Santonio Holmes has come a long way from 'Muck City'

Sunday, November 15, 2009
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/



Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette

Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes knows his history: "Muck City," the nickname for Belle Glade, Fla., where he grew up, is tattooed on his hands.


Bill Hillgrove of the Steelers Radio Network gave voice to the historic moment from Super Bowl XLIII: "And now the burden is on that Steelers offense again. Forty-three seconds to go ... ."

BELLE GLADE, Fla. -- The worn-out sign welcoming motorists to one of America's poorest of cities boasts about its richest of grounds: Her soil is her future. Next door squats the Pioneer Growers Co-Op and the Glades Correctional Institution. Across State Road 80 is the crop-duster airport, the Glades Work Camp prison and the tallest structure for miles, one of the three mills remaining from the seven amid Big Sugar's high times.

The Steelers' Santonio Holmes sprang from this muck. He grew up in the projects of this town. He grew up on what is considered not only the wrong side of Palm Beach County but the wrong side of the Cross State Highway, directly across from his old high school. The place carries a different designation: Belle Glade Camp, where 2000 U.S. Census figures show 700 of the 1,100 residents live below the poverty line, a median family income of $17,000 yearly. He grew up in a single-parent household, surrounded on three sides by cane fields and deep in the legendary muck, the dark, enriched soil that produces one-quarter of America's sugar, rice, corn, cabbage and a crop of 30 NFL players.

He once wrote "muck city" across his face, on eye-black patches. Then, in a 2007 celebration of cousin Fred Taylor's inaugural Pro Bowl, a South Beach tattoo artist indelibly inked it above Mr. Holmes' knuckles: Muck on the right, City on the left. He knows his roots like the back of the hands that he'll see every time he stretches to catch a pass today at Heinz Field in the Steelers' AFC North collision with leader Cincinnati.

"I always refer back to everything I did as a kid, growing up, where I came from ---- Belle Glade. I even have it tattooed on my hands, Muck City," he said earlier this week, showing his Super Bowl XLIII MVP hands. "So definitely I'm always reminded of where I came from, where I grew up, just how rough it was. It's right there, visible to me, every day."

His lifelong friend, Fred Robinson Jr., grew up in the same Okeechobee Center project and on the same path. He ran rabbits with him, as they call the chase through the burned or freshly cut cane fields hunting the animals for food and money. He sprinted down a track and flew with a football to state championships alongside Mr. Holmes, earning a Division I scholarship way up north and a potential escape route the same as Mr. Holmes did. Yet Mr. Robinson admittedly made bad decisions, wound up at Division II Clarion University in Pennsylvania and then back home, employed by the area's second-biggest business behind agriculture; he's a guard at one of the three Florida prison facilities here.

"To stay focused through real trials and tribulations," began Mr. Robinson, standing on the same Bethel Court street where they spent their youths. "His mom working from morning to night. At 10, 11 years old, thrust into 'fatherhood' [caring for his two younger brothers]. Didn't even understand what it meant to be The Man. But he's done even the adult thing as a little kid.

"You look around here. You see the poverty around here," added Mr. Robinson, whose father paid for Mr. Holmes' registration onto his first football team, the Peewee Eagles. "You don't know struggle until you go through a struggle."

It's a variation on the theme of Western Pennsylvania kids avoiding the mills and mines of their forefathers. On the southeastern shores of Lake Okeechobee, a world away from tony West Palm Beach 45 miles east, boys zip past the rows of 7-foot-high, sharp-edged crops but never want to work in them, so instead they play on fields far more manicured, soft and green.

Chuck Finder/Post-Gazette

This rubbish-strewn house is where Santonio Holmes was raised in his early years, on what is known as "the alley" in the Okeechobee Center Project of Belle Glade, Fla. When drugs and danger visited that duplex, his mother moved the family to another part of the project.

Mr. Holmes' mother, Patricia Brown, sent her firstborn as a 10th-grader to live with her husband and his stepfather, Little Moss, who brought him on weekends to the fields where he has toiled October to May for 34 years.

"That was his whole thinking, taking him to work ..." she started to say.

"... Show him the value of work," the stepfather added, "how to work, but don't do this kind of work."

One searing day in Georgia, performing the job of "push-down man," this high-school kid continually shoved boxes of cane down a ramp and from there ran a different route.

"After that, he didn't want to see another field, " proudly said his mother, herself an employee for the past quarter-century in cornfields that cause her to board a bus by 4 in the morning from November to July.

Mr. Holmes, 25, remembered: "Man, my whole body cramped, head to toe. I was like, 'You know what, Mom, this is not for me. Dad, you can have this ... I ain't doing no kind of hard labor. I'm strictly about sports and school.' That's what I did from then on. I told them I was never coming back to those fields."

" ... [Ben Roethlisberger] gets the snap. He's back. He pumps. He scrambles around. ..."

Chasing dreams all began in the muck, with dead critters in his school backpack or on a coat hanger.

"I was born and raised in Belle Glade," said Willie McDonald, the father of NFL draftee Ray McDonald Sr. and grandfather of Ray McDonald Jr., of the San Francisco 49ers, the former dean of students at Glades Central Community High and the track coach to 30 future NFLers.

"I know exactly what the situation is. You ran rabbits to make a little extra spending money. Running rabbits also made you quicker. You have to cut. You have to turn." You have to be as elusive as your prey while traversing the soft, near-black soil.

"Every kid here grows up chasing rabbits, not out of sport but support," added Jessie Hester, a native and a former NFL receiver who coaches the Glades Central Raiders. "Some of the kids had to eat. It was out of necessity ... to survive."

So important was racing after rabbits, said Mr. Robinson's stepfather, Johnny Huggins, that pursuers failed to notice hazards such as bobcats, wild boars or worse: "You jump in the canal after a rabbit, 'I got it!' " Pause. Stare. " 'Uh, was that alligator in there the whole time?' "

In Mr. Holmes' case, his old track coach cites another explanation.

"We go back before he was born," Willie McDonald said, referring to Santonio Holmes Sr., with whom the Steelers receiver has had little contact throughout his life. "I coached his father in track. Matter of fact, they ran the same events: 400 meters and the 400-meter relay. Same running style. Finished the same."

Environment or genetics, he is a product of the muck that doesn't easily come off hands, shoes, bloodlines.

Whatever propelled him, he won state titles in both football and track.

When the University of Miami Hurricanes signed Ryan Moore from Orlando instead of him, Mr. Holmes pushed north to perform so well for Ohio State after red-shirting in its 2002 national-championship season that as a junior he was drafted No. 25 overall by the team he always chose while playing Madden NFL video games.

Far from the fields where Edward R. Murrow in 1960 taped his "Harvest of Shame" documentary about the plight of migrant workers, far from the town without a single mall, far from a place some 18 miles from the nearest modern-day sign of civilization -- a Walmart -- this rabbit hunter made his mark.

"... Throws it back corner of the end zone. Santonio with a touchdown! Santonio Holmes! I don't know how he did it! ... "

Santonio Holmes Jr. didn't magically appear on his tippy-toes in the rear, right corner of the Raymond James Stadium end zone late the first night in February. It just seemed that way to his own children.

