Peter King Jinxes Steelers, Picks Them to Upset Patriots Sunday

Forget Anthony Smith. As teammate James Farrior pointed out yesterday, "[Smith's] a guy who hasn't been around the league too long so I don't even know if he's even qualified to say something like that. I don't know if they'll pay that any attention."

Well, they paid attention it to it -- I'm sure Rodney Harrison had his RSS feed set to all things Pittsburgh this week -- but making empty guarantees won't have any effect on the outcome. Nope, if the Steelers lose, it's all on ~~Eddie Mush~~ Peter King. He's picking Pittsburgh over New England, 27-20. And he's not one of those guys who just throws out a score willy-nilly, no, he even took the time to write out five reasons why the Steelers will win! Paraphrasing:

A.J. Feeley and Kyle Boller aren't very good, and they put up 52 on the Pats' defense. Big Ben won't make late-game mistakes;
New England's run defense stinks; Willie Parker, even though he can't not fumble, will have a big day;
The Pats are tired after three straight night games;
Hines Ward just wins, baby!
Peter King's gut tells him the Steelers will win.

For me, this is all a smokescreen. King is way too in love with Tom Brady to quit him now. No way in hell he likes the Steelers Sunday, and I suspect this is a desperate attempt to jinx Pittsburgh and help New England make it to 16-0. As far as I'm concerned, that's almost as bad as videotaping the opponents' defensive signals.