Harrison the best in the NFL?

James Harrison was the Steelers' MVP last season and was voted to the Pro Bowl. This year his stats are incredible and it's possible he could break the Steelers' sack record considering he has 12 now and the record is 15 (Mike Merriweather, 1987). Most of his teammates are ready to put him up for Defensive Player of the Year honors, and rightfully-so. Ron Cook has written a nice article today on how it's now time to recognize James Harrison as possibly the best defensive player in the NFL. We have to agree with this for a lot of reasons, including those above. We've said more than once that Harrison is basically just an absolute beast on the field. He's big, strong, and fast, what more could you ask for? We also mentioned yesterday how it seems Harrison is held on basically every play. A fan wrote to Ed Bouchette asking him what can be done about this and lo-and-behold, Ed agrees he is held on every play. We're just so amazed he agrees because he's basically the king of Steelers football, everyone knows that. But back to the topic at hand, it says something when a team has to hold you to keep you from reeking havoc on their quarterback. If the NFL had a competition in this, we're not sure if anyone could actually keep James Harrison at bay. He claims he was blocked several times Sunday, but no one seemed to see where. He is definitely not a man to toot his own horn and we like that. But we also never expected such a big man to have such a...relatively small voice. We expect a big, booming voice from such a beast. Are we alone on this?

YouTube hates us lately since we can never find what we want, including a James Harrison interview. Granted it was a fast search, but you'd think there'd be a few. Although we can't complain too much considering someone was nice enough to upload the Evgeni Malkin post-game interview from the Sabers game we were talking about. How can you not like this guy? He followed Sidney Crosby's footsteps and took a pay cut to play with the Pens and have a good team. He doesn't clamor for the spotlight, especially when he plays on the same team as Sidney Crosby. He gives his teammates most of the credit for his hard work and even likes to credit good luck (yeah, okay Geno). And we're sorry, but we have to say it, how can you resist that accent and smile? He looks like a bashful little kid answering those questions. When asked about his point-streak he says it's his teammates passing to him and them scoring on his passes. We mentioned that the other night, but really people, who wouldn't pass to Evgeni Malkin? He's a keeper and that personality makes him all the more likable. Did we mention he was a good hockey player?

Geno's post-game interview:

Other good reads for the day:

Willie Parker wants the Steelers to get back to "Steelers football."

NFL says once again that Troy's TD was incorrectly reversed. Thanks NFL. Although they are planning to implement some sort of rule change to prevent things like this from happening again.

Injury shelves Penguins' Fleury, Sabourin takes over.

Penguins notebook.

The Pens play the Wild tonight at 7:08 at Mellon Arena. The game is once again only on Versus. We'll have to try to find some type of feed again and hopefully see a good part of the game. We really hate this whole Versus thing. Enjoy the game.