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Santonio Holmes celebrates the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Steelers' Super Bowl victory in February.

"When the celebration started, we had to wake them up," Ms. Brown said. "I was wondering: 'How can children be out for a football game?' "

"I was asleep on the last play; they told me about it," admitted T.J., 8, the son Mr. Holmes had at 17 and had to leave behind to attend Ohio State. Later came brother Nicori, 5, and sister Saniya, 3. These are the children with whom he curled up that night, in his Tampa hotel room, while teammates partied with celebrities from Snoop Dogg to Jesse Jackson.

"We wrestled with him," T.J. said. "We watched a replay of the game." And, oh, yeah, they took in the animated "Madagascar" sequel, too.

T.J., hospitalized for days on end since infancy, is the reason his father performs charity work for sickle cell anemia. Doctors ultimately found the sickle cell trait in both T.J.'s father and grandfather. It is why Mr. Holmes stumps for the charity, why he auctioned off his Super Bowl gloves for nearly $100,000.

"It allowed me to open up different doors," he said of being the Super Bowl MVP. "It allowed me to put my name out there and raise an awareness ... ."

The one-time father figure who watched over his brothers Kenneth, three years younger, and Devontae, seven years younger, still adjusts to true fatherhood.

"I never thought he could play football while taking care of his brother, being a big brother and a daddy. I thought that was too much on him," his mother said.

Then she saw him this past summer as his three children spent much of the offseason with him for a change rather than with their mothers in Georgia and Ohio. She added, "He's getting better. At first, ooooooh, they were driving him up the wall. He was pulling what little hair he had on his head out. He's getting patience and is getting better, I guess because he has them the whole summer and not just the weekends or holidays."

Their time together was hardly interrupted by his post-Super Bowl celebrity. There was a next-day parade and later a springtime first-pitch at a Braves-Pirates exhibition game, both at Disney World. There were the ESPY sports awards in Los Angeles, accompanied by his kids and mother. There were appearances on Jay Leno, David Letterman and BET. But there wasn't a daily grind as one might expect.

"There's not much there there," said expert Bob Dorfman, creative director of Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco. "The checkered past hurts him -- the drug possession, the domestic violence [despite charges being dropped or dismissed]. I guess the perfect example of how marketers are hedging their bets is: Even winning the MVP and the 'I'm going to Disney World' thing, he still had to have [Ben] Roethlisberger go with him.

"He's still pretty young; he's got a lot of years left; maybe he does have a shot down the road. But, yeah, it's going to take more than that one iconic catch to make him more of an iconic marketing figure."

That circus of a week in Tampa, Mr. Holmes tried to use the Super Bowl platform to talk about how he sold drugs as a 7-year-old on a notorious corner in downtown Belle Glade, and the confession seemed to backfire on him. After all, barely three months earlier, he had admitted to smoking marijuana when he had been pulled over by Pittsburgh police.

"I think the story just got misconstrued," he said of his tale about how drugs led to break-ins and bullet holes in the project home shared with relatives -- one from which his mother soon after moved her boys. His attempted message: "I'm here now, and you can be doing the same thing if you choose the right path."

Still, as did receiving mate Hines Ward before him as Super Bowl XL MVP, he tried to keep the big game from altering him. "His life changed, but Santonio still remains the same," Mr. Robinson said. See, not many humans get stopped by kids striking your pose: tippy-toes down, hands outstretched. Not many get to autograph a photo of such a catch for the greatest receiver of all time, Jerry Rice. Not many get to buy their mother and stepfather a new home midway to West Palm Beach, although they refuse his numerous requests to stop working the fields ("That's been their way of living for the past 20-plus years," he said with a shrug).

"I was like, 'Come on, man, you got to make that catch,' " Mr. McDonald Jr., of the 49ers, recalled yelling after Mr. Holmes had a Roethlisberger pass slip through his mitts in the end zone's left corner on the forgettable play before. "He came back the next play and made, heck, what I think is the greatest play in the history of the Super Bowl. End of the game, game on the line, down three points? There isn't anything better than that."

"He made a whole city smile," Mr. Robinson said.

And he wasn't talking about Pittsburgh.

The man behind the Steelers' line

By Joe Starkey, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Friday, November 13, 2009

Larry Zierlein never had flashbacks of his time in Vietnam, just dreams.

"I dreamt I had to go back," he said, during our conversation on Veterans Day. "That would wake me up."

Growing up in Lenora, Kan., Zierlein, the Steelers' 63-year-old offensive line coach, was captivated by comic-book depictions of World War II and the Korean War. As a junior at Emporia State (Kan.) College, he determined it was now or never and joined the Marines.

Without telling his parents until after the fact, Zierlein signed up for a two-year volunteer program. That led to boot camp in San Diego and war preparation at Camp Pendleton. Before long, he found himself in South Vietnam.

And it was nothing like the comic books.

"In the comic books, they were constantly fighting; there was never any down time," Zierlein said. "In Vietnam, there were long, long lulls, and (the North Vietnamese) almost dictated the pace of the war. When they were ready to engage you, they would engage you.

"You didn't know where they were, or, in some cases, who they were."

Zierlein's unit sometimes lived underground during his one-year tour and did a turn at dreaded Con Thien, a U.S. combat base noted for its proximity to major North Vietnamese artillery. Con Thien would become the subject of a TIME Magazine piece depicting the war's horrors.

Zierlein, reluctant to go into detail, acknowledged that he lost friends and was lucky to come home alive. He has a photograph of himself and the men in his unit, taken early on. They agreed that if any lost his life, the photo would be sent to his loved ones.

"It sounds kind of a grotesque now," Zierlein said. "We said, 'Let's get a picture of each other looking off in the distance like we're contemplating something, and if we don't make it home, send that picture back to your family.' It was kind of hokey."

When his tour finally ended, Zierlein made the abrupt journey home.

On Dec. 24, 1967, he departed at noon from Okinawa, Japan, arrived in San Francisco at 6 a.m. (gaining six hours) and took a flight to Denver, where his parents picked him up and took him out for a cheeseburger.

"The strangest feeling was landing in San Francisco, because so many times you think, 'I'm never going to make it back,' " Zierlein said. "All of a sudden those wheels hit down, and you say, 'Wow, we're here.' "

That's when problems would begin for many vets, though Zierlein was not among those afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder. He isn't sure why.

How did the war change him?

"Didn't," he said. "I just grew up a little bit."

When a shoulder injury ended his football career at Fort Hays (Kan.) State, Zierlein reached a crossroads. He was married (he and wife Marcia have three children) but had to quit his construction job because of his bum shoulder.

Then-Fort Hays football coach Tom Stromgren asked Zierlein to help with spring ball.

"First day on the field," Zierlein recalled, "I said, 'This is what I want to do.'"

Thirty-nine years, 14 jobs and 13 cities later, Zierlein won a Super Bowl ring, last season. His son, Lance, a sports radio talk-show host in Houston, sat in the stands that night and thought of how his father was coaching at the University of Houston in the late 1970's and turned down an offer to work for Jimmy Johnson at Oklahoma State.

That might have fast-tracked Zierlein's NFL career, but he was loyal to Houston and wanted his family to grow roots there.

