Pregame Bungles-Stillers (and Joe Greene-Coke kid)

 11:35 a.m.: INACTIVES include FB Carey Davis (hamstring), starting DE Travis Kirschke (calf), CB Keiwan Ratliff, G Kraig Urbik, OT Tony Hills, DE Sunny Harris, WR Shaun McDonald with Dennis Dixon as the No. 3 quarterback.

All of which means: WR Limas Sweed is active again. We'll see if the one thing he can grab is an opponent's jersey for the second time in a week.

So that makes Nick Eason the starter again for Kirschke and David Johnson listed as the starting fullback. Ratliff, for the record, had played every game since being inactive in the Tennessee Tuxedos opener.

For Cincinnati, the inactives are: FB Fui Vakapuna, WR Jerome Simpson, DT Pat Sims, and a bunch of key injured guys such as starting LB Keith Rivers, G Evan Mathis, OT Andre Smith, TE Chase Coffman, with Jordan Palmer -- Carson's kid brother -- the No. 3 quarterback. 

Don't forget to update your Bungles roster: S Roy Williams (forearm) was placed on IR Friday and WR Maurice Purify, signed from practice squad, will be No. 14 -- and may help to replace injured WR Chris Henry from West Virginia.

12:09 p.m.: UPDATE -- The Bengals starting lineup gets three alterations. Nate Livings will start at left guard for Mathis, Brandon Johnson at weakside linebacker for Rivers and Chinedum Ndukwe at strong safety for Williams.

COKE AND THE KID

12:14 p.m.: Joe Greene and Tommy Okon, whom Coke Zero imitated (the highest form of flattery, after all) in their Troy Polamalu commercial for Super Bowl 43, just met with the media to talk about a 30-year wrong being made right -- they were given copies of the Clio commercial awards they won in the 1979 spot that remains Coca-Cola's most famous and the favorite NFL television ad of all-time. (See it in the next BnG item)

Okon, of course, is a grown man nowadays. He's 39 and owns a stone fabricating contractor business -- his firm's handiwork adorns new Yankees Stadium, and imagine the attention the New York tabloids would've given that celebrity nugget. Okon brought his four children -- a 6-year-old son and daughters 4, 9 and 10 -- to Heinz Field to meet his commercial co-star and soak up some Steelers atmosphere. Their celebrated spot, which first aired during the 1979 Pirates-laden baseball playoffs and then for the Super Bowl XIV that Greene and the Steelers won. The ad was filmed at Mt. Vernon Memorial Stadium, said Okon, a native of the area and a resident still. "I drive by it every day on my way to work, which is ironic," Okon said.

Greene, who later starred in a made-for-TV movie based off the popular commercial, "The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid," remains grateful and awed by the power of one little ad. "It definitely changed some things that happened in my life," he said, and Okon concurred with his, too. He remembers doing other '70s commercials that earned him grief in his own locker room. But that one, after it first aired amid the baseball playoffs that year, earned key critical reviews: "Robin Cole came in the locker room and said, 'Hey, Joe, that was a pretty good commercial.' Normally. . . , they tease us about them. We look sort of goofy doing those. That time, I got praise."

Greene said he'd find room next to his other trophies for the award that he said "we should've received 30 years ago. I was working, he was working, so they passed." Okon, who still has a Greene jersey framed on his wall at home, said "my mantel's not nearly as cluttered as Joe's. But the picture of my 9-year-old might have to come down for awhile." The two, by the way, last saw each other eight years ago at a Mel Blount charity dinner in Greene's honor.

As for the Polamalu remake above, it made Greene smile. "I like the commercial. I like Coke Zero stealing from the other, not only their flavor but their commercial. And they could not have had a better guy to do it than Troy. Just very, very special."

12:38 p.m.: One last Greene-Coke story. He remembered being at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii in 1980 when the players from both the squads gathered for a photo shoot. They took the picture at a schoolyard in Honolulu, and just then the kids were cut loose for recess. Greene recalled a litany of tykes coming toward him with shirts and Coke bottles, passing the likes of such stars as Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and Buffalo Bills halfback O.J. Simpson.

"That was the first inkling that i thought, 'You know, maybe this Coca-Cola thing is kind of special."

12:40 p.m.: International Space Station commander Mike Fincke of Emsworth and Sewickley Academy, the NASA colonel famous for his pre-Super Bowl video from the Steelers Galaxy, just presented his glass-encased Terrible Towel to the Steelers and Art Rooney II. In turn, Fincke was given a new towel to transport back to, uh, work.

Fincke, who is a funny guy, told the WDVE-FM show earlier today that, of course, every Steelers fan carries their towel with them whenever they leave home ("Bye, Mom, I'm going to space now.") He also spun the tale of how the video was shot: He noticed in the camera that the towel was upside down, so he lifted his legs and allowed gravity to turn it right-side up. Brilliant.