Pittsburgh Steelers Will Field a Better Team in 2009

The 2008 Steelers overcame several handicaps to win the Super Bowl. The playcalling for much of the season was uninspiring, the punter was only mildly better than the kid who punts for your local pee wee team, and the offensive line was stitched together with bubble gum.

Yet, this squad navigated one of the toughest ranked schedules in league history to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at season’s end.

Yet, these Steelers are not being picked by many experts to win the Super Bowl next year. These experts may very well be right. Thirty-two teams will begin next season with the Lombardi trophy as their ultimate goal, even the Lions and the Browns. It is easy to predict that the Steelers won’t repeat based on sheer probability.

I don’t know if they will win the Super Bowl or not. There are several really good teams in this league and, come playoff time, a fluke bounce one way or another could determine which one of those teams comes out on top.
But, there are plenty of reasons to believe that next year’s black and gold squad not only will be better than the 2008 team, but might be significantly better.

Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Team…Sort Of

All of us members of Steelers’ Nation love to remember our all-time favorite players.

But, this list is a tribute to the players we loved to hate.

They also filled an important role and aren’t always appreciated for the sheer ineptitude they brought to the table. 

These are the guys that made us want to throw-up those nachos we were eating while watching the game. These are the guys we cursed as we kept thinking, “Wait until next year. He just needs one more year to develop.”

I’ll give a tribute to Sergey Zikov who gave me the idea for this one by writing a similar article on the Pittsburgh Penguins.  They are not necessarily listed in order.

1. Troy Edwards. The Edwards’ 1999 draft pick was one of the most perplexing of the Bill Cowher years. The guy was small and not particularly fast. He wan’t even projected to go in the first round. But, the Steelers were desperate for a wide receiver and when they went on the clock at No. 13, Edwards was their guy.

Even EA Sports knew enough to make this guy a slug on the Madden video game, which is odd since even bust rookies on that game are usually really good.

Edwards would go on to become the go-to receiver for the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Arena League.

Scratch that. He wasn’t particularly good for them, either.

Edwards was a poster child for why drafting for need over best player is not always the best idea.

He was one of Cowher’s rare misses.  But, you have to give it to him. When he missed, he missed huge. The Steelers would add Superman Hines Ward to the roster the next season with a third round pick so, to quote Shakespeare, all’s well that ends well.

2. Tim Worley. We all had high hopes for this guy who was selected No. 7 overall in 1989.

And we were in for quite a show since he was a real magician, taking every carry and magically making the ball disappear from his hands, as it rolled somewhere across the football field for any lucky defender to find.

He was slightly worse than Walter “Abracadabra” Abercrombie, the No. 12 pick from 1982 who shared Worley’s magic ability to fumble away seemingly every carry.

Wow did the Steelers have some really bad drafts in the 1980s. Worley was the icing on the cake… their last first round pick of a somewhat forgetable decade.

3. Kordell Stewart. We loved him as a wide receiver and despised him as a quarterback.

To be honest, the Steelers had far worse quarterbacks than Kordell.  Kent Graham may have been the absolute worst, beating out such legendary throwers as Mark Malone, Cliff Stoudt, and Bubby “I don’t mop up” Brister. 

But, Stewart had that odd ability to come up with his absolute worst moments when the stakes were highest.  You could bank on it. 

And he was a one-man drama production. The enduring image for me of Stewart was him walking to the sidelines after his 73rd interception of the AFC Championship Game against the Broncos with a stunned Bill Romanowski pointing his finger at his head as if to say, “That was the dumbest throw I’ve ever seen…and I have an IQ of 12.”

And people wonder why Steeler fans like Ben Roethlisberger so much. 

4. Jamaine Stephens. The Steelers were in desperate need of a tackle to replace stud blocker Leon Searcy and took Stephens in the first round in 1996.

The problem with Stephens was that he couldn’t even get down into his stance without becoming seriously winded. He may have been the most out of shape person on the planet. 

Oh…and he couldn’t block.

5. Huey Richardson. I think rock singer Huey Lewis would have been more productive for the Steelers than this first round 1991 pick at linebacker out of Florida. Truth be told, it would have been impossible for him to be any less productive.

There may have been some back luck involved in this pick, or if you are in a less charitable mood, some poor planning.  All of the players the Steelers were targeting were picked right before their turn, leaving them completely at a loss for what to do when it became their turn to pick somebody.

I think they scribbled down the first name that crossed their mind. For you conspiracy theorists out there, maybe Chuck Noll, knowing it was his last season, decided to really stick it to his replacement. 

If you forget him, you could be forgiven since he played in all of five games for the Steelers during his rookie season not recording a single statistic.

Cowher thought so little of the guy when he took over the team in 1992 that he shipped the No. 15 overall pick to Washington for a seventh round pick, which was more than he expected anybody would give him for the guy he desperately wanted off his roster. 

How often does a team give up on a first round pick after one season?  Almost never. 

6. Ricardo Colclough. I was intrigued when the Steelers drafted small school prospect Colclough (pronounced “cokely”) out of Tusculum in the second round of the 2004 draft. All of the draft guides said he was the best small school prospect in the draft and talked about him like he was the second coming of Mel Blount.

I was pumped. Until I saw him play. The lesson: Don’t draft a player whose name isn’t pronounced anywhere close to how it is spelled.

His most memorable play was blocking a punt against the Bengals that he promptly mishandled and fumbled right back to them, letting them go on to win the game.  I’m not sure if the Bengals have won a game since.

7. Alonzo Jackson. The Steelers almost never miss when drafting a tweener defensive end they plan on converting to linebacker. The key word, though, is “almost”.

Jackson was a rare miss, never able to make that transition except during the preseason, when he looked pretty good.

8. Dewayne Washington and Chad Scott. The toast twins get grouped together for this one.

The Steelers had some great defenses when Washington and Scott were in town, but it was not due to the skills of either of these guys.

Washington also gains points for making one of the biggest mistakes in Steelers’ playoff history after giving the Titans’ a second chance to kick a game winning field goal after he ran into the kicker.

One of the all-time great mysteries of the universe is the fact that, for some inexplicable reason, Deshea Townsend was stuck behind these two guys on the depth chart. They must have had some serious dirt on Cowher.

9. Mitch Berger. The Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2008 with the worst punter I’ve ever seen.

He averaged about twelve yards a punt, which after factoring in the fact that he lined up about ten yards behind center, meant that the Steelers netted about two yards of field position with each punt. 

