmosphere soon changedáto a palpable feeling of uneasiness descending over Pittsburgh's lack of ...

I once had a conversation with a friend of mine in which we wondered how, in the 1960s, makers of top shelf single malt scotches could have foreseen the accessory that their product would become some 25 years later. á We agreed that the limited quantity only added to the price, and in the mid 1980s, the necessity of this immoderate beverage. á At the other end of the spectrum, we ...

I can't remember the last time that I was so thrilled to be completely wrong. Maybe my estimation that Gwen Stefani's career would have the shelf life of a snowflake in July was further off the mark, but I had honestly given up on Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall has in no way reached Stefani's golden career statusáwith just one victory, but the climb merely to where he is today has not been easy. From ...

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has a strong sense of style. It is evident in the way he presents himself, in his manner of speech, and in his approach to the game. Constantly stating that "style points do not count" does not eliminate the fact that his Steelers also have developed according to his style, and that style translates directly into our ability to score points, which certainly do count. After watching ...

Forget the running game.  Forget the offensive line.  Forget fullbacks, Bruce Arians, and Larry Zierlein. Forget all of those things because it seems as if they have caused us all to forget to talk once more about one serious advantage that the Steelers had over the Titans last Thursday:  Revenge for the Towel. When questioned last week about their motivation for revenge in honor of the terrible towel, most Steelers brushed the ...

In the voluminous outpouring of analysis of the Steelers' running game that has followed the Steelers vs. Titans game last Thursday, what is missing is the amazing fact that the Steelers won. True, I am unabashedly clinging to a silver lining but honestly, I feel that the 2008 Steelers would have lost that game had it been their season opener the previous September. Looking back to the four losses suffered by the ...

We had perfect weather for viewing the game that everyone had waited to see.  Scheduled to kickoff the 2009 NFL season, The Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers would at last face off against the last team to beat them, the Tennessee Titans. The delicate, early evening breeze was the perfect compliment to the warmth of the radiant, late summer sun that shone down over the city of Pittsburgh. The harmonious conditions that combined ...