Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Reed gets the boot

By Jeff

Adam Schefter actually got a report concerning the Pittsburgh Steelers right! Schefter Tweeted on Monday that the Steelers were likely to cut kicker Jeff Reed, and they did just that today.

Who will Steelers blame now that Reed is gone?
Probably Kordell Stewart.
Taking Reed's place will be Shaun Suisham. There are no reports that he likes to beat towel dispensers and/or make fighting gestures toward police officers, but he is 80 percent on field goals for his career.

I never really cared about what Reed did off the field. I didn't care that he beat the hell out of a towel dispenser in a gas station or drunkenly ask the police if they wanted to fight. As long as he was making field goals, these minor incidents didn't really phase me. If he were dealing drugs, beating people or something more serious, I would have had a problem.

All that mattered to me was Reed making kicks, which he did until this season. Reed is a woeful 15-for-22 this season. He hasn't made one between 40 and 49 yards. That's not good. To emphasize his incompetence, he missed a 26-yard field goal Sunday. That's a chip shot for any kicker in this league.

To make matters worse for Reed, he was jerk in the preseason and season. He told the media during training camp that the Rooneys had lied to him about wanting to sign him to a long-term contract. Apparently he forgot who he was working for. The Steelers handle things behind closed doors. They don't like it when players go crying to the media. If he wanted a big contract, he should have shut up and had a good year. Instead he stunk from Week 1 to Week 10.

Reed's latest transgression was making excuses for missing kicks, specifically the 26-yard attempt from Sunday. He cried about the turf quality and the negativity of the fans and media. Right, it was the fans making fun of you on the sports talk shows that led to you missing an easy kick. The turf at Heinz Field is terrible. There is no doubting that. But that's not an excuse. The rest of your team and the other team had to play on that same turf, and they weren't crying after the game.

Reed will be picked up quickly by someone, and will probably be successful again.. Kris Brown stunk at Heinz FIeld, but went on to a solid, eight-year stint in Houston. With that being said, it was definitely time for Reed to leave Pittsburgh.

Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)

3 comments:

  1. Agree on everything.

    "I don't want to make excuses, but the turf was bad and people were heckling me and Steely McBeam was looking at me funny."

    I love how fans have said over the past couple days that they can't cut Jeff Reed because there's no one better available and he has a history of kicking well at Heinz Field. Kickers are replaceable. That's why only one or two get drafted every year. I think people are forgetting that Jeff Reed was brought off the street in the middle of the season when the Steelers held an open tryout to replace Kris Brown.

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  2. Not to knit pick, but Reed replaced Todd Peterson because the man couldn't kick over 40 yards.

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  3. Hmm...pardon my memory.

    However, after actually looking it up it's interesting to see that Reed replaced Peterson in week 11.

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