Are the Steelers desperate enough at kicker to give Jeff Reed another chance?

Former NFL kicker Jeff Reed has tried for some time to get a job with his old team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, since getting cut after the 2010 season.

Maybe the timing is finally right.

The Steelers have been having their woes at Reed’s position this year. After losing two kickers to injury during the preseason, the team traded for veteran Josh Scobee, who missed two key kicks in the fourth quarter and appeared to have lost his coach’s confidence during a 23-20 overtime loss to Baltimore on Thursday night.

After the game, Reed tweeted: “Let’s keep this simple...bring me back Pittsburgh!”

His message has been retweeted more than 2,600 times and favorited nearly 2,000 times. Reed has also been quite busy retweeting the numerous messages of support he’s gotten from Steelers fans who feel the same way.

Reed was the Steelers’ kicker for the better part of 10 seasons, winning two Super Bowls with the team. Back then he was known for his crazy, spikey and often bleached hair as well as his rowdy behavior off the field -- most notoriously an incident in which he beat up a convenience store paper towel dispenser that had the audacity to be empty.

He hasn’t worked in the league for five years. Instead, Reed told Pittsburgh radio station the Fan on Friday morning, he works another job 72 hours a week but still works out three times a week.

And he feels -- and has felt for quite some time -- that he can contribute to his former team.

“I have reached out probably about 10 times,” Reed said on Pittsburgh’s 93.7-FM The Fan on Friday morning. “I got two returned phone calls from [Steelers GM] Kevin Colbert …

“Basically, [Colbert] said since I haven’t been in the game for four years, I’m a question mark,” Reed said. “And I said, ‘Well, the only way to erase the question mark is to give me a chance -- and I don’t mean just throw me right in the game. You can at least try me out. If I suck, then don’t sign me.’”

He added: “I may not be in shape like a 24- or 25-year-old that I was. But, I’ve always been a bigger guy that was just strong and not built like a kicker, and I still consider myself that, and the bottom line is I can kick a football .… The only thing that really matters is I can make a field goal.”

And at this point, that might be good enough for the Steelers.