As you may know by now, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Casey Hampton will become a free agent on March 5.

The team's front office has two options available to keep Hampton from hitting the open market.

The first one is that they could negotiate a long-term contract of approximately four years and hope to get a deal done before next month.

The other option is that the Steelers could elect to make Hampton their exclusive franchise player which would guarantee his rights with the Steelers for one more year. By making Hampton the franchise player, the Steelers would have to pay him the average of the top five salaries ($6 million) at his position for next season.

The latter option would indeed make the most sense because Hampton is 33 years old and probably has only one or two quality years left in him. Furthermore, the Steelers don’t have a young player at that position being groomed to take over for Hampton.

If the Steelers believe they still have the makings of a championship caliber team, retaining Hampton’s services for another year seems paramount.

The problem, however, is that Casey Hampton doesn’t want the franchise tag. He wants a long term deal or nothing at all. Hampton has gone out of his way to say so. He said that a one-year contract worth $6 million would be considered a slap in his face for all that he has done for the organization. Hampton added that there would be problems if he is franchised and denied the opportunity to seek out the highest bidder in free agency.

Well isn’t that just too bad, Casey. Should we have a pity party for you now?

Let's see. The United States' unemployment rate is near an all-time high. Thousands of Americans have lost their homes over the past five years. Haiti just lost a couple hundred thousand people to an deadly earthquake and the survivors are left without much of anything. But Casey Hampton would consider it a slap in the face to get only $6 million to play for one season. That’s pretty bold stuff coming from a guy who can’t even play all three downs.

Maybe Hampton should have worried about his contract status when he kept coming into camp 40 and 50 pounds overweight. Perhaps if former Head Coach Bill Cowher and current Head Coach Mike Tomlin didn’t have to babysit him for the last five years, Hampton would have had a new contract by now.

Not only that, but Hampton is going down a long and ugly road by virtually ordering the Steelers to keep the franchise tag off him. Does he really think Pittsburgh will be sympathetic to an often out of shape, part-time player that kicks and screams like a baby because he is “only” getting paid $6 million.

To play football?

For one season?

Good luck with that.

Do general managers in football have a shelf life?

I can remember the great coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Bill Walsh, saying that coaches have about 10 years until they need to move on.

I wonder if it's the same with general managers.

Kevin Colbert, the Steelers' Director of Football Operations, has basically been the team's general manager for the past decade. His work leading up to the Steelers 2005 Super Bowl win was excellent.

Over the past three years, however, Colbert seems to have lost his touch, as he has made some puzzling decisions.

1) Despite having a myriad of other needs, Colbert drafted linebacker Lawrence Timmons when they didn’t need a replacement for Larry Foote. Three years later, it is still questionable to whether Timmons is an every down player at that position.

2) He has destroyed any room the Steelers had under the salary cap by making offensive lineman Max Starks the franchise player for two consecutive years, which paid him $8 million or so per season. It wasn’t as if Starks was a highly sought-after player that would have received a contract offer in free agency that the Steelers could not have competed with. After all, they were apparently willing to give him $8 million for a season. This was a situation ultimately brought on by the loss of All-Pro left guard Alan Faneca. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have franchised Faneca and worked out a long-term deal with Starks?

We all know that Faneca did not want the franchise tag, but the situation might have just forced him to work out a long-term deal with the Steelers that both parties could have lived with. There was no need to franchise Starks. This was just a knee-jerk move by Colbert who was panicked that he might lose another veteran offensive lineman in successive years.

3) The drafting of backup tight ends and punters in the third and fourth rounds of the 2007 draft made no sense considering that the offensive line needed rebuilding and the defensive line was beginning to age.

4) The decision to roll with William Gay at cornerback and let Bryant McFadden walk didn’t turn out that well.

It would be difficult to ignore the situation the Steelers are faced with. They are in a position where they have to consider resigning Hampton, cornerback Deshea Townsend, and safety Ryan Clark to keep this team ultra-competitive.

Let's face the facts here. It is not the Steelers' way is to sign 30-plus year old veterans to long term deals. They have always had young guys behind their key veterans that were being groomed to take over.

But, last year, the Steelers did not have a replacement for James Farrior and were forced to sign the aging linebacker to a longer contract.

They do not have young replacements for Hampton, Townsend, Clark, or even Bryan McFadden (as it appears that William Gay, who was exposed in theMonday night game against Denver, is highly questionable to become anything more than a weakness in the secondary). Those are a lot key defensive positions that have no clear direction in the future.

In addition, the much-maligned offensive line is still much-maligned.

With Colbert's inability to get much from the draft after the second round the last four years, you have to wonder where all these players are going to come from. It’s not a time to panic, but I can’t say that I’m not concerned.

Penguin news

There was a report locally that the Pittsburgh Penguins were struggling at home this year while playing better on the road. This report was false. Here is a breakdown for the Penguins so far this season going into Monday’s game with Buffalo:

- Pens are 13-3 at home against teams that allow more than 29.5 shots per game and allow more than 2.55 goals per game.

- Pens are 1-5 at home against good defensive teams that allow less than 2.55 goals per game.

- Pens are 2-3 at home against teams that average fewer than 29.5 shots per game and allow more than 2.55 goals per game.

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-Pens are 14-3 on the road against poor defensive teams that allow more than 29.5 shots per game and allow more than 2.55 goals per game.

- Pens are 1-5 on the road against good defensive teams that allow less than 2.55 goals per game.

- Pens are 3-3 on the road against teams that allow less than 29.5 shots per game and allow more than 2.55 goals per game.

As you can see, the performance of the Penguins at home and on the road is virtually the same. The real bottom line is that the Penguins thrive against average-to-poor defenses. Their struggles come against the dominant defensive teams.

This was true last year as well. When the Penguins face a team that allows fewer than 2.55 goals per game and less than 29.5 shots per game, they have rarely won. But when they face average-to-below average defensive teams, the Penguins rarely lose. Those are the facts.

Golfing news

Golfer Phil Mickelson is being accused as a cheater for switching to old Ping-Eye 2 wedges.

About 10 years ago the PGA Tour banned all gold clubs that had U-shaped grooves. They did this because irons with U-shaped grooves allowed the golfers to spin the ball out of the rough, thus preventing flyers.

But because the Ping golf company already had their U-shaped irons in the market, the PGA tour grandfathered the Ping-Eye 2 clubs and banned all others. This rule wasn’t to be enforced until this season. Now that it is in effect, Mickelson decided to go into his basement and get out the old Ping-Eye 2 wedges and put them into play. Mickelson is a great short-game player and relies heavily on getting a lot of spin on his shots. Because the Ping irons were grandfathered in, Mickelson is breaking no rule. But that hasn’t stopped PGA tour players from ripping him, saying he is going against the spirit of the rule and is, therefore, cheating.

My opinion is that the PGA tour is the problem here. They allow these quadruple-sized UFO-shaped heads on drivers, but they just can’t permit a little better technology within the grooves of their irons? Good grief. Golf is a great game, but it is run by some very strange groups of people.

Consider the upcoming Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia. If any announcer refers to the fans as “people”  instead of of “patrons,” they could be banned from the tournament forever.

These “people” need to get a life.

Dutch is a sports talk host on wmbs590 radio Saturday mornings 9-10 am. You can email Dutch at smartmonies@gmail.com.