There's nothing unusual about the Pittsburgh Steelers being in first place in the AFC North with the Baltimore Ravens nipping at their heels, but it is unusual for the Cleveland Browns to be in the mix for an AFC wildcard berth, and for the division title.
A Monday Night Football loss by the Steelers puts the Ravens and the Brownies in a three-way, first place tie with Pittsburgh. Tonight's matchup is intriguing and may be played in less-than-perfect playing conditions.
Excellent!
The weather forecast for Pittsburgh tonight calls for a 70 percent chance of occasional rain tapering to a few showers late. About a half inch of rain is possible. Thunder may roar through the Steel City skies early in the evening and winds could reach 25 mph. Lows are expected to dip to about 39 degrees. Now this is football weather.
And don't forget that the Heinz Field natural grass surface isn't the best when it comes to providing solid footing. Heinz consistently rates poorly among players and is regularly ripped for being one of the worst playing surfaces in the NFL. Tonight we may get a chance to see which team is the baddest mudder in the division. (That's so lame!)
Both the Steelers and Ravens are strong running teams. With the forecasted weather conditions, I'm guessing we'll see a lot of Fast Willie Parker and Willis McGahee and few passes. I'm setting the over/under for passes thrown tonight at 41 and I'm taking the under.
Yesterday I promised to post about the Pittsburgh Steelers decision to stick with natural grass at Heinz Field. After some quick research today, I notice that story has been reported… everywhere!!! Anyway, the quickie version is the Steelers organization talked with its players and with the University of Pittsburgh, which shares Heinz Field with the Steelers, and found that overwhelmingly those groups support keeping natural grass. If you want to read mainstream media accounts of this story, here's a long list Google-y good of links. Enjoy!
The Dobyns-Bennett High School baseball team may have to move a handful of its scheduled early-season home games to the road. The Kingsport, Tenn., school is, for some reason, installing an artificial surface to its home ballyard, J. Fred Johnson Stadium. However, lots of January rain has delayed the project, forcing construction crews to work overtime in an attempt to meet deadlines. If you have two minutes to kill, you can watch a short B-roll video about the project here. 
At the risk of looking like one of those nerdy live blogs, I wanted to provide an in-game photo showing rain falling in Pittsburgh as the Steelers and Ravens compete on Monday Night Football. As expected, a steady rain fell during pregame and the first quarter. The wet stuff, however, had no negative effects on the home team. It’s halftime (The live version of PTI is on) and the Steelers have the Heinz Field crowd in a frenzy with a 35-7 lead. Ben Roethlisberger tossed four touchdown passes in the first half. Willis McGahee got the Ravens on the board late in the second quarter with a long TD run. I mention that only because it helps my fantasy team. All right that’s it for me tonight. Let’s hope Big Ben throws five more touchdowns. And no, this does not qualify as live blogging. Good night, Singapore.
There's nothing unusual about the Pittsburgh Steelers being in first place in the AFC North with the Baltimore Ravens nipping at their heels, but it is unusual for the Cleveland Browns to be in the mix for an AFC wildcard berth, and for the division title. 
