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?


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Big second half propels Steelers to win
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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."


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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.'"

Ward carves out remarkable career

By John Harris, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Of the 12 wide receivers selected before Hines Ward in the 1998 NFL Draft, only one still plays in the NFL. Randy Moss, a certain Hall of Famer, was drafted in the first round that year — 71 picks ahead of Ward, a third-rounder and the 92nd player taken overall.

The draft that delivered wide receiver washouts Kevin Dyson, Marcus Nash, Jacquez Green, Patrick Johnson, Brian Alford, E.G. Green and Larry Shannon could ultimately become the only draft to produce two Hall of Fame receivers in Ward and Moss, now with New England. Another possibility could be Michael Irvin and Tim Brown, both drafted in 1988. Irvin is in the Hall of Fame; Brown isn't ... yet.

That Irvin is in the Hall of Fame with fewer receptions and touchdown catches than Ward only speaks to Ward's greatness. That Ward, at age 33, is enjoying a campaign that players 10 years his junior would be proud to claim has captured respect from some of his most esteemed peers.

"I don't like to get into too many conversations about the Hall of Fame because I don't really know what a Hall of Famer is now. But I don't feel like you can tell the story of the history of wide receivers in the NFL without including Hines Ward," said ESPN analyst Cris Carter, who trails only Jerry Rice on the all-time list for total receptions and touchdown catches but wasn't inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility last year.

Ward's career total of 842 receptions ranked sixth among active players. He's eighth in receiving yards (10,382) and fifth in touchdown receptions (74). He leads the Steelers in all three categories.

"Hines does a lot of things," Carter said. "He might not be the fastest. He's not the biggest, not the cleverest. But he's very, very effective. He's the leading receiver in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's a winner. That's what people always say the criteria for the Hall of Fame is: 'You've got to win.' Everyone's not a winner."

Ward has played for two Super Bowl championships teams. He was MVP of Super Bowl XL, with five receptions for a game-high 123 yards in the Steelers' 21-10 win over Seattle.

This season, Ward leads the Steelers with 42 receptions for 602 yards. He has three 100-yard receiving games. He's fifth in the league in receiving yards, and his 14.3 yards per catch average is the highest since his rookie season, when he had 15 receptions for a 16.4-yard average.

Ward is tied with three players for the most receptions of 20 yards or more with 10. He's tied with Dallas' Miles Austin as the only players with at least 10 catches of 20 yards or more and three catches of 40 yards or more.

So much for Ward being typecast as a possession receiver because of his so-called lack of blazing speed.

"You have to be careful how you label a guy: 'He's not fast, he can't run.' The measurables don't mean anything when it comes to Hines," said ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson, who amassed 814 career receptions for 10,571 yards and 64 touchdowns. "He's gotten those 800 catches and 10,000 yards in a special way.

Height, speed — all those things you look for in a receiver, he doesn't fit that mold. I played 11 years and I went deep a bunch — caught a lot of long passes — in my career. Hines — same thing. He went deep on a bunch of guys."

Carter said there are several reasons for Ward's resurgence in the Steelers' deep passing game.

"Hines is successful late in his career because of the evolution of the offense around him, and having someone like Ben (Roethlisberger). He gets more opportunities than he got earlier in his career," Carter said. "Another reason he can be successful is Santonio Holmes. If you look at Santonio's big-play capability, teams are trying to roll the coverage up on him a lot. Hines is not getting doubled as much as he was earlier in his career because of Santonio's development.

"Hines can also get open like that because coaches know what you can do, they put you in the right spot. They get a feeling for your skills."

Ward's all-around receiving skills place him in a special category, said Johnson, who respects Ward's game because it resembles his own.

"Hines can do it all," Johnson said. "He can go inside, outside. He can go around you, he can go deep. He can block.

"You think (Oakland Raiders rookie wide receiver) Darrius Heyward-Bey is going to block somebody? Please. Hines Ward is better than Heyward-Bey on one leg. And Heyward-Bey will outrun Hines backward. But Heyward-Bey isn't the football player that Hines is, and probably will never be."

