Holmes Wins Weekly Hard Hat Award (Game #14, vs. Giants)
Stiller ILB Earl "Hit Man" Holmes is the winner of my weekly Hard Hat Award, given to the Stiller player who best embodies the iron-tough, hard as steel mentality of the workers inside a still mill.
The Hit Man was one of the very few Stillers who showed up with a mean-on in the Giants' game, playing with the kind of fire, intensity, and tenacity that you expect to see from a Pittsburgh Stiller this time of year, especially with a playoff berth on the line. Holmes led all players from both teams with 11 tackles, including 9 solos. Several of his stops either dropped a Giant RB down for negative or miniscule yardage, &/or rattled the teeth of the Giant ballcarrier. It's safe to say that if just 20% of the rest of the team had shown up with the kind of attitude and intensity Holmes had last Sunday, the final score would have been considerably closer, or even a Stiller win. The Giants brought a couple good LBs to this fray, and the Stillers had Levon Kirkland playing in this tussle, but clearly Holmes was by far the best LB on the field last Sunday. Ideally, this award would be "spread around" amongst the entire team, but in winning this prestigious award for the third time this season, Holmes won this week because no one else even came close to displaying required Hard Hat mentality and grit.
Kudos to Earl for winning this week's Hard Hat Award. Wear the Hard Hat proudly, Earl!
Previous Winners:
Game #13: vs. Oak: Kordell Stewart
Game #12, vs. Cinci: Hines Ward
Game #11, vs. Jax: Earl Holmes
Game #10, vs. Phil: Jerome Bettis
Game #9, vs. Tenn: Earl Holmes
Game #8, vs. Balt.: Dan Kreider
Game #7, vs. Cleve: Chris Fu
Game #6, vs. Cinci: D. Washington and Joey Porter
Game #5, vs. NYJ: Larry Tharpe
- Game #4, vs. Jax: Kimo von Oelhofen
Game #3, vs. Tenn: Shar Pourdanesh
The Still Mill