Decision-Making Is a Snap for Steelers’ Emotional Leader--He Just Looks Over His Shoulder and Listens

He never shows up on a television screen or in a newspaper photo.

But there’s this ranting, raving, out-of-control little guy who appears on Pittsburgh Steeler Coach Bill Cowher’s shoulder at crucial moments and whispers all kinds of crazy advice into his ear.

At least that’s the way Cowher explained his actions during Saturday’s playoff game against the New England Patriots at Three Rivers Stadium.

There Cowher was, faced with a seemingly slam-dunk decision.

His team was on the Patriot one-foot line in the fourth quarter, clinging to a 7-6 lead with about 3 1/2 minutes to play. Get the field goal and you force New England, with offensive standouts Curtis Martin, Ben Coates and Terry Glenn out of the lineup, to get a touchdown to beat you. Go for the touchdown and miss, and you leave yourself vulnerable to losing on a field goal.

Cowher said his sane, logical, analytical self was on one shoulder, telling him to take the three points. That wild and crazy guy was on the other side, telling him to roll the dice.

Which way do you think he went?

If you have to ask, you don’t know Bill Cowher.

Wild and crazy is the only way to describe his sideline behavior.

And his players love it. They say Cowher’s emotional style has set the tone for a team that will be playing in its third AFC championship game in four years Sunday when it faces the Denver Broncos at Three Rivers.

Yes, Cowher went for the touchdown against the Patriots, failed to get it when Kordell Stewart was stopped on a quarterback sneak, and then had to hang on for a 7-6 victory.

But there was no grumbling within the ranks. Just the opposite.

“He came up and apologized,” Stewart said, “and felt we could have done something differently. And for a coach to come up and say that he apologizes for the play, you have to give the man respect.”

Besides, that’s not craziest thing the Steelers have seen from their 40-year-old coach, who often acts like a 20-year-old player.

This is the same man who nearly snapped earlier this season when the Jacksonville Jaguars blocked a potential winning field goal on what proved to be the last play of the game. Jacksonville’s Chris Hudson picked up the ball and ran it in for a touchdown to account for the final margin in a 30-21 Jaguar victory. As Hudson ran by Cowher, the Steeler coach lifted up his leg and cocked his arm as if he were going to attack Hudson.

And indeed, he later admitted he considered it for one insane moment, perhaps hearing those wild and crazy whispers in his ear.

This is the same man who was so overjoyed with the play of Stewart earlier this season that he kissed the quarterback on the field.

This is the same man who, when penalized in a 1995 game for having 12 men on the field, got a picture of his team’s alignment from the press box, saw that it showed only 11 men, and then presented that picture to an official, drawing a heavy fine.

This is the same man who once admitted, “At times, I feel like I’m playing.”

This is the same man who went for it on fourth-and-one inside his own 30 in the first quarter of a game last month against the Patriots. The Steelers got the first down and wound up getting the win, 24-21 in overtime.

This is the same man who incensed Denver defensive lineman Alfred Williams last month by stepping on the field so often during a game out of pure excitement that he seemed like a 12th man.

“Bill Cowher is very irritating to me,” Williams told the Denver Post. “I just don’t like the guy. . . . A coach running out on the field all game long just isn’t right. . . . Cowher doesn’t belong out there.”

Cowher’s players, of course, think that’s just where their coach belongs. Here they are, about to play a game Sunday that could land them a Super Bowl berth, and one of the key players they must face seems more concerned with the guy on the sideline than with the guy across the line from him.

“When the coach gets excited,” Steeler defensive lineman Nolan Harrison said, “it’s contagious. It’s important because it permeates the whole team. As long as he acts like that, he’ll be a young coach.”

No argument from special teams player Fred McAfee.

“When we see him excited,” McAfee said, “we get excited.”

But listening to rookie receiver Will Blackwell, one gets the feeling there is a method to Cowher’s madness.

“When things are heated,” Blackwell said, “he gets heated. When things are good, he is laid back. When it’s needed, [the emotion] is there. He knows when to get in your face and he knows when to back off.”

And the players, too, know when to back off.

Remembering the peck on his left cheek from Cowher for scoring early in the season, Stewart told reporters, after accounting for five touchdowns against the Broncos in December, “Did you notice that I kept my helmet on?”

Said offensive tackle John Jackson with a smile, “I have a clause in my contract: No more than two kisses a year.”

Cowher’s emotion is understandable, coming from someone who grew up in the Crafton area of Pennsylvania, dreaming of playing in Three Rivers Stadium, only three miles down the road from his home.

After being named honorable mention all-state at Carlynton High, Cowher became a starting linebacker at North Carolina State for three seasons, then a linebacker and special teams player with the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles.

Cowher was an NFL assistant for seven years under Marty Schottenheimer with the Browns and the Kansas City Chiefs before becoming coach of the