Quote of the Week I

"My man Z-man is giving me a great opportunity and a lot of responsibility.''

--New Washington offensive coordinator Sherman Smith, to the Washington Post, on why he left the Tennessee Titans' staff to work with old friend Jim Zorn, the new head coach of the Redskins.

Quote of the Week II

"I find it distressing that Democrats and Republicans cannot investigate steroid and human growth hormone use in professional sports without taking sides ... How much confidence can any of us have that our elected officials will work together on the most pressing issues facing our nation: the war in Iraq, health care, the economy and education? I am not optimistic, regardless of who wins the election in November.''

--Karla Stuempfle Msall, of Chicago, in a letter to the New York Times on Sunday, commenting on the partisan questioning of Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee in the Congressional hearing Wednesday.

Stat of the Week

Tough As Steel Records of 2008 Steeler Opponents Home Road *Indianapolis (13-4) *Jacksonville (12-6) Houston (8-8) *Tennessee (10-7) *NY Giants (14-6) *Washington (9-8) *Dallas (13-4) Philadelphia (8-8) *San Diego (13-6) *New England (18-1) * - denotes '07 playoff team Combined record - 118-58 (.670)

Has anyone out there looked at the Steelers' schedule for this fall? Schedules are organic things in terms of degree of difficulty; they tend to change week-by-week during the season. But looking at Pittsburgh's slate right now, we might be seeing the toughest schedule a team has had in recent history.

Lots of teams have division schedules as tough or tougher than six games with Cleveland, Cincinnati and Baltimore, though the rising Browns, Carson Palmer and the presumably rejuvenated Ravens will be a difficult six-pack.

Amazing. Horrendously amazing, if you bleed black and gold.

Schedule factoids:

• Eight of Pittsburgh's 10 non-AFC North games are against 2007 playoff teams.

• All 10 non-division foes were .500 or better in 2007.

• New England plays four games against teams that finished over .500 in the 2007 regular season. Pittsburgh plays 10.

• Excluding the Steelers in 2005, the last four Super Bowl champs (Giants, Colts, Pats, Pats) are on Pittsburgh's schedule.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

The aptly named Shane Longest of St. Xavier (Ill.) University will be attending the combine this week.

Longest is a kicker and punter. Longest's longest field in 2007 was from 55 yards, and Longest is long off the tee too -- he had 20 touchbacks last fall. As a punter, Longest's longest was 75 yards.

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week

I'm going to Afghanistan. I leave in 13 days, accompanying five NFL players on the league's annual offseason journey to visit troops stationed overseas. I'll be blogging for SI.com, assuming I can find a few Starbucks with wi-fi capabilities over there.

Just kidding.

That means I'll miss a good chunk of the opening of free-agency, as well as my annual SI trip to cover a week of baseball spring training. That perplexed another football/baseball guy, Bill Parcells, when I told him.

"Afghanistan instead of the Dodgers?'' he said. "Are you crazy?''

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think if the silly lawsuit filed by the former Rams player we've never heard of, or the rantings of Arlen Specter can get us closer to the bottom of how much the Patriots taped and whether those tapes ever influenced the outcome of a Super Bowl, I'm all for it. I'll have more thoughts on this topic in my Tuesday morning file.

The most significant thing I've read in the last few days came from Dave Goldberg of the Associated Press, who got the attorney of former Patriot video aide Matt Walsh to reveal that Walsh has tapes from his employment with the Patriots. Tapes, plural. This thing will not go to bed until we know what is on those tapes. Which leads us to ...

2. I think it's inevitable. We've got to hear what Walsh has to say. If we don't, the world will root against Bill Belichick even harder next year (that's hard to imagine) because they'll be sure he's been cheating since 2000, and probably before and wasn't punished enough by the commissioner.

If we do hear from Walsh, then the book should be closed either way. Either Belichick will get whacked more by Roger Goodell, or the Patriots will be able to say: "See? We really didn't gain an edge taping Super Bowl foes illegally.'' And we can be done with it.

I've said this from the beginning: If an edge was gained in any of the three three-point New England Super Bowl wins, that puts this story on a different level. That's why we must chase every lead to discover if any evidence exists that any of those Super Bowls were compromised. And I don't care what any pooh-poohing coach will say. In my opinion, if a team tapes a walkthrough the day before a Super Bowl, and knows which plays the opposition runs at that walkthrough, it's an advantage. Potentially a big advantage.

3 of 4