Steelers Overcome Language Barrier : NFL: Quarterback Bubby Brister now can understand and call plays, and that’s a boon to Pittsburgh’s offense.

Deuce, split right tight, Z short motion, short sprint left, 49 Z hide, X-go. On two.

--A typical offensive play of the Pittsburgh Steelers

Remember the child’s game called telephone? One kid whispers something to another, who passes it on to another, and finally, the kid at the end of the line says it aloud, and it’s always funny how different it comes out.

Well, now you’ve got an idea of how things were going in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ huddle early this year as they attempted to figure out plays brought in by messenger from new offensive coordinator Joe Walton. A lot got lost in the translation all right, but the Steelers weren’t laughing . . . even if the rest of the league was genuinely amused.

“The language was a real barrier,” quarterback Bubby Brister said. “The wide receivers and running backs were bringing all that stuff in, and when you bring in 16 or 18 words, by the time the coach tells them, and they tell me, and I tell the team, something’s bound to be missing, a ‘right’ or a ‘left,’ or they’d forget something, and all the time the clock’s running down. It got to be a zoo out there.”

In one game, Brister was forced to burn all three first-half timeouts to avoid delay-of-the-game penalties while the Steelers tried to figure out one of the 100 or so new passing plays put in by Walton. Brister became so frustrated at times, he wasn’t sure whether to strangle Walton or kill the messenger.

Eventually, Coach Chuck Noll decided a compromise was in order. In the past, the Steelers had used sideline sign language to send in offensive plays. Noll settled on a two-way form of communication that used messengers and hand signals.

“We were used to them signaling in that stuff, and nobody was comfortable with the new system,” Brister said. “So we met halfway. They signal in the formation and the motion, and that cuts out at least half the verbiage. It really helps me out.”

But it wasn’t just the language that was foreign to Brister and Co. Walton’s complicated scheme, which relies heavily on short passes, had taken the life out of Brister’s big-gun arm and put a dent in his bent for the dramatic.

Brister wasn’t selfish about his complaints with this new deal. He didn’t like the idea of his favorite receiver, Louis Lipps, hanging behind the line of scrimmage to pick up blitzing linebackers. He thought running back Tim Worley shouldn’t have to be rotated on and off the field so often while playing messenger boy.

He insisted he wasn’t resisting the new offense simply because it was new; he just thought it made better sense to have the Steelers’ best offensive players doing what they do best.

The preseason was a struggle, but Brister gave it his best shot. However, when the Steelers lost their regular-season opener to Cleveland--a team decimated by injuries and holdouts--13-3 (Pittsburgh managed its single field goal on a scoring drive of minus yards), Brister finally erupted.

He delivered his litany of doubts and concerns during a postgame tirade that resulted in official reprimands from Noll and Pittsburgh’s front office. He was depicted as a crybaby by some local columnists. Other members of the media suggested he was trying to deflect blame for his own shortcomings. And he was, in his own words, “booed out of the stadium” when he returned home the next week.

But Brister’s tantrum ultimately served a purpose. In fact, it might have been a key factor in the Steelers’ rebound from a 1-3 start and their new-found ability to get the ball into the end zone with some regularity.

“It was a cry for help,” said Noll, in his 22nd season coaching Pittsburgh’s once-proud franchise. “And you always listen to cries for help.

“Obviously, he was very frustrated. He was having some difficulty with what we were trying to get done. We just spent a little more time on it. It’s amazing how good things come to people who hang in there and plug away.”

It might not have been as simple as that, but simple is clearly the operative word here.

The number of new plays in the game plan was reduced, some of the old ones were reinstated, and Brister was given more opportunity to make changes at the line of scrimmage. Some of those dump passes were dumped, and Brister was again whistling the ball up field into the seams in the zone and firing the quick outs to Lipps.

“They’re letting the wild stallion loose out of the pen, he’s calling the plays and making things happen,” running back Merrill Hoge told Steelers Digest. “They let the wild man go. That’s what you have to do with Bubby. You have to say, ‘OK, be aggressive and get the team down the field.’ We have some of the old plays mixed in with the new stuff, but the big plays we’re hitting right now are the ones we’ve had in the past, and they’re letting him go to those on audibles.”

