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Bill Cowher coached the Steelers for 15 seasons and led them to victory in Super Bowl XL.
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
The New York Times
Bill Cowher knows where his coaching itch is. He can find it whenever he wants but chooses not to scratch it or let others seek it out. The Jets and the Browns know that.
“It’s there if I want it to be there,” Cowher, the former Pittsburgh Steelers coach, said late last week from his home in Raleigh, N.C. “Don’t get me wrong; I miss the live elements of coaching. And who’s to say that at some point I won’t go back?”
He is willing to take calls from suitors, but he does it more for his future than for those seeking his services. “Who knows?” he said. “If not this time, next time, if they come and ask again.”
For the past two seasons, Cowher, 51, has been a studio analyst for CBS’s “The NFL Today,” an eager observer of his daughters’ lives and basketball games, and a racquetball player and a golfer. “And my wife and I have a 14-month-old yellow Lab,” he said.
His once-a-week piano lessons are preparation toward fulfilling a distant goal, one he will reach only if he resumes practicing regularly.
“I’ve always wanted to walk into a hotel, sit at a piano and play ‘Piano Man,’ ” he said. Why? “I saw Billy Joel when I was in college at N.C. State, and it always seemed like a good song.”
He may follow up with “Hey Jude” if you put a five-spot in his cup. “The way I’m playing now,” he said, “there’d be no money in the cup.”
Like some former coaches who take television jobs — Bill Parcells and Jimmy Johnson come to mind — Cowher knows that his weekly presence ignites speculation about his future with every firing of a coach.
“By sitting and talking about it, I bring a lot of it on myself,” he said. “I don’t want to say I’m retired and will never come back.”
For now, weekdays in Raleigh and weekends in New York are enough for him.
His youngest daughter, Lindsay, is in high school in Raleigh; his middle daughter, Lauren, is at Princeton; and his eldest, Meagan, is teaching in Manhattan.
“I look forward to having dinner with her Saturday nights in New York,” he said.
All three daughters play basketball (Lauren and Meagan were Princeton teammates), following the lineage of their mother, the former Kaye Young, who played in college and professionally.
“I’ve probably watched more basketball games than anything,” he said. “I’ve coached them on mind-set, not technique. I tell them I like to walk into a gym in the third quarter and not be able to tell by their expressions if they’ve made or missed their last 12 shots.”
Cowher doesn’t teach his brand of saliva-fueled sideline emotion. “My middle one was a lot like me, not good at hiding her emotions,” he said. “The younger one is getting better.”
Very little of Cowher’s sideline personality is in evidence at CBS. He is not in charge (try telling Shannon Sharpe what to do), smiles a lot and contributes his insights.
“He’s fit in because he reads people and reads situations very well,” said James Brown, the host of “The NFL Today” and former host of “Fox NFL Sunday.”
He said that when he watches Cowher debate Sharpe, Boomer Esiason or Dan Marino: “You can see that protruding jaw. He purses his lips, he furrows his eyebrows and makes his point. It’s him saying, ‘Coaches coach and players play.’ ”
Brown recalled Cowher’s response this season when Sharpe said the N.F.L. should have made players aware that a diuretic not listed as an ingredient in a weight-loss supplement was a banned substance. Five players suspended for violating the league’s drug policy were subsequently cleared to play by a federal judge.
“Bill had a letter that he read to players at the start of each season that says no weight-loss pill, no diuretic is to be taken because you’re responsible for what you put in your body,” he said. “His message was: what part of that don’t you understand?”
Cowher says that his shift to network TV has been eased by the caliber of those he works with. But he is still adjusting to speculating about teams and coaches — “the sensationalizing every week.”
He added: “I think, ‘Let’s not overreact this week.’ But it’s our job.”
And it will be his for at least another season. (At least for now.)
As for Eric Mangini, the former Jets coach who got the Browns’ job, Cowher said he was not surprised.
“It’s hard to say he’s not qualified,” he said. “He had a winning record two of his three years. But it all depends on what you’re looking for. Every owner has the right to do what’s best for his organization. Just because the dynamics don’t work in one place doesn’t mean they won’t work elsewhere.”
E-mail: sportsbiz@nytimes.com
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