Can We Get A COMON?
Who’s in and What Challenges Lie Ahead? By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The first round in the NASCAR Playoffs has ended and it wasn’t short on excitement and drama. Crashes, tight point battles and hurt feelings kept the excitement alive right down to the final lap of Bristol. Twelve drivers have outlasted their competitors and live to compete for a
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By Brennen McCalll After 26 grueling races, we now know who will compete for the biggest prize in NASCAR: The Cup Series Championship. Sixteen of the best drivers and teams from this season will have 10 races to determine who will hoist the coveted Bill France Cup and be crowd the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. The Playoff structure and
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By Donny Chedrick In 2021, Steelers linebacker TJ Watt will finally grasp the accolade that has been just beyond his fingertips for the last two seasons. TJ Watt will be the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. I could show the side-by-side stats between Watt and three-time winner, Aaron Donald, who was the victor over Watt last season. But
Read moreBy Donny Chedrick The Dallas Cowboys are the feature of HBO’s Hard Knocks for the third time in the series’ history. If you couldn’t tell, Jerry Jones likes the spotlight. He likes to show off his team and all of his shiny toys. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb and others on offense, with a young defense featuring
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By Donny Chedrick So, this is another prediction that I made last year. This take failed because Aaron Rodgers dominated the league in Green Bay as then-rookie quarterback, Jordan Love, held a clipboard every week. I feel more confident this time in this year’s first-round rookie QB class. For starters, they have starters. Trevor Lawrence (JAX), Zach Wilson (NYJ) and
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By COMON Network Each week during the preseason, and more importantly, after each preseason contest, Kyle Dawson, Donny Chedrick and Joe Smeltzer will release their 53-man roster projections for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final 2021 roster going into the team’s week one date with the Buffalo Bills. These are the projections for the final roster before cutdown by 4 p.m. Tuesday,
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Every good Adam Sandler movie has a villain. As Sandler’s character tries to get the girl, win the big game or take over the company, there’s always somebody trying to make sure it doesn’t happen. On this Sunday, I will begin a new series called “Smeltzer’s Sunday Seven,” where I come up with lists, some straightforward, some obscure, some sports-related,
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By COMON Network Each week during the preseason, and more importantly, after each preseason contest, Kyle Dawson, Donny Chedrick and Joe Smeltzer will release their 53-man roster projections for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final 2021 roster going into the team’s week one date with the Buffalo Bills. With that said, here are the team’s roster projections for the week. These are
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By COMON Network Each week during the preseason, and more importantly, after each preseason contest, Kyle Dawson, Donny Chedrick and Joe Smeltzer will release their 53-man roster projections for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final 2021 roster going into the team’s week one date with the Buffalo Bills. With that said, here are the team’s roster projections for the week. These are
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By COMON Network Each week during the preseason, and more importantly, after each preseason contest, Kyle Dawson, Donny Chedrick and Joe Smeltzer will release their 53-man roster projections for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final 2021 roster going into the team’s week one date with the Buffalo Bills. With that said, here are the team’s roster projections for the week. These are
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By Joe Smeltzer The Yankees are winners. The Pirates are losers. The Yankees are rich. The Pirates are poor. The Yankees eat steak. The Pirates eat fast food. The Yankees are Kendall Jenner. The Pirates are Ms. Gulch from The Wizard of Oz. This is the narrative, and, for the most part, it’s an accurate perception. Yet, for reasons even more
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By Ryan Simpson I can’t say I didn’t see this one coming. Adam Frazier (pending physical) has been traded to the San Diego Padres. The return for the Pirates is a group of three prospects, and I am here to break down their potentials and grade the trade.The headliner of the return is Tucupita Marcano, a 21-year-old infielder who has
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By Joe Smeltzer Bob Nutting is the boogeyman of Pittsburgh sports. People don’t like the guy. Bucco optimists see him as no more frugal than most of his billionaire brethren, but more people than not find him cheap more often than not. For the pessimists out there, well, Nutting makes it hard to get excited about the Pittsburgh Baseball club.
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By Joe Smeltzer With the 97th pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, the Oakland A’s selected Mason Miller of North Carolina’s Gardner-Webb Bulldogs.For Bay Area residents who have seen some of what the A’s third-round pick can do, the clips they’ve seen likely feature Miller pitching for the Bulldogs, either against a Big South Conference school or in a non-conference
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor After two thrilling endings to the Pocono Doubleheader, NASCAR returns to road course racing and perhaps a new tradition on Independence Day. For what seemed like forever Daytona International Speedway hosted Cup races on the 4th of July. Teams would show up in American Flag paint schemes ready to conquer the high banks in a
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The exciting NASCAR season rumbles on after a successful return to the Music City. Now the stars of the Cup series travel north for a rare doubleheader weekend in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Drivers and teams will face one of their biggest challenges yet: The Tricky Triangle. For 50 years Pocono Raceway has been hosting motorsports
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By Joe Smeltzer 2021 would have marked the 50th anniversary of the 1971 World Series champions. Alas, it doesn’t look like there will be a celebratory reunion this summer. “Postponed” wouldn’t be a fair word to use since there never was a tentative date scheduled for the likes of Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillien and Richie Hebner to put on knockoff
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Ask anyone what the city of Nashville is known for. “Music” would probably be the first answer they give you. Folks who travel to the Music City go there for a party. The bars, food, music, and nightlife probably sum up a typical weekend trip. But, that music may want to play a little louder
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor What if you took some of the world’s greatest racecar drivers, put them in equal equipment, and cut them loose on some of the best short tracks in the nation? You get America’s newest racing series: Superstar Racing Experience (SRX). SRX was the brain child of former championship crew chief and NASCAR Hall-of-Famer, Ray Evernham.
