Dein erstes Forum » Three Rivers Stadium, about 60 miles from our home.

Some old-school Steelers’ Sundays will never be forgotten I mentioned in an earlier piece that Terrell Edmunds Jersey White , not only has the game of football changed, but our experience of viewing it has changed. As I spend this Sunday without the blessing of a Steelers game until tonight, I thought it would be a good opportunity to set that old-school experience before you. Set your way-back machine to 1974-1980. My family lived roughly three miles away from a town of 300, Stahlstown, PA, and perhaps fifty miles from the nearest TV station, NBC’s channel 6 in Johnstown. We also could tune in, with the help of our antenna, Channel 11 out of Pittsburgh, also NBC, and like At that point, AFC games aired on NBC and NFC games on CBS. There was no FOX network Womens JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey , no ESPN, and only one game per week, Monday night on ABC, which was televised nationally. Both CBS and NBC had doubleheaders every week, with the Steelers typically playing the 1:00 p.m. game on NBC.Church was at 11:00. My expectation, as a kid, was that it would end by noon, but that was just wishful thinking. We’d pile into the car and head home in time, typically, to see the second half of the pre-game show, which aired from 12:30-1:00. My mother set about preparing lunch for us, typically soup and sandwiches. My father was a sucker for liverwurst sandwiches and, on rare occasions Womens T. J. Watt Jersey , feasted on beef-tongue sandwiches. I got bologna, which was fine by me.Here’s a shocker for the younger fans. We festooned the den with all of our Steelers gear, my toy helmet, my mittens, my pj’s, everything but our terrible towels. In those days the towels didn’t come out until playoff time. Our neighbor and friend, who would later plant a large church in Wexford that was home to several Steelers players including Gary Anderson, would arrive just in time for kickoff. The two men, my father and his friend, were much like the old coots on The Muppet Show. Their mouths poured forth a veritable tsunami of pessimism, each one trying to top (or bottom) the other with their prognosis that the Steelers were no good and the game, the season, was lost.I tuned them out. I had the faith of a child that my heroes would find a way to come through in the end. And in the end JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey White , they usually did. Whether it was Franco racking up big gains, Stallworth virtually creating the entire statistic of yards-after-catch, or the Steel Curtain coming down on some hapless offense, we would win.As the fourth quarter sands slipped through the hourglass, I started planning the rest of my day. One of two things typically came next. If it wasn’t too ugly outside, I’d meet my friend Randy Gooder (now a pastor in Indianapolis) to toss the football, recreating the most exciting plays we saw that day. If it was ugly outside, I’d stay in to watch the second game of the day. Most weeks, Dallas was on CBS for the late game. Oakland was often on NBC. I loved the Cowboys, though of course as a distant second to my Steelers. I hated the Raiders. But I respected both teams and studied them.When the second game ended, another game clock started in my head — counting down the hours until the next Sunday at 1:00 when it would all begin again. So the theory that the Steelers have leaked the idea that Le'Veon Bell doesn’t have to show up this year to force his way to free agency next year definitely holds water.NFL Network’s Maurice Jones-Drew, who is represented by Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari https://www.thesteelerslockerroom.com/authentic-juju-smith-schuster-jersey , recently acknowledged that Bakari didn’t know that Bell possibly will be eligible for the quarterback franchise tender in 2019, even if Bell doesn’t play at all in 2018.鈥淪o what happened was that once that came out, that they鈥檙e now digging and reading and trying to understand the language, because there鈥檚 a lot of language in the CBA, especially for this particular instance,” Jones-Drew said.聽鈥淪o they鈥檙e going back now to really sit down and figure out [the language].”Jones-Drew also suggested that the relevant language in the “new” CBA (i.e., the one passed seven years ago) has changed. But it hasn’t.From Article 10, Section 15(c) of the 2011 CBA: “If any Franchise Player does not play in the NFL in a League Year, his Prior Team shall have the right to designate such player as a Franchise Player or a Transition Player the following League Year, if such designation is otherwise available to the Team, except that the applicable Tender must be made and any 120% Tender shall be measured from the Player鈥檚 Prior Year Salary.”From Article XX, Section 17(a) of the 2006 CBA: 聽“If a Franchise Player does not play in the NFL in a League Year, his Prior Team shall have the right to designate such player as a Franchise Player or a Transition Player the following League Year T. J. Watt Jersey , if such designation is otherwise available to the Team, except that the applicable tender must be made and any 120% tender shall be measured from the Player鈥檚 prior year salary.”The unresolved question is this: If Bell, franchise-tagged a second time this year, will be treated as being franchise-tagged a second time or a third time in 2019, if he doesn’t play in 2018? And the language quoted above doesn’t provide a conclusive answer.Which makes the team’s willingness to acknowledge that a third tag in 2019 counts as the third tag under the CBA (making him eligible for the quarterback tender) even if he doesn’t show up this year seem even more bizarre. The league and its teams never tip their hand on issues like this, and they never (I guess I can no longer say “never”) admit preemptively that the league’s position would lose, if push came to shove.Here, who knows whether the team/league or the player/union would prevail? The fact that the team/league is leaking to league-employed reporters that Bell can sit out the full year and still be eligible for the quarterback franchise tender suggests that the team simply doesn’t want him to show up this year.