By GENE COLLIER, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Today I wish to urge every football fan, every Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and every fan of the NFL in general -- and I understand there are a few of them out there -- to read Jeanne Marie Laskas' article entitled "Game Brain," which ran in the October 2009 edition of GQ magazine.

Google it, kids.

That grinding sound you're hearing in the far political distance is the sound of two unions digging in their heels against the next wave of drug testing, triggered this week by the news that a British rugby player tested positive for Human Growth Hormone, something previously thought to be merely impossible.

MIAMI - Were he even interested in the whole dubious notion, this business of validation, Peyton Manning would have agreed that there was no better formula for putting to rest any doubt that he was the greatest quarterback the game has ever seen.

MIAMI - As Super Bowl 44 rapidly approaches, the possibility persists that this mostly limp NFL postseason hasn't had its indelible moment yet -- its James Harrison interception odyssey, its Santonio Holmes tiptoe, toe-tap crescendo.

Typically at this particular midwinter week, America has been alerted as to Tiger Woods' precise tee time at Torrey Pines, presumably so that everyone can stop what they're doing at that moment and reflect upon greatness.

Yeah, those were the days.

This year, no Tiger.

No PGA Tour Player of the Year. No Athlete of the Decade. No Tiger or the field debate.

PITTSBURGH - No one can say this continually perilous Pittsburgh Steelers season isn't thick with handy visual references.

Who needs a game clock, for example, when you know the fourth quarter has begun because there is a visiting white shirt floating free in the end zone, the readily identifiable key that means if the Steelers are ahead or tied, they won't be for long.

PITTSBURGH - So which is the largest number, as of this morning: The number of alleged Tiger Woods mistresses or the number of people on the bitter shores of Lake Erie Thursday night who can claim they sacked Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger?

No matter what happens between here and the awarding of the Lombardi Trophy in the moonlight of some distant South Florida February, nothing will match for compelling NFL video the 15 stunning seconds of New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez eating a hot dog on the sideline the week before last.

From a highlights standpoint, I'm telling you, the season is over.

Sometimes you can't really appreciate how incompetent the Browns are until you see them in the flesh, and though the semi-annual appointment with the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday proved reliably that Cleveland's NFL entry is again comically bad, it was hard not to notice that the officials were funnier.

So even by the singular authority of those six Super Bowl championships, it appears as though the Pittsburgh Steelers will not be running the table in 2009, but at least they won't be tabling the run.

Not completely.