Thank you, JJ Cooper of AOL, for alerting me to the NFL Network replaying the classic Browns at Steelers playoff game of 2002.

 NFLN will air the game at 8 p.m. eastern on July 5, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Second Day of Independence than to watch Tommy Gun lead the defense-less Steelers from behind to beat the Browns 36-33.

As Cooper mentions, Browns QB Kelly Holcomb picked on Steelers CB Hank Poteat like an Irish bartender in a British pub. But Maddox rallied the offense to 22 fourth-quarter points for the win.

At that point, I was in college, and sort of freaked my neighbors out when I swan-dove from my porch into the snow after WR Dennis Northcutt dropped what would have been a first-down completion, which gave Maddox the ball back late in the fourth.

Ahh…memories.

John Harris of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has an interesting piece in Thursday’s edition about the agent of SS Troy Polamalu, Marvin Demoff.

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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Steelers signed 4th round draft pick DT Ryan McBean to a three-year contract.

McBean, a 6-foot-5 285 pound monster from Oklahoma State joins fellow Cowboys Jamal Williams and Kevin Williams in the NFL. If McBean is even 75 percent of those two…quite the steal.

Now that McBean is signed, the better question is whether or not he is related to Jimmy McBean, the maker of the foot-stool the Blaineans gave to the aliens upon landing in Blaine, Mo. As of now, we don’t know whether Corky St. Clair will follow him into camp.

Sunday morning brings us another seemingly pointless column from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s most bitter writer, Ron Cook. I’m not one to get into blast media members for putting their opinion in print, especially not one who puts their actual name on their writing. But I hate patronization. A writer’s first priority in journalism is to keep themselves below the subject. Their point should be illustrated from an objective standpoint. Mr. Cook does not achieve this very often, if ever.

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Although I don’t actually believe it, it was like Dolphins coach Cam Cameron read DieHardSteel yesterday, and decided to handle DT Fred Evans’ arrest without the need to reveal as little as possible to the public.

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It’s a great strength, being a crafty spin doctor. Just ask Bengals public relations director Jack Brennan. His team has seen 10 players arrested in the last 14 months, so clearly he has practice in telling the media so little with so many words.

In fact, he does it so much, Die Hard Steel wondered if he is hasn’t spun his own vocabulary out of whack.

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Rounding out unheralded Steelers players news…FB Dan Kreider was named to NFL.com columnist Dave Gladow’s All-Underrated Team. So that’s nice.

It’s  hard to say Kreider is underrated, considering he’s probably the only pure blocking fullback (no H-back, no carries, nothing but blowing up linebackers at the point of attack) in the NFL. There’s no doubt Kreider does a great job for what they want to do, but I think the fact is obvious.

Dan Kreider is the worst Fantasy Football player in the history of the game.

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Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Steelers DT Chris Hoke signed a four-year contract extension worth $6 million. He also got a $1.5 million signing bonus.

It’s a relief. Now we can end all this Chris Hoke hype and stress, and get extensions out to the lesser-known players, like Alan Faneca and Troy Polamalu.

You might have seen Shirtless Jeff Reed gracing the pages of Deadspin.com recently. Something interesting that AOL blogger JJ Cooper pointed out, according to his Wikipedia page, Jeff Reed was a journalism major at the University of North Carolina, and as Cooper mentions, he would be a fantastic read if he were ever to start a blog. The first thing he could do is let us know whether or not he hooked up with that blonde in the picture.

(Incidentally, as I posted before in regards to the Supplemental Draft, Cooper seems to be a huge fan of the classic stance of “he might be worth giving him a shot.” Considering one player in the last eight supplemental drafts has panned out, I get really tired of these stories.)

 Guranteed Reed certainly could have had it worse. Former Bucs and Vikings kicker Donald “Iggy” Igwebuike didn’t really recover after he found fame off the field.

Be careful, Steelers fans, you might miss the Supplemental Draft set for July 12.  

If you do, don’t worry. The Steelers have missed it each year since it began in 1977. It doesn’t seem to be much of a priority. Not one player selected in 20 years.

They aren’t alone.

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