MIC CHECK FOR MICHAELS AND MADDEN

I hate John Madden and Al Michaels.

There, I said it. Had to get that off my chest.  Sometimes TV analysts, whether it is done intentionally or not, tend to favor one team over the other but this is getting ridiculous. I do understand where Madden is coming from since he was on the receiving end of some serious smackdowns from the Steelers over his coaching career, but Al Michaels should be an objective observer. A play-by-play guy should just do his job, which is simply call the game as it unfolds. But Michaels, who has parlayed one memorable line from the 1980 Winter Olympics into an entire career, always has to throw his 4 cents in every borderline play. Seems Madden's distaste for the Black and Gold has filtered through Michaels' veins through osmosis.

It all started back in Super Bowl XL when Madden and Michaels did their last pro football telecast for ABC. Throughout the whole game, Madden and Michaels kept pointing to the officials for making calls that favored the Steelers and put the Seahawks at a disadvantage. Ultimately, their unbiased reactions became a rallying cry for Seahawks fans and unleashed a nation of Steelers haters.

Fast forward to Sunday night's game at Cleveland with Madden and Michaels working for NBC. Michaels points out a 15-yard late hit penalty on Steelers linebacker Lamar Woodley and Madden agrees. Madden explains that Woodley drove Browns quarterback Derek Anderson to the ground. OK, that's fine. Woodley might have given Anderson a little extra at the end of the play but his momentum was already going in that direction.

Now, let's compare that with the brutal shoulder shot given by Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger threw the pass and two steps later Rogers comes in and nails Big Ben right on his injured right shoulder. Total cheap shot!

But where was Madden and Michaels? Silent.

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Beating the Cleveland Browns never gets old. For those Browns fans who have lost count, that's 10 consecutive victories for the good guys over the bad guys.

The Steelers have also won 16 out of the last 17 meetings with the Browns which makes a little nervous because the Browns might actually wake up and figure out that head coach Romeo Crennel is no good. But I hope the Browns don't make any drastic moves because I will miss Crennel if he ever does leave Cleveland. The man has yet to beat the Steelers (0-7)!

Part of me felt sorry for Crennel watching Sunday night's game in another hurricane. By the way, is it me or the Steelers play all of their nationally televised games in the worst weather possible? Geez. Anyways, Coach Crennel didn't exactly put on a good face last night as he made poor decision after poor decision. I'll give him a free pass for "screwing up" late in the first that resulted in a drive-killing interception by Troy Polamalu. I'll also give him a free pass for going for a field goal late in the fourth quarter to make the score 10-6. However, calling a timeout with three minutes to play was a head-scratcher.

As time ticked away, Crennel looked like someone just shot his dog and he was powerless to stop it. Aint' that a bitch.