Then again, at times he was a real weapon since his punts were so short that they would bounce off the helmets of unsuspecting opponents just running down the field looking for someone to block. 

The Steelers’ 2008 defense was so good that it overcame a punter who couldn’t net more than five yards per punt and an offense that was stuck in reverse through most of the season. 

These guys were constantly put in terrible situations, where they would promptly make a ridiculous game changing play.  I suspect it may very well have been the best defense in history, overcoming more than any other defense in leading a team to a championship.

10. Sean Mahan. The Steelers signed Mahan to a relatively sizable five-year $17 million contract to become their next stud center in 2007.

He was destined to follow in the giant footsteps of Mike Webster and Dermontti Dawson. Alas, he came up just a bit short of their proud legacies.

Mahan was the worst player on the Steelers’ weakest unit. He could hold off a defender for about .3 seconds when pass blocking, and only after blatantly grabbing that said defender.

And his average push while run blocking was measured in centimeters. The Steelers traded him to Tampa Bay in 2008 for a jug of Gatorade if I recall correctly. They definitely got the better end of that trade.

There you have it. That is my Steelers NOT all-time team. Who did I miss? Who did you have the most fun cursing at while watching your beloved black and gold warriors?

Time for Another SI Classic Cover Celebrating Pittsburgh As Title Town

The Penguins winning the Stanley Cup capped off an incredible year of sports in Pittsburgh, as two out of three of Pittsburgh’s professional sports teams captured titles.

It was time to break out the Iron City Beer, or if you are a more cultured sort, the green-bottled Rolling Rocks.

Pittsburgh is Title Town…the City of Champions. 

It is also the City of Parades. And who doesn’t love a parade, especially when your favorite players come bearing championship trophies? 

The city came dangerously close to capturing another of sports’ most coveted titles when the Pitt Panthers’ hoopsters advanced to the Elite-8 during the NCAA Tournament.

Alas, that team met its Waterloo against Villanova but should be positioned to make another great run in 2010. 

Now, all we need is for the Pirates to catch fire and finish the Trifecta. 

That is less likely to happen than seeing Raiders’ owner Al Davis suddenly announce that speed is a vastly overrated commodity in NFL wide receivers or finding a Washington Capitals’ fan who doesn’t think Alex Ovechkin is the best player in hockey.

Some things just aren’t going to happen.

Regardless, Pittsburgh sits alone once again at the top of the sports universe.  There are 32 teams in the NFL and 30 teams in the NHL.  And Pittsburgh’s two squads are number one in both.

That is an amazing accomplishment, especially in a relatively small city that is all too often overshadowed by behemoths like New York, Los Angeles, and Boston.

Pittsburgh, a traditional football town, is now also hockey town. 

It effectively has been a hockey town since 1984 when some guy named Mario Lemieux came to town, but nothing quite reignites that hockey passion in a city as seeing your team win the Cup. 

There is a whole new generation of Penguins’ fans to join those of us who became diehards during the Super Mario years. 

As for us more seasoned fans, I doubt most of us thought we’d actually get to see three once-in-a-lifetime players suit up for the Penguins in Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin.

Even before the Penguins finished their historic run, I started to think about what it would mean to recapture the City of Champions label…and Sports Illustrated covers. 

One of my all-time favorite SI covers, and there have been some great ones, was the cover from December 1979 in which the late great Willie Stargell and Terry Bradshaw appeared together as SI’s Sportsmen of the Year.

The time has come to for SI to once again honor Pittsburgh, and what better way to do it than with a new version of that cover?

I realize this can’t happen immediately.

The Penguins deserve to have a cover all to themselves after finishing up one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of sports.

Living in Korea, that magazine should be in my mailbox in about two months.  I’ve promised the SI with Tom Brady on the front to a Boston coworker, but it has also yet to arrive.

No doubt Sports Illustrated will also want to squeeze in a cover or two inspired by the Los Angeles Lakers capturing the NBA crown. 

But, after they check off those boxes, the magazine should put together a tribute to the City of Pittsburgh as the latest, and historical Title Town.

The Steelers and Penguins are both popular teams nationally, so the cover would have national appeal. 

Those who don’t love it will probably really hate it, causing them to buy it so they can attach it to their dartboards, especially if it features Sidney Crosby and/or Ben Roethlisberger. 

Either way, the cover will sell magazines.

So, who should it be Pittsburgh fans? Who would you pair on an SI cover honoring the City of Champions?

My vote would be for a cover in which Crosby appears with either Roethlisberger or Troy Polamalu.

That cover would feature two of the leaders of this generation of Pittsburgh sports icons to take the place of two of the beloved sports figures of a past generation in Bradshaw and Captain Willie. 

They could even one-up it and put Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the cover together with Roethlisberger and Polamalu.

I wouldn’t even be adverse if they chose two underrated players, like Mad Max Talbot in his full ZZ Top beard or “The Piece” Rob Scuderi paired with Casey Hampton or Aaron Smith as part of a story that highlights the unsung heroes that brought two titles back to the ‘Burgh.

Perhaps the best option would be a cover that featured Mike Tomlin and Dan Bylsma, with Tomlin wearing his Penguins’ jersey and Bylsma donning a Steelers’ jersey. 

That story would practically write itself. Pittsburgh wins two titles by going with young no-name coaches while passing over a host of better known coaching retreads. 

Just as Tomlin’s success started an NFL trend of teams looking for the next great young unknown assistant to become their head coach, Bylsma’s success will no doubt cause plenty of teams to eye the AHL ranks for potential breakout coaches who can relate to and inspire the players to greatness.

That one might actually be easier for SI since by the time they can get around to running a “City of Champions” cover, the story will have turned somewhat stale.  Using the coaching angle would keep it fresh and provide a new news angle.

It would become an instant classic, at least in Western Pennsylvania.

I’m already visualizing it framed and hung in my office.

So, how about it SI? Can you give us the cover that Pittsburgh fans want?

If you honor the city in that way, I would not be at all surprised if you win some subscribers for life. 

It worked the first time, why not bring back an absolute classic?

Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin’s Message: We Need to Get Better

After leading the Steelers’ to their sixth Lombardi Trophy, Mike Tomlin’s most compelling message to date is that the team needs to get better.

