Casey Hampton and More...

Today should be a day of great celebration for all you Groover Steelers fans out there, Casey Hampton has been signed to a 3-year deal that will keep him in Pittsburgh. As I have proclaimed in a previous post (Pimpin' Aint Easy), Casey Hampton is one of my favorite athletes. Sure he's had his troubles in the past, like not being able to participate in the Steelers 40 yard dash at training camp because of his "hefty" frame (6'1" 325lbs). But he got through that all too easily, like he does double teams and offensive lines on a regular basis to reach his goals.



Besides his obvious talent and party ability (see above), another reason that I
was glad to hear Casey is staying is that I have his jersey. There is nothing worse than dropping 70 bucks on a players jersey, only to see him leave the team a year or two later. This has happened to me on two different occasions, once with Antwaan Randle El and once with former Penguins sniper and all around bad ass, Petr Sykora. The Randle El jersey was easy to part with because it was pretty small and I needed to upgrade anyway, but when the Pens parted with Sykora, a part of me went too. Everyone remembers the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 when Petr The Great scored a goal in the 3rd overtime to prolong the series, right? Well the day of, after, and two days after that game, I wore his name and number on my back to school. Sadly, I cannot wear those jerseys anymore or else I might turn out like that guy who still rocks his Tommy Maddox jersey in public, and no one wants to be him. There have been talks of Casey leaving the franchise since the beginning of last season, the Steelers were even expected to take Alabama DT Terrence Cody with the 18th overall pick of this years NFL Draft, possibly replacing Casey. Now, if the Steelers were to still select Terrence Cody, we would probably have the heaviest defensive line in the history of the world, almost 700 lbs between Casey and Terrence alone. Now the buzz is surrounding Texas Safety Earl Thomas as the Steelers could use some help in the defensive secondary now that Casey is locked up.

In Other News

If you follow me on Twitter (@jakeharrr) you would already know that Team Sefchok of the PSUAIBL suffered it's first loss this past Sunday night. We were outplayed on nearly every level of the game, and we left the Adler Sports Complex that night with our heads hanging low. But, like a phoenix from the ashes, we lived to soar again. Last night we took our aggression from our loss on Sunday and started our game with a 23-0 run. Late in the game I received a gift from my opponent, a breakaway. He mishandled the ball and I capitalized on his mistake by snatching it up and having a wide open sprint to the basket. Knowing me personally, you would know that I like to "attack the rack" and throw down hard, Mike Pisone referred to it once as "whitey got ups" when he saw me do it for the first time. Regardless of me being the tallest kid to ever get cut from a high school basketball team, I still have some basic skills and one of them is my ability to give the hoop a powerful rim-job dunk. But that was in high school when I was a physical wonder, college has done away with some of that. I settled for the lay-up and we ended up winning 38-8 and with a renewed sense of confidence.

Honorable Mention

Tucker Haas was diagnosed with cancer when he was just 2 years old. Now ,at age 9, he has been cancer free for nearly 3 years. He performed "Boom Boom Pow" at the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (better known as simply, THON)this past weekend. This kid is awesome and I think you should all take a look at this video of the performance.



Stay hungry, America
Jake Harr