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Every year since 1985, the best schoolboy footballers from Ohio battle their counterparts from Pennsylvania in an all-star game: The Big 33.  Known to some as the Gridiron Breadbasket, the mill towns and river valleys of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio are the fertile soil that gave rise to American football in all its current glory.  The AFC North bears this proud tradition; three of its four teams represent the NFL's motherland.  (The other, Baltimore, is a cutting from the Cleveland tree.)  According to The Big 33, every Super Bowl has featured fighting sons of the breadbasket, including six in last year's epic contest.

Like the cities they represent, some of these AFC giants have fallen on hard times.  Not so for Pittsburgh.  Following their city's revival of the late 1980's, the Rooneys and head coach Bill Cowher likewise revived that storied franchise during the 90's.  Now boasting five Lombardi trophies, the team Mr. Rooney bought for $2,500 has become one of the NFL's icons.  While Pittsburgh itself -- "Hell with the lid off" to the Carnegies -- has formed a new high-tech identity from the rusty hulk of the industrial age, the Steelers have succeeded by returning to their roots: a hard-nosed ground game and defense, punctuated by an opportunistic air attack.

When Mike Tomlin brings his boys to Foxborough on Sunday, the game will likely come down to two unit-level battles: The Patriots' defensive backfield against the Steelers'  pasing attack, and Blitzburgh's front 7 against New England's offfensive line.  For our New England Patriots to come away with a win on Sunday, they will have to neutralize Roethlisberger, and protect Cassel.

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Michael Pittman.  Tiki Barber.  Marshall Faulk.  Brian Westbrook. LaDianian Tomlinson.  Kevin Faulk.

Kevin Faulk?

Yes.  With 105 total yards from scrimmage on the day (and throw in a touchdown run), Mr. Faulk joins this august list of double-threat backs from the last decade.  Today's output gives #33 over 2,000 rushing and 3,000 receiving yards in the decade, a feat equaled by the men on this list and only them.

It was a day of personal records.  Gostkowski set a career record for touchbacks.  Wes had the longest reception of his career, and extended his NFL-record streak of games with 6 or more receptions.  Cassel had the Patriots' only back-to-back 400 yard games ever.  Randy Moss had over 100 yards receiving, moving him into 2nd place for career 100 yard games behind only Jerry Rice.

Faulk's 2k/3k tally is a special indication of his all-around capacity, durability, reliability, and all-pro skill.  The names on that list are a who's who of fright-backs: the opposing side holds its collective breath whenever these guys get the ball.  We've said it all before, but it bears repeating:  This man is a player's player, a pro from helmet to spikes.  Congratulations, Kevin.

And keep 'em coming.

You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd. At 5' 8" tall and tipping the scales at 202 pounds, there are punters and kickers bigger than he is.  A ten year veteran, his wheels aren't what they once were, either.  He has no breakaway speed.  On the street -- heck, on the sideline -- he just isn't all that impressive. 

But give him the ball?  Hold on to your jockstrap if you don't want to lose it.

With both hands.

Kevin Faulk was the 46th overall pick in the New England Patriots' 1999 draft.  It was a long way down.  Faulk was coming off one of the most remarkable college careers the south has ever seen.  A four year starter at LSU, he revived that moribund program in the middle 90's -- a homegrown talent from Carencro, just a few miles up the road from Lafayette.  Faulk was the most sought-after Louisiana schoolboy recruit in a generation.  Electing to stay close to home and don the gold and purple, he led the Tigers to three bowl games.  In the storied history of the SEC, the only back to out-gain him was Herschel Walker.

On draft day, however, he fell to the second round.  Too small, too slow over the open field, he was projected as a third down specialist (accurately, as it turns out).  At the time, no one was going to waste a 1st round draft pick on a third round specialist.  The Patriots scooped him up by trading two picks to Tennessee.  The 1999 draft was one of the strongest in history.  The first round featured Donovan McNabb, Daunte Culpepper, Fernando Bryant, Damien Woody, John Tait, David Boston, Champ Bailey, Tory Holt, Ricky Williams and a guy y'all might know: Edgerrin James.  In terms of production for the dollar, however, no one of those fellas can equal Kevin Faulk.

And he just might be the most "clutch" of the bunch.

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Yep. Right here in River City. Ladies and Gents, SBNation is now a going corporate concern. Welcome to the big time.

Former AOL executive vice president of consumer and publisher services Jim Bankoff has secured a "mid-seven-figure sum" of venture capital for SB Nation, a startup network of sports blogs. We already mentioned this briefly in an earlier post on competitor Bleacher Report raising $3.5 million, but it’s worth taking a closer look.

