Plugged In Down at Da Bar

PITTSBURGH - Zipping up in the elevator at Heinz Field, a scout for an AFC East team said that "bar research" is indispensable in the Steel City.

"I'm telling you, you get here three, four days early, go to the bar and you know all you need to know about the whole team," said the scout. "I'm sitting next to a guy the other night and he has all the cuts already made down to 53. He knows what the depth chart needs to be, has the special teams figured out. These guys could help the coaches, I'm telling you."

John Clayton from ESPN.com, a Pittsburgh native, was in the lift with me and said that the same phenomenon exists in Green Bay but there it's the ushers that carry the encyclopedic knowledge.