"The life of a coach and a coach's wife is extremely difficult," Lance Zierlein said. "When the Steelers won, my mom had tears in her eyes."

Like most Steelers employees, Zierlein humbly goes about his duties. His name doesn't surface much, except for criticism of the line -- rarely warranted anymore -- and his e-mail blunder from a few years ago, when he accidentally forwarded an off-color video to league personnel.

Zierlein's players swear by him and sometimes feel like swearing at him. He cracks them up with one-liners but has a hard-core teaching style that accentuates precise technique.

"He can be cranky in the morning," said center Justin Hartwig, laughing.

Hartwig and tackle Max Starks said Zierlein rarely speaks of Vietnam, though the subject arose last week. Hartwig demanded to know what Zierlein looked like back then because the coach had been telling them he was a "muscled-up, good-looking guy."

Zierlein promised to bring in the aforementioned photo. Hartwig grew serious when he spoke of it. He couldn't imagine what his coach had endured.

Few of us could.

Steelers react to Roethlisberger's 'E:60' talk

By Mark Kaboly, Daily News Sports Editor
Thursday, November 12, 2009

News that franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger called himself a bad teammate early in his career caught Steelers players off-guard Wednesday.

Roethlisberger made the admission one night earlier during a national television interview on ESPN's primetime news program, "E:60."

"That surprises me," said defensive lineman Brett Keisel, who is Roethlisberger's closest friend on the team. "That doesn't sound like something he would say."


Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger looks to pass against the Denver Broncos in a game earlier this week.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

In a 10-minute interview Tuesday that also focused on pending sexual assault allegations against Roethlisberger, the Steelers' quarterback talked about the relationships he has forged with his teammates since entering the NFL in 2004.

"I wasn't a good leader early on and I wasn't the best teammate I could've been the first couple of years," Roethlisberger said. "I was invincible; I was Superman. I was probably a little too confident, a little too cocky at times."

During his first couple of years in the NFL, it wasn't uncommon for Roethlisberger to isolate himself from people, teammates included. It was common practice during meals at training camp for Roethlisberger to either sit at a table by himself or take his food back to his dorm room.

Even while throwing a single-season franchise-record 32 touchdown passes in 2007, Roethlisberger was snubbed for the team MVP award, with the honor going to first-year starting linebacker James Harrison.

Keisel, though, never got the impression that Roethlisberger was a bad teammate.

"I don't think that was the consensus of the team back then," Keisel said. "Ben came in and had a lot on his shoulders right away. He had a lot of pressure."

Roethlisberger did not meet with the media yesterday.

Said veteran defensive back Deshea Townsend: "As far as he was when he first got here, he has always been a good teammate. He has always been a guy we've gotten along with well in the locker room."

Linebacker and defensive captain James Farrior, who dresses only a few lockers away from Roethlisberger, feels the same.

"I wouldn't say he wasn't a good teammate," Farrior said. "It was just, I think, a lot of things were happening around him. Being a quarterback of a good team, you have a lot of expectations that you might not realize."

Toss in that Roethlisberger enjoyed unparalleled success over his first two NFL seasons — he won 14 consecutive games as a rookie and a Super Bowl in his second campaign — only made it worse. Farrior said Roethlisberger's unmatched achievements early in his career put demands on his time that in turn isolated the franchise quarterback him from his teammates.

"It's tough for a young guy sometimes being cast into that spotlight and that role if you're not used to it," Farrior said. "It can get to you, and it might seem like you're distancing yourself from everybody."

Roethlisberger said it remained that way until backup quarterback Charlie Batch pulled him aside before the 2008 season for a heart-to-heart talk.

"Some things were easy to hear and some things were tough to hear," Roethlisberger said on "E:60." "Charlie helped me to become a good teammate and friend to a lot of these guys."

Batch declined comment on Roethlisberger's situation yesterday.

Roethlisberger started to make an effort to spend more time with his teammates, especially his offensive line. He has taken the linemen on many excursions, including in September when he hosted WWE's "Monday Night Raw" in Wilkes-Barre.

"I think it made a big difference," Roethlisberger said.

After the conversation with Batch in 2008, Roethlisberger has been playing his best football.

He led the team to its second Super Bowl victory just months after Batch's intervention and has followed that with a record-breaking first half of this season. He was named a Steelers' co-captain for a second consecutive year.

In leading the Steelers to a 6-2 record, Roethlisberger has thrown for 2,295 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He has completed 70.6 percent of his passes. He is on pace to become the first Steelers quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season.

"The biggest thing is that he opened up to everybody," Keisel said.

Added Farrior: "I think he's matured over the years, and I think it's come full circle. You can tell that he cares about everybody on the team. Now, he's a great teammate."

It wasn't night off for Clark

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Wasn't the point of not dressing safety Ryan Clark for the Steelers-Denver Broncos game Monday night to protect him from exerting himself in the mile-high altitude of Invesco Field?

I gotta tell you, it didn't work.

That was Clark running up the sideline, parroting teammate Tyrone Carter on his way to the end zone after Carter's second-quarter interception. It was Clark leaping high into the air to chest-bump Carter as he came back to the bench after his touchdown gave the Steelers a 7-3 lead. That was Clark bounding on and off the field during timeouts to counsel the defensive backs, something he always does when he is playing. And it was Clark sprinting to the locker room after the game, screaming, "I don't have to play anymore! They don't need me to win!"

That not-exerting-yourself business, as it turned out, can be pretty exerting.

"Yeah, I'm glad I don't have my spleen anymore," Clark said, playfully.

It's no wonder the man was all smiles. The Steelers beat the Broncos, 28-10, to remain in a first-place tie with the Cincinnati Bengals (6-2) -- the opponent Sunday at Heinz Field -- in the AFC North Division. His replacement -- Carter -- had not one, but two interceptions. Best of all, he was going to get on the airplane with his teammates for the flight home.

"That was my main goal on this trip," Clark said. "I couldn't do that the last time I was here. I had to go to the hospital."

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin wasn't taking any chances with Clark this time. Tomlin had to know all along that he wasn't going to play Clark against the Broncos, that it just wasn't worth even the slightest risk to his health, especially not with such a capable backup as Carter. In 2007, when the Steelers played in Denver, and Clark really exerted himself, he had major complications because of the sickle-cell trait in his blood. He ended up losing his spleen, gall bladder and 30 pounds. His football career was in jeopardy. His life was in jeopardy.

But Tomlin had no problem with Clark making the trip to Denver. The doctors encouraged it, actually. They were certain Clark's spleen had caused his problems, but they wanted a little more proof -- just to be safe.

That's why Clark ran three laps around the field and 15 sprints across it before the game. The doctors monitored his oxygen levels and took his urine for testing.

"I did fine," Clark said. "I think I'll be able to play here in January if we have to come back."

You know, for a playoff game.

Tomlin and the docs are on the ball, aren't they?

A Steelers-at-Denver playoff game seems unlikely now, though. It's hard to think the Broncos -- despite their 6-2 record -- are good enough to get a home playoff game. Not with mediocre quarterback Kyle Orton. Even if the Steelers and Broncos end up with the same record, the Steelers would have the tiebreaker edge because of the win Monday night.

