http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/columnists/ Sports columnist Gene Collier en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 04:09:16 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208455-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml INDIANAPOLIS -- Two weeks of polishing the NFL legends of Eli Manning and Tom Brady into modern gunslinger monuments might have seemed prudent for an unprecedented collision of Super Bowl MVPs, but the result wasn't terribly artistic until both quarterbacks finally drew their weapons late in a breathtaking Super Bowl. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:38:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208249-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml You know it's time to kick the ball when the required talk from both teams clangs onto the bottom rung of Super Bowl rhetoric. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208110-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml INDIANAPOLIS -- At one point Friday late in NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's annual state of the NFL pre-Super Bowl news conference, a young female questioner stood and identified herself as a representative of the Ochocinco News Network. Really, ONN? Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207804-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml We're going on 14 years since a running back was the Most Valuable Player in a Super Bowl, and Brandon Jacobs isn't talking like someone who could blow up that trend Sunday. "It'd be hard for any running back to be the game's MVP with the what quarterbacks are doing; you'd have to have astronomical numbers," said the New York Giants' 265-pound banger. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207548-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Despite supplying the 21st century NFL with virtually uninterrupted excellence, the New England Patriots were not widely expected to be in or even near Super Bowl XLVI with this particular slapdash edition. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207229-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Some 7,000 people surrendered up to $35 or some multiple of that on the secondary-ticket market for the alleged opportunity to watch 3,000 journalists jostle to interview 100 football players Tuesday, proving for all perpetuity that Americans will watch anything. So, yes, officially, Kardashian Law is in effect until further notice. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12029/1206804-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Joe Namath is the only human who ever really knew who was going to win the Super Bowl prior to its given Sunday, and any other humans who think they really knew the result of any given Super Bowl have confused knowledge with mere suspicion. Namath knew, according to the comparative literature from the week prior to Jan. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12027/1206329-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Every funereal shade of gray in nature's catalog draped Penn State for the occasion of Joe Paterno's public memorial service, a perfectly lachrymose contrast to the brilliant colors of so many festive autumn Saturdays. The Bryce Jordan Center, hulking there in the rain and fog and imminent sleet across the road from Beaver Stadium, was simply not meant for this. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12025/1205733-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Oddly enough, the Rooneys have not solicited my suggestions on whom to talk with about replacing offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, likely because I was not in total agreement with his sudden "retirement." Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:39:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12019/1204448-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Art Rooney II is pretty reliably a plain-spoken guy, most particularly for a lawyer, yet, when he offers his rare public analysis of the Steelers, you would think from the confused blowback that he had gone off on the potential implications of the complex jurisdictional issues in the $9.5 billion environmental lawsuit brought against Chevron by Ecuador's government. Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12018/1204216-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Semi-desperately seeking their first home victory of the calendar year, the Penguins brought back to Pittsburgh the highly accommodating Carolina Hurricanes, the previous team they were somehow able to beat at Consol Energy Center, should you happen to remember late 2011. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12015/1203653-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml Tom Bradley finished packing up his office in the now notorious Lasch Football Building Friday and walked away from the Penn State football program that had been his life for most of four decades. Larry Johnson, who had finished packing weeks ago just down the hall, can now unpack. Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12012/1203034-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml So whose walk in the black forest appears the most ominous at this exact moment; who has it worst: Pitt's alleged basketballing Panthers, Pittsburgh hockey-balling Penguins, or yer Stillers? Who is deepest in the psychological muck? Hard to say, but at least the Steelers are done. Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:21:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12009/1202355-66-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml A Steelers operative threw open the door of the losing locker room 10 minutes after their season ended and barked to the awaiting media, "We're open." Ouch. He had unwittingly restated the general status of the Denver Broncos receiving corps over four-plus quarters of throbbing playoff football. Mon, 9 Jan 2012 11:41:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/1201883-150-0.stm?cmpid=collier.xml The first football coaching search at Penn State in nearly half a century seemed to last nearly half a century; but it was over in less than two miserable months. There were times when it seemed like you'd soon hear that the Coast Guard had joined the search, or that the search would henceforth be aided by highly trained coach-sniffing dogs. Sun, 8 Jan 2012 00:24:00 -0500