Wake of the Flood

Remember a couple weeks ago when Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls expressed concern that the ridicule-ous playing surface at Heinz Field would provoke a serious injury?

Well, it was only a matter of time.

The Steelers today placed stalwart fullback Dan Kreider on injured reserve, ending his season. Kreider, who started the game Monday night, injured his knee in the game against the Dolphins.

Knee injuries happen all the time in football, and on any surface. Maybe the sloppy turf caused Kreider’s injury; maybe not – but we wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

To take Kreider’s place on the active roster, the Steelers promoted tight end Jon Dekker from the practice squad, which he occupied last season as well as this year. With Jerame Tuman placed on injured reserve last week, the Steelers were down to two tight ends. Now, with Dekker on board, they have as many tight ends (three) as centers (plus long-snapper Greg Warren). Dekker (6-5, 250) went to Princeton. Let’s hope he can block and contribute on special teams.

In any case, one can’t help but wonder how many injuries the Heinz Field turf has caused, or at least aggravated.

Looking Forward

The Bengals are just so cu-u-ute. Even cuter than the cheerleading Ben-gals, who at least are professional and tend to their business, as you can see in the photo.

No, the football-playing Bengals, when they aren't getting arrested, tend to be preoccupied with preening (T.J. Douchemandzadeh), gimmickry (coaches Marvin Lewis and Bob Bratkowski), cornholing (Carson Palmer), and made-for-TV sideshow antics (Chad Johnson).

Aas for the latter, as MJD observed Monday on Deadpin's "MJD Smorgasbord" ...

"Chad Johnson scores for the Bengals and then commandeers a CBS camera. I guess that's his whole act, he's going to pretend to be a cameraman for a few seconds. He'll get penalized for "excessive celebration," but I think in this case, that's a poorly named penalty ... this isn't celebration, this is choreographed attention-whoring. It doesn't feel like there's anything celebratory about it."

Well said. Then, there's always Chris Henry, notorious on many fronts, including the incident when police observed him vomiting out a car window as a teammate was being arrested.

Bengals, Bingles, Bangles, Bungles. It should be an interesting weekend.