How ironic is it that Carter played such a major role?

He and Clark talked before the game. "I told him, 'I'll play for you. I'll be there for you,' " Carter recalled. Then, he went out and intercepted Orton twice. "I just followed his eyes," Carter said. "He doesn't look you off very often like [Brett] Favre and [Tom] Brady do. He locks in on his receiver."

Carter's first interception was huge. "If we score on defense, we know we'll have a good chance of winning," he said. The second interception, in the final minute, merely added to Orton's and the Broncos' agony.

"I'm glad now I didn't play," Clark said, grinning again. "Ty did an awesome job. I probably would have messed things up."

What a luxury Carter is as a backup. In two starts for Clark last season when Clark was out with a separated shoulder, Carter had three interceptions, returning one for a touchdown against the Cleveland Browns.

"He's always been a playmaker," Steelers defensive back Deshea Townsend said of Carter. "We tease him all the time that he's the only one of our defensive backs to win the Jim Thorpe Award [at Minnesota in 1999 as the best defensive back in college football] ...

"That's why they call it a team. Depth tells the true measure of any team. We've got a lot of guys ready to step in when their number is called. They just need an opportunity."

Clark will be back in the lineup for the big game Sunday. The Steelers will need him to beat the Bengals. He's not just a ferocious hitter. He helps linebacker James Farrior get the defense lined up correctly.

Clark won't lack motivation for reasons that go beyond the game's significance. For one thing, he figures the Steelers owe the Bengals a little something after their 23-20 loss at Cincinnati Sept. 27. He blamed the secondary for that fourth-quarter collapse. For another thing ...

Just say Clark is enough of a student of sports to know that Yankees history didn't start with Jeter, Matsui and A-Rod.

"I had better get back fast and play well before I lose my job," he said. "I don't want to be like Wally Pipp."

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on November 11, 2009 at 12:00 am

Roethlisberger's impact goes beyond statistics

By Scott Brown, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

It was a fight that not many would be able to stop.

But into the middle of Chris Kemoeatu wrestling with all 344 pounds of himself stepped Ben Roethlisberger on Monday night. And following the missed block that got Roethlisberger crushed -- the mistake also resulted in a lost fumble and Broncos touchdown -- the Steelers' quarterback essentially ordered his left guard to forget about it.

"I always have a hard time moving on to the next play, especially when our dude back there gets hit," Kemoeatu said. "I think that helped me bounce back and make up for it."

DENVER - NOVEMBER 09: Ben Roethlisberger(notes) #7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers drops back to pass against the Denver Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High on November 09, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Roethlisberger's impact on the Steelers goes beyond the gaudy statistics he has piled up through the first half of the season. It is also evident in the touch he has shown in lifting teammates like Kemoeatu while guiding the Steelers to a 6-2 record.

Shortly after his pep talk to Kemoeatu, Roethlisberger led the Steelers on a four-play, 80-yard drive. Kemoeatu threw a block that helped spring Rashard Mendenhall for a 24-yard gain on the drive that produced the go-ahead touchdown.

Roethlisberger had earlier taken the same approach with Mike Wallace as he did with Kemoeatu.

When Wallace didn't work his way back to the ball on a third-down pass near the end of the first quarter, Roethlisberger, firm but encouraging, pointed out the rookie wideout's mistake. He also followed through on his promise to keep throwing Wallace's way.

As a result, the two hooked up for completions on a trio of third downs, including one for a 25-yard touchdown with seven minutes left in the game. That allowed the Steelers to open up a double-digit lead over Denver, and they rolled to a 28-10 win.

The victory wasn't just a testament to Roethlisberger's accuracy -- he is tied with Peyton Manning for the NFL lead in completion percentage (70.6) -- but also his comfort level in speaking out.

In being a leader.

"I think it's to the point now where I can go say something to (teammates)," said Roethlisberger, adding he was reluctant to do so as a younger player on a veteran-laden team. "Now I feel like if I need to chew someone, out I'll do it because I hold those guys to high expectations just like I hold myself to it."

Tongue lashings are not quite Roethlisberger's style. The six-year veteran is more inclined to motivate teammates by showing confidence in them.

"No one needs to be embarrassed," said Roethlisberger, who is on pace to throw for more than 4,000 yards this season. "If I throw an interception, there's nothing we can do about it now. We learn from it, we go on. That's the mentality I try to instill in them."

The response he has gotten from his teammates affirms that his approach is working -- and that the youngest quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl has taken another step in his development.

"You're not going to come in as a rookie and be a leader over Jerome Bettis and Hines Ward, it's not going to happen," said starting left tackle Max Starks, who was in the same draft class as Roethlisberger, "but you earn your stripes, you earn you stars, and he is the leader on this team."

Harrison delivers more than sacks for Steelers

By Mark Kaboly, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

During the past 2 1/2 years, James Harrison has 32 1/2 sacks.

If you ask Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau to list his All-Pro linebacker's most impressive plays, he remembers -- and not one of them includes pressuring, hurrying, hitting or sacking the quarterback.

Instead, they all have something to do with when he does something other than rush the passer.

"I can think back to the past three years to at least three or four great interceptions and the runs he has made after the interceptions," LeBeau said.


The Steelers James Harrison rush Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton at Invesco Field Monday.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

The one last February just before halftime of Super Bowl XLIII needs not to be mentioned as the most memorable, but LeBeau was just as impressed with one in 2005 when Harrison was a part-time player.

"He picked one off a couple of years ago in San Diego and jumped over a couple of would-be tacklers and ran 30 yards," LeBeau said. "That was impressive."

Then there was the one last year against the Chargers inside the 20-yard ,and the one the year before that against rival Baltimore on a Monday night.

"He can do it all," linebacker James Farrior said. "He does more than rush the quarterback."

That includes dropping into pass coverage. LeBeau found that out a while ago but is putting it to use more this year.

Through the first half of the season, LeBeau has asked Harrison to drop into coverage 59 percent of the time on first and second down. The Steelers' defensive coordinator unleashes the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year on the quarterback on third down nearly 80 percent of the time.

Harrison doesn't seem to mind either assignment.

"That's part of being a linebacker in Coach LeBeau's defense," Harrison said. "You have to be able to rush the passer and drop into coverage. That is part of the entire package."

Harrison is on pace to equal his 16 sacks from a year ago despite fewer opportunities to get to the quarterback.

It is no coincidence that eight out of the top 10 sack leaders in the NFL at the midway point are defensive ends, including Minnesota's Jared Allen.

"If (Harrison) rushed as many times as everybody else, he would have a lot more sacks," linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. "But we are asked to do more."

There have been games this year that LeBeau has asked Harrison to rush much more.

Harrison did not record sacks in the first two games. He dropped into coverage one more time than he rushed (38-37).

The next three games, which resulted in six sacks, Harrison rushed 95 times and dropped into coverage 29 times.

In fact, the four games Harrison was held without a sack, he rushed 55 percent of the time. In the four games that resulted in his eight sacks, he rushed on 71 percent of those downs.

