Who's Left?

There's a lot of talk about retirements and free agents in the Steeler Nation. Who knows who is going to be a part of the team in 2012, who will retire (in some cases, to lucrative media contracts), and who will move on to other teams offering more opportunities to play and more money.

In my day job, my employees are college students. They inevitably graduate. Sometimes they get better jobs and quit (you know who you are). Once in a long while, they drop out of school. In any case, I can't expect to keep a student worker longer than three years. The most frustrating aspect of running a Writers' Center is that I am always in the hire-and-train cycle. When tutors get really, good they leave.

So I feel Mike Tomlin's pain. It's hard to plan ahead when you don't know who you'll be working with. I know some players I'd work very hard to keep around (regular readers know I mean Dennis Dixon) and some I would cheerfully show the door.

Maybe this weekend I'll be more specific. But the Steeler management never takes my advice anyway . . .