And he singled himself out. “I better get better,” Tomlin said when discussing the State of the Steelers.

“That’s the nature of this thing. And getting better doesn’t necessarily mean a better outcome; I understand that. I’m always trying to be the best I can be. I’m as critical of myself as I am of anyone. I think that’s appropriate from a leadership standpoint.”

“Hopefully I’ll do a cleaner, more efficient job of that here in ’09.”

This was more than an exercise in humility, of which Tomlin appears to have plenty. He was setting the tone for the 2009 Steelers.

He was voicing his recognition that every member of the organization, including himself, must strive to be better in 2009 or the season will not end well.

Does Tomlin really need to get better? In two years as coach, he has already improved tremendously and has a Super Bowl ring to show for it.

He was not always great in key situations during his rookie coaching season. His head scratching decision to go for two late in the game against Jacksonville even after a holding penalty hurt the Steelers’ chances of winning the game.

That isn’t meant as a criticism of Tomlin. All coaches make mistakes early in their careers and all good coaches learn from them.

Mistakes are not decisions that lead to bad results. They are decisions that never should have been made in the first place.   

No doubt every coach who ever loses a playoff game spends plenty of minutes that night second guessing decisions that helped contribute to the result.

Tomlin is a quick study. In 2009, his coaching was much cleaner with few mistakes.

Tomlin set the right tone and was a large reason why the Steelers were the last team standing at season’s end.

It is Tomlin’s tremendous success that is resulting in so many other young coordinators getting serious looks for heading coaching opportunities.

He was the vanguard of a trend just as the Steelers’ success with the 3-4 defense sparked a revival of the defensive formation once thought to be on its way to extinction.

But, Tomlin hasn’t peaked as a head coach. He has plenty of room for improvement and he is wise to recognize that.

His comment is right on the money. The Steelers do need to get better if they want to repeat and, what better way to send that message than to hold yourself up as the prime example?

It’s hard for players to argue against the message when the coach is essentially cussing out himself.

No doubt Tomlin is also speaking to his coaching staff. The coaching, from an offensive coordinator standpoint in 2008, left plenty to be desired at times.

Every season is different. The 2008 Steelers were a great football team but they were far from a perfect football team.

In fact, they were one of the worst offenses statistically to ever win a Super Bowl. Statistics frequently lie and, in the case of the Steelers, gloss over the fact that the offense was at its best when it needed to be the most.

They also mask the improvement in the offense’s performance during the playoffs. But, I’d bet the farm that the Steelers will not be hoisting the Lombardi trophy in 2010 if their regular season offensive ranking buried in the 20s.

With their defense, it is possible, but I think it is highly unlikely.

I fully expect the defense to be even better this year than last year.

They might be the best defense in the history of the game in terms of talent and leadership and this year may very well represent their peak season.

But, expecting the same or better results is asking a lot.

So, Tomlin’s message to the Steelers is to forget 2008 and to strive to get better in 2009. That is the perfect message entering this season.

A team cannot stand still and expect the same results.

That is why so many championship teams suffer monumental letdowns. It is hard not to believe all of the headlines when they are telling you that you walk on water.

It is easy to mouth platitudes about giving 100%, but human nature invariably sets in.

Even the smallest letup in today’s NFL will spell disaster considering that every team boasts plenty of talent. While talent is obviously a huge factor, the difference between teams often comes down to preparation, desire, and heart.

Even championship teams have to win plenty of gut check games along the way. That is the battle that all coaches of championship teams face in trying to push the right buttons.

It is all too easy to take the easy road, to throttle back the level of effort and coast a bit.

That is one reason why Tomlin is a special coach. He recognizes what message he needs to send to the team and then he relentlessly sells them on it. That is what he is up to now.

He has his message. Now he is hammering it home.  

Pittsburgh Steelers Offense to Be “Sweeder” in 2009

When the Steelers lost Nate Washington in free agency to the Tennessee Titans, my initial reaction was to shrug.  I had never been that impressed by Washington.

I liked him as a player, but he seemed imminently replaceable and not worth the kind of money he was going to make in free agency. 

But, then I watched the Steelers 2008 Super Bowl video and couldn’t help but notice that Washington made a ton of big plays for the Steelers in 2008, more than I remembered actually watching the games the first time.

He filled a very important role as the guy who stretched the field, and Ben Roethlisberger frequently looked in his direction for the team’s biggest offensive
plays.

It was a flashback to 2006 when Antwaan Randle El left for the Washington Redskins.  I became more acutely aware of what he had meant to the Super Bowl winning 2005 squad after watching the Super Bowl DVD and noticing how many huge plays he consistently made for the Steelers that season.

Randle El and Washington were very different kind of players.  One was an excellent slot receiver made all the more valuable because of his versatility, while the other was more of a field stretcher. 

But, both played big roles on Super Bowl winning teams and the loss of both players left big holes to fill. 

The Steelers have an excellent tradition of finding very good replacements to players who leave town through free agency and the replacement is usually already on the roster. 

Limas Sweed is in line to be the biggest beneficiary of Washington’s change of locations. 

He is either the big and fast receiver that Ben has been dreaming of since the incredibly talented but oft-troubled Plaxico Burress left town or a monumental bust. 

The jury is out after 2008.  My money is on the former.  I’m not going to try to make excuses for his woeful hands in 2008.  They were awful, punctuated by his biggest drop of the year during the AFC Championship game.

But, he was able to get off the line of scrimmage and get open against the league’s better defenses.  Those are the types of problems that frequently derails receivers as they transition from the college to the NFL game. 

Add to that fact that most receivers don’t really blossom until at least their second year and Sweed is the most likely Steeler due for a breakout year in 2009.

I also like the fact that he played for a year behind Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes.  He saw what it takes to be a successful receiver in this league behind one of the fiercest competitors in Steelers’ history in Hines Ward. 

I have to think his vicious block during the Ravens’ game was inspired by Ward.

He also had a front row seat to see a receiver take a huge step forward and become “the guy” when Holmes stepped up during the playoffs, especially the Super Bowl.

I don’t think the Steelers will be successful as an offense if Sweed doesn’t have a good year. 

The biggest reason is that I don’t think Hines Ward will make it through this season without missing some games to injury. 

He is an incredibly physical wide receiver which is what makes him the best receiver in Steelers’ history. Not many receivers can claim that they had a major part in a rules change because they were too physical with the defenders.