"It is whatever Coach LeBeau wants me to do and whatever works for that game and that opponent," Harrison said. "There are certain times in a game that we may rush a little more, and other times we don't."

Harrison is fifth on the team with 39 tackles, has forced four fumbles and has a pair of pass defenses for the fifth-ranked defense in the league.

On Monday night against Denver, he lined up against Denver receiver Brandon Marshall on a couple of occasions in the slot. On other occasions, he has been matched up with San Diego tight end Antonio Gates and Chicago running back like Matt Forte.

Harrison, who is 6-foot, 242, has unique skills to be able to cover an array of different kinds of players -- some times during the same game.

"He can cover and he can get after the quarterback," linebacker Lawrence Timmons said.

Farrior broke into the league with the New York Jets as an outside linebacker but quickly found out that covering NFL tight ends, receivers and backs isn't easy.

"I don't play outside linebacker anymore, that's how tough it is," Farrior said.

Harrison found it tough early on, too. When he came into the league six years ago, he didn't do much more than rush the quarterback.

"The main thing with him is that he worked at it," Farrior said. "He worked at his craft. He worked harder than everybody at his position, and that is why he is one of the best right now."

And that's why he is called a complete player by his peers.

"He has always been a complete player to me," Woodley said. "Is there anything he can't do?"

Well, maybe long snap?


More Steelers headlines
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Roethlisberger's impact goes beyond statistics
Tomlin took decision out of Clark's hands
Big second half propels Steelers to win
Harris: In football vs. life decision, life wins
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Safety Clark takes a seat for Steelers

Pens' Crosby unfazed by pressure to perform

By Rob Rossi, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

BOSTON — He's under pressure, and Penguins captain Sidney Crosby wouldn't have it any other way.

Crosby has a career-worst streak of four games without a point, and hasn't scored in five contests since fellow center Evgeni Malkin was sidelined a right shoulder strain.

Crosby acknowledged Monday that he feels pressure to pick up his performance in the wake of injuries to five key contributors from the Penguins' 2009 Stanley Cup roster.

"(But) I don't think it hurts me," he said of that pressure after a practice at Boston University's Agganis Arena. "Usually, I get more out of myself because of that. It's something that has happened many times over the last few years — in the NHL or junior, whatever the case — and I've always felt like I've been better for it."

To get the Penguins better, at least mentally, coach Dan Bylsma deployed different forward units at practice. The noticeable changes were dropping wingers Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin from a spot with Crosby to a line with center Jordan Staal, and assigning Crosby the wing tandem of Matt Cooke and Ruslan Fedotenko.

"Our game has not been where we want it to be the last couple of games," Bylsma said. "This is a different look for a couple of different guys, and given the fact we have a few guys out of the lineup is another reason why the lines look liked they did."

The Penguins will play a third straight game without Malkin and winger Tyler Kennedy, who is second among forwards with five goals but has not stepped onto the ice since a pregame warm-up Thursday at Los Angeles.

Without Malkin, Kennedy and forward Max Talbot, and defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang, the Penguins are missing five players who accounted for 43 percent of their 2009 playoff goal scoring.

"You look at it, like, 'Oh, my God, all those guys,'" winger Pascal Dupuis said. "Injuries are always part of hockey, but for some reason with us it's a lot of our top guys."

Crosby is the Penguins' top guy, even though Malkin has paced the club in scoring the past two seasons. Crosby's line is always considered the top scoring unit. As Malkin said, "Sid is the guy teams try to stop first."

Still, his two assists without Malkin in the lineup — albeit over a small sample size of five games and with the Penguins considerably short-handed — do not compare to the 22 goals and 54 points Malkin has posted in 36 games missed by Crosby the past two seasons.

Before this injury, Malkin had missed only the first four games of his rookie season in 2006-07.

Crosby's production hasn't been helped by the struggling Kunitz and Guerin, his regular wingers from last season through a shutout loss Saturday night at San Jose. Those players have combined for only six goals and just three in the past nine contests.

Assessing his success, personally or as part of a line, is not something Crosby does by looking at a score sheet.

"You have to really know what you're watching to judge how guys are playing," he said. "It's tough. You analyze your line when it changes more than anything, but ... have we played bad? No. Have we produced? No. That's just the way it is."


Malkin: Crosby having 'bad luck'

Having caught a scout's-eye view from the press box while sitting out the past five games with a right shoulder injury, Malkin offered an evaluation Monday of Crosby's four-game point drought.

"Sid is playing great," Malkin said after his second straight light on-ice workout at Agganis Arena. "He is (showing) leadership, (trying to) create a lot of chances. He's having some bad luck, but that is all."

Crosby has posted only two assists in Malkin's absence, but he has attempted 23 shots during that span. He has misfired on seven attempts, and four were blocked.

"I've seen from up top, and he's played awesome," Malkin said. "It's hockey. The team wins and Sid doesn't score, and it's OK. The team loses and Sid doesn't score, it's bad.

"But Sid is OK."

Malkin predicted an offensive awakening for Crosby tonight at Boston.

"He'll have points, I think," Malkin said. "I think Sid is in for a great game."


More Penguins headlines

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Ward Helps Biracial Youths on Journey Toward Acceptance

By JOHN BRANCH
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
November 9, 2009


Michael Henninger for The New York Times

The group of eight South Korean youths that visited Hines Ward late last month. They were able to cheer him on at a Steelers game.


PITTSBURGH — Steelers receiver Hines Ward surrounded himself with old friends at the dinner table on a recent Saturday night. The bond was as obvious as the look on everyone’s faces — half Korean, half something else. The shared experience was far more than skin deep.

There was a boy who was bullied into depression and tried to commit suicide. There was a girl ordered by a teacher to keep her hair pulled back tight, to straighten the natural curls she inherited from her black father. There was another too intimidated by her taunting classmates to board the bus, choosing instead the humiliating and lonely walk to school. There were the boys who were beaten regularly and teased mercilessly. There were college-age girls who broke into tears when telling their stories of growing up biracial in South Korea.

But when they looked around the table, they saw familiarity. And a future.

“It is so special that no one is staring at me, and no one is asking me about my hair,” Lisa So, 20, said. “It gives me hope.”

The eight boys and girls, between 16 and 21, were visiting Ward from South Korea, where people of mixed races are considered everything from a curiosity to an abomination. What starts with teasing from childhood peers often turns to widespread ostracism and discrimination. It eventually leads to higher dropout, poverty and suicide rates.

“It’s a great culture,” said Ward, who was born in Seoul to a Korean mother and an African-American soldier father, and was raised mainly in Georgia by his mother. “I love everything about it. But there’s a dark side to that culture. And me, I’m just trying to shed a light on that dark side and make Korea a better place than it already is.”

The plight of biracial children in South Korea was largely ignored until 2006, when Ward was the most valuable player of Super Bowl XL. Koreans were quick to make the link to his Korean heritage.

That spring, Ward and his mother, Young He Ward, visited South Korea for the first time since Ward was a baby nearly 30 years earlier. They were mobbed by television cameras and gawking fans. They were honored by the South Korean president.

“I got more love there than I did in the States,” Ward said.

Ward was only starting to understand the underlying hypocrisy. Biracial children in South Korea recognized it instantly.

