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I'm proud to be a self made Steelers fan. What did it for me was
watching the Steelers back in the early 70's and seeing the black and
gold.Posted by Steel_Elvis
POST
NOW!
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Monday, March 24, 2008
A solid team emerges from a shaky offseason By BOB
LABRIOLA Steelers.com Back in the late
1990s – the days of NFL free agency but before Heinz Field was a realistic
possibility – there was no such thing as an uneventful offseason for the
Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers’ 1996
season had included a third straight division title, but it ended in a disappointing
manner with a blah performance in the AFC Divisional Round in New England
against the Patriots, who would advance to Super Bowl XXXI only to lose to the
Green Bay Packers because they couldn’t tackle kick returner Desmond
Howard. The 1997 offseason
began with the departure of defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who accepted the
same position under Coach Bruce Coslet with the Cincinnati Bengals. It was
portrayed as a return home for LeBeau, who then would get a shot to be the
team’s head coach when Coslet was fired, but at the time the move lacked that
feel-good component. Coach Bill Cowher brought in Jim Haslett, who had spent the
previous season as the Saints’ defensive coordinator. As for the roster,
outside linebacker Chad Brown parlayed a 13-sack season into mega-bucks from the
Seattle Seahawks, who also threw a lot of owner Paul Allen’s Microsoft money at
cornerback Willie Williams. The loss of Williams was minor compared to the drama
developing with Rod Woodson, one of the best players in Steelers
history. Woodson had missed
all of 1995 with a torn ACL, and the injury plus his age had robbed him of some
of the makeup speed that had made him the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in
1993. For years Woodson had been the highest-paid cornerback in football, but
even though he was an unrestricted free agent he wasn’t commanding that kind of
money anymore. The Steelers’ offer
to Woodson was the best one out there, but because it represented a pay cut over
what he had made in 1996 he was angered by it. “With me, it’s integrity,” he
said. “It’s not how much money I have. I have enough money. I don’t care about
that. It’s my integrity. My integrity means more to me than playing for any
football team.” The situation would
drag deeper into the offseason, but Woodson would leave the Steelers for a
lesser contract offer from the San Francisco 49ers, who then would cut him after
the 1997 season. It wasn’t all bad
news for the Steelers during the offseason, because they did re-sign Jerome
Bettis, whose 1,400-plus yards in 1996 had voided the final season of the
contract he originally signed as a rookie with the Rams. Bettis actually tested
the open market, but his experience with the Rams had left him with a strong
desire to be somewhere he knew he was wanted and
appreciated. “The situation here
was the best fit for me,” said Bettis. “I fit in – the system, the community,
the coaches – everything played a role because I left one organization where
things were rough in a lot of those areas. I needed that security in knowing
people were comfortable with me. I’m comfortable with the city, with the
organization and with the offense.” The four-year, $14
million contract he got from the Steelers didn’t hurt any, either. Bettis signed
that contract on the day before his 25th birthday. “It’s really starting
to dawn on me. I was in Detroit and went out to play laser tag,” said Bettis.
“There were about 100 kids there, and nobody said anything to me. I thought to
myself, if I was in Pittsburgh I wouldn’t have been able to escape one kid
without an autograph. I realized Pittsburgh is someplace special in that even
the little kids know who I am. That doesn’t happen in too many other
places.” The Steelers used
their No. 1 pick in the draft to fortify their situation at cornerback by
selecting Maryland’s Chad Scott, and Cowher didn’t wait until training camp to
resolve the quarterback situation. The combination of Kordell Stewart’s promise
and Mike Tomczak’s steadily declining play down the stretch of the 1996 season
convinced Cowher to announce a decision by minicamp. Why name Kordell
Stewart without making him win the job in an open
competition? “Because I decided
not to. No other reason,” said Cowher. “I know these guys pretty well now, and
the most important thing I wanted going in was for us to have an understanding
of where everybody stood.” As the 1997 regular
season was about to begin, it appeared the Steelers stood in an excellent spot.