Heyward-Bey was a first-round draft pick, No. 7 overall. He has five receptions for 74 yards in his first eight NFL games.

Few people gave Ward much of a chance as a third-round pick 11 years ago.

"The people that do the drafting don't pick football players," Johnson said. "They pick statistics."

On the Steelers: Too Mean, Too Hard, Too Good

Steelers fans think they know the hard knocks-to-hard knocks story of last season's NFL defensive player of the year. They don't.

Sunday, November 01, 2009
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

James Harrison came by his tough-guy reputation honestly. He transferred from one high school to another, got kicked out of that one, and twice was suspended from the football team of his third school.

As a freshman, a 12th-grader hassled him in the school hallway, and Harrison reared back and punched him in the face, knocking him straight into the hospital.


"Never Give Up" by Bill Moushey with Bill Parise

At age 12, James sped down the highway at 75 mph behind the wheel of his dad's Ford Escort when his father, asleep in the passenger seat, woke up. "He told me I shouldn't be speeding," Harrison said, "so I told him I was following the flow of traffic, just like he said." His father nodded and went back to sleep.

If you think Harrison's hits on a football field are hard, you should hear about his childhood. Harrison's early years growing up in Akron, Ohio, are the most gripping part of his new biography, "Never Give Up." Author Bill Moushey, with Harrison's agent Bill Parise, turns Harrison's compelling story into a good book with a cherry on top -- their subject winning NFL defensive player of the year and then making a historic, game-changing play to help the Steelers win the Super Bowl. "It's the greatest single defensive play in Super Bowl history," his coach, Dick LeBeau, states flatly.

Most Steelers fans know the inside and out of the latter, although you will still find inside tidbits here; his youthful years, though, are the ones you will most remember. First mined in a chapter in Jim Wexell's fine book, "Steeler Nation," Moushey has the advantage of devoting more print to Harrison's Akron years, and it is well done.

Through a combination of an aunt's murder and his parents' combined broods from previous marriages and their own, Harrison had 21 siblings. Together, they could field an offense and a defense without anyone playing two ways.

"I was very stern, believed in discipline," his mother, Mildred, said.

Throughout the book, Harrison displays his mother's influence, particularly her advice that "if somebody messes with you, you defend yourself. You don't go out and look for trouble, but if trouble comes to you, you don't run." That, and his intrinsic truth-telling nature, sometimes either got him into trouble or did not get him out of it.

Many pro athletes can point to their bad-child-turned-good stories about maturing and finding a way. Jerome Bettis wrote in his book about selling drugs on a street corner as a kid.

One difference with Harrison that "Never Give Up" brings out is that this was not a bad kid but a good one who would not back down, including the racism he experienced in attending lily-white schools and from opponents. After influential white parents pressed for charges against him, he took the fall for a BB-gun prank that went awry among teammates in the locker room.

"I've broken murderers and killers, and I'm going to break you, too," the cop interrogating the high school senior threatened him.

Moushey, Parise and Harrison do not sidestep difficult stories from the player's past nor his most recent experiences. Harrison tackles them head-on as he would a halfback. They include his honest admission of his domestic-abuse case, his refusal to travel to the White House, the almost tragic attack by his pit bull on his infant son, the reasons big-time recruiters were scared off during his senior season in high school and more.

It's not all nitty-gritty. There is humor and there is triumph throughout the book. Both occurred in one instance when Drew Brees, now the NFL passing dandy with the New Orleans Saints, chastised Harrison when Brees' Purdue team played Harrison's Kent State. Brees told Harrison his tough play could injure him and keep him from going high in the NFL draft.

"I told him as far as I was concerned, the only place he was going was on the ground," Harrison said.

You also will find interesting the dichotomy of Harrison's tough-guy image contrasted by his shyness, his fear of flying and the kinds of tattoos he wears on his arms and chest.

