Published: October 12, 2008 12:38 am         

Speaking of that ...

Say what you will about the Pittsburgh Steelers, but things just always seem to work out for them, don’t they?

They call quarterback Ben Roethlisberger Big Ben (I don’t), but he’s more like a Timex these days, taking every licking opposing defenses can administer, yet he keeps on ticking. Splattered on the field looking like Wile E. Coyote after the Acme safe has fallen on him, you know there’s no way this guy’s playing next week. And he isn’t, because the Steelers draw a much-needed bye to allow Roethlisberger more time to heal and for running back Willie Parker to come back from his injury.

They say luck is the residue of design, but I really don’t know how lucky the Steelers are. Things have been going their way for too long now to call it luck. Their design just seems to be as good as it gets. I almost want to believe that if they’d let Roethlisberger go elsewhere as a free agent, as they seemingly do everybody else, they wouldn’t miss a beat because they’d have Carrot Top playing quarterback.

Probably a stretch, but I know a lot of Ravens fans who would like to see just how big of a stretch it would be.

Hail to the Redskins!

Speaking of having things go their way, the Washington Redskins are the rage these days. All the kids in Liverpool are talking about them.

With today’s home game against the St. Louis Rams, the ’Skins begin a three-game stretch that has them hosting Cleveland next week and visiting Detroit the following week, before hosting the Steelers Monday, Nov. 3.

The thinking around the Beltway is the Redskins should be 7-1 when they take on the Steelers, but who around the Beltway thought the Redskins should start out 4-1 with wins at Dallas and at Philadelphia, particularly after laying an egg in Week 1 against the Giants? And by the way, the Giants are still the undefeated defending champs.

Admittedly, that’s a pretty sweet stretch of schedule for Washington, but don’t be surprised if they come out of these three games with one loss, with that game against the Browns looking like what Ralph Friedgen might call a “trap” game.

As for the Redskins’ success to this point, I’m not saying start printing playoff tickets, but they’ve been very impressive and, for now, it’s put to rest the talk that owner Danny Snyder brought Jim Zorn in to keep the seat warm until the diminutive boy owner can shower Bill Cowher with billions to coach the team next season.

I can’t ever see Cowher working for Snyder, but then I couldn’t see Virginia beating Maryland. Not only that, I think Cowher would be out of his chin to come back to coaching at all. Look at the plush life John Madden has made for himself being John Madden. And while Cowher is nowhere as cartoonish as Madden is, what most people remember about both is at their respective times they were the youngest coaches to lead a team to the Super Bowl. Not only that, most people like to believe both of their Super Bowl victories came in their final games as coaches, which, of course, isn’t the case.

Grand coaching legacies tend to grow even more when they remain left alone. Thank goodness that oaf Big Fat Parcells kept coming back.

As for Zorn, I’m not saying I told you so, but when Snyder shocked everybody by hiring the guy, first as his offensive coordinator, then as his head coach, I told Tim Martin on “The Martin in the Morning Show” on GO-106 that this hire was just quirky enough to work.

So far, it’s worked.

Hail to the Coach!

Speaking of weird, all day Saturday while watching the Texas-Oklahoma game, whenever the cameras panned the Texas sideline, I found myself asking, “Given the mess we find ourselves in, doesn’t he have anything better to do right now?” But then the talking tool box Brent Musburger would chime in to remind me that was Texas head coach Mack Brown, not President George W. Bush.

Kind of spooky (for Brown, that is) how similar those two guys look. Of course, there’s nothing similar about their jobs or responsibilities. Ask anybody in the state of Texas, and they’ll tell you: Mack Brown has the more important job of the two.

I’ve been wondering a lot these past few years if President Bush doesn’t feel that way as well.

Hail to the ’Hoos!

Speaking of college football, yes, that would have been my good friends at Virginia walking off the field yesterday with a 35-20 win over East Carolina, the same East Carolina that beat West Virginia, coached by the same Skip Holtz who was on the list of Mountaineer fans to replace Bill Stewart once the formality of running him out of Morgantown was complete.

I see West Virginia won yesterday without Pat White. I wonder what the point spread was for the ECU-Virginia game?

To hail with my shirts?

Speaking of my Wahoos, I had an e-mail from a person who took exception to my expressing my thoughts on Friday that Tropicana Field “has the visual appeal of Iggy Pop and Kelly Osbourne standing at the altar.”

“You, of all people, have nerve calling ANYBODY ugly” wrote the e-mailer. “You ain’t much of a dresser, either.”

I ain’t? Well I’ll have you know, friend, I think all of my Maryland shirts are pretty snazzy. Secondly, I didn’t call Iggy Pop or Kelly Osbourne ugly (although I’m sure I would tell you what might result from that union had no alibi).

Let’s put it this way, as my pretty-boy friend Ken once said, “If something that looked like that ever came out of my basement in the middle of the night, I’d shoot it.”

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.