The News

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--ESPN says that Pitt AD Jeff Long is headed for Arkansas. If you've ever heard any stories about Arkansas' athletic department, you know what kind of headaches he's in for.

--Tom Barrasso joins the Carolina Hurricanes.....as director of goaltender development.

--Howard Stern led off his Monday show by talking about Joe Paterno. I never knew that Howard's future brother-in-law was a Nittany Lion football player.

--Speaking of JoePa, he and his wife haven't seen a movie at a theater since "Titanic", and they just discovered a TV show called "MASH".

--Brady Quinn leads the Browns into the Post-Preseason

--If the Patriots are so awesome, why must they cheat?

--Michigan QB Chad Henne is ruled out of the big Wolverines-Notre Dame game. What's Michigan to do? He's been such a crucial part of their early season success.

--Anyone feel like reading an article about Russ Grimm?

--Look, it's the 2007 Big Ben action figure!

--Who knew Mini Me was a Steeler fan?

--Some Bill Cowher broadcasting highlights, courtesy of bigbennews.com :

Dan Marino on wearing a spit-shield while sitting next to Bill Cowher during their show -
"It was a gift from Ben Roethlisberger!"

Bill Cowher, during the same CBS pre-game show -
"There’s no doubt that Roethlisberger is going to have more leeway [under coach Mike Tomlin]."

Boomer Esiason, sitting next to the former Steelers coach, responds to Cowher's comment -
"It must be good for Ben Roethlisberger to actually have a coach that will trust him.''

--There's way too many Pirate hat appearances in this Chris Brown video. And by Chris Brown, I mean the rapper and not the Titans 175-yard rusher.

--More fallout from the MTV VMAs, including expanded coverage of the Britney disaster, video of Kid Rock and Tommy Lee's fight, and an angry Kanye West.

--Loyal reader Dave shares with us two rarities from his collection: a Pirate helmet signed by the one and only Raul Mondesi, and a Pirates program signed by Dave Littlefield AND Bob Nutting, surely a collector's item now.

--Here's the photo of the weekend in college football:

--Wondering how Shaq got to the Va Tech-LSU game, also known as Tragedy Bowl I? Wonder no more...

Plastic Ben and Plastic Sid Are Popular

From my friend over at Bigbennews.com, home of the original Roethlisberger tracking device, comes this news out of the Upper Deck offices about two of our favorite Pittsburgh athletes:

The much-anticipated Sidney Crosby All-Star Vinyl figures launched this morning at 8:07 a.m. (PDT) and was an instant success. The Upper Deck Store quickly SOLD OUT of its allotment of the Crosby two-pack configuration (white and black unifom versions), and SOLD OUT less than three hours later of its allocation of the single black (home) uniform version as well. Thank you and congratulations to all the timely Upper Deck Store customers who secured their rare versions of the Sidney Crosby All-Star Vinyl figures!

I don't know if buying a plastic Sidney Crosby doll is actually cause for a "congratulations", but apparently, yes, it is.

But on to the rest of the story...old #7 also had a figure released by Upper Deck, and being the competitor he is, his also sold out! Curiously, Upper Deck did not issue a congratulatory statement to all of the black-and-gold-goggled fans who purchased this little piece of vinyl Ben.

Now that there's a mini Ben figure, internet entrepreneurs can go crazy hawking mini outfits to dress your own version of the Goateed One. Mini Drink Like a Champion t-shirts, Mini Pinstriped Suits with Baseball Caps, and Mini Missy and Carson Daly figures will presumably be the next line of accessories offered for the true Steeler fan.

Update: I stand corrected! As Bigbennews.com tells me, Upper Deck DID issue a release when Ben's figure sold out in February, rendering my previous pot-shots directed at them useless and uninformed. I apologize to the entire Roethlisberger Nation for this error.

After months of anticipation, the launch of NFL All-Star Vinyl kicked off Tuesday with back-to-back-to-back release days. Exceeding expectations for such a new and different product line, each figure sold out of the Upper Deck Store in just a few hours--capped by Brady selling out in just over an hour on Thursday.