Want more? Buy the book. It should be in all the bookstores by now, in Giant Eagles and at www.jamesharrisonnevergiveup.com.

For more on the Steelers, read the new blog, Ed Bouchette on the Steelers at www.post-gazette.com/plus. Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@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 1, 2009 at 12:00 am

Farrior still plays young

Sunday, November 01, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Inside linebacker James Farrior had 15 tackles against the Vikings last weekend, including this hit on Brett Favre. Said defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau: "Fifteen was legit -- some of them were unbelievable."

You can say just about anything to Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, probably the nicest, most revered man in the NFL.

Just don't suggest to him that his captain, James Farrior, might be losing a step now that he's 34 and spending a 13th consecutive autumn fighting off big, mean-spirited NFL offensive linemen just to get a chance to run head-on into fast, powerful running backs.

Nice or not, LeBeau doesn't tolerate fools kindly. The last thing he wants to hear is that a fella might be getting too up in years to be productive.

Said the NFL's oldest coach at 72:

"James Farrior hasn't lost a thing. He's just as quick now as he ever was. He's plenty quick."

LeBeau was fairly growling now, at least for him.

"James Farrior is our captain for a reason. He's still a great player and a great leader."

It's hard to argue with LeBeau after watching Farrior against the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday when he was credited with 15 tackles by the Steelers' press-box stats crew. That's a high number, but it was confirmed by LeBeau. "Fifteen was legit -- some of them were unbelievable," he said.

LeBeau might have been talking about Farrior's sack of quarterback Brett Favre. Or maybe his tackle of All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson for a 2-yard loss. Or perhaps the tackle he made on tight end Visanthe Shiancoe on a screen pass after fighting through a block by guard Anthony Herrera.

It's hard to say one of the tackles was more impressive than the others. They all were terrific. Farrior also had three quarterback hurries and was in primary coverage on Favre's two incompletions on second- and third-and-goal from the Steelers' 1, a stand that forced the Vikings to settle for a third-quarter field goal.

Not a bad day for an elderly man.

"I don't know how I keep doing it," Farrior said. "A lot of it is being around these young guys. They keep me going. I'm just trying to keep up with them."

Of course, there's much more to it.

Farrior's conditioning is extraordinary. "I try to hit it as hard as I can in the off-season," he said. The consensus at Steelers headquarters seems to be that linebacker James Harrison is the team's hardest worker, but Farrior might be No. 2.

There's also the film study that Farrior puts in. He doesn't just concentrate on the opponent's tendencies. Because he's responsible for lining up the defense each play, he has to know what every player on his team is supposed to do. "He's almost never out of position and makes sure we're not, either," defensive end Brett Keisel said.

"That's probably the main thing for me," Farrior said. "The key for me is being one step ahead of the other team and knowing what they're going to do before they do it. I'm a smarter football player now. I don't have to use my athletic ability as much as I did early in my career. When you know what you're supposed to do, it makes you play faster and look faster."

To say Farrior fairly wills himself to be a great player is not an overstatement. As a captain and a caring teammate, he took the Steelers' 1-2 start personally because it included late collapses by the defense -- his defense -- in the two losses. He especially took the loss in Cincinnati hard because he was beaten by running back Brian Leonard on an 11-yard pass play on fourth-and-10 during the Bengals' winning drive.

"I feel like I lost us this game," Farrior said after that 23-20 defeat. "That dude was my man."

His teammates quickly came to his defense, pointing out that play was just one of 22 on the Bengals' two fourth-quarter touchdown drives and that they were just as responsible for the loss. He still doesn't want to hear it.
"I felt like I let the team down," he said. "That's definitely a play I should have made. It was a tough game to swallow, but I'm a professional. I know all you can do about it is come back and go to work and try to prove yourself again."

So Farrior has.

The Steelers' defense has been much better since, doing its share of the heavy lifting in four consecutive wins. Harrison -- the AFC Defensive Player of the Month for October -- deserves much credit. A healthy Troy Polamalu also has been huge. Just don't underestimate Farrior's role.

