Ben Roethlisberger's shirt makes us cringe

Ben Roethlisberger finished tied for 30th at the American Century celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Sorry Cincinnati and Cleveland - Big Ben finished ahead of Carson Palmer and Derek Anderson. (Now he's beating Bengals and Browns on the golf course too!)

But what really got our attention was this photo (buried in the "behind the scenes" section of the tahoecelebritygolf.com Web site), and not because he's standing next to former LPGA star Annika Sorenstam. (That is Annika, isn't it?) If you can't make out the words it reads: "Harley Davidson."

Roethlisberger moves up leaderboard at American Century Championship

Ben Roethlisberger is now tied for 22nd after two rounds of the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Club. Meanwhile, his day one playing partners Mario Lemieux and Jerome Bettis have slipped off the pace, with Lemieux falling into a tie for 36th and Bettis all the way back to 48th. Complete results can be found here.

Odds on a Steeler winning the Tahoe Celebrity golf tournament

Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis will both be playing in this weekend's American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe. In fact, they will be paired with Mario Lemieux in the first round of the tournament tomorrow (July 17). The odds on Big Ben winning the tourney are listed at 20-1 (kinda long odds considering his round at Bethpage Black a few weeks back), while The Bus is a longshot at 200-1.

Former Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt is in at 20-1 odds. And of course, Charles Barkley is the longest of the longshots at 499-1, up from the 500-1 he usually rates.

Former Steelers punter Pat Brady dies

Former Pittsburgh Steelers punter Pat Brady died on July 14 in Reno, Nevada, after a long battle with lymphoma. He was 83.

Brady played for the Steelers from 1952-54, averaging 44.5 yards per punt over that span. He led the league in punting in 1953 and '54 before his career was ended by an injury.

Starks contract is reasonable

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the four-year contract extension signed by offensive tackle Max Starks is worth a total of $26.3 million, and includes a signing bonus of approximately $10 million. At an average of less than $6.6 million per season, that's actually a reasonable contract from the Steelers' perspective. Recall that Starks earned $6.9 million as a transition player last season, and was slated to earn more than $8 million in 2009. Now the team can turn its attention to extending the contracts of one or two other key veterans, with tight end Heath Miller most likely at the top of the list.

Mr. Irrelevant, Irrelevant Week has surprising connections to the Steelers

My new Failure magazine feature on the history of Irrelevant Week reveals several surprising connections to the Pittsburgh Steelers, many of which I was unaware of before researching the article. Not only was the very first Mr. Irrelevant [Kelvin Kirk, 17th round, 1976] chosen by the Steelers, the creator of Mr. Irrelevant [Paul Salata] was a Steelers draft pick, taken in the tenth round in 1951. Not only that, Salata was a two-year NFL veteran when he was selected by Pittsburgh, having already played for the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts.

Steelers sign 3 draft choices, cut Dirk Johnson

The Steelers must be optimistic about the progress Daniel Sepulveda is making in terms of coming back from his pair of knee surgeries as the team has released fellow punter Kirk Johnson. Meanwhile, the club also recently announced the signing of a trio of draft choices - third-rounder Keenan Lewis, as well as fifth-rounders Joe Burnett and Frank Summers. All were inked to three-year contracts.

Steelers sign 13 rookie free-agents

Following are the 13 rookie free-agents signed by the Steelers after the draft (in alphabetical order). Hopefully there is a James Harrison, Willie Parker or Nate Washington among this group.

Steven Black, WR, Memphis
Jeff Bradley, DT, Western Carolina
Mark Estermeyer, LS, Pittsburgh
Ramon Foster, OT, Tennessee
Cedric Goodman, WR, Georgia
Tyler Grisham, WR, Clemson
Tom Korte, LB, Hillside (Mich.)
Kevin McCabe, QB, California (Pa.)
Steve McLendon, DT, Troy
Isaac Redman, RB, Bowie State
Mike Reilly, QB, Central Washington State
Derrick Richardson, S, New Mexico State
Andrew Schantz, LB, Portland State