“They liked someone because he is famous,” So said. “If you are not famous, they are very cold. So I was happy, but also bitter.”

It represented, however, a slow turn toward tolerance.

“Nobody thought this problem was so serious in Korea,” said Jin Roy Ryu, the chairman of a multinational metals company, Poongsan Corp., and of the South Korean branch of Pennsylvania-based Pearl S. Buck International, which has provided social services to biracial children in South Korea since 1965.

“We’re a closed society, and no one really talked about it,” Ryu said. “But Hines came, and it really brought the issue to the center.”

When Ward visited the Pearl S. Buck office in South Korea, he found the stories heartbreaking — and familiar.

He was a year old when his family moved to the United States. His parents split, and Ward spent his early years with his father. In second grade, Ward moved in with his mother, who spoke little English and worked low-paying jobs. She still works in a school cafeteria; Ward said he had little contact with his father.

“It was hard for me to find my identity,” Ward said. “The black kids didn’t want to hang out with me because I had a Korean mom. The white kids didn’t want to hang out with me because I was black. The Korean kids didn’t want to hang out with me because I was black. It was hard to find friends growing up. And then once I got involved in sports, color didn’t matter.”

But there is no such relief valve for most of the estimated 19,000 biracial children in South Korea. The fast-growing majority of them are Kosians, with a parent from a different Asian country.

The number of Amerasians — those generally with white or black American fathers, often from the military — is slowly shrinking. But their mere appearance leads to harsher discrimination, officials said.

“Korea is traditionally a single blood,” said Wondo Koh, a Korean who met up with the group in Pittsburgh while doing business. “We Koreans are not comfortable with this mixed-blood situation. We have become familiar now, but we did not know how to cope.”

Ward and Pearl S. Buck International have taken eight Amerasian children to Pittsburgh during each of the last four football seasons. They stay with host families, people who have adopted South Korean children through Pearl S. Buck. They share stories about their experiences, a bit of therapy for children who usually do not know other biracial people back home.

Ward’s message: never be ashamed; embrace the opportunity to be part of two cultures.

Ward met the contingent at the airport. The next day, he treated them to several hours of arcade fun at Dave & Buster’s. Ryu and Ward hosted dinner for the group at a Korean restaurant.

Gifts were exchanged. Two boys did a tae kwon do exhibition. Two girls sang. All of them read essays written as part of the application for the trip. Several cried.

Earlier that day, Min Hyeok Han, 16, sat at the dining room table at the home of Ryan Little and Mary Kate Kelley, parents of two young boys they adopted from South Korea. Like most of this year’s group, Han was making a repeat trip to Pittsburgh.

“Here, they would just be the popular kids,” Kelley said. “It’s hard to imagine what they go through in Korea.”

Han is funny and smart, with a hipster’s bent and a maturity beyond his years. Korean strangers, he said, often think he is American — a common conclusion that he and the others rarely correct, simply to avoid an uncomfortable episode as a biracial South Korean.

Han lives with his grandparents and a great-grandmother. His mother lives nearby, but he knows nothing of his father, a white American soldier. Cousins shun him, he said, especially those from the countryside.

He said he was physically bullied by classmates once or twice a week, and verbally harassed daily — often with derogatory terms reserved for mixed-breed dogs. Sometimes, the barbs were aimed at his mother. When Han sat down for lunch with other children, he said, they frequently moved to another table. He has been beaten on the street by much older children quick to notice that he was a “half-blood.”

Han said he was ashamed to admit that he tried to overdose on his grandparents’ medications and had cut his wrists.

Things have changed the last three years. Han met Ward in 2006. When classmates saw pictures of the two together, Han was suddenly treated differently. Most antagonism ended. Some peers even find his biracial heritage “cool,” he said.

“I can see Korea is changing every year,” he said. “It’s slowly changing.”

On Oct. 25, before the Steelers played the Minnesota Vikings, the group stood on the sideline at Heinz Field. They were bedecked in Ward’s No. 86 jersey and other Steelers gear. Ward came over for high-fives and hugs.

From the end-zone stands, sitting with their host families, they waved Terrible Towels and cheered the Steelers to victory. The next day, they left Pittsburgh for a week of sightseeing in Philadelphia, Washington and New York with Pearl S. Buck officials. Then most returned to South Korea, carrying with them a booster shot of confidence.

They are part of a generation caught between yesterday’s racism and tomorrow’s acceptance. But as they sat around a dinner table in Pittsburgh, their vastly different faces did not seem unusual at all. What they had in common were their smiles.

Steelers' Roethlisberger changes game

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

DENVER -- Let me see if I have the scenario right ...

You went to the bathroom last night immediately after Denver linebacker Robert Ayers picked up a fumble by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and rumbled 54 yards for a touchdown that gave the Broncos a 10-7 lead early in the third quarter. You still were cursing Steelers guard Chris Kemoeatu for getting beat to the outside by defensive end Kenny Peterson and giving up the sack that forced the Roethlisberger fumble. You stopped at the fridge for a cold adult beverage on the way back to the TV room, all the while muttering a few more choice words about Kemoeatu. You plopped down in your favorite soft chair, looked at the score and were pleasantly shocked to see the Steelers ahead, 14-10.

Honest to goodness, it happened that fast.

Just as Roethlisberger predicted, as it turned out.


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw three touchdown passes last night.

It was the best part of an impressive 28-10 win that kept the Steelers in a first-place tie with the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North Division heading into their suddenly intriguing matchup Sunday at Heinz Field.

You should have seen Roethlisberger during the TV timeout after the Peterson-Ayers splash play. He went to each member of his offensive unit, told them to forget about it and promised that things were going to be OK. Of course, he spent an extra moment with Kemoeatu, who said he "felt sick in the gut" after the sack.

"Let it go," the big guard recalled Big Ben saying. "Move on to next play. Do something to make up for it."

Said Roethlisberger: "Everybody makes mistakes. It's like when I throw a pick. There's nothing you can do about it. I know he was hurting. All you can do is head-butt him and encourage him."

And, in Roethlisberger's case, make sure the sack and fumble were minor footnotes to the Steelers' fifth consecutive win.

Four plays and 80 yards later ...

On first down from the Steelers' 20, running his pet no-huddle offense, Roethlisberger threw a dart of a sideline pass to wide receiver Mike Wallace for 18 yards. Running back Rashard Mendenhall, who had a huge night with 155 rushing yards, followed that up with a 24-yard gain around right end to the Broncos' 38. Roethlisberger then saw that All-Pro cornerback Champ Bailey had wide receiver Santonio Holmes in single coverage. Bailey is great, but he couldn't stop a sweet 35-yard pass to Holmes that gave the Steelers a first-and-goal at the Denver 3. Next play? Roethlisberger fired the ball perfectly through traffic to wide receiver Hines Ward in the back middle of the end zone.

If the Steelers go on to win the division, they'll look back at those four plays as one of the most critical sequences of the season.

"Yeah, I get mad after plays like that," Roethlisberger said. "But I also have to laugh because there's nothing you can do about it. I guess it's like when you're playing basketball and you're driving to the basket and the defender takes the ball from you and scores on the other end. You want the ball right back so you can go at him again."

