A big game for the Bus, an even bigger one for Cowher

Friday, January 27, 2006
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It has become a common theme for Super Bowl XL that the Steelers, the AFC champion, want to win a championship for Jerome Bettis before he retires, as though it's some sort of going-away present they can buy at Kaufmann's.

That is almost as preposterous as the notion Bettis, after fumbling near the goalline in Indianapolis and almost costing the Steelers a playoff victory against the Colts, would return for one more season because he didn't want his almost-certain Hall of Fame career to be remembered for a fumble.

When looking back on Bettis' career, which has seen him become the fifth all-time leading rusher in the National Football League, people will remember the battering runs, the way he churned his 255-pound into motion, the little side-step he did after a big run, the 2001 season. They will not remember him for one fumble no more than people who think they will remember a deceased person for the way they are lying in a casket.

The Steelers want to win a championship because that is what they are paid to do, what they are supposed to strive to do, and what they didn't do last season when they were 15-1. It would be nice to win one for Bettis, who is expected to retire after the season. But it is highly unlikely Ben Roethlisberger will throw a football or Hines Ward will catch a pass or Alan Faneca will pull on a counter sweep in Detroit's Ford Field thinking, "Man, gotta win one for JB."

If there is such motivation to win this game, it probably should be channeled in the direction of someone else: Bill Cowher, who deserves a Super Bowl victory as much, if not more, than Jerome Bettis.

Unlike Bettis, Cowher is more remembered for the games he has lost than the 152 he has won in his 14 seasons as head coach. He is more remembered for losing four of five home conference championship games than winning eight division titles and making 10 playoff appearance since 1992, a percentage of postseason appearances not even Chuck Noll could manage.

But, unlike Noll, who won four Super Bowls in four appearances, Cowher is 0-1 in Super Bowls. And it's not just the defeat that is dangled over his head as though it's the sword of Damocles.
It's that, with five golden opportunities to get there, he only managed to get to just one measly Super Bowl (now two).

If anybody needs a victory to crystalize what he really is, it is Bill Cowher.

If the National Football League threw the names of 32 head coaches on a table and told a start-up franchise they could pick any candidate to run their team, Cowher wouldn't last till the third pick.

If Cowher were suddenly a free-agent coach, let go for some strange reason by the Steelers and free to sign with any NFL team, how many owners do you think would flirt with the notion to fire their coach and instantly hire the 48-year-old from Crafton? Twenty-nine? Thirty?

This is a big game for the Steelers, and for Bettis, but it probably a bigger game for Cowher.
Win and he is likely to cement a legacy as one of the best coaches of his era and perhaps find a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Lose and he may forever endure the label of a coach who could never win the big game. The Bud Grant of his era.

That is plausible motivation, in case the Steelers are looking for some.