He's still an idiot

You would think that with memories still fresh of his little incident with police officers in an alley where a teammate was allegedly relieving himself, Jeff Reed might try to avoid causing a stir. You would be wrong. In an interview with the Post-Gazette, the Steelers kicker is whining about the way he's being treated in contract negotiations. Reed claims that somebody in a higher-up position with the Steelers lied to him about getting a long-term deal. Reed told the P-G that team President Art Rooney II has advised him that such a contract won’t get done before this season gets under way, in part because the team had to ante up some millions to hire Flozell Adams to replace injured offensive tackle Willie Colon. Here's what Reed told the newspaper: “It’s one of those things. Life is not really fair. I’ve experienced that a few times in this league. I honestly feel that if you perform ... you need to get compensated for it.” For the record, Reed will be compensated this year to the tune of $2.8 million. For kicking a ball maybe eight or 10 times a game. Most people would feel really blessed to have such an arrangement. Fact is, Reed is an excellent field goal kicker. At the same time, he’s very average in the kickoff department, and he has repeatedly conducted himself like a buffoon. Maybe the Steelers just want to wait to see if Reed can go a year without acting like a horse’s ass in public. You know, maybe avoid going 12 rounds with a paper towel dispenser, and stop having run-ins with the boys in blue.

The pitiful Pirates

It's official now. The management of your Pittsburgh Pirates is now the most embarrassing collection of idiots on the face of the Earth. The incident that put them over the top came the other day, when the team fired a guy who dons a costume and participates in the pierogi races at PNC Park. His crime? He had the audacity to make a critical comment on Facebook after it was learned that the Pirates' "brain trust" had extended the contracts of general manager Neal Huntington and check-him-for-a-pulse manager John Russell. The reason I say that it was "learned" that the Pirates extended those contracts is that the extensions actually occurred months ago. The Pirates just didn't bother to tell anyone until the other day. And in the interim, team President Frank Coonelly lied about it. So, essentially, the team's owners and top officials are incompetent prevaricators, but it's the pierogi guy who has to go. The Pirates also totally botched the way they handled the call-ups of the team's promising young players. The Pirates claim that they're going to spend money to build the team when they need to. Well, they have the opportunity to prove themselves by signing the two stud pitchers they just picked in the draft. I'm not holding my breath. And only time will tell whether the team will pay the freight to keep players like Andrew McCutchen when those youngsters reach the point in their careers when they are set to earn real money, rather than deal them for other teams' garbage, as the Bucs have done in the past. Based on the Nutting family's track record, I'm not believing anything they say until it's proven otherwise.

Well, that's mighty nice of them

I periodically receive letters and e-mails from companies that would like to sell me an extended warranty on the wife's car. They have no interest in my old "field car." Now, I'm not a financial genius. I can generally recognize a good deal on steaks or a lawn mower, but the cost-benefit factor involved with insurance policies has always baffled me. Nevertheless, it has always seemed to me that the price they quote for such coverage on the wife's car is a bit steep. But wait! I just got an e-mail from one of those companies offering me 60 percent off if I sign up now. Is it just me, or do you think maybe the people they duped into paying full price were the consumer equivalent of prison-rape victims? I mean, if they can still make money by cutting their price by 60 percent, they must've been making quite the profit at the 100-percent rate. Buyer beware.