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By Joe Smeltzer For as bad as the Pirates have been since 1993– get your jokes out now– they’ve only lost 100 games twice. This year’s team might be No. 3. One day, I was looking through a Twitter account called “PGH Sports History,” which posts newspaper articles to coincide with the day’s date. I stumbled upon an article the
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Memorial Day weekend is one of our country’s most patriotic celebrations. It’s a time to reflect on those who gave their lives so that we may live in freedom. Families gather around the grille in fellowship with a beer in hand. If there’s a TV on at any point in the afternoon, it will probably
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Mitch Keller has a 7.41 ERA, and many Pirates fans are throwing in the towel. Is that a little premature? Our analytics guru @RyanSimpson20 dives in.
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Darlington Raceway is often referred to as the track “Too Tough to Tame.” The 1.3-mile egg-shaped oval is highly regarded as the toughest track in NASCAR. The racing surface barely holds enough room for drivers to run three-wide. The walls almost seem to reach out and grab drivers who don’t respect its treacherous corners. The
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By Joe Smeltzer Mel Kiper says the Steelers’ 2021 draft class was mediocre. Tom in Bethel Park says it was great. Tom’s best friend, Ted, says it stunk, and the two have been arguing about it over cold suds for the past week. As a team with many areas of need, it would have been impossible for Pittsburgh to address
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Kansas Race Preview This weekend NASCAR travels to Kansas Speedway just outside of Kansas City. The 1.5-mile tri-oval hosts two race weekends every year and usually puts on a decent show. Built back in 2001 near the peak of NASCAR’s popularity, Kansas Speedway has seen a surprising number of hard crashes in its 20 years
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Few names in sports seem to resonate when it rolls off the tongue. Talladega Superspeedway is such a name that is synonymous with American stock car racing. The 2.66-mile tri-oval boasts blistering speeds, massive pileups and spectacular airborne flips that turn 3400-pound racecars into feathers. It’s a frightening prospect for the average human being, but
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The three-quarter mile D-shaped oval of Richmond Raceway is the latest stop on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. It’s the third short track in three races. Richmond is known as “The Action Track” given for its multi-groove racing and short track tempers. Richmond has been hosting NASCAR races since the early 1950s and has become
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The NASCAR Cup Series stars shake off the dirt from Bristol and recharge from the Easter off week and head to the shortest track on the schedule. The flat, half-mile oval of Martinsville Speedway is one of NASCAR’s oldest venues, hosting just the sixth race ever run in what would become the NASCAR Cup Series
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By Joe Smeltzer Phil Coyne’s longevity made him a celebrity. He spent more time as a Pittsburgh Pirates’ usher— 81 years— than most people spend on planet earth. Coyne’s tenure started in the heat of the Great Depression, and lasted through 12 US Presidents and five American wars. He saw Babe Ruth’s last three home runs in person, and was
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Donny Chedrick Don’t get confused here. This isn’t me saying the Steelers should draft a particular player. I’m just suggesting why his name will be brought up by the time the Steelers find themselves on the clock at No. 24 during the 2021 NFL Draft in just about a month. The player in question is Najee Harris. Alabama’s latest
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The Bullring. Thunder Valley. The World’s Fastest Half-Mile. The Last Great Coliseum. Nicknames like these are descriptive by nature. Pointing out something specific to help define a person or thing. Sometimes nicknames can become more well-known than their real counterparts. Sport venues across the country have nicknames given to them by the community they stand
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Joe Smeltzer There won’t be many one-year, $8 million deals that will get the reaction that this one does. The words “polarizing” and “JuJu Smith-Schuster” go together like milk and cookies, so it’s appropriate that his surprising new contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers has a lot of people talking, with many spewing contrasting opinions. Is Smith-Schuster loyal for reportedly
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By Brennen McCall, NASCAR Contributor Race Preview: Atlanta Martin Truex Jr. rallied from scrubbing the wall early to earning his first victory of the 2021 season. Phoenix proved all day to be a bit of a challenge for drivers particularly with passing. The PJ1 traction compound on the top side of both corners was the dominant groove which forced every
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By Brennen McCall, NASCAR Contributor The 2021 NASCAR season continued its trend of unpredictability in a thrilling race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past weekend. The fourth race of the season saw its fourth different winner. Kyle Larson is no stranger to winning. The dirt racing prodigy has found victory in NASCAR’s highest level on six occasions before receiving
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Viva Las Vegas! The surprisingly unpredictable NASCAR season continues from the beachy shores of Florida’s East Coast to the hot sun of America’s Western deserts. Three races have now seen three different winners. Young gun William Byron took only his second Cup Series victory last week at Homestead earning him a spot in playoffs. While