The round of funding was led by Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley private equity firm best known for its backing of Facebook, and joined by Allen & Co as well as a number of digital media executives and angel investors. SportsBusinessJournal got the scoop and features the complete list of investors.

OK, to be honest I have no idea whether there's an actual incorporation here--though I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least an LLC or something similar.  Nevertheless, without the pun (ok, with it), we are pwned:

SB Nation (short for SportsBlogs Nation) operates with a network model, in which more than 150 local, team-based sites are linked together with a common visual template but remain written and programmed by local writers. Rather than strike affiliate relationships or simply represent sites for national ad sales, Bankoff has structured equity swaps for each of the sites in SB Nation in which the company acquires all the content, URLs and related assets, and the bloggers then share the ad revenue.

Now, about that revenue sharing...

In what I hope will soon be the conventional wisdom of the league (with credit to me, of course), this is the season where mediocrity has become the new parity.

OK, so I'm not the only one who's noticed.

As the Pats and the Colts come back to the rest of the AFC pack, it looks to this fan like the AFC title is truly up for grabs. On a good day, anyone on this side of the aisle can beat anyone else. Most of the time, no team really looks competent in winning, either. A lot of football played this year has been pretty disorganized, error-filled stuff. I really miss the artistry our guys put out last year--that was some beautiful ball, no matter how you felt about the laundry that was pulling it off.

To date, the Titans have been the lone exception. They're whole, and they're the only team who, so far, has been playing with any kind of consistency or conviction from week to week. The loss of Vince Young has been a clear case of addition by subtraction--as was the jettisoning of Pacman (as Dallas duly discovered). I don't usually see the Monday night game--it's past my bedtime and on cable (which requires me to visit a bar and at least nominally patronize it). But I will be making an effort tonight.

(more below the fold)

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For this fan, the defining image of Rodney Harrison will always be a scene from the aftermath of the 2003 AFC Championship.  The Patriots had just defeated the Colts.  Peyton Manning had been picked off 4 times, and  Harrison had led off that string in dramatic fashion.  After the Patriots took the opening lead, the Colts drove the length of the field.  It was beginning to look like the game might be a shootout—not something you wanted to engage the Colts in that year.  But on 3^rd and 5 from the Patriots' five, Rodney stepped in front of a Manning pass in the endzone to snuff the drive.  Manning never found a rhythm after that, and as we all remember, the Pats went on to victory, 24-14.  It was a monster game from the Patriots' defensive backfield, from Eugene Wilson’s crushing hits to Ty Law’s three interceptions.

In the confusion and clamor of the post-game field, NFL Films caught Belichick and Harrison in a celebratory hug.  "Great game, great game," Belichick was saying.  Rodney, eyes red and bathed in emotion, pulled back from his coach and said, "Thank you.  Thank you." 

Not,  "Thank you for the compliments."  Thank you for believing in me.  Thank you for snatching me out of the trash and bringing me here: to New England, to the AFC Championship.  Thank you for putting your defense in my hands.  Thank you for turning me loose.  Thank you for bringing me back to a place I never thought I’d see again, on the doorstep of NFL history. 

For a brief second, the curtains Belichick keeps drawn parted very slightly, and a sliver of the man shone through.  "Thank you," Rodney said.  "You bet," Bill replied, and in the tone of his voice and the look on his face, you could see what makes men into coaches.  In just two words, Belichick was saying: I chose you because I knew you were the vessel I needed.  I always knew it was there and you proved me right.  Don’t thank me.  I’m thanking you.  You are my soldier, you are my safety.  Thank you.

Then the curtain snapped shut: "One more, now."  The Super Bowl, of course. 

And Rodney said, "Yes sir."

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Well no kidding.

The classic broker's warning (PP is NG of FP) works on two scales:  We were great last year, but that's no guarantee of greatness today.  On the other hand, our poor play so far is also no guarantee that we'll be poor all year.  But it won't be easy.

I had no idea Duane Starks had changed his name.  Deltha O'Neal does sound better.

tm from Cleary the Elder, 10:38pm, Sunday

More tasty goodness inside.

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The day started off poorly for the Patriots, with two good returns wasted. The first drive went three and out.  After the defense earned a punt from Miami, the offense gave it right back. In the second start of his career, Cassel showed poor pocket awareness and bad decision-making, forcing a terrible interception on a screen pass -- a gift to Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks that hit him in the belly. Miami took the invitation and went 74 yards on 8 plays, capping their drive with a gadget-play TD run.  With quarterback Chad Pennington lined up in the slot, Ronnie Brown took a direct snap, faked an end-around hand-off to Ricky Williams and followed his pulling guard into the endzone, untouched.  Dolphins 7, Pats 0.

It was a harbinger of things to come.  Game summary and open post-game thread over the jump.

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