The Penguins have this rad website up for the playoffs where you can upload pictures of your playoff beard for others to rate while you donate money to the Mario Lemieux Foundation or put a fake beard on your own picture in case you can't grow one. Beard-A-Thon is totally sick...I saw Mondesi had a mention of it, and others probably did as well, but I don't have the time to go looking that up.

Instead, I wanted to see who else would be supporting the Pens as the playoffs approach. And you wouldn't believe the people throwing love to the Pens with a full-on beard (all made by me with the beard generator).These cats are:

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger

Post-Gazette blogger/journalist Bob Smizik

Steely McBeam

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl AND HIS WIFE!

Dan Rooney

Former Penguin and Stanley Cup champ Jim Paek

Penguins TV hottie Alyonka Larionov. Is it wrong that she's still hot with a Mose Schrute-chinstrap?

Tinker around on the Beard-A-Thon website for yourself. It's pretty sick, not gonna lie.

Surreal. Whoever took this picture deserves some sort of prize.

Pens won! [The Pensblog]

Courtney Lee assessment. [The Puns Are Starting To Bore Me]

The most excited a black man will get about hockey. [The Sports Culture]

Wolverine movie leak. [Gunaxin]

Kim Kardashian is a hardcore basketball fan (*chuckles*). [The World of Isaac]

The world's stupidest invention. [NESW Sports]

Excuse me for not being up to date on the current Texas high school football beat. This happened at the end of March, but it's the first I've heard of it.

Steelers NT Casey Hampton recently had his high school jersey retired by the Ball High School Tors, his former team from the Galveston area. And when he was presented his framed commemorative jersey, the massive man almost dropped it. Obviously, he's not in shape for the 2009 season yet.

Video is provided. If Casey wasn't so huge, he might've been blown away by the wind. Casey served as both honored guest as well as paperweight when the tablecloth almost blew away. The man can multitask.

Wow, Cypress Gardens looks to be the best place ever. Not only for the mini horse, but for the two "Hey baby"-worthy chicks.

Nice costumes, I guess.

Buccos won! Above .500! [WHYGAVS?]

LBJ Nike commercial. [Paneech]

Lower-level hockey players keep coming up with sick shootout goals. [Total Pro Sports]

There's not much else you can say about Vin Diesel. Perfectly put. [The Pensblog]

Marshawn Lynch is suspended the first 3 games. [Buffalo News]

Just because you need to see it to believe it. Vijay Singh skips a ball across a pond for a hole-in-one. [Brahsome]

Remember when the Buccos were undefeated? Yeah, those good feelings lasted exactly one night.

All the positives of the comeback, late-inning win on opening day proved to be nothing more than a one-time affair. Turns out that Pirates fans were sarcastically optimistic after the 1-0 start to the season. And we were right. The Pirates turned in a stinker last night, losing 9-3 to the Cardinals team that has seemingly had our number throughout the LaRussa era. Here's some words of wisdom from my buddy Pat:

"On top of Snell's bad start, the Pirates only mustered five hits (just three after the first two batters of the game) and Andy LaRoche made another bad error (that's three in two games) that lead to two unearned runs. Donnie Veal then came in to relieve Snell and started his career with the reverse Jordan Schaefer by allowing a home run to Yadier Molina on the third pitch of his career. He then struck out two batters, walked the bases loaded, and struck Chris Duncan out looking. Is there such thing as a three true outcomes pitcher?

One night after wishing I was watching the Pirates instead of a basketball game, I wanted to turn the Pirates off in the sixth inning tonight. I have a bad feeling that there are going to be more of these games this year."

Now THERE'S the Pirates I know and love. I feel foolish for even thinking that change was imminent. That team we saw on opening night bears little resemblance to any Bucco team from the past 16 years, and their display of competence was a one-night fling.

So we're back where we're used to being, Pirates fans. Crushing losses after decent wins to kill any chance at momentum.

But hey, we're still at .500, amirite?

Is it just me, or is mini pony on the left smiling at the girl? And you might not see it at first, but focus on the cool white mini pony way in the background. He's the best.

Pens win! [The Pensblog]

ESPN's Jay Crawford has a low flow shower head. Seinfeld, anyone? [NESW Sports]

Best dunks of the NCAA tournament. [Intentional Foul]

Obama's finding a replacement for Tom Izzo. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]

Final Four of the Best Sports Blog Name Tournament. [Zoner Sports]

Top 10 Offensive Linemen in the upcoming draft. You paying attention, Pittsburgh? [Bankroll Sports]

Pens win. Bet you didn't think it would take til game 80 to clinch a playoff spot. Oh well, we'll take it any way we can get it.

Look out, NHL.

Go Pens!

If my buds at The Pensblog keep supplying amazing pictures like this, then they should probably switch teams and start covering baseball year-round.

Can't see the subject? Look harder. I'm just surprised that the guy is in the stands and not with his twin on some motorcycle somewhere.

Go Cardinals and your morbidly obese fanbase!

Well now the Madden guys have really started screwing with my head.

This video is pretty cool in that announcers Chris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond pretty much gush about Ben Roethlisberger for a good 3 minutes. But then, you gotta remember that the reason they're endlessly complimenting certain players is because they're looking for a coverboy for the latest Madden 2010 video game. Oh jeez...

Unless you've lived in a cave (or next door to one, at least), you know all about the supposed Madden Curse. Everyone who has been featured on the game's cover since they took Madden's fat face off of it has been plagued with some sort of on or off field predicament. From the late 80s through 1998, Madden was the only one on the cover. Then, 1999 brought Garrison Hearst to the front of the game, and each successive cover athlete has been haunted by injuries or poor play after appearing on the game.

Ben Roethlisberger would seem to be in a different category, though. As a premier quarterback coming off his second Super Bowl win, there's no reason to expect a drop in performance. But still, that injury threat is very real with a guy like Ben. Plus, Ben's worst season as a pro came directly after the Super Bowl XL win, when he went through a life-altering motorcycle crash, appendectomy and several concussions.

Last year's coverboy, Brett Favre, led the league in interceptions. That's a scary idea when it comes to Ben as a possible Madden cover athlete.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe that Ben deserves all the praise and adulation in the world...just not on the Madden cover, though. Maybe NFL Blitz needs Ben like they needed Kordell Stewart back in the day.

Ok, so this looks like a Magic: The Gathering card or something. Mini horse would destroy Shivan Dragon.

The all-NL Central team. I see no Pirates... [Zoner Sports]

My buds at Gunaxin can only do opening day in one way. [Gunaxin]

The Buccos won, so I'll just direct you to Pat's place. [WHYGAVS?]

Masters preview. [Paneech]

Bailing out the Blazers' bandwagon plan. [Bust A Bucket]

Bias kept a deserving HS basketball coach out of the HOF. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]