"He's our leader," linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. "He's the guy we follow."

It's fair to think Farrior's amazing run will end sooner rather than later.
That age business, you know? Still, if you just watched him play, you'd never guess he was 34. You wouldn't know it by listening to him, either. He talks as if he wants to finish out the five-year, $18.25 million contract he signed before last season.

"That was the plan then and it's still the plan," Farrior said. "This is so much fun, I can't stop. I'm going to play till they kick me out."

It doesn't sound as if that will happen soon.

"The stage is never too big for James," gushed Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who, at 37, isn't even three full years older than Farrior.

"He's always ready to play."

To take on those blockers.

To meet those running backs head on.

To kick the heck out of Father Time.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author

First published on November 1, 2009 at 12:00 am

Penguins bench Malkin due to shoulder strain

Friday, October 30, 2009
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin will be sidelined due to a right shoulder injury.


Coach Dan Bylsma, general manager Ray Shero and All-Star center Evgeni Malkin emerged from a closed-door meeting after practice yesterday at Mellon Arena with news of the latest injury problem for a Penguins team that so far hasn't been slowed because of missing players.

Malkin, it turns out, played the past several games -- including a 6-1 win Wednesday against Montreal in which he took six shots and registered an assist -- despite a strained right shoulder. Team officials persuaded him to shut down for what Bylsma called "a couple weeks."

"We're worried about the safety in the shoulder," Bylsma said. "A couple weeks, some rehab, some rest, we'll get that thing ready so we can get him back on the ice."

Malkin, who is tied with center Sidney Crosby for the team scoring lead with 14 points, resisted at first but acknowledged that this was the best way to handle the situation.

"It's OK. It's not the pain. I don't feel comfortable now," said Malkin, who last season was the NHL regular-season and playoff scoring champion and the playoff MVP in helping the Penguins win the Stanley Cup.

"The team is playing good. It's early in the season. It's fine. Just two weeks is OK. I feel good, and it's not a big problem."

With Malkin out, Bylsma said, center Jordan Staal's ice time will increase, most likely on the power play.

"We talk about the strength of our centermen, and people talk about Jordan Staal being a second centerman on another team," Bylsma said. "That's the strength of our team, and we're fortunate we have some depth at that position.

"We have enough quality forwards that we should be able to play a little bit differently, but we still should be all right."

The Penguins recalled forward Chris Conner from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He is expected to be in Columbus for tonight's game against the Blue Jackets. Conner, who had played in 71 games for Dallas before being signed over the summer by the Penguins, caught eyes in training camp with his speed. He led Wilkes-Barre with two goals, eight points in seven games going into last night.

Malkin said he planned to travel with the club when it leaves Sunday for a 10-day, four-game trek through California and Boston.

"I'll be watching and supporting the team," he said.

The number of players doing that is mounting, even as the 10-2 Penguins keep winning.

Forward Max Talbot started the season on the long-term injury list after offseason shoulder surgery. He has stopped practicing because of a secondary foot problem and likely will not be ready to play until at least mid-November.

Malkin joins a more recent list of injured players that includes top defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who has missed the past three games because of a broken wrist and could miss another three to five weeks, and winger Tyler Kennedy, who missed the Montreal game and probably won't play tonight because of an undisclosed injury.

Bylsma did not disclose his plans for new line combinations.

"When you lose two good [forwards], it goes without saying that you have some things to fill in and some concerns about who's going to go in there, how it's going to look, what the results are going to be," Bylsma said.

The loss of Malkin and Gonchar hits the top power-play unit particularly hard. Defensemen Alex Goligoski and Kris Letang have been running the points without Gonchar, who primarily sets up the power play. It remains to be seen whether Staal will take over Malkin's spot along the right half boards or will play more in front of the net, with Crosby moving into Malkin's spot, perhaps.

"We have a lot of guys that can play on the power play," Goligoski said. "It's tough losing [Malkin] for a while, but we'll be all right."

