Hard Hat Award (Game #6, @ Denver)
Nobody is the winner of the weekly Hard Hat Award, given to the Stiller player who best embodies the iron-tough, hard-as-steel attitude of the steel workers inside the blast furnace of a still mill.
As noted in the previous Hard Hat Award article after the Seattle game, it�s typically a good barometer of how well the team played, when there are multiple players being considered for the coveted Hard Hat Award. Besides the 3 co-awardees of the Hard Hat last game, NT Chris Hoke and CB Ike Taylor were also considered. Even Clark Haggans got some small consideration, based on his relentless rush to the QB even after his helmet had been ripped off, showing the exact kind of intensity and fortitude that the Hard Hat Award holds in the highest esteem.
Conversely, it�s typically a bad barometer of how soft and poorly the team played, when nobody can seriously be considered for the coveted award. In the game versus the Doncos, there were very, very few players in contention. If anything, there were over a dozen players that would have merited consideration for, say, The Soft Toilet Seat Award, given to the player that best embodies the sitting on his ass and doing nothing more productive than taking a crap while reading a comic book. Leading the way for that award would have been players such as Marvel Smith and Alan �The Crybaby� Faneca, who literally stood flatfooted and flaccid while a pass rusher very clearly and obviously rushed between the 2 baffled boobs and stripped Ben Roth of the football.
Tonio Holmes would have been a possible candidate for the Hard Hat, based on his ultra-tough TD catch in which he was simply lambasted by the DB a millisecond after the ball arrived. This was indeed a tough, hard-nosed play and a clutch TD catch. Holmes dropped out of consideration, however, when he lazily and stupidly drifted OOB (out of bounds) during a QB scramble, which was whistled for a penalty. The penalty was declined, but lazy, foolish, un-forced mishaps do not qualify a player to receive the most prestigious weekly award for a Pittsburgh Steeler. Aside from Holmes, nobody was close for consideration. Foote had the nice INT and a solid stop on a GL plunge, but foolishly failed to cover, TWICE no less, on a 2 short TD passes. Ike Taylor was so soft that he played nine yards off a WR and backpedaled immediately upon the snap of the ball�..even though the line of scrimmage was at the Steeler 15. Troy Pola ran around a lot, but didn�t defend a single pass and didn�t crack anyone particularly hard. The pass rush was so feeble and anemic that QB Gay Cutler could have eaten a sandwich and sipped mint juleps back in the pocket.
Kudos to nobody for winning the Hard Hat Award. Don�t wear the Hard Hat proudly, fellas!
Previous 2007 Hard Hat Awardees:
Game 1, @ Clev: Jamie Harrison and Danny Sepulveda
Game 2, vs. Buffalo: Jamie Harrison
Game 3, vs. San Fran: Willie Parker
Game 4, @ Arizona: Santonio Holmes
Game 5, vs. Seattle: Ben Roethlisberger, Najeh Davenport, and Aaron Smith