Ward isn’t getting any younger and I’m guessing his body will likely start to rebel against the brutality of his play style. 

If Ward goes down to injury, one of the other receivers will need to play a big role.  I also think Shaun McDonald may play a significant role as the slot receiver and wouldn’t be at all surprised if he steps in as the No. 2 receiver ahead of Sweed if either Ward or Holmes go down to injury.

But, Sweed will need to be that guy who can stretch the field for the Steelers.  I think it is far more likely that Sweed will be the impact player than the other leading candidate, Rashard Mendenhall. 

I don’t think the Steelers will be a dominant run team in 2009.  These guys will be running behind the same offensive line as they did last year.

While I think the line will definitely improve, I didn’t see anything out of that much maligned unit in 2008 to make me think they will suddenly become maulers in the run game.  Running room will still be at a premium.

I expect their improvement will be more noticeable in their pass blocking.

I’m also concerned about Mendenhall’s durability. The fact that he went down so early in his rookie year is a real cause for concern.

Nor do I remember him running particularly well before the injury during the pre-season and the early regular season. Plus, if Willie Parker stays healthy, he’ll receive the bulk of the carries.

If Sweed falters in the field stretcher role, Mike Wallace could get an early chance.  But, I don’t think this is likely.  Wallace will need time to learn the pro game and his early contributions will likely be on special teams. 

This leads us back to Limas.  If the Steelers are going to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in 2010, they’ll need to be better offensively.  I doubt that they could do it as the 23rd ranked offense in the league two years in a row regardless of how many rabbits Big Ben can pull out of his helmet.

All too often, the Steelers’ offensive strategy in 2008 was to lull teams into a false sense of security with 58 minutes of crummy and predictable offensive play before transforming into an offensive juggernaut that would even put “The Greatest Show on Turf” to shame in the game’s final two minutes.

If the Steelers are to become a top offense in 2009, Sweed will have to be a big reason why.  And I think he’ll be more than ready to assume that mantle.  My prediction:  2009 will be the year of Sweed for the Steelers.

The Steelers’ Troy Polamalu: A Pittsburgher at Heart

Pittsburghers have a lot of pride in their city, much more so than many denizens of other U.S. cities who view their city as little more than a location, the place where they hang their hats and go to work.

We take pride in the city’s blue collar roots, in the fact that the steel industry, Pittsburgh’s signature industry for many years, was one of the key industries that built our great nation.

We take pride in the city’s tremendous sports heritage. Despite being a relatively small city, it boasts three of the most storied professional teams in sports.

Yes, I am even including the Pirates here. Despite their struggles of recent years, the team has one of the greatest traditions in all of baseball. I grew up on a steady diet of stories about players like the great Roberto Clemente and, to this day, one of my few regrets is that I never had a chance to see him play at the old Forbes Field in Oakland.

Even those of us who are scattered to the winds almost never lose our identification with the city of our birth. I’ve lived in Germany, Korea, Virginia, Ohio, California, and Colorado. And, in all that time, I have not once considered myself anything other than a Pittsburgher.

The elitest reporters in the White House press corps who are unaware that any U.S. cities exist that aren’t named New York or Los Angeles recently laughed when it was revealed that Pittsburgh would host the next G-20 Summit.

But, for those who live or grew up there, no city matters more. 

Trust me when I say that is a special quality about the Three Rivers City. Very few other cities inspire that same kind of intense loyalty.

That is why Troy Polamalu’s answer to a recent question on ESPN was so interesting. He was asked, “Do you consider yourself a Pittsburgh guy now, or are you a California guy in Pittsburgh?”

Troy answered, “I would say I’m a Pittsburgh guy, yeah. I live in Pittsburgh. I scrape snow off just like everyone else. I’ve had a Primanti sandwich. I’m a part of Pittsburgh. I get mad when the Pirates don’t win, when the Pens don’t win.”

I don’t think he could have given a better answer. My first thought was that this guy gets it. He is indeed a part of Pittsburgh.

Not only is he identifying with the city’s other professional teams, he is identifying with the activities of everyday Pittsburghers, like shoveling snow, and taking part in notable Pittsburgh traditions, like eating a Primanti sandwich.

That latter is one Pittsburgh tradition I can’t even identify with since I detest cole slaw, although I have made more than a few pilgrimages to the Original “O” in Oakland just for a hot dog or journeyed down to the Strip District for a Benkowitcz fish sandwich.

My only caution to Troy is that he needs to get over that getting mad about the Pirates losing thing for a few years or else he may need to schedule some anger management sessions with Jack Nicholson.

Troy’s answer is all the more remarkable considering he was once identified as a Southern California kid, another area that inspires its own sense of civic pride.

He’s not the first former Trojan to become Pittsburghized. Lynn Swann also pulled off the trick, later running for governor of Pennsylvania.

The way Troy answered that question helped vault him near the top of my all-time favorite athletes. Truth be told, with his class and sportsmanship both on and off the field, he was already near the top.

It was this same sense of civic pride that was on display when the Steelers hurried back from their visit to the White House so they wouldn’t miss the Penguins play.

It is also this same sense of civic pride that makes us smile when we see Mike Tomlin at the Penguins game in a Penguins game jersey or when we see the Penguins rooting on the Steelers in their playoff run.

It was this sense of shared Pittsburgh pride that caused many Pittsburghers to want to throw up when they saw Bill Cowher wearing Carolina red while cheering on the Hurricanes against the Penguins.

It wasn’t that he did anything terribly wrong. But, seeing a guy we think of as being a “Pittsburgh” guy rooting for another city’s team is a tough pill to swallow.

Plenty of Pittsburgh sports stars choose to stay in Pittsburgh. They play for the city and become part of the city.

I don’t think that sense of shared loyalty between teams is anywhere nearly as prominent in other cities that boast multiple professional sports teams as it is in Pittsburgh.

When it comes to the Penguins, none of those guys are native Pittsburghers now that Ryan Malone is no longer on the team. Heck, most of them aren’t even Americans.

It doesn’t matter. They become part of the city’s culture and most of them love it. They embrace it.

The players we like the best are those who act like it is a privilege to play in Pittsburgh, as opposed to those who act like the city should feel privileged to have them.

If a player embraces the city, the second part takes care of itself and we do indeed feel like the city is privileged to see them play.

When a player is drafted by a Pittsburgh team, he isn’t just being drafted by that team. He is being drafted by the city.

