Back in the mid-1990’s, the joke used to be, “how to you get all of the Dallas Cowboy’s to stand straight in a single moment.”

The answer was, just say, “the defendants may now rise.”

It was funny then, but it is less funny now that it can be applied so accurately to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, along with numerous other news outlets, that Steelers wide receiver, and Super Bowl XLIII MVP has been named as a defendant in a civil suit in Florida.

Holmes has been accused of assaulting a woman in, get this, the VIP section of a night club. The woman is accusing Holmes of verbally assaulting her, attempting to hit her, and hurling his glass at her. No chargers have been filed, although the woman has apparently spoken to police.

Holmes Joins Roethlisberger

The Steelers have now had two high profile starters accused of various types of assaults – in less than a month, as Holmes’ civil accusation comes on the heels of Ben Roethlisberger being accused of a criminal sexual assault in a Georgia night club.

Roethsliberger is also a defendant in a civil law suit filed in Nevada.

As with Roethlisberger, Holmes deserves the right to have his side of the story heard and the benefit of innocence until guilt is proven.

But regardless, this is a public relations nightmare the Pittsburgh Steelers.

When Santonio Holmes name was last mentioned in connection with the courts, after his arrest for marijuana possession in 2008, Steel Curtain Rising incorrectly suggested that the team might opt to resign Nate Washington and let Holmes go.

It is way too early to predict how the Steelers will act, but one cannot help speculate as to how this might impact the plans that the Steelers purportedly had to resign Holmes to a long-term contract this summer.