Welcome to Paul Zeise’s weekly mailbag, where the Post-Gazette columnist and 93.7 The Fan radio host answers your questions about sports, life and everything in between. If you want to ask Paul a question, tweet him @paulzeise or email him at pzeise@post-gazette.com.
Let’s get started:
Philip Clarke, @pnclarke_99: Who had a better career as a QB in the NFL? Bradshaw or Marino?
Zeise: I saw this debate on Twitter the other day and I swear I got dumber reading it. This isn’t even a discussion or debate — the answer is Bradshaw by a country mile.The question isn’t who was a better quarterback — that answer is Marino — it is who had a better career? There is not one person on the planet who understands sports that would argue a career with a bunch of records and no championships is better than a career with four championships. Marino himself has been quoted as saying he would trade all of his passing records for a Super Bowl ring. If you are a competitive person or enjoy sports you understand, to quote Herm Edwards, you play to the win the game. To argue otherwise is just arguing for argument’s sake. It would be one thing if we were talking about a guy like say Trent Dilfer versus Marino. Dilfer was a journeyman who backed into one Super Bowl ring. Bradshaw had a great career and won four rings. It isn’t even close.
Bruno,@BrunoGarrett1: Purely hypothetical question ... but say the Steelers miss the playoffs again and Ben flexes his power and threatens to retire unless a coaching change is made. Who does Art Rooney choose?
Zeise: I would say the fact that they are going to give Ben a new contract this offseason and are balking at giving one to Mike Tomlin speaks volumes as to who would win that power struggle. You can replace the coach; it is tough to replace a Hall of Fame quarterback. That being said, it wouldn’t likely come to that. I really believe if the Steelers don’t make the playoffs, Tomlin will be fired. I know that goes against what the Rooneys do, but they aren’t dumb and know the window to win another title with Ben is closing. People will cry bloody murder and compare the situation to Bill Cowher getting a long leash in the late 1990s, but that is not an apples-to-apples comparison. Cowher had a bunch of journeymen quarterbacks to work with, not a Hall of Famer.
Roger Littleberry, @relgreyhound: What do you think the Steelers are going to do with Le’Veon Bell? Has the quarterback gotten too much say on the team?
Zeise: Le’Veon Bell will become a free agent and sign with someone else. The Steelers in turn will get a third-round pick as compensation. That’s just the reality of the Bell situation. As for Ben’s say on the team, I think it’s a little overrated. Yes, he was able to get Todd Haley out and get his own offensive coordinator and now has a large say in the offense and play calling. But I don’t think he has influence on personnel decisions, and I am sure there have been times when Mike Tomlin has had to overrule.
Owtahear, @owtahear: I feel the collapse of Pitt BB was not because of firing Dixon, but hiring Stallings. Say Stallings never happened, and Jeff Capel was hired to follow Jamie, and he brought in three freshmen of this quality to go with Young, Artis, and Cam Johnson. Wouldn't Pitt BB have been upgraded?
Zeise: The problem with that logic is the idea that there would have been three freshmen as good as the three Pitt has right now. This is going to be a very honest opinion and I am sure it is unpopular — the best thing that happened for Pitt basketball was the Kevin Stallings era. The program had slowly but steadily declined under Dixon. There was still a lot of denial, though, about what the program was because he was slopping together just enough to get to the NCAA Tournament and win one or two “big” games every year. The program was nowhere close to competing for ACC championships, though, and it had grown stale in the midst of a slow death. Stallings came in and blew the whole thing up, and that forced the administration to take drastic steps to fix it. Pitt now has a chance to compete for ACC titles, whereas I don’t think they would have with Dixon in place. When Dixon started, it went from a program that competed for conference championships and conference tournament titles to a team that annually finished around the middle of of the pack and did just enough to get into the NCAA Tournament.
HailSoHard_H2P, @JimStamm22: How hard would it be for the Steelers to have a social media policy? Grown men, I know. But the Patriots certainly don't have to worry about it. I find it hard to believe that the Rooneys/Tomlin are helpless to do anything about it. And yet ...
Zeise: It is embarrassing that it would come to that, though, isn’t it? I think some teams probably have one, but maybe the Steelers should just go get the kind of players who are focused on winning so they don’t have to worry about a social media policy.
Dac, @Dac00272734: Why does Bob Nutting hate Pgh?
Zeise: I’ve never quite heard it put that way. I don’t believe he hates Pittsburgh, I just think he loves to make money. And there is nothing wrong with that. This is America; capitalism is what we value. I don’t blame Bob Nutting for milking the system to make himself rich. I blame Major League Baseball for having a system in place that allows him to do it. There is a real simple fix — in order to be eligible for revenue sharing and the luxury tax payments, a team must meet a minimum payroll. That would go a long way toward solving this issue.
Jared Starks, Greentree: Pitt RB Darrin Hall had a good showing in the East-West Shrine Game. Where do you think he'll go in April's NFL Draft?
Zeise: I think he will be a late-round draft pick and have a chance to have a nice career in the NFL. I don’t know if he will ever be a featured back, but I do think he can be an NFL running back and help a team win games.
First Published: January 23, 2019, 5:18 p.m.