Letang said filling the gaps is easier because of the way the power play is set up.

"It's not just about talent. It's about your work ethic, following the plan," Letang said. "Just do simple stuff and make sure we're on the same page."

Malkin probably would have remained in the lineup if allowed. He has played in every game -- 254 in a row, plus 49 in the playoffs -- since he missed the first four games of his rookie season, 2006-07, because of a preseason injury to his other shoulder.

"You don't have to worry about his courage on the ice and how he's going to play," Bylsma said. "Knowing he's been dealing with a sore shoulder, he's still been going out there and throwing body checks and gone in [traffic].

For more on the Penguins, read the new Pens Plus blog with Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson at www.post-gazette.com/plus. Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.

Crosby sticks with new approach

By Joe Starkey, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Friday, October 30, 2009

Sidney Crosby, goal scorer.

We are all witnessing the evolution.

With nine goals in 12 games, Crosby is off to the best start of his five-year career. He has 24 goals in his past 36 games, including the playoffs. He is on pace to score 62 this season, though it's a bit early for projections.

Some people want to attribute Crosby's hot start solely to his new, one-piece stick. Crosby is not one of them, although he acknowledges that the stick, at the very least, is symbolic of his budding scorer's mentality.

For his first four seasons, Crosby used a wooden blade, while nearly all other NHL players were using one-piece composite sticks -- made mostly of graphite -- that they believe allow for better velocity and lift on shots.

Crosby favored the wood, among other reaasons, because he could feel the puck better on his stick. He finally made the switch this past summer, partly because the wooden blades he favored went out of production two years ago (he kept a stash for last season and still has plenty left, just in case).

"If anything, I think (the new stick) has probably given me more confidence to use my shot a little more," Crosby said Wednesday, after scoring a hat trick against Montreal. "I definitely feel like I'm more likely to shoot from a little farther out than normal. In my mind, I'm not afraid to take a shot in a one-on-one now. That's important. I can't be too predictable."

Most of Crosby's goals this season, as in last year's playoffs, have been right around the bucket. Can you imagine the carnage if he ever develops an outside jumper?

Crosby figures two of his nine goals "maybe" could be attributed to the new stick, and that is significant. That would project to 10 "new-stick" goals in a 45-goal season.

In that vein, I posed the following question to Penguins coach Dan Bylsma and winger Bill Guerin: What is the ceiling on Crosby's goal potential?

Before last year's playoffs, Crosby was trending downward. He averaged 0.48 goals per game during his 39-goal rookie year. That decreased to 0.46, 0.45 and 0.43. His shots per game, too, hit a career-low of 3.09 last season but has risen to 4.2 this season.

Clearly, something changed in the playoffs. Crosby decided he needed to score if his team was going to win.

So, what's the ceiling? Keep in mind that Crosby still is only 22.

"Sid probably focused on playmaking more early in his career, and I think there was a ceiling to how many goals he could get because of that," Bylsma said. "I think now he has a different mentality and focus. He has more of a shooter's mentality. I think that lends to there not being a ceiling."

Proof of the changing mentality: Crosby registered seven or more shots just three times in 77 games last season; he's already done it three times this season.

"He puts himself in position to score all the time," Guerin said. "If he chooses to shoot more - which they've been telling him to do - he could score a ton of goals."

Back home this past summer in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Crosby spent hours shooting pucks with a weighted one-piece stick. He poured sand down the hollow shaft in order to make it heavier.

"I have a shooting area set up in my backyard, a big concrete slab," Crosby said. "And I have a net with a big cage around it."

If he scores 40 goals this season, Crosby will raise his career total to 172, which would tie Bobby Carpenter for fifth-most in NHL history before the age of 23. Wayne Gretzky leads that list, according to Elias Sports Bureau, with a ridiculous 329 goals, followed by Dale Hawerchuk (220) and Mario Lemieux (215).