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By Joe Smeltzer Last winter, we longed for the day we’d see Ben Roethlisberger play football again. Last fall, we smiled when that day came, and for three months after that, we thanked all things good that Big Ben was back. But by the end of 2020, we started to wonder if the gunslinger could still sling. In the first
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The first two races of the 2021 season are in the books and we already have a pair of first-time winners. This time it was Cup series sophomore Christopher Bell who bested veteran Joey Logano with a thrilling pass on the penultimate lap of the Daytona Road Course. Bell getting a win in 2021 wasn’t
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By Brennen McCall The Daytona 500 has concluded. A long offseason and countless hours of preparation came down to one heart-stopping moment on the final lap, where a 14-year veteran who had never won in his Cup Series career, found himself leading the field when it counted. Michael McDowell may not be the flashiest personality NASCAR has ever seen, but
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By Joe Smeltzer Knock it off. Cut it out. That’s enough. Wake up. It’s not going to happen, and the reasons couldn’t be more obvious if they were written on baseball, Aroldis Chapman threw it 100 MPH and hit you in the face with it. JJ Watt isn’t going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. That statement should be as obvious
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By Brennen McCall, Guest Contributor It’s that time of year again. A new NASCAR season is upon us and the green flag will fall for the Great American Race. It’s the Super Bowl of stock-car racing. There is no offseason for NASCAR teams as they spend the winter months preparing their cars for the new year. The best equipment is
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By Brennen McCall, Guest Contributor It’s April 12, 2020. The country is beginning to cope with the idea that we might not see sports return for a long time. Stands were empty. Courts were bare. Fields of grass and turf were no longer illuminated with primetime lights. Racetracks too were robbed of the roar of screaming engines and the smell
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By Joe Smeltzer Every notable Pirate that’s went somewhere else over the past several years has a different story. Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte left having reached their full potential. Pedro Alvarez and Josh Bell left showing flashes of greatness, and nothing else. Pitchers Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow left a system that failed them, and now… look at them.
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By Dylan Mitchell, Capel Faithful Guest Contributor If you would have told me after the season opening loss to St. Francis (PA) that Pitt would be 8-2 and 4-1 in the ACC in mid-January, I would’ve said… 1) Why have they only played 10 games? 2) Yeah, I bet…. Although I was not pressing the panic button that many Pitt
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By Joe Smeltzer If Ben Cherington didn’t walk into baseball hell, he walked into the next worst thing. Two Novembers ago, the Pirates were a slop fest. They still are, in a way, but that’s just on the field. In 2019 there was slop here, there and everywhere. On the field, the team lost 93 games. In the locker room,
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By COMON Network Team 1/17 – Pittburgh Penguins (1-2-0, 2 pts) 4 def. Washington Capitals (2-0-1, 5 pts) 3 in a shootout. The Penguins got their first win of the season via shootout against the Washington Capitals Sunday afternoon. After back-and-forth scoring and a very methodical overtime, the Penguins were able to overcome the Capitals after Jake Guentzel’s shootout goal and
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By COMON Network Team 1/13 – Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0, 2 pts) 6 def. Pittsburgh Penguins (0-1-0, 0 pts) 3 The Penguins lost their 2021 56-game season opener 6-3 to the Flyers Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena. It was Pittsburgh getting on the board first with Mark Jankowski at 5:12 of the first, but the Flyers lit the lamp twice to
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By Sean Saputo Adam Cole is arguably one of the top five to 10 professional wrestlers in the world today. No matter what promotion he steps foot in, he is on the top of the card and truly a guy that a company can build its future around. A guy that has drawn comparisons to Shawn Michaels has opted to
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By Donny Chedrick This may or may not be a hot take depending on who you ask, but Tampa Bay is my Super Bowl LVI champion. Tom Brady is going for his eighth championship — EIGHTH. CHAMPIONSHIP. As much as I’ve hated the guy over the years, that is simply incredible to think about. He would be going for his
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By Donny Chedrick Not many quarterbacks see the type of production jump from one year to the next quite like how Bills’ QB Josh Allen saw 2019 slide into 2020. For reference, I will give his rookie year numbers when he struggled, but I want to focus a lot on how he changed from ’19 to ’20 and how another
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By Donny Chedrick Get your pitchforks ready, Pittsburgh. I know this one is going to make people mad. It wasn’t just the 48-37 win the Browns put on the Steelers in January at Heinz Field. It wasn’t just the next game when Cleveland didn’t “get clapped” by eventual AFC champ, Kansas City, narrowly falling in that game. It’s the whole
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Every Adam Sandler movie has a hero. As Sandler’s character tries to get the girl, win the big game or take over the company, there’s always somebody along the way that helps make it happen. My first “Sunday seven” ranking was dedicated to the best villains of films starring Adam Sandler. Now, it’s time to talk about the good guys
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