If a player doesn’t get this, in the tradition of Barry Bonds and Plaxico Burress, our collective response is, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out of town.”

One caveat to this is that plenty of players do embrace the city and still find themselves leaving town. This has been especially true of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who seem to field a new team every year. That is the sad reality of today’s salary cap/free agency/financial environment.

It is also why Pittsburghers are having such a hard time identifying with the Pirates. It isn’t so much that they aren’t very good. While that is a part of it, the bigger issue is that there isn’t any stability.

It is hard to root for a player and a team that could and probably will change in the next five minutes.

That Pittsburgh civic pride is one reason why we embrace a guy like Sidney Crosby so much, a player who despite his incredible skills accepts less than his market value so that the Penguins have more money to sign other players.

That is why we feel a sense of pride when players like Hines Ward and Casey Hampton say they would like to retire as Steelers. 

That is also one reason it was so easy to continue to root for Rod Woodson long after he was no longer wearing Black and Gold due to no choice of his own. He still maintained a restaurant in the city and raised his family there. 

He never said a bad word against the city despite, perhaps, having some cause for it.

That is why we are so excited to see one of the greatest hockey players in the history of the game, Mario Lemieux, in the Penguins’ owner’s box.

They all became Pittsburgh guys. And we love them for it.

I won’t soon forget how Troy Polamalu answered a seemingly innocuous question.

Troy is one of the best safeties to ever play the game. He is a two-time Super Bowl champion. He is one of the most important players on the league’s best defense.

But, most importantly, he is a Pittsburgher.

If the Indianapolis Colts Took Ryan Leaf in the 1998 NFL Draft

The conventional wisdom is that the Indianapolis Colts made the right call in 1998 when they drafted Peyton Manning with the first overall pick.  But, conventional wisdom is usually wrong.  Okay, it is actually usually right.  It is, at least, sometimes wrong. 

Since 1998, the Colts have won one Super Bowl.  Not bad….not bad at all, considering there are 32 teams in the league.  But, since that time, the Patriots have been to four Super Bowls, winning three, while frequently treating Manning like a rag doll along the way—better.

The Steelers have won two Super Bowls, capturing their first Super Bowl behind a second-year quarterback who significantly outplayed the great Manning in the biggest playoff upset that year—also better.   

Incidentally, the Steelers, apparently stealing a page from the Patriots’ playbook, also treated Manning like a rag doll in that game, enough so that he was…shall we say…less than pleased with his offensive line.

So, were the Colts really better off drafting Manning in 1998?  Consider this alternate scenario.  Cue the Twilight Zone music.

“With the first pick in the 1998 draft, the Indianapolis Colts select quarterback Ryan Leaf, Washington State University.”

The Colts’ fans go wild.  All they can talk about is Leaf’s incredible upside and unparalleled physical gifts.  The Chargers are doomed with the more conventional Peyton Manning.  

Colts’ fans can’t wait to see the two go head-to-head on the field so they can laugh at the Chargers when Leaf shows up their Manning chump. 

Ryan Leaf goes on to win two Super Bowls.  Okay…just kidding.  That can’t happen, even in a satire piece.

Actually, for the Colts, things turn really ugly.  The Colts turn into the league punchline, winning all of eight games over the next three years behind Mr. Upside.  Even Matt Millen and his Detroit Lions are laughing at them.  

That is all they can take of the great Ryan Leaf, finally cutting ties.

They start building their talent base, repeatedly drafting near the top of each round as they struggle to find a quarterback.

All of the usual suspects take a turn playing behind center for the Colts.  Mark Rypien, Gus Frerotte, and Jeff Blake each get a shot.  Finally, they trot out Vinny Testaverde.  None have much success over the next few years.

The Colts are hesitant to draft another highly-rated signal caller after the Leaf debacle, so they use their high draft picks to build an excellent defense.

They also acquire some great offensive weapons in the draft to go along with their great defense, although nobody can get the ball into their hands. 

Meanwhile, Peyton Manning puts up huge numbers for the Chargers, but can’t quite put it together in the playoffs.  The divergence between his regular season stats and playoff meltdowns is a real puzzler.

Chargers’ fans insist that playoff wins don’t mean much.  It is all about the stats. 

Everyone is talking about how stupid the Colts were for taking Leaf when they could have had a Manning. 

Everyone knows that you have to draft a Manning with the first pick if one is available.  It is one of those unwritten laws of the universe.

Which brings us to 2004.  There are three top-rated quarterbacks on the board and the Colts have the seventh overall pick.  They see the draft as a chance for redemption. 

They can finally get their man…ning.  However, the Oakland Raiders have the first pick and insist they are going to take Eli, the twinkle of the Colts’ eye. 

But, there is a wrinkle.  Eli, getting sage advice from some fellow named Archie, famous for quarterbacking a team that was so good its fans wore bags over their heads, says he will never play for the Raiders.

The Colts offer the Oakland Raiders a host of picks to move up to the top spot, but Al Davis stands firm.  Despite Eli’s no-play threat, the Raiders draft Eli and, in the big surprise of the day, trade him to the Giants for Phillip Rivers and a blazing fast wide receiver who can’t catch to be named later.

The Colts are horrified and have to settle on their third choice, taking Ben Roethlisberger out of the no-name University of Miami, Ohio with the sixth pick.

Their plan is to bring him along slowly while Vinny continues to run the show for a couple years.  Then, Vinny goes down to injury in the second game of the year. 

Big Ben takes the field and wins his next fourteen starts, shattering all conventional wisdom on what a rookie quarterback can accomplish.  The guy doesn’t seem to know how to lose. 

He finally loses in the AFC Championship Game after one of the most magical rookie seasons in history.

The next season, he leads the Colts to the Super Bowl title after knocking off the heavily favored Chargers, led by Peyton Manning, in the divisional round.  

He keeps his promise to Edgerrin James that if he would just stay in Indianapolis for one more year, he’ll get him his Super Bowl ring.  The Edge embraces Big Ben as they celebrate in Detroit.     

A couple of years later, Big Ben leads the Colts to another Super Bowl title, staging the most dramatic final drive in the history of the Super Bowl.  Amazingly and inexplicably, plenty of people don’t want to give him any credit for it.  The Super Bowl MVP goes to his favorite target on that final drive, Anthony Gonzalez. 