But then, when it comes to goal scoring, Crosby is just getting started. And as he put it Wednesday, "I don't want to stop."

Steelers' Clark has tough decision

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Steelers safety Ryan Clark could skip next week's game in Denver.


Ordinarily, I believe that an NFL player should never miss a game for any reason other than an injury or a life-threatening situation at home. The impending birth of a child? Play the game, then rush to the hospital. A death in the family? Unless there are children to comfort, schedule the funeral around the game. I know I'll be heavily criticized for those opinions, but I truly believe them. That's the way it used to be in professional sports, emphasis on the word "professional." It's the way it still should be.

Pirates great Dick Groat has told of missing the birth of his daughter, Allison, in 1963 when he was with the St. Louis Cardinals. "They wouldn't let me go home because it was late in spring training," he said. "That's just the way it was then. None of us thought twice about it. Those were the sacrifices you made to be a part of a team."

OK, not being allowed to miss a spring-training game is ridiculous. I'll give you that. I'll even acknowledge that it's ridiculous not to be allowed to miss one of 162 regular-season baseball games or one of 82 NHL games in certain situations. But an NFL game is a much different matter. There are only 16 each season. It's not as if a player can miss one and make it up. He doesn't just have an obligation to his team, which is paying him an extraordinary salary. He has an obligation to his teammates to be there with them and for them except in the direst of circumstances.

That brings us to Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who has said he hasn't decided if he'll play in the next game at Denver Nov. 9 despite not having an injury.

I'll have absolutely no problem if Clark decides to sit that one out.

Clark has a blood disorder caused by the sickle-cell trait that has attacked his organs when he exerts himself in high altitude. It was a problem for him when he played in Denver with the Washington Redskins in 2005, a much more serious problem when he played there with the Steelers in October '07. He had to be hospitalized immediately after that game and nearly died not long after he returned to Pittsburgh.

"The first speech I got from the doctors in the hospital [here] was that my lungs had filled, my kidneys were dented and my stomach was closing," Clark said in January, recalling that frightful time. "My spleen had gotten enlarged and infected and it died.

"I never really thought I was going to die except for maybe one day when I was at home. I was so cold. I couldn't stop shaking. My wife got out the hair dryer and was blowing it on me. My mother was there, putting hats and coats on me while I was in bed. I still couldn't get warm. That was rough."

Clark's spleen was removed that November, his gall bladder in December. His weight dropped from 203 pounds to 170.

"A lot of people were skeptical I'd ever be able to play again," he said.

Doctors have told Clark they believe that his spleen was the problem. "Now that's gone, so we'll see," he said. He's still trying to sort through all the medical advice and probably won't make his decision about playing until early next week. If he doesn't go, Ryan Mundy and/or Tyrone Carter will fill in.

I'm guessing Clark will play in Denver as long as the docs give him an absolute assurance -- or as close to one as they can come -- that he won't have any complications. He is a guy who long ago proved his commitment to the game and the team. He didn't just come back and play last season after his near-death experience. He was a key part of the Steelers' Super Bowl odyssey.

And toughness? On two occasions last season, Clark missed just one game after his right shoulder was dislocated. That was the same right shoulder, by the way, that he led with when he put a ferocious hit on Baltimore Ravens running back Willis McGahee in the AFC championship game in January.

Clark routinely gives up his body to make a play. Pound for pound, he might be the Steelers' hardest hitter, although some would argue for linebacker James Harrison. Clark's hit on McGahee was spectacular. So was one on New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker last season. Sunday, in the 27-17 win against the Minnesota Vikings, he drilled wide receiver Percy Harvin on a pass play over the middle, knocking the ball loose and -- for at least a second or two -- Harvin into next week.

Not that Clark was especially impressed by the Harvin hit. "Couldn't have been that good. He came back in and ran the kickoff back," he said, sniffing.

This really is a tough guy.

If Clark doesn't play in Denver, he'll have good reason.

Neither his toughness nor his commitment to the Steelers should be questioned.

He should not be second-guessed.

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