Kovacevic: When football is awesome

Brief and to the Point ...

Football has taken some hard knocks the past couple years. It's been beaten and bruised by the increased scrutiny on concussions, by shrinking TV ratings, by all the usual rap sheets, and now even by politics. Some go so far as to wonder aloud how much longer the sport will survive, with conversations akin to those of boxing a few years back.

I feel compelled, this week of all weeks, to say this: Football can be awesome.

But don't take my word.



"Wow, how about that, huh?" Alejandro Villanueva was saying Sunday evening at Heinz Field. And believe it or not, he wasn't specifying the Steelers' outcome in overcoming the Ravens, 31-27. He just meant the game. "That was a great football game. So much fun to be part of that."

"Can you imagine just being on your couch and enjoying a game like that?" David DeCastro chimed in from the next stall. "That actually crossed my mind when I was out there. All the momentum swings, the great plays being made by both teams ... I'd have loved to have just plopped down on my couch on Christmas and watch."

For some perspective here, be sure the Baltimore locker room wasn't equally effusive. Winning and losing is what determines such sentiments, oh, about 99.9 percent of the time. But this was genuine. And justified. The game really was that good. Fast and furious, yet mostly crisp and clean without any of the nonsense compared to Cincinnati the previous week.

When one team does this ...



... only to be countered with this minutes later ...



... and then finally this?



... and there are still a dozen more headline highlights I could grab ... man, that's seriously compelling stuff.

But again, don't take my word:

• The NFL Network broadcast drew 14.8 million viewers, the largest in that channel's history. In a season that's seen ratings drop roughly 10 percent across the board, that's no small feat.

• The WPXI broadcast, offered to local fans so that no one here would launch cruise missiles at the league's offices in New York, drew a 24.4 rating and 70 percent of all TV households across Western Pennsylvania. For perspective, that 24.4 rating approaches the 31.7 the Penguins got for the crowning Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

• The crowd of 66,276 was ... well, you had to be there. Some wonderful scenes have taken place at Heinz Field over its 16 years, but the raw emotion, the passion of Pittsburgh's football fans, many of whom shortened or cut off Christmas plans to attend, it was something to behold.

Football has bona fide problems, among them needing a commissioner who's got the support and trust of more than precisely 32 people in our country. But the concussion issue shouldn't be confined to football, as it is in far too many discussions, particularly when the greatest damage being done in that area is through young girls' soccer, of all things. And the negative off-the-field incidents that define football for far too many should be seen through the same prism for all sports.

You show me an Aaron Hernandez, I'll show you Arthur Moats, and then a ton more like the latter.

Don't fret for football's future. It'll be just fine.

• Mike Tomlin's press conference begins at 12:05 p.m. By 12:06, he should make clear to all concerned that he'll be resting as many starters as the roster allows Sunday against the Browns.

But rather than just say that, I'll support it with my replacement team based on the current 53-man roster:

On offense, I'll take Landry Jones at QB, Fitz Toussaint and a rust-removing DeAngelo Williams at running back, Demarcus Ayers and Cobi Hamilton at wide receiver, Xavier Grimble at tight end, B.J. Finney at center, and poor Brian Mihalik at all four guard/tackle positions all by himself.

OK, so that one's tough, but I'm still cool with it.

On defense, let's go with a linebacker set of Vince Williams, and L.J. Fort inside, Tyler Matakevich and Anthony Chickillo outside, then a secondary of Justin Gilbert, Jordan Dangerfield, Robert Golden and ... I don't know, can Jarvis Jones play corner?

The defensive line?

No one. There will just be no line. Can't risk it.

• Not to be overlooked from Sunday: Jesse James made four catches on five targets, this for 49 total yards with a long of 21. He also continued to block quite well.

I know a ton of money was poured into Ladarius Green, and I know he's a better overall tight end when healthy, especially in route-running. But I also know that he didn't look healthy even before this latest concussion -- seldom adjusting to balls in the air, most visibly -- and that James is ready and raring. And good in his own right.