That all so reliable conventional wisdom says that it was the ferocious Colts’ defense that won those titles.  Big Ben was just a manager, a mere caretaker.  The rest of the team carried him on its back.

Colts’ fans will hear none of it.  They know that they have a special quarterback in Big Ben, and they have two Lombardi trophies in his first five years to show for it. 

The guy has an almost mystical quality about him, and nobody can forget “the tackle,” when he backpedaled and made a spectacular diving desperation tackle on Shawn Merriman after the Edge inexplicably fumbled while going into the end zone, trying to ice the playoff game against Peyton Manning’s Chargers.

The play ranks right near the top of the all-time best plays in Colts’ franchise history, although it did get pushed aside by “The Drive” in the latest Super Bowl win.

In the interim, Peyton Manning finally gets his first Super Bowl ring in 2006, leading the Chargers over the Bears in a sleeper of a Super Bowl.

The icing on the cake is that their quarterback is only 27 years old, only now entering the most productive years for an NFL quarterback. 

The sky is the limit in the years ahead for the Colts with the improvisational Big Ben behind center, the guy that Terrell Suggs warned teams not to rush because he is just too good in pressure situations.

 

So, there you have it.  In some alternate universe, the Colts drafted Ryan Leaf and won two Super Bowls over the next decade. 

The moral of this story?  Don’t draft a Manning when you can draft a Leaf, especially when you might land a Big Ben six years later.

Using Stats to Disparage the Pittsburgh Steelers’ QB: An Exercise in Absurdity

Far too many people want to compare quarterbacks by simply throwing a bunch of statistics down and saying, “See, I told you so, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger shouldn’t even be starting in this league.  All hail the ground that Peyton Manning walks on.”

Statistics never tell the whole story.  In some cases, the story they do tell is ridiculously wrong, especially when applied to a quarterback.

No two quarterbacks operate in the same situation.  Some play in ball control offenses that focus on running the ball while using short passes to move the chains. 

Others play in systems that are all about putting the ball into the air early and often.

Some have rock solid walls in front of them that allow them to read Tolstoy novels in the pocket while waiting for receivers to come upon. 

Others line up behind guys that much more resemble those cardboard cut-outs with whom you can get your picture taken, kind of like the cut out of that Jared guy on display at many Subway sandwich shops. 

For most of the 2008 season, Roethlisberger played behind what may very well be the worst offensive line to ever win a Super Bowl.  While the unit did improve by the playoffs, where is that on any stat sheet?

The biggest miracle for me was that Ben continued to line up behind center without demanding hazard pay.  

Some quarterbacks have innovative offensive coordinators who call unpredictable plays that always keep the other defense off balance. 

Others have offensive coordinators who believe in finding out which plays are least effective and calling them thirty times in a row.

Of course, defenses play a huge role in quarterback statistics.  If a defense is stingy and unlikely to give up a lot of points, that team’s quarterback will throw for more yards in the first half while building a lead before giving way to the running game in the second half. 

The statistics will be skewed with big yardage numbers in the first half followed by miniscule second half stats.  That has typically been the case with Big Ben. 

But, it can cut both ways with a great defense.  A great defense will indeed record more three and outs, providing more opportunities for the offense to take the field. 

But, as a corollary, a terrible defense will give up a ton of points, meaning that their team’s offense will be throwing early and often just to try to stay in the game.  This was the case last year for teams like Arizona and Denver. 

I think Denver should have cut their punter because the last thing they should have ever willingly done was put the other team’s offense back on the field. 

Chances are if you have a defense as bad as last year’s Denver squad, just about any quarterback will put up big yardage numbers based on the number of times they will have to put the ball into the air. 

It will be interesting to see how Jay Cutler performs in a very different style offense without the Great Wall of China in front of him.  I’m guessing that his stats will take a hit meaning that he will suddenly become a worse quarterback in the estimation of some. 

Nor will I be at all surprised if Kyle Orton looks a whole lot better playing in Denver than he did in Chicago.

Those two quarterbacks will make an excellent case study following this season on how they perform in the two different systems.

Having a bad defense also brings an added sense of urgency to throw for first downs when you know that a punt is likely to result in a score for the other team.

Was Tom Brady suddenly a better quarterback because his statistics looked better over his last couple seasons playing with better receivers and a worse defense?  No, he was always an elite quarterback.  Anybody who watched him play could see that.

Will Ben Roethlisberger suddenly be a better quarterback if he throws for twice as many yards in a more open style offense?  No, he will be the same great quarterback.

Some moments in games are more illustrative of a quarterback’s talents than others.  This is where “clutch” enters the equation.

How a quarterback performs when the game is on the line, when they are calling the plays in a no huddle situation, is very telling.

If a quarterback repeatedly leads a team down the field to victory in the game’s final moments, they deserve to be called “clutch.”  How many quarterbacks can actually do that on a consistent basis?  Not that many.

Ben Roethlisberger has now done it nineteen times in his relatively short career.    Joe Montana could do it.  So can Tom Brady.  It is a major contributing factor to their overall greatness.

In the movie The Replacements, Gene Hackman is constantly trying to get the character played by Keanu Reeves to become a Roethlisberger or Brady kind of player, a player who wants the ball in his hands with the game on the line, one who can motivate and lead the team.

Statistics do not measure leadership ability, heart, determination, and will.  They don’t measure how a quarterback can inspire his teammates to greatness.  They don’t measure his willingness to sacrifice individual stats for the greater cause of winning.

No bad quarterback is ever going to lead a team to multiple Super Bowl wins because he will face some great defenses along the way.  And he will face situations where he has to be “the guy.” 

Roethlisberger has faced several of those situations and not all in traditional situations.  He was “the guy” when Jerome Bettis almost fumbled away a playoff game, making an unlikely tackle on the Colts’ Nick Harper. 

It is ironic that if he doesn’t make that tackle, Manning likely has two Super Bowl rings to Ben’s one. 

He was “the guy” when he threw a key block on a blitzing linebacker to spring the trick play that put Super Bowl XL away.

He was “the guy” when he led his team 88 yards down the field in a Super Bowl’s waning moments with his top receiver hobbled by injury and absolutely no pass protection in front of him.

He was “the guy” when he was torching the Colts’ and the Broncos’ defenses en route to Super Bowl XL.  The Steelers built their big leads in both games on the strength of Roethlisberger’s arm.