That 14-10 lead held up until midway through the fourth quarter when Roethlisberger made one more big play. He stepped up in the pocket on a third-and-10 play and found Wallace behind safety Brian Dawkins for a 25-yard touchdown.


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall ran for 155 yards last night.

On a night when the offense wasn't at its best for much of the game -- it had 54 total yards in the first half -- Roethlisberger made sure it was good enough to beat a Broncos team that came in 6-1, the second-best record in the AFC. He threw another touchdown pass to Ward in the final two minutes, his second three-touchdown game of the season.

I can't get past those four plays in the third quarter.

" 'Keep on truckin'. I have all the faith in the world in you guys,' " guard Trai Essex said of his sideline conversation with Roethlisberger. "When someone like him tells you that, you believe him."

You might remember this same sort of thing happened in the Steelers' 28-20 win Oct. 11 at Detroit. Roethlisberger threw a second-quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown that cut the Steelers' lead to 14-13. Roethlisberger went right to coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians on the sideline and asked to go to the no-huddle.
Six plays and 52 yards later ...

Roethlisberger was 4 of 4 for 47 yards on that drive, which also ended with Ward catching a touchdown pass.

"Ben doesn't blink," Tomlin said after that game.

Certainly, Roethlisberger didn't last night.

I'm wondering if maybe he should start the big game Sunday against the Bengals by throwing a pick-six.

OK, just kidding.

I think.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.

First published on November 10, 2009 at 2:06 am

Steelers' defense leads way

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

DENVER -- You know what the problem is when your nose is running and your feet are smelling, right?

Exactly; you're upside down.

As it happened, some similar inversion was precisely the topic as last night's seriously beguiling Monday Night Football episode between the Steelers and the Broncos wore toward some form of sanity.


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel celebrates after a sack of Broncos quarterback Brett Keisel.

None of the pregame warnings regarding the ominous atmospherics of the Rocky Mountains foretold of the likelihood that two of the best teams in the AFC would be looking at each other upside down for most of the night, but five minutes deep in the third quarter, the defenses were scoring the touchdowns, the offenses were giving them up, and the respective special teams appeared to be conspiring toward some similarly unconventional climax.

The Broncos, a somehow suspect 6-1 at kickoff, were again running the same strain of offense made malevolent by the New England Patriots, the former employer of their rookie coach, Josh McDaniels. New England had the best record in the NFL during the eight seasons McDaniels spent there, but transplanted to Colorado, McDaniels finds himself missing some key elements:

Tom Brady, Randy Moss, an accomplished offensive line, Wes Welker, just to name most of a half dozen.

Despite his 27-13 record as a starting quarterback, Kyle Orton is a poor coach's Brady, with no apparent ability to strike over the top of a defense, even one as depleted as the unit Dick LeBeau chicken-wired together around the absence of Ryan Clark, Lawrence Timmons, Aaron Smith, Travis Kirschke, and even late scratch Sunny Harris.

That's essentially how Denver wound up outgaining the Steelers, 183 yards to 54, and outpassing them, 157-31, by halftime, all without doing any damage. The longest of Orton's completions covered only 20 yards.

Meanwhile, Ty Carter's 48-yard interception return to the Denver end zone in the second quarter meant that the Steelers' defense had scored three touchdowns since the last time the offense had managed one.

"We always try to make big plays on defense," Carter said 20 minutes after the Steelers horse-collared Denver, 28-10. "If we can score on defense we know we have a good chance to win the game."

When Ben Roethlisberger had the football pried from him on the Steelers' initial possession of the second half, and rookie linebacker Robert Ayers lugged it 54 yards the other way to put Denver ahead, 10-7, it looked very much as though a courageous effort by a besieged Steelers defense would end up a footnote to the third loss of this season.

Even at that, the defense hadn't put itself in a position to gain a lot of sympathy. Brandon Marshall, the topical wideout spearheading an offense not nearly as bright as his day-glo orange footwear, wore down Steelers corner William Gay badly in the early evening.

"Eddie Royal, he ran some good routes on me; I just had to settle down is all," Gay said. "But I've seen the way this defense responds now for two years and I see the way they work every day. I'm not surprised at anything they do."


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Steelers safety Tyrone Carter runs back an interception for a touchdown during the first half of a 28-10 win against the Broncos at Invesco Field in Denver last night.

When the offense suddenly sat bolt upright in the second half, going 80 yards on four plays to a 14-10 lead, the capacity crowd at Invesco Field was compelled to remember that despite the depletions in Le­Beau's defense, it was still thick with superstars. Polamalu was still flying, James Harrison still mauling, Brett Keisel still attacking everything that flashed in front of him. These are the people who make it possible for Mike Tomlin to insist that regardless of circumstances, the standard of expectation does not change. It's no coincidence that the standard of excellence players like these have long since established and so consistently achieve turns into victories in difficult environments.

"We did what we try to do every game," Keisel said when apprised of Denver's second-half rushing total -- 1 yard. "If we can make them one dimensional we can unleash our blitzes, people have a hard time picking up what we're doing."

No one remains so hard to deal with as Polamalu, who darted into the national spotlight still again to nail gun the Broncos to a second consecutive loss.

Backed to their 9 with half the fourth quarter melted away, Orton sent Correll Buckhalter toward the left edge on first-and-10, and a millisecond after Buckhalter got the handoff, he got a bellyful of Troy's flowing black mane.

No gain.

On second-and-10, Orton looked for Marshall over the middle, a quick post that looked promising until Polamalu leaped toward another of the kind of intersections only he seems to envision. That interception not only meant the Steelers had picked off Orton twice as often last night as he had been all season (Carter added his second and the team's third in the final minutes), it set Roethlisberger up at the Denver 25.

Three plays later, Ben fled the pocket and found Mike Wallace for the sealant touchdown.

This Steelers team grew in significant ways in the mountain air. Playing Ziggy Hood and reminding Gay what it takes to win games like this is a crucial component.

"I wake up every morning and thank God I play with people like this," said Hood, the No. 1 pick who got his most substantial playing time to date. "It's not only the kind of players they are, but the kind of people. To be able to play on a defense with a tradition like this is just unbelievable. It's a blessing."

So Tomlin's team had won with defense again, effectively using its own most prominent vulnerability to flog a very solid opponent on the road.
That can't be good news in Indianapolis, in New England, or anywhere else where they dream the Steelers can be had.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com.

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.

First published on November 10, 2009 at 1:50 am

Steelers' Starks now a money player

Monday, November 09, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/


Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Steelers left tackle Max Starks.

Ben Roethlisberger took a well-traveled road to the top of the Steelers' pay scale. Although it's always easier for a guy who's drafted high in the first round, he has been terrific. His $102 million contract hardly seems likes too much.

James Harrison followed a much different, less-used path to his $51.2 million deal. He was an undrafted free agent who failed multiple tryouts with the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. But Harrison never gave in or gave up. He worked maniacally to become the Steelers' MVP in 2007 and the NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a Super Bowl hero last season. It is some tale.

