Three Rivers Three Links: March 23

1. The NFL is likely to bring in 2 new rules that can be traced almost directly to Steelers players delivering vicious(yet perfectly legal) hits on the opposition. Hines Ward's hit on Keith Rivers and Ryan Clark's on Wes Welker are the targets of these rules, and there is one other rule being considered after Bernard Pollard's hit that tore Tom Brady's ACL. The lesson, as always, the Patriots are huge pussies and must be protected at all costs, and the Steelers are vicious cheap-shot artists and must be stopped at all times. These rules, especially the one about Keith Rivers, really piss me off. If an offensive player is running and doesn't have his head on a swivel and gets popped, it's hailed by all as a great defensive hit. If 200 pound Hines Ward obliterates a much bigger linebacker, it's dirty. Maybe Keith Rivers shouldn't be such an undisciplined hack and realize that blocking is allowed and that he shouldn't chase blindly after the ball. Argh. The sport of football is spiraling more and more into an overly officiated mess. I really worry for the league's future. I mean, really, how long before they outlaw tackling and we switch to two-hand touch?

2. Looking for a Live Blog of yesterday's Oklahoma State-Pitt game? Well naturally, the Pitt Blather has one for you of their usual high quality. But if that wasn't enough live-bloggage for you, how many other news sources would you have checked before going to the Wall Street Journal? 100? 1000? Would you have ever checked them? Yeah me neither. But they came through for us with a solid LB of their own.

3. Hey Look! I finally got my site linked on the Pensblog!!! Words can't express how fired up I was when I stumbled on that this morning in their sidebar, and then also noticed they mentioned me and 3 others in the recap! Probably one of the 2 or 3 most exciting moments in this site's history, as that is without question my favorite blog on the planet Earth. So thank you, Pensblog.
Oh, and their recap is spot on about the ridiculous Flyer-love being showered out by the announcing crew yesterday. Especially this little line: " This led to a McDouche rant about how Richards is the best young captain in the game. Get over him." Seriously, what a ridiculous statement by McGuire. Richards is 24. That ain't that young anymore in hockey captain world. Sid's 21. Toews is 20. I'd rather have either one than Richards considering how much younger they are, and it's not even close.

Also, the requisite standing-watch update: