Day 3, Volume II

Ed Bouchette is a blogging maniac:

Come for the football, stay for the food

The Arnold Palmer airport is a gem that’s not well known outside of Westmoreland County. It has something that no longer can be found at most big airports around the country – a genteelness still exists. The airport, located along Route 30 in Unity Township near Latrobe, is still serviced by one major airline, Northwest, so you can get most anywhere from Latrobe – maybe not Pittsburgh, though, because it’s becoming increasingly tougher to fly in and out of that airport.

This is among the best parts: You can drive almost up to the doorstep of the main concourse (actually, it’s the ONLY concourse, there are no A, B, C and D) and park your car – for FREE. There’s also a nice bronze statue of a beaming Arnie, holding what looks like a driver, out front, and one of those old painted gas pumps that dot the old Lincoln Highway, a.k.a. Route 30.

Now, here’s another gem that’s worth driving to this relatively quiet (and also relatively close to Pittsburgh, especially its eastern suburbs) airport even if you’re not flying. It’s the restaurant inside. I guarantee you will not find a better restaurant in any other airport in the U.S. Longtime Steelers fan and Jeannette banker Tony DeNunzio and his son Ron run one of their four area DeNunzio’s restaurants inside the airport concourse. And you don’t have to go through airport security to enter the restaurant. It’s where the former Blue Angel restaurant resided for years.

Another treat: If you go to DeNunzio’s in the evening, you might find a Steelers scout or five at the expansive bar. It’s also a place where, inside the restaurant or outside on its patio, you could watch Dan Rooney take off in his small Beechcraft after practice.

New job

Wonder what former Steelers receiver Cedrick Wilson is up to? The Steelers released their former starter in March after he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend.

Now Wilson is back in football – not the NFL, but back home in Tennessee as the offensive coordinator for the new Douglass High School of Public in Memphis, Tennessee.

According to WMC-TV in Memphis, Wilson will join his former high school football coach, Dee Montgomery, on the staff. Wilson played for Montgomery on the Melrose High School state champion football team in 1996.

Sharp-eyed former Steelers PR man Rob Boulware, a Penn State graduate, alerted the PG to the story. Boulware is temporarily stationed in Memphis, as manager of Issues & Crisis Communications for FedEx Ground.

No Colclough, no problem

Santonio Holmes said he wanted to return punts and he was among a handful of candidates lining up to catch them at this morning’s one-hour special teams practice at Saint Vincent College.

They really weren’t punts – a coach threw the ball in the air because Daniel Sepulveda is the only punter on the roster and they don’t want him using up his leg before the end of August.

Holmes, new running back Mewelde Moore, ski bum Jeremy Bloom and Willie Reid all fielded the “punts.’’ Back on kickoffs this morning were Moore, Bloom, Reid and your favorite rookie, Rashard Mendenhall.