In the Steelers’ first four games, Brister completed just 52 of 106 passes with no touchdowns and six interceptions. In the past three, he’s 45 for 64 with seven touchdowns and one interception.

But Brister is the first to admit that the recent rise on the offensive hit parade is because of a combination of learning a new tune and incorporating a few of his favorite old riffs.

“Everything was new, and that’s bound to be a problem,” he said. “The terminology was new, the formations were new, the shifting was new, the motion was new. Any time you do something new, it’s going to take time to get it all down. But lately, we’ve been doing it a lot better. We’ve cut back some the past three weeks so we can get more repetitions in practice, and that’s helped.

“It was frustrating for everybody, and when I did speak out, it was on behalf of my teammates, too. We were a pretty good team at the end of last year, and we couldn’t understand why we couldn’t score a touchdown. It was something I thought needed to be said. I got slapped on the wrist a little bit for it, but in turn we cut back some, and we got some things we can work with now.”

So the not-so-completely-revamped Steelers will bring a renewed sense of confidence into Monday night’s home game against the Rams. The Rams, who showed up in prime time twice on Mondays last year and will be making their first of three such appearances this season, might be yawning about the “honor.” But the Steelers, playing in their first Monday night game in four years, see an opportunity to make, well, a global impact.

“Hopefully, we can show that we’ve got it squared away and that we’re a good offensive football team,” Brister said. “We’re looking forward to it. We have a chance to show the people of the world that we have a good offense and understand what we’re doing. A lot of people are still thinking about what happened the first few weeks of the season.”

He may be concentrating on changing the image of the Steelers’ offense at the moment, but he has been making an ongoing effort to change his own image. During his first two seasons with Pittsburgh (1986-87), while serving as backup to Mark Malone, he earned the reputation as Pittsburgh’s No. 1 celebrity party animal. His late-night drinking and carousing brought up comparisons with Joe Namath, Bobby Layne, even Spuds McKenzie.

Brister admits he did his--and maybe others’--share of partying when he first came into the NFL, but since becoming the starter in 1988, he says he has been too busy burning the midnight oil with a playbook in his hand to burn the candle at both ends with a beer in his fist.

“Once you’re playing every day, it’s pretty hard to go out and party and have a good time and still be sharp in practice and understand the system,” he said. “Most of that stuff was in my first and second year. I wasn’t playing, and I was bored to death. I’d go out and party, and all I had to do in practice was run the other team’s stuff.

“Those were the days I got that label. The last three years, since I’ve been playing, I usually stay home a lot. They still keep saying that stuff, though, and I don’t know why.”

Brister hopes the media soon will be comparing him to quarterbacks such as Joe Montana and writing rave reviews about his on-the-field exploits instead.

“I feel like I can run and throw with the best in the league,” he said. “I just need to settle in and develop some patience. I never try to be like anyone else. I have my own style, do my own thing, and if I feel something needs to be said, I’ll say it.”

Right now, the only nightspot on Bubby Brister’s mind is Three Rivers Stadium. The Rams can only hope he doesn’t let loose with yet another inspiring soliloquy before they get there.

BUBBY BRISTER’S SEASON

Opponent Result Att. Comp. Pct. Yds. TD Int. LG Sack Cleveland L, 3-13 32 17 53.1 193 0 2 37 3 Houston W, 20-9 23 9 39.1 81 0 0 14 4 Raiders L, 3-20 28 19 67.9 156 0 1 14 6 Miami L, 6-28 18 7 38.9 76 0 3 27 3 San Diego W, 36-14 14 11 78.6 132 2 0 39 0 Denver W, 34-17 28 21 75.0 353 4 0 90 1 San Francisco L, 7-27 22 13 59.1 120 1 1 21 2 Totals W 3, L 4 165 97 58.8 1,111 7 7 90 19