• This is a reminder: We're watching generational talents on both sides of the river. Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown hijacked that game Sunday as only superstars can. And to add that to what we're seeing from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin ... it's worth stepping back and savoring it at times. It might feel like the norm because we've seen so much of it from both the Steelers and the Penguins, but it isn't.

• Should Jim Rutherford make any kind of trades in 2017, here's hoping that, barring the need to replace an injured player, he instead aims for draft picks. He's pledged in the past to do so, and there's no reason not to trust that he will.

The Penguins won't have these riches forever. They'll need someday to begin building their roster the way other franchises do, from the bottom up rather than the top down. Being that it takes 2-4 years to get even a good pick into the NHL, that process needs to begin now.

• Or just get Justin Schultz for a third-rounder again.

• If you fear the Blue Jackets now -- and I'd suggest that's premature even after they annihilated the Penguins, 7-1, as part of their ongoing 12-game winning streak -- you should also know they've got $11.8 million in free cap space, so they'll be able to upgrade about as much as they want at the deadline.

The Penguins' cap space: $4.3 million.

• There are so many concussion stories now in sports -- again, most related to football, fairly or otherwise -- but this extraordinary accounting of former NHL tough guy Mike Peluso allegedly having medical information withheld from him by the Devils in the 1990s still stands out.

• The debate on college football players skipping bowl games is undoubtedly fascinating to many. I don't understand why non-playoff bowls even exist, so count me way out.

• I liked nothing about Scott Barnes' hiring from his introduction as Pitt's athletic director less than a couple years ago. He came across as phony as Todd Graham holding a $3 bill, and he came with no history with the university and no real pedigree beyond being recommended by one of those shady national search firms.

I liked Barnes less when he made the terribly uninspired hiring of Kevin Stallings to replace Jamie Dixon.

I liked Barnes even less at his tone-deaf press conference for Stallings.

Now he's off to Oregon State and, my goodness, that's a positive Pitt needs to seize. Because if the university, which has formed its own committee to search for a new AD but still has one of those outside search firms peripherally involved, hopes to avoid more embarrassing turnover in its athletic department, it will hire the right man right under the school's collective nose.

That's E.J. Borghetti.

Beyond already having been the executive associate AD for media relations since 2010, he's energetic, experienced in all facets of the job and more passionate about Pitt than Barnes could have been if he'd hung around for another millennium. Or, for that matter, anyone involved in searching for the new AD.

I could go on and on, having dealt with Borghetti for many years on a professional level, but I'll drop the mic and tell you he'd have been Beano Cook's choice in a heartbeat.

• Barnes isn't unusual. Some people show up in Pittsburgh, take high-profile jobs with our city's sports teams, do them for a while, then go back to wherever they came. Which is fine. That's obviously anyone's right.

But it speaks to the kind of fit they have here when they do stay. Or even to live here year-round. It means they've got a personality, a spirit that matches ours in some ways. And it probably, though not necessarily, means they're just a tiny bit more invested in their respective processes.

That's what I loved most about the Mike Sullivan extension yesterday. He's a Boston boy who was born to be a Pittsburgher. He's the real deal. No B.S. No extra shine. He could just as easily be coaching the Penguins or chipping up the ham at Isaly's on East Ohio Street.

We're lucky, I think, to have so many people like that with the Penguins, all the way to the top to include the greatest athlete our city's ever seen and one who chose us as home. We're equally lucky to have the Steelers owned by a multigenerational North Side family and run by Kevin Colbert, who might just show up at your next barbecue, and Tomlin, who captures our fire, our brand beautifully. The Pirates are nothing like this at the top, but there are two colossal exceptions a bit below in Clint Hurdle and Andrew McCutchen. I still can't believe Hurdle isn't a lifelong Pittsburgher and have told him as much. And Cutch ... not a lot of people are aware, but he's the only player on the team who lives here through the offseason and right Downtown to boot. He legitimately loves it here.

I'm a total sap for this kind of stuff. Always have been. Call that provincial, if you like. I call it being a Pittsburgher. We're weird like that.

• I'm a total sap for Marcus Gilbert, too. The man wants a ring: