MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The NFL coaching cycle geared up to full berserk this week with the firing of John Harbaugh in Baltimore and the resignation of Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, the league’s two longest-tenured coaches. With the word that Harbaugh is a done deal to take over the New York Giants, that leaves…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Okay, so much for hunches. Clearly, I was wrong – the Pittsburgh Steelers lost at home Monday night to the Houston Texans, 30-6, to extend their playoff losing streak to seven. But I was also right. The Texans’ defense makes them so much better than any of us outside of…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports On the day he was announced as the unanimous National League Cy Young Award winner, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes used the moment to shoot down any talk that he was interested in leaving Pittsburgh. Skenes, who is under team control for the rest of the decade, said a report…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports If it’s true John Harbaugh planted his flag or chose to die on his shield for his offensive and defensive coordinators Todd Monken and Zach Orr, then somewhere in his heart he was willing to leave the Baltimore Ravens, because he ended up falling on his sword if he was…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The Pittsburgh Steelers opened as a three-point underdog to the Houston Texans for Monday night’s NFL wild-card playoff game in Pittsburgh. While the Steelers have been rather underwhelming and have benefitted this season (December 7 in Baltimore to be precise) from help from above, if I were a betting man,…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The good news is Baltimore Ravens fans won’t have to watch anymore. The bad news, as it turns out, is there was very little to see. Sunday night’s 26-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC North championship was just the latest example of that, as you just knew…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports As we found out the last time the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens played, the team the NFL wants to win Sunday night’s AFC North winner-take-all in Pittsburgh will be the team that wins it. It’s that simple. The Steelers won the week 14 meeting in Baltimore, 27-22, thanks…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Since the turn of the 20th century, there have been at least 12 iconic Hall of Fame, MVP, face of the franchise, seemingly untouchable professional athletes who started out or made their hay in Baltimore, with five of them having walked away from their careers untouched – Brooks Robinson, Jim…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports So, you’re telling me there’s a chance. Oh, there’s a chance – a good to fair chance … That they were even in the position, though, of having to root for the Cleveland Browns to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to even have a chance is the most telling indictment of…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports ’Tis the season. In fact, tomorrow’s the big day, and everywhere we’ve turned for the past month we’ve been hearing Christmas songs and songs of the season, not to mention some folks complaining about it, which I don’t get, but whatever blows your skirt up. The only complaining about having…
