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Pittsburgh Steelers Get Cap Relief: Max Starks Gets Four-Year Deal
Published: June 24, 2009
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The Pittsburgh Steelers announced on Tuesday that they have signed starting left tackle Max Starks to a four-year deal that will free up some salary cap room for the team going forward.
Entering the offseason, the Steelers slapped the franchise tag on Starks ensuring that they would bring back a starter with some experience at a critical position. While Starks signed the franchise tender guaranteed to bring him $8.45 million in 2009, both he and the team were looking for a long-term solution.
Last season, the front office slapped the transition tag on Starks, bringing with it a one-year deal worth $6.9 million. However, the coaching staff didn’t seem to be in agreement with his value as he started the season as a backup to Marvel Smith.
With Marvel Smith now in San Fransisco, and Starks having started the final 11 games, as well as the playoffs, the Steelers are showing a lot of faith in his abilities. The 27-year-old is now signed through the 2012 season and will look to solidify the left side of the line.
After signing his new contract, Starks was quoted as saying, “We now have guys you know are going to be here and you can count on, the guys who are rocks on the line. I am happy to hopefully be one of those rocks and not a pebble on that line.”
At 6’8″ and 345 pounds, a pebble he is not. The Steelers obviously are hoping that he can fit the bill as a boulder at the left tackle spot, keeping Ben Roethlisberger upright and cutting down on the number of hits he takes.
This move will also free up cap space for the team this year and over the next few seasons. Full financial details of the deal were not released, but it is believed that Starks will receive a signing bonus spread out over the length of the contract that will be slightly larger than the $8.45 million he was guaranteed under the franchise tag.
By lowering his annual salary, and only having to absorb a portion of the signing bonus this year, the Steelers will now have some breathing room to look at signing some other players who have the potential of becoming free agents at the end of 2009.
Several key members of the team are entering the final year of their contracts, and the Steelers have maintained that their top priority this offseason is signing their own players.
Perhaps the next move for the team will be to restructure a deal with Casey Hampton who is the rock in the middle of their 3-4 defense. Hampton has voiced his desire to remain with the Steelers and is open to signing a contract that will allow him to retire as a Steeler.
While the team is taking a risk with Starks by locking into his level of play, they are also solidifying the rest of their team by freeing up the money to keep the Super Bowl Championship-roster together beyond the 2009 season.
Steel Foundations of Steelers Fans
Published: May 7, 2009
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Everyone has a story that led them to be a fan of their favorite team. Some are created out of loyalty to a certain player or city/state. Some are due to geographic reasons or being able to see every game of the local team. Perhaps the majority of us can trace our allegiance back to our family.
That is how my story begins with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Being the son of a steelworker, who was the son of a steelworker, it just seems fitting. When I was old enough to ask these important questions, I remember saying, “Dad, why do we root for the Steelers if we live closer to Philadelphia?”
The stern response was, “I work in a steel mill, who else would I root for?” It was a blunt response that really didn’t need any more clarification. It was a question from a 5-year-old that got a response a 5-year-old wouldn’t question.
I never questioned our fanhood from that day forward.
I was brought up a Steelers fan from day one. The baby pictures hanging in my parents’ houses to this day have me in my little Steelers outfit holding a plastic football.
When I was old enough to play catch in the front yard with my dad, I was Louis Lipps going long. It’s all of these memories that you get growing up that turn the choice of which team to root for into a foregone conclusion.
Of course, there were many things that have cemented my dedication to the team over the course of my life. Once you start unconditionally following a team, your allegiance starts to grow exponentially. It starts to be a part of the fabric of your life.
When my wife and I were pondering the question of whether to move to Michigan, my first demand was, “I need to order the NFL Sunday Ticket if we do.” She said yes, and hasn’t questioned my loyalty since.
I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have the Steelers to follow through the year. It’s just been part of my life as long as I can remember.
A number of Steelers fans probably have a similar story, and perhaps this is what makes Steelers nation so strong. Maybe that’s why we’ve been able to turn two recent Super Bowls into virtual home games.
When you’re in Pittsburgh on a fall Sunday, you see it everywhere. You wake up and the neighbors have a couple kids running around the yard in their jerseys. You go out to breakfast and the waitresses have on jerseys. Whether it’s a player from this year, or 1978, it doesn’t matter: It’s black and gold.
When you’re in “Steelers Country,” people are always talking football. High school, college, or pro, it doesn’t matter. Football rules the area, and that makes the Steelers the talk of any bar, restaurant, coffee shop, or anywhere else people gather.
The Steelers have always embodied that often overused cliche of a blue collar town. The fierce, attacking defense, the pound-it-out running game, the hard-nosed coach, have all worked to help the city embrace its franchise.
This is a city that developed the Primanti Brothers sandwich shop, serving coleslaw and fries right on the sandwich to help people eat a whole meal on their short break from the factory. It seems history has led the team and city hand-in-hand.
Then, the great day came when I had a son of my own. He had a Terrible Toddler Towel before he was born. We dressed him in all sorts of Steelers clothes on game days. I’m doing my best to start him out on the same path my dad started me on.
One day when he asks why we’re Steelers fans, maybe I’ll direct him to his grandfather, so he only has to ask once. The funny part is that the Steelers won the first Super Bowl of my life and the first Super Bowl of my son’s.
Maybe we were born to be Steelers fans.
