LB James Harrison and the entire Steelers team made Drew Carfrae’s wish come true.


From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

As Drew Carfrae watched the Steelers practice, the smile on his face grew wider and wider.

“It’s amazing. It’s just amazing to be here,” said Carfrae. “I am a huge Steelers fan. I never thought I would be this close to them. It’s crazy, awesome.”

Carfrae, who is from Waverly, Iowa, was at practice and will be at the Steelers-Bengals game on Sunday as a guest of the Steelers and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.


When practice ended, Carfrae’s wish came true as one after another the players came over to take pictures with him, sign autographs, and in the case of linebacker James Harrison, leave him speechless. Carfrae, who is 17, became a Steelers fan after watching Harrison return an interception 100-yards in the Steelers Super Bowl XLIII win over the Arizona Cardinals. Harrison gave him his gloves after practice, posed for a picture, spent time chatting with him and signed items for him.

“That was insane. Crazy,” said Carfrae. “This is great. He asked me if I wanted his gloves. I was like, really. This is more than I could have expected. I still can’t believe I got James Harrison’s gloves.”


You can see more great photos from Drew’s day here.

My partner, Urgo, was 13-years old when he passed away on Friday, August 12th.

He worked for the Rogers, Arkansas Police Department for 10 years. He was involved in several high profile arrest in the area. He visited area schools on a regular basis. He was the NNDDA (National Narcotic Detector Dog Association) Patrol Dog State Champion for the Arkansas Region Overall in 2008, and the State Runner Up in 2006.


Urgo was a Belgian Malinois purchased from Von Klein Stein Working Dogs in North Little Rock Arkansas.

He was credited with several high profile narcotics arrests in the Northwest Arkansas area, including seizures of 25 pounds of methamphetamine with a street value at a half million dollars and a cash seizure of $275,000 – both on traffic stops. He was also credited for saving not only my life, but the life of a 10 year old boy during a traffic stop where he was deployed to apprehend a suspect that had assaulted me. The suspect had several felony warrants outstanding, and was also in possession of Methamphetamine.

My partner and I made over 25 visits to the area schools for demonstrations.

Urgo wasn’t a part of Big Ben’s grant project, but it is an awesome thing that he does. I know he is a dog lover and a police supporter and for that, I thank him!

These police K9s are a necessity for any police department in today’s environment. They easily pay for themselves within a couple years time with the amount of narcotics that they take off the street, the lives they save – including ours, and the piece of mind they give their human partners.

I believe that Ben’s foundation is one of true blessings for law enforcement today! It is amazing that someone in his position would not only raise, but also give his own money to help purchase these dogs to help us in fighting crime and saving lives, and also offering us extra protection and peace of mind while performing our duties.

Urgo will be dearly missed by this Steelers family! — Officer Joe Warren.

“It’s exciting. As much as we are playing the Bengals, it’s AFC North, we are going to Heinz Field and it’s the opener. I am sure there will be a lot of energy and excitement there. We feed off of that. We are excited to have our fans there being rowdy. Hopefully we can come away with a ‘W’ for them.” — Ben, on this weekend’s game against the Bengals.

From Ben’s interview earlier today:

It’s a rivalry that continues to grow, one that comes naturally as it pits two highly competitive, physical AFC North teams against each other.

And on Sunday at Heinz Field, when the Steelers host the Cincinnati Bengals in their home opener, physical football will definitely be on display.

“I think it’s a physical football game, it’s a physical division,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. “That is what we expect, a physical football game. Clean.”

The Steelers defeated the Bengals in the regular season and playoffs last year in Cincinnati, while the Bengals won at Heinz Field. Roethlisberger said while things heated up last year against the Bengals, he doesn’t look at them any different than he does any other AFC North opponent.

“It’s AFC North football,” said Roethlisberger. “All of them are competitive. Whether it’s the Browns, the Bengals or the Ravens, to us they are all big division rivals. You amp it up because it’s AFC North. That is why you amp it up.

“It’s a competitive rivalry, just like all the games are in this division. They won the division last year. Everyone wants that coveted AFC North title.”