With Roethlisberger behind center, Steelers’ fans don’t ever think their team is out of a game, because he has proven so adept at leading them back.

Could he put up Peyton Manning type statistics in a similar style offense?  I don’t know and I don’t really care.  It doesn’t matter.

What I do know is that he is a championship caliber quarterback and he has earned the “clutch” moniker. 

And no matter what statistics say, he is the guy the Steelers want leading them into battle week in and week out.

2009 Pittsburgh Steelers’ Linebacker Corps Could Be Best in History

The 2008 Steelers’ defense entered the discussion as possibly the greatest defense in history.  They were awe-inspiring at times in the way they attacked opposing offenses and were equally ferocious against both the run and pass. 

There are plenty of other defenses in that same discussion to include the 1976 Steel Curtain, the 1986 Bears’ maulers, and the 2000 Ravens to name just a few.

The heart and soul of that 2008 Steelers’ defense was the linebacker corps, although the defensive line and secondary were both plenty good. 

This year’s linebacker corps will likely be even better.  The squad will return the league’s defensive MVP, a guy who has recorded eight playoff sacks in four games, and an inside linebacker who is a tackling machine. 

That would be James Harrison, Lamarr Woodley, and James Farrior.  Gone is the ever dependable Larry Foote to be replaced by 2007 first round pick, Lawrence Timmons. 

Based on his stellar play on passing downs in 2008, this will almost certainly be an upgrade.  Dick LeBeau will have a similar set of toys to play with as what he had when the Steelers rode their linebackers to the 1995 Super Bowl with Kevin Greene, Greg Lloyd, Levon Kirkland, and Chad Brown. 

During that year, the Steelers had two outstanding pass rushers on the outside in Lloyd and Greene, a tackling machine in the middle with Kirkland, and an athletic inside linebacker who could attack the quarterback through the center of the line in Brown. 

That is exactly what they will have this year with Lawrence Timmons fitting more in the mold of Chad Brown and James Farrior remaining as the resident tackling machine and defensive leader.    

Last year, Harrison and Woodley paired as one of the great pass rushing duos in the NFL.  Even at that, I don’t think Woodley has peaked yet, adjusting to the longer NFL seasons.  His stats, and play, slowed during the second half of the season until he went on an absolute tear in the playoffs. 

With the added athleticism of Timmons, experience of Woodley, and with Pro Bowl veterans James Harrison and James Farrior back, opposing quarterbacks and rushers are in for tough times in 2009.

And they are all the better because Dick Lebeau knows how to use their tremendous talent.  Ron Jaworski once commented, “Dick LeBeau is arguably the best ever to coach defense.”  A truer sentence has never been spoken.  That factor is an important consideration when considering what these guys might accomplish in 2009.

So, will this squad prove to be the best linebacker corps in the history of the NFL?  First, they need to earn the title of best linebacker corps in Steelers’ history, which is no small feat. 

The Steelers’ tradition at linebacker is unmatched in the NFL.  No other team comes close.  They have boasted three linebacker corps that should be included in any top-ten list, the 1976 squad, the 1994 squad, and the 2008 squad. 

The 70s squads featured Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, and Andy Russell playing out of a 4-3 defense.  Those three accounted for 25 Pro Bowl appearances and two are in the Hall of Fame.  I’m not sure Russell shouldn’t be there as well. 

While the 70s Steelers’ linebacker corps were an elite squad, the fearsome foursome from the mid-’90s might have been even better.  Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene, Levon Kirkland, and Chad Brown were all exceptional players in their own right.  The fact that they played together on one team just wasn’t fair for opposing offenses. 

If they had won a couple Super Bowls together, I have no doubt they would be considered the best of the best.  But, they did not have anywhere close to the talent around them that the ’70s corps boasted.

Other linebacker corps frequently mentioned are the Bears’ and Giants’ squads of the mid ’80s and the Saints’ squads of the late 80s and early ’90s.  The 2000 Ravens also boasted a superb squad.   

I think next year’s group has the potential to top all of them.  Last year, Harrison and Woodley combined for 27.5 sacks.  This year, they will likely top thirty, especially if the referees make offensive holding an emphasis item, as they should.  By comparison, Greene and Lloyd combined for 24 sacks in 1994 when both were selected as first team all-pros. 

The Harrison-Woodley duo will also be aided by a schedule that features plenty of teams who don’t pass block very well.  That is not a good recipe for success when playing these Steelers. 

Harrison is always thinking big play.  He doesn’t just go for the sack.  Instead, he literally attacks the ball.  If the quarterback somehow manages to cover the ball up, he defaults to just mauling the quarterback.  And Woodley is proving to be a quick understudy.  He also is perfecting the strip sack. 

Think about how many games these two guys literally took over this year and how often they combined for a big play. 

One of the most memorable was the sack by Harrison on Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco in Steelers-Ravens Part I, which was scooped up by Woodley and returned for a touchdown resulting in a complete momentum shift.  In almost all of the Steelers’ big wins, this duo played a huge part. 

Last year, Lawrence Timmons added five sacks and Farrior notched 3.5 more.  Timmons number will almost certainly go up this year with him on the field more often. 

Farrior recorded a more than respectable 89 tackles last year, all the more remarkable because the Steelers defense had a knack for forcing three and outs, meaning they were not on the field as often as some of the lesser squads, which allows for more tackles.

It is hard to compare linebacker corps from different eras because the game has changed so much.  Linebackers in the ’70s did not blitz as often in a more run dominant era. 

And 4-3 and 3-4 linebackers are completely different animals.  There is also the difference in athleticism and talent between football eras that isn’t fair to consider, but it does muddy the picture. 

But, in removing nostalgia for the past from the equation, the 2009 Steelers’ linebacker corps, if it stays healthy, has a good chance of being the best ever to have played the game.    

I’m not arguing that any of these linebackers are better than Lawrence Taylor, Ray Lewis, Jack Lambert, or even Kevin Greene.  But, taken as an overall squad, these guys are something to behold and will surpass their units.

No doubt fans of the Saints who fondly remember the Dome Squad, one of their few positive football memories, will disagree.  No doubt fans of the Giants, Bears, and Ravens will disagree.  For that matter, plenty of Steelers’ fans may disagree. 

But, the offensive coordinators who have to figure out how to block these guys might have a different perspective. 

