Mark Madden stories, Page 3

I went to my first Pittsburgh Penguins game when I was 7. My late mother and I had season tickets for the best part of a decade beginning in 1971. It was all I wanted to watch. It’s the team I supported as a boy. That never leaves you. I...

Only one exciting thing is on the horizon for Pittsburgh sports: When it’s Paul Skenes’ turn to pitch. The Pirates’ phenom/ace will take the mound every fifth day or so, with longer breaks occasionally finagled so he starts at PNC Park as much as possible. No sense in Skenes selling...

The big game has come and gone. Time to put football to bed with refreshing Super Bowl notes. (The Steelers won’t play in next year’s, either.) • Patrick Mahomes soiled the bed. Philadelphia’s defense was excellent, putting Mahomes under pressure without once blitzing. But if you’re supposed to be in...

Some random Super Bowl notes designed to distract from the fact that the Steelers won’t play in one anytime soon: • The Eagles are what the Steelers want to be but aren’t close to being: An outlier team that succeeds via running the ball, line play and physicality. • Two...

With the 4 Nations Face-Off beginning Wednesday, here’s a brief, informal history of international hockey. Disclaimer: Hockey players do not “represent their country.” The armed forces do. Grab a gun, not a hockey stick. Pre-1972 Canada dominated. Then the Soviet Union took over. Canada claimed that was because NHL players...

In Week 13 at Cincinnati, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Bengals, 44-38. Quarterback Russell Wilson scored six more points than Joe Burrow. Wilson threw for 105 more yards than Burrow. Wilson threw for three touchdowns, same as Burrow. That’s rarefied air, a callback to Wilson’s glory days with Seattle. Wilson...

It’s the time of year for Pittsburgh Steelers fantasies. “Here come the jesters, 1-2-3…” Draft this guy. Trade for that guy. But the No. 1 fantasy is to sign the big-name free agent. (Which the Steelers don’t do. That’s why it’s a fantasy.) Every Steelers fan’s current dream is receiver...

The Pittsburgh Penguins are rebuilding, whether they use that word or not. But dominos are falling, which raise the possibility that rebuilding can be accelerated, perhaps within the time frame of Sidney Crosby’s remaining tenure. (However long that is. He’s the best 37-year-old ever.) The Penguins keep stockpiling draft choices,...

Wednesday night at Utah was the essence of Sidney Crosby as a Penguin. He cuts through the slot like a magician to bury a trademark backhand in overtime. It’s the Penguins’ first visit to Salt Lake City. Lots of Penguins jerseys in the stands. Big pop for the finish. It...

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ three-man core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang has played together for 19 seasons, a record for North American sports. It’s a nice story. The unbreakable bond of eternal brotherhood. It’s a success story. Three Stanley Cups, another Stanley Cup Final and over a decade of...

The Pittsburgh Steelers maintain credibility based on two brands: their logo and the Rooney family. Simply being the Steelers is enough. But now the Steelers are not serious people. The Steelers wallow in mismanagement that isn’t acknowledged, let alone corrected. They’re clueless. The current disappointment isn’t just a blip. It’s...

The NFL Draft takes place April 24-26. Since we’re going to debate ad nauseam whom the Pittsburgh Steelers should pick from now till then, here’s two early suggestions. • Don’t take a defensive player in the first round. Sure, the Steelers badly need help on the defensive line. But the...

This space recently floated the largely accepted notion that starting Justin Fields at quarterback next season makes sense for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fields is 25 and has pedigree, having been selected 11th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. He’s mobile and athletic: Lamar Jackson Lite. If Fields blossoms, perhaps he’s...

Ichiro Suzuki just got elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ichiro was one vote shy of unanimous. The same happened with Derek Jeter in 2020: He got every vote but one. Like then, there’s a battle cry to reveal who didn’t vote for Ichiro. Baseball’s gatekeepers are marching through...

The annual PiratesFest propaganda rally lived up to the spirit of the franchise this past weekend at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. It was wall-to-wall horse manure. That’s what I’m told, anyway. I didn’t attend. I refuse to be an enabler. Some highlights: • A Q&A with CEO Travis...

The Pittsburgh Steelers won’t swap Mike Tomlin to Chicago or ditch him via any method. The Steelers won’t make any big personnel moves, except perhaps trading wideout George Pickens because his shenanigans go too far even in the laissez-faire culture Tomlin enables. The Steelers won’t make changes to the coaching...

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltending crisis started when the general manager made the right decision. No, not when current GM Kyle Dubas gave Tristan Jarry a five-year, $26.875 million contract in 2023. That was the wrong decision, as Dubas acknowledged when the Penguins waived Jarry on Wednesday. Credit Dubas for admitting...

Lots of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason decisions will be easy and obvious. Justin Fields will be the starting quarterback in 2025. Fields can be had for $15 million per season or less, maybe on a two-year deal. He’s 25, has lots of athletic ability, very low football IQ but is...

The Steelers lost their sixth straight playoff game. For the fifth consecutive time, it was a blowout. The Steelers should blow it up and start over. The coach has been exposed for the fraud he’s always been. This version of the team is aging, full of holes and clearly a...

To Penn State fans, James Franklin should be a hero. Penn State made the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoff semifinals. Any Penn State supporter would have been salivating at that prospect before the season. The Nittany Lions were very competitive in both those games, losing to...

Denial. It’s tough. With the Pittsburgh Steelers set to finish their traditional late-season skid with a fifth straight loss by losing their wild-card playoff game at Baltimore on Saturday, here’s a bit of hope: Betting the Steelers on the money line is great value. The Steelers are plus-400. A worthwhile...

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in their current mess for a number of reasons. But two stand out. Selecting Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 draft was badly damaging. Pickett very quickly revealed himself to not be of starting caliber. The Steelers have patchworked at quarterback since Pickett...

Saying what the Steelers should do often contradicts what the Steelers do. They are perfectly content to lose using their method. But the Steelers should make wideout George Pickens inactive for their playoff game Saturday night at Baltimore. It’s time to quit ladling out horse manure about the team’s alleged...

The NHL’s annual Winter Classic drew 16% less TV viewers than last year’s. The audience of 920,000 was the event’s lowest ever. That’s hardly shocking. The Winter Classic featured two subpar teams, St. Louis and host Chicago. The Blackhawks currently sit last in the NHL’s Central Division and their alleged...

The Pittsburgh Steelers have folded. Beat by a cumulative 90-40 over the last three weeks, left in the dust by teams that are clearly better, exposed as non-contenders when it comes to doing anything significant, knocked off the top of the AFC North and scrambling to avoid a euthanasia scenario in...