This week will be the first AFC North test for the Steelers, and it will be against a solid Bengals defense even without linebacker Vontaze Burfict, who is serving a three-game suspension for “repeated violations of safety-related playing rules.”

“One of the best defenses in the league,” said Roethlisberger. “Physical game, mental game. Just a really, really big challenge for us.”

The natural rivalry, combined with being the home opener, is going to make for a fun afternoon at Heinz Field on Sunday.


A little more from Ben –

On his confidence in the younger guys, because of their performance against Washington:

“It makes you feel good and it makes them feel good. Some of those guys got […]

Excerpts from today’s episode at CBS Pittsburgh & 93.7 The Fan:

Coming off his team’s dominant 38-16 season opening win against the Washington Redskins, Ben Roethlisberger joined “The Cook and Poni Show” for his weekly meeting on “The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show” and said the offense met their goals after a slow start.

“It was a good performance,” Ben said. “Our goal is always obviously number one to win, we did that. Everyone kind of knows that 30 points is our goal on offense and we hit that as well. I thought it was a good day.”

It wasn’t all good early on and Ben alluded to that.

“Little bit of a slower start than we wanted, but you know, it’s the first game, everyone’s got jitters, myself included. We had a slow start, but we finished strong,” he said.

The offense really started clicking after a 4th-and-1 play in the second quarter. where they decided to go for it. But they didn’t just go for the first down, they went for the endzone and completed a 29-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown. Ben shed some light on the decision-making process.

“I have the freedom from the coaching staff to kind of go for it on fourth, to do things, but at that particular point in the game, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions…they called a play to us and it was a play we had been working on,” he said.

One aspect of the offense that was a big question mark heading into the season opener was the tight end position with Ladarius Green sidelined. Now, the question was how Jesse James would do in a starting role. Needless to say, Ben was impressed with what he saw from the second-year tight end.

“He moved the chains last night,” Ben said. “He was where he needed to be, he made a lot of tough combat catches. You know, catch and then guys are falling down at his legs and he’s getting hit hard, but he’s getting first downs. To me, that was a huge step for Jesse James last night.”

As Ben says every week, the offense’s success is a product of the offensive line and “we go as they go.” That being said, the guys up front had a big performance last night.

“I […]

Final Score: Steelers 38, Redskins 16

“The Elias Sports Bureau notes that Ben Roethlisberger is now the first quarterback to complete 500 passes to each of 3 different players. The trio of Hines Ward, Heath Miller and Antonio Brown have now all caught at least 500 passes from him.” — ESPN.com

From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

Ben being Ben: It was a night when Ben Roethlisberger seemed to be able to do no wrong. Yes, he threw an interception, but that was quickly forgotten with his performance in the Steelers opening night 38-16 win over the Washington Redskins.

“When you have No. 7 you have the chance to put together performances like that,” said Coach Mike Tomlin.

Roethlisberger completed 27 of 37 passes for 300 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Antonio Brown and one to Eli Rogers.

“I want to complete every ball,” said Roethlisberger. “I want to convert every third down. That is the expectation.

“We hold ourselves to a high expectation. We have guys that can make plays and they showed it tonight.”

Roethlisberger also became the first player in NFL history to complete 500 passes to three different teammates, those being Heath Miller, Hines Ward and Brown.


You can read more from Ms. Varley’s post-game report here.

“With his 2nd TD tonight, Ben Roethlisberger moves to 13th on the all-time passing TD list, passing Joe Montana.” — NFL on ESPN.

Some more enjoyable reading for you as you drink your Tuesday morning coffee:

CBS Sports – Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger: Stellar display to start season


Mark Kaboly, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – Ben, Brown dynamic in Steelers’ opening win


Jeremy Fowler, ESPN.com – Big Ben throws, Antonio Brown twerks and Steelers roll


And also from Teresa Varley, Steelers.com – 7 on 7: What makes Ben special


You can check out some photos from the game here.

You can watch video of Ben’s post-game press conference here.