PITTSBURGH - If Troy Polamalu can't play for the Pittsburgh Steelers today, he may as well stay on sidelines until the playoffs.
Polamalu had a great game last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, but he also aggravated a lower leg injury.
He stayed in the game but hasn't been able to practice this week.
Perhaps the injury was one reason he had an oddly tearful moment when talking to reporters after Sunday's game.
If there's any doubt about his status, the Steelers have to sit him. They can beat the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns without Polamalu; it wouldn't be a good idea to try that formula against a playoff opponent
No accident
Former Steelers lineman Craig Wolfley has an interesting take on last week's incident in which New York Jets' assistant coach Sal Alosi tripped a Miami Dolphins player who was trying to cover a punt.
Wolfley says it was no spur-of-the-moment reaction, and suggests a bigger plan was hatched by a higher authority on the Jets.
He claims that players were carefully lined up along the sideline, which he says shows they had been told to do that.
"They don't even line up uniformly for the National Anthem," Wolfley wrote in his blog.
He further says that the Jets' decision to suspend rather than fire Alosi is further evidence this was not a spontaneous, independent act. He also says it's probably not the first time the Jets have done this.
Cheating in the NFL? Wonder what Bill Belichick thinks of this.
So long, Larry
Larry King retired the other day after a long run on CNN.
Before he found fame in the world of television, King - whose original name was Larry Zeiger - did a national radio show for the now-defunct Mutual Broadcasting System.
He had several stories that he told on a regular basis, and listeners would actually request them.
One of his favorites was about growing up in Brooklyn with baseball legend Sandy Koufax, and the snowy night in 1950 when he, Koufax and another friend went to New Haven, CT to get ice cream.
It's a long, involved story with twists and turns, but it's quite entertaining, which was why people asked for it.
The only problem with the story? It wasn't true.
In 1991, the Washington Post contacted Koufax, who said he had never been to New Haven in his life, and never met Larry King until they were both adults with a degree of fame.
But it was quite a story.
Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com