Reflections on the 2004 Steelers: The Year of the Quarterback

There have been several articles by Steelers’ fans reliving the incredible rides that resulted in the two recent Steelers’ Super Bowls.  Those were both incredible experiences and I still haven’t quite come down from the last one. 

But, for me, one of my all-time favorite Steelers’ seasons was 2004, the year of the quarterback.  That is a season that is largely forgotten, a mere footnote en route to the Super Bowl seasons, which is too bad. 

Because, that season may represent the single greatest accomplishment by a quarterback in the history of the league.  That was the magical season in which Ben Roethlisberger set an NFL record that may never be broken. 

As a rookie thrust into action due to injury, he won his first 14 starts.  No rookie has even come close to doing that.  I do not expect to live long enough to see a rookie quarterback break that record.

And, but for fate stepping in, it would never have happened.  The Steelers were intent on easing Roethlisberger into the lineup gradually, letting him learn from veteran quarterbacks Tommy Maddox and Charlie Batch. 

That was the conventional wisdom on how you handle a rookie quarterback.  But, as has often the case with Big Ben, conventional wisdom was wrong.

Ben started that pre-season No. 3 on the depth chart.  Batch was injured during the pre-season which moved Ben up to No. 2 on the depth chart.  After winning their opener, the Steelers were getting mauled by the Ravens in the second game when Maddox was knocked out with an injury. 

Roethlisberger took the field and the Big Ben era in Pittsburgh officially began. 
While they lost that game, Roethlisberger played superb in relief against one the league’s best defenses. 

I couldn’t wait to see how he would do as the starter.  What he did was breathtaking.

Remember when the big bad Patriots came to town carrying their NFL-record 21-game win streak?  It was a David vs. Goliath game, the rookie Roethlisberger versus one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, Tom Brady.  That Patriots team was one of the highest regarded teams of the last three decades. 

Roethlisberger played a near perfect game and the Steelers rolled to a surprisingly easy 34-20 victory, ending the Patriots’ win streak.  On the day, he completed 18 of his 24 pass attempts for 196 yards, two TDs and no turnovers.

My dad was at the game with an old Army buddy from Boston who went to that game in a Patriots’ jersey.  Needless to say, his buddy had a rough time at that one and took plenty of grief from Steelers’ fans.

The win was memorialized in one of my all-time favorite Steelers’ commercials honoring Christmas, the one that showed the picture-perfect pass from Roethlisberger to Plaxico Burress in the end zone with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” playing in the background. 

While it wasn’t quite Mean Joe Greene with a bottle of coke throwing his jersey to a little boy, it ranks high on my list of all-time favorite commercials.

The very next week, the best team in the NFC came calling, the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles.  The Steelers promptly destroyed them, winning 27-3 on another outstanding performance from Big Ben and the defense. 

What I remember most about that game was watching Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens go at it on the sideline late in the game. 

Owens was giving McNabb an earful while McNabb tried his best to ignore him.  The game heralded the start of a hatefest on the team from the City of Brotherly Love.   

A couple weeks later, the Steelers matched up against the New York Giants and the rookie quarterback drafted ten spots before Roethlisberger.  While Eli Manning played well in that game, he couldn’t match Big Ben. 

The Steelers won 33-30.  Roethlisberger was absolutely superb, posting his first 300-yard passing game in the shootout. He threw for 316 yards and a TD.  He also led his fifth game-winning drive of the season.  

While Big Ben was Mr. Clutch in 2009, often impersonating his hero, John Elway, while leading the Steelers back late, he started that act in his very first season. 

There is, quite simply, no quarterback better at leading a team to victory in the fourth quarter than Roethlisberger.  With him at the helm of the offense, the Steelers are never out of games. 

It is hard to believe that many critics and writers have claimed Big Ben was just along for the ride with a great team during his first couple years in Pittsburgh. 

The great thing about being a critic, apparently, is you can say whatever you want no matter how foolish, even if you don’t watch the games. 

What is sad is how much of those early assessments have stuck when it comes to Big Ben.  It is somewhat understandable. 

Frankly, people were at a loss what to make of that season because it was so unique.  What was  accomplished was so incredible, so paradigm shattering, that people had a difficult time digesting it and instead attempted to explain it away. 

Never before had a rookie quarterback come anywhere close to doing what Big Ben and his Steelers did that year.  That is just not how it was supposed to work. 

Even some of his own teammates were doubters.  They knew all too well that rookie quarterbacks have a track record of utter and complete failure.   

Remember Alan Faneca lamenting when Maddox went down that a rookie quarterback couldn’t lead them to the Promised Land?

Roethlisberger’s magical season changed the way that teams look at rookie quarterbacks and may have paved the way for Matt Ryan’s and Joe Flacco’s successes last year. 

At the beginning of last season, Ray Lewis grabbed Joe Flacco and reminded him what Big Ben was able to accomplish for the Steelers and challenged him to do the same. 

Roethlisberger’s 2004 season has become the marker by which all rookie quarterbacks are measured.  And for those who constantly want to throw an asterisk, a “Yeah, but…” after acknowledging it, they can kiss Roethlisberger’s two Super Bowl rings.

The season ended on a bad note for Steelers’ Nation.  After winning his first playoff game against the New York Jets in a disappointing outing, Roethlisberger and the Steelers fell against the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. 

It was after that game that a tear-stained Roethlisberger made a promise to Jerome Bettis to get him to his first Super Bowl.  And, one thing we’ve come to know about Big Ben is that he keeps his promises.

That season gets short shrift by a sportswriting community that does not want to give Big Ben his due for his greatness.  He was just a good player on a great team. 

Of course, it was the same great team that finished 6-10 the year before allowing the Steelers to even draft Big Ben.  Others point to the running game and put the credit for the Steelers’ success there, but that year’s Steelers team ran so well largely because the passing game was feared. 

It was all too often Roethlisberger’s arm that staked out the early leads and led the Steelers back late when they fell behind.

So, while it ended prematurely, it is still one of my all-time favorite Steelers’ seasons.  We finally knew we had ourselves one heck of a quarterback. 

We knew one for the thumb was right around the corner with the hope for even more.  Bad memories of Bubby Brister, Neal O’Donnell and Kordell Stewart were mostly, although not completely, purged from our collective memory. 

Sadly, it was also the last season that the immortal Myron Cope would call Steelers’ games.  And, for that reason as well, 2004 was one of the most special seasons in the history of the Black and Gold.  

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