They Must of Been Looking for an Excuse -- UPDATE

Update
According to an item from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the fact that James Harrison wanted to have his son baptized sufficiently explains the alleged incident in which he was involved, at least so far as the Steelers are concerned.

According to a quote from the article, Dan Rooney said:

"What Jimmy Harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it . . . [h]e was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. She said she didn't want to do it."

Really? That's why James Harrison is still a member of the team but Cedric Wilson isn't? I don't know whether to question the veracity of the statement, the logic behind it, or both.

Original Posting
I came across the report about the alleged incident involving Cedric Wilson and his girlfriend -- not that one, but the new one -- too late in the day (i.e. I was too tired) to write about, deciding instead to take on the issue of domestic violence and Pittsburgh Steelers after a few hours of sleep. Of course as we know now the Steelers cut Mr. Wilson rather than wait to see how the whole mess turns out.

With the alleged incidents involving James Harrison and Mr. Wilson approximately ten days apart the obvious question is why cut one but not the other? Frankly I am hesitant to hazard any guesses . . . but here goes.

• Salary: Mr. Wilson's cap value ($2,404,302) in 2007 was fifteenth highest on the Steelers, while Mr. Harrison's ($1,446,630) was twenty-fourth. Not a huge disparity, but a million dollar difference may have been a small (teeny-tiny) consideration.


• Available replacement: This seems the more plausible explanation. Nate Washington made progress last season (he is a restricted free agent, so re-signing him now becomes more of a priority), and with a host of wide outs already on the roster (e.g. Dallas Baker, Jeremy Bloom, Willie Reid) and the NFL draft just around the corner, replacing Mr. Wilson must seem a much less daunting task than replacing the team's Most Valuable Player from last season.

Of course a statement from the team -- not very likely, at least not yet -- would clear things up nicely. To that end, an email from Pittsburgh Steelers Fanatic to Steelers' spokesperson Dave Lockett was not immediately answwered.