Then, there's the trail Max Starks blazed to his $26.3 million bonanza. It's hard to believe another player did it the way he did it. No other player could have gone from being a starting right tackle on a Super Bowl team to being a forgotten benchwarmer with an obscene contract to being the starting left tackle on another Super Bowl team.

"I've been blessed," said Starks, who, at the end of this season, will have cashed checks totaling in the neighborhood of $20 million the past two years.

That is one exclusive neighborhood.

It is difficult to say Starks isn't earning his dough. It's not just the block he threw to help spring Fast Willie Parker on his 75-yard touchdown run against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL or the time he helped give Roethlisberger to pick apart the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. It's the protection he is giving Big Ben's blind side this season from the incoming stealth bombers -- the NFL's fiercest, fastest pass rushers.

Starks will be front and center stage again tonight when the Steelers play the Denver Broncos at Invesco Field. Often, he will be lined up against linebacker/defensive end Elvis Dumervil, who leads the AFC with 10 sacks. If the Steelers' first seven games are an indication, Dumervil won't add to that big number. Two weeks ago, Starks gave up nothing to Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, who leads the NFL with 10 1/2 sacks. Earlier in the season, he shut out Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom, who came in with seven sacks. In the opener, he dominated Tennessee Titans defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch, who had 16 1/2 sacks the previous two seasons.

"I'd give myself about a B- for the season," Starks said.

The big man is a tougher grader than your worst nightmare of a teacher.

"My best game? I haven't had it yet. That's still coming," Starks said.

Can we all agree tonight would be a good time for it?

"My worst game was definitely the Chicago game," Starks said. "[Defensive end] Alex Brown beat me to the inside, which led to a quarterback pressure, which led to an interception. He beat me for a sack in that game, too."

Funny, isn't it, how good players always seem to remember their few bad plays most vividly? Starks is lucky or good or some combination thereof, though. After quickly going through the first seven games in his mind, he decided that Brown sack is the only one that was directly his responsibility.

That B- grade really does seem to be absurdly low.

Starks' success couldn't happen to a nicer guy. No, really. He might be the nicest guy on the Steelers. He is an absolute gentle giant.

A lesser man wouldn't have treated right tackle Willie Colon so kindly after Colon was picked in the fourth round of the 2006 draft to, as it turned out, replace him. But Starks couldn't help himself. "Whenever I needed someone to lean on, he was always there for me," Colon said.

Starks still was there after Colon beat him out as the starter in the '07 preseason. "I love Max like a brother," Colon said, unabashedly. For his part, Starks gave his best aw-shucks grin and said he didn't do anything that a good teammate wouldn't do.

Who knew the man was so much bigger than 6-foot-8, 345 pounds?

That's why Starks was able to handle the awkward situation of being a $6.9 million backup with exceptional grace. It's still hard to believe the Steelers made him their transition player and agreed to pay him that huge salary in '08 when he was projected to be a reserve again after starting just four games at left tackle for injured Marvel Smith in '07. It's as if Kevin Colbert and his personnel people put one value on Starks, Tomlin and his coaches a much lower value. If any of it bothered Starks, he didn't let on.

"You can't get caught up in the lulls of life," he said. "It's frivolous to complain, 'Woe is me.' That's not going to help you. Anyway, I learned a long time ago that you're only one play away from starting in this league. If I had been selfish and pouted, I would have wasted the time I needed to prepare to be ready."

Starks moved back into the lineup for good at left tackle after Smith's bad back finally gave out after five games last season. The Steelers rolled right through the Super Bowl. The team rewarded him with a four-year, $26.3 million contract in the offseason, a jackpot that doesn't seem nearly as crazy as that $6.9 million deal for '08. It's the cost of doing business in the NFL, where rock-solid left tackles are precious.

"Max is going to be the left tackle here for a long time," Colon said.

Everybody, from Tomlin and the coaches to Colon and the players, would love to see Starks get a little meaner on the field. He doesn't always have the attack mentality that Harrison and Roethlisberger do. As Colon put it, "If Max ever realizes how good he is and decides, 'I'm going to be a bad ass,' heaven have mercy on the rest of the NFL."

That brought another silly grin from Starks.

"I'm not interested in being mean. I'm interested in being effective," he said. "I don't like emotions in my work. Emotions lead you to make mistakes. I'm trying to eliminate mistakes."

That's vintage Starks.

He has never taken the traditional road to NFL stardom.

He is not about to start now.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.

First published on November 9, 2009 at 12:00 am

Woodley's play validates hype

By John Harris, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Saturday, November 7, 2009

One by one, LaMarr Woodley took note of the players selected ahead of him in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Gaines Adams, Jamaal Anderson, Adam Carriker, Jarvis Moss and Anthony Spencer -- Woodley still doesn't understand why he was the sixth defensive end taken.

"Everybody that got drafted in front of me, I'm doing better than them. Not being cocky, that's just the way it is," said Woodley, the Steelers' second-round pick two years ago who was the 46th overall selection.


The Steelers LaMarr Woodley sacks Vikings quarterback Brett Favre in the second quarter at Heinz Field Oct. 25, 2009.
Chaz Palla/Tibune-Review file

Woodley, whose foot speed was questioned coming out of Michigan, made the seamless transition from college defensive end to NFL outside linebacker.

Woodley has 17 1/2 career sacks in 35 career games, or 1/2 sack per game. He established a league record with two sacks in each of his four postseason games.

This season, Woodley has only two sacks, but he's out to prove he isn't a one-dimensional defender. He has 25 tackles to go along with nine quarterback pressures, three passes defended and one fumble recovery.

Woodley's 77-yard touchdown return of a Brett Favre fumble not only aided the Steelers' 27-17 win over Minnesota, but it may have doused once and for all the talk of him being too slow to play linebacker at 6-foot-2 and 272 pounds.

"You see me drop back into coverage and cover receivers. Bat down balls. I even have an interception. I think all those questions kind of went away last year," said Woodley, who's scheduled to make his 23rd career start Monday night against the Denver Broncos.

"The only team that really looked at me as a defensive end coming out of college was the Tennessee Titans. Every other team was, 'Can you play outside linebacker?'

"I'm not going to run the fastest 40 time because it has nothing to do with being a football player in my eyes. I won every award possible for a defensive lineman (Lombardi, Ted Hendricks, Chevy Defensive Player of the Year). It just goes to show what I did in college wasn't a joke."

Woodley has more career sacks than four of the defensive ends drafted before him, combined -- Anderson, Carriker, Moss and Spencer. Adams, the No. 4 overall pick who was traded to Chicago this season, has 13 1/2 career sacks.

"I don't downplay them; I'm on a good team," Woodley said. "I'm playing at a high level now with a good group of guys."

Woodley's touchdown return was a total team effort as he followed a convoy of blockers to the end zone. It was his second career fumble return for a touchdown.

"When I picked up the ball, no one was there. So, I turned sideways, tried to keep my momentum going forward and made sure I had the ball," Woodley said. "Coming out of college, I didn't run a 4.5, 4.6 40. I ran a 4.7. Everything is based on 40-time. What is a defensive lineman doing running the 40? I ain't no track guy. I'm a football player. I just saw that (touchdown) run as, 'Finally, LaMarr made a big play. He might not be getting the sacks this year, but he made a great play.'"