Scott Brown
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, January 7, 2007
The kid from Crafton became a symbol of the area he left and later returned to in pursuit of his football dreams.
Bill Cowher stepped down as head coach of the Steelers on Friday after 15 seasons, and his body of work with one of the NFL's most storied franchises has earned him immortality in Pittsburgh and likely in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Taking the reins of a franchise that meandered into mediocrity at the end of the Chuck Noll era, Cowher led the Steelers to eight division titles, six appearances in the AFC championship game and one Super Bowl title.
He also won a significant off-the-field battle in a power struggle that ended with general manager Tom Donahoe's resignation after the 1999 season.
Emerging from that and his only back-to-back losing seasons, Cowher returned the Steelers to prominence this decade.
The Steelers' 21-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL put a topper on Cowher's resume and provided some personal vindication, since his teams gained a reputation for shrinking on football's biggest stages.
"We've had some disappointments, the AFC championship games when you get so close," Cowher said. "I can honestly say that was the fuel that brought me back and made me appreciate things."
The Steelers' 2-4 record in AFC title games, in fact, is one of the few substandard numbers associated with Cowher's reign.
The Steelers won 62 percent of their regular-season games during his time here and made the playoffs 66 percent of the time.
Perhaps Cowher's most impressive number is his longevity. He was the longest-tenured coach in the league. NFL coaches generally come with the kind of expiration dates found on milk cartons.
"The track record for (NFL) head coaches and heart disease, heart attacks and mental breakdowns and all that other stuff is pretty high and there is a reason," Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "It used to be, what have you done for me lately, meaning from one year to the next, but any more it is, what have you done for me in the last 10 minutes."
The franchise's history and the fact that the Steelers are an institution make expectations here as high as anywhere.
But Cowher met them head-on, just as he might have a ball-carrier during his playing days. An erector-set jaw punctuated his fiery demeanor and demanding approach to coaching.
He personified Western Pennsylvania grit, and that trickled down to his players.
"He's the best motivating coach I've ever been around," said Rod Woodson, a star defensive back for the Steelers from 1987-96. "I think he gets the most out of his players on a year-in and year-out basis."
Cowher wasn't much older than some of his players when he became the NFL's youngest head coach at the age of 34.
At times during his career, he seemed to be playing the game as he coached it -- who can forget the time in Jacksonville when it looked like he might leap off the sideline and tackle a Jaguars player who intercepted a pass? -- his passion so evident that it might as well have been another piece of clothing.
"I am an emotional guy," Cowher said. "I am never going to lose that."
One gradual change Woodson noticed: Cowher went from being a "rah-rah" coach to one who understood that he didn't always have to yell to get his point across.
"A raised voice," Woodson said, "and a stern voice are two different things."
Cowher commanded respect from his players no matter which voice he used.
A lot of that stemmed from his approach. Cowher generally eschewed mind games.
"He'd leave his door open and say, 'If you have a question, ask it, but don't be afraid of the answer,' " said Jerome Bettis, who retired after last season as the second-leading rusher in franchise history. "That's all you want. He had a great attitude in the way he went about coaching all of his players."
Even those who didn't agree with his decisions more often than not respected them.
Take Kordell Stewart.
The star-crossed quarterback led the Steelers to the 1997 AFC title game in his first full season as starter.
But Cowher benched Stewart several times during his career and opted for Tommy Maddox in 2002 when Stewart struggled.
"I'm not going to say he treated me fairly, but he did what he thought was in the best interests of the football team," Stewart said. "He'll be remembered as a tough-nosed guy."
Indeed, Cowher's piercing glare complemented his jutting jaw. He didn't hesitate to fix it on a player who had blown an assignment or a reporter who dared to question him.
Cowher came off as distant and, at times, standoffish in relation to the media. His prickly relationship with the press could be seen when he chastised local reporters in December for assuming he wouldn't answer questions about his future.
Cowher's uncertain future with the Steelers loomed over his final season with the team and generated its share of fan criticism.
Some saw Cowher as having his body in Pittsburgh and his heart in Raleigh, N.C., where he and his wife, Kaye, bought a multimillion-dollar home soon after Super Bowl XL.
Bolstering that argument were the rash of turnovers that buried the Steelers' hopes of repeating as world champions.
Cowher, however, didn't lose his players after a 2-6 start, as the Steelers refrained from public sniping at one another despite disappointing results.
"It's always a reflection of the head coach," linebacker Joey Porter said of the way the Steelers, who won six of their last eight games, stuck together.
For all of the intensity and toughness he exuded, Cowher apparently showed his players a side the public rarely saw.
"I don't think you can deny that Coach Cowher is the kind of guy that likes to have fun and is definitely a players' coach and is definitely a little more loose than a lot of the coaches," center Jeff Hartings said. "I think the biggest thing I learned is that you can have fun and still have success as an NFL player. I didn't really know if that was possible coming from five years in Detroit."
Anything probably seemed possible to Cowher after he succeeded the legendary Noll as head coach.
He had grown up in Crafton, a small community where football is part of its fabric. He accepted a scholarship to North Carolina State after being overlooked by the major schools in this area.
The Carlynton High graduate made the NFL as an undersized linebacker and played five seasons before going into coaching. He got his start with the Cleveland Browns under Marty Schottenheimer, and he later served as a mentor of sorts to other assistants who have won NFL head coaching jobs, including Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis.
When asked what he learned from Cowher, Lewis, a former Steelers linebackers coach, said, "That each and every day you have to find a way to make players better and get them to play hard and enjoy the game."
Cowher expertly straddled that line -- getting players to have fun while also making them accountable -- and he may well do it somewhere else.
After all, coaches don't seem to retire as much as they transition to TV work for a couple of years and then return to the game energized, not to mention with a huge contract.
"There is no timetable," Cowher said of a possible return to coaching. "The only sideline I'll be sitting on is up in the stands and watching my kids play basketball in the next couple of years."
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