They had gone 5-0 in the preseason, Stewart had compiled a passer rating of
122.7, and the defense had 22 sacks. Thud. That was the
sound of the Steelers hitting the canvas in their opener against the Dallas
Cowboys at Three Rivers Stadium. Troy Aikman completed 19-of-30 for 295 yards
and four touchdowns, with receiver Michael Irvin caught seven of those for 153
yards and three scores in Dallas’ 37-7 win. The Steelers didn’t manage 100 net
yards either running or passing, and Stewart converted just 1-of-11 on third
down. It was a thorough beating. “I like this football
team,” said Cowher, “as crazy as this might sound.” The Steelers squeaked
out a 14-13 win over the Redskins, and then they found themselves down, 17-7, at
halftime of their next game – a Monday night affair against the Jaguars in
Jacksonville. Cowher used those 12 minutes in the visitor’s locker room to
challenge his players to begin playing the physical style that always has been a
characteristic of a good Steelers team. They responded. The
Steelers took the second half kickoff and marched 80 yards in 13 plays, with
Bettis’ running accounting for 44 of those, and Stewart capped it off with a
4-yard touchdown pass to Yancey Thigpen. The Steelers would lose the game when a
potential last-play game-winning field goal was blocked and returned for a
touchdown, but what they did in Jacksonville proved to be a turning
point. The Steelers won five
games in a row, only to lose by 13-10 in Kansas City because offensive
coordinator Chan Gailey forgot about Bettis in the second half, but then they
won two more to raise their record to 8-3. They were 9-4 going into a marquee
matchup against the 11-2 Broncos at Three Rivers Stadium, and the Steelers used
the occasion to play their best game of the season. Bettis rushed for 125
yards, and Stewart passed for 303 yards and three touchdowns while running for
49 more and the two second-half touchdowns that were the difference in a 35-24
win. The defense limited Terrell Davis to 75 yards rushing, and it sacked John
Elway twice and intercepted him once. The Steelers had faced the two teams with
the best records in the AFC – Kansas City and Denver – and neither one could do
anything to stop Bettis. The Steelers were
10-4, and Bettis already had 1,585 yards rushing, a 4.6 average and nine total
touchdowns. How would Bettis tackle himself? “My first thought is to go low, but
then I say to myself, ‘You’d probably have to go high.’ But then I would
probably run myself over. An incredible
overtime win in New England earned the Steelers the No. 2 seed; then when the
Patriots defeated Miami in the Wild Card Game, it was New England at Pittsburgh
in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. “I like the
togetherness all around,” said safety Darren Perry as the Steelers were about to
enter the playoffs. “It’s not like we weren’t close all those other years, but
there’s a special closeness everyone had. No one is trying to be bigger than the
team, and everyone is trying to do the unselfish things that get the job done.
You like to see that.” Added linebacker
Levon Kirkland, “I don’t expect anything but the best in the playoffs. You have
two games to get to the show, and you just have to give it all you have. If you
can’t do that, in practice and in games, maybe you don’t belong in that
situation. And I’m putting myself out there first.” Against the Patriots,
Scott intercepted Drew Bledsoe on the game’s opening possession, and his 27-yard
return gave the Steelers the ball at their own 38-yard line. Stewart ended the
possession with a 40-yard touchdown run, and the Steelers’ quick 7-0 lead gave
the impression that things were going to be easy. Didn’t turn out that
way. That was the only Steelers’ touchdown, but because the defense had limited
the Patriots to two field goals, it was 7-6 midway through the fourth
quarter. But that’s when the
game almost got away from the Steelers. Rather than kick a field goal from the
Patriots’ 1-yard line, Cowher decided to go for the touchdown, but the New
England defense rose up and kept Stewart out of the end
zone. Then the Patriots
began to move the ball, and they were inside the Steelers 30-yard line with less
than two minutes to play. Bledsoe went back to pass one more time when rookie
Mike Vrabel was relentless in rushing the passer, and when he sacked Bledsoe and
forced a fumble, linebacker Jason Gildon recovered for the Steelers at their own
34-yard line. Ballgame. Steelers
win, 7-6. “We were in our
regular dime package, no stunt or anything,” said Vrabel. “It was just kind of a
straight rush. We didn’t have a blitz on. I was fortunate enough to find some
kind of speed around the corner and keep rushing. “Our coaches said all
week that if you’re the right end, keep rushing. Don’t give up, because Bledsoe
isn’t going to look back to his left. He’s not going to throw back to his left.
He’s going to roll to his right, and he did. I was lucky enough to catch his
right arm as it was coming up.” The Steelers had
staved off elimination by the same team that had bounced them from the playoffs
the previous season, the same team that had prevented them from hosting a third
straight AFC Championship Game. Now, with a one year
respite, the AFC Championship was going to be decided once again on the carpet
at Three Rivers Stadium. “It wasn’t pretty, it
wasn’t artistic, but that’s been indicative of this season – finding a way to
win,” said Cowher. “We’ve got some work to do, but it’s nice to still be playing
this late in January.”
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