Mike Wallace.The Pittsburgh Steelers are not unfamiliar with egotistical stars that have overvalued their worth http://www.steelersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-ben-roethlisberger-jersey , and try to move on to greener pastures. Mike Wallace also looked for those pastures. He found fields of green in free agency. Fortunately for him, they were green with the dollar bills he desired. But, unfortunately for him, they turned out to be burnt-out lawns. And, soon, that money dried up, too. Back to Wallace’s story in a moment.Le’Veon Bell’s holdout is perplexing in many ways. He’s leaving lottery-winning amounts of money on the table every week, all while supposedly preserving his body for his big payday next season. He surely wanted the Steelers to struggle without him howing his worth to the NFL world.While the Steelers are not off to a sterling start, they seem to be getting their footing for a Super Bowl push, sans Bell. Worse for Bell, James Conner has been, at times, fantastic. He catches the ball better than advertised, and scores TDs in numbers that Bell never did. Conner looks the part. The Steelers’ slow start is due to defensive deficiencies, not offensive. Nobody is blaming Conner for the team’s hiccups this season. Bell misplayed his hand so far, lost generational amounts of money, and he still needs to return this season and play to become a free agent next season. So, who says he doesn’t get hurt on his first carry after he comes back?!This is a gladiator sport where players go down constantly.Okay, so maybe he does stay healthy playing rest of season. And, he does preserve the wear-and-tear on his body he so feared. It is still easy to suggest Le’Veon Bell may not get the amount he’s looking for next season. The Steelers and Conner proved him replaceable. Will NFL teams not take notice of that fact?But Le'Veon Bell Jersey , okay, this is the NFL, and certain teams seem to always overpay. Perhaps Le’Veon Bell gets his big payday, being paid as both a RB and WR, at 17 mil/yr or so. So, let’s look into a crystal ball. If he does get his overinflated, self-assessed value, you’ll one day likely read the sports headline: (Insert team name here) want Bell to accept pay cut, or be cut.This is the same thing that happened to Mike Wallace with the Dolphins after two seasons when he fled the “cheap” Steelers. (Forget that the Dolphins also overpaid for Brandon Marshall and Ndamukong Suh, and let them loose, too! We’ll stick with Wallace’s story here. Like I said, the NFL is littered with stories like these.) Contracts are not guaranteed in the NFL. When players go for those ultimate dollar deals, they almost always get cut a short time later if they don’t agree to lower their contract price. Besides QBs, precious few live them out. The Steelers were smart, letting Wallace walk for his huge contract, and signing the cheaper Antonio Brown to a nice-sized, but workable, contract. You never saw the Steelers ask Antonio Brown to lower his contract, right? Because it was a sensible contract that was affordable but still allowing Brown to do well, too. Antonio Brown would end up playing out his contract with a HOF quarterback in Big Ben. Roethlisberger makes WRs look better than they are Authentic Maurkice Pouncey Jersey , that is what great QBs do. Don’t forget that even Nate Washington turned his Pittsburgh career with Ben tossing him the ball into big bucks with Tennessee! Nate was Mike Wallace before Mike Wallace. Like Wallace (and even Brown), Ben makes these players look better than they are. Just as the Steelers’ top-notch offensive line, HOF quarterback, and HOF wide receiver make Bell better. With All-Pros in the passing game, Bell rarely sees 8-in-the-box behind his talented line. But, back to Wallace.He overvalued himself, as did many pundits such as ESPN analyst and HOF receiver Chris Carter. Carter suggested that Wallace was an irreplaceable, impact player. This was generally believed throughout the NFL. The Dolphins, most experts said, got a stud in Wallace. Pittsburgh should not have let him walk.Wallace went on to pedestrian seasons with multiple clubs after leaving Pittsburgh (Ben). Suddenly, Wallace had his passes in Miami flung to him by Ryan Tannehill, and the Chris Carters of the world forgot about him.Had he stayed in Pittsburgh, his numbers would be inflated and he’d still be thought of as an elite receiver. Tethered to Ben Roethlisberger for the last 5 seasons would have changed his career trajectory. Most likely, he would have signed another impressive but fair contract – the same thing the Steelers offered him before.Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald wrote on 2/19/15: “I believe the Dolphins want to pay Wallace to his performance level rather than his potential performance level, which is what they paid for when they signed him as a free agent in 2013.” He adds: “The point is Wallace wasn’t top 5 in anything except his salary.”Hello, Le’Veon Bell, this is your likely future. A humble ending to a unhumble man.Unlike 2017, Chris Boswell can’t rescue Steelers from a sloppy mess in tie with Browns As I stood there in my uncle’s living room, watching Chris Boswell prepare for a 42-yard field goal attempt in the waning moments of overtime in the Steelers’ 2018 regular-season opener against the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday, I was confident I would soon wipe my brow in relief and thank the football heavens for yet another victory that could have very easily gone the other way. After all Youth Artie Burns Jersey , that was how so many of Pittsburgh’s games ended in 2017, on the way to a 13-3 record and a second-straight AFC North Division title. The Steelers and their opponents would often battle tooth-and-nail for the better part of 60 sloppy minutes, a year ago, before Boswell ended things with a game-winning field goal in the final seconds — including three booted on the final play of regulation.Unfortunately, Boswell’s attempt sailed wide left and, moments later, the Steelers neededT.J. Watt to block a field goal just to preserve a very disappointing 21-21 tie.And that’s when reality sunk in: the 2018 Steelers aren’t likely going to be able to get away with as much as they did in 2017. Why? That’s sports — sooner or later, the law of averages are going to catch up with you. You can’t commit 116 yards in penalties and expect to win many games. You certainly can’t turn the football over a whopping six times — including five by the franchise quarterback—and expect to win any games, let alone walk off of the field with a tie.But despite the less-than-ideal play — a performance that may have been excused away by the day-long downpour — I was still expecting the Steelers to pull things out.Even after running back James Conner tarnished his otherwise great day by losing a fumble that the Browns quickly converted into a touchdown to pull to within seven points with 7:32 remaining, you just had a feeling Pittsburgh would win. Even after quarterback Tyrod Taylor found Browns’ embattled receiver, Josh Gordon, in the end zone for a touchdown that tied the score at 21 with 1:58 remaining in the fourth quarter, I felt extremely confident someone would come along and save the Steelers’ bacon, yet again. And when Cam Sutton picked off a Taylor pass deep in Steelers’ territory with 16 seconds left in regulation, you, every other Steelers fan, as well as all of those downtrodden faithful in Browns Nation, likely thought the inevitable outcome was going to be the Black-and-gold heading back to Pittsburgh as winners — albeit sloppy winners — once more. Late in overtime, as Antonio Brown and Jesse James made key catches and key gains to set up Boswell’s attempt, you had the feeling that this Week-1 slop-fest wouldn’t be entirely acceptable to the coaches http://www.steelersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-antonio-brown-jersey , players and fans, but at least the Steelers would still earn a victory while working out the bugs — and to reiterate, it did rain during the entire game. Many people spent the offseason warning Steelers fans that their favorite football team couldn’t make a habit out of stacking wins in close contests, that a Super Bowl-contender is often more business-like than child-like.But — darn it — the Steelers might often be a team in turmoil, but they’re also a team of character that just finds a way to win. Sadly, after one week of the 2018 regular season, you can’t say that anymore. In many ways, this tie felt like a heartbreaking loss. But, then, when you’re up by two touchdowns midway through the fourth quarter against a team that hasn’t won a game since 2016, anything but victory is going to feel like defeat. No, the Steelers aren’t losers after one week of regular-season action, but they’re certainly not winners either. What Pittsburgh appears to be, however, is a version similar to the 2017 squad. Unfortunately, that may not be enough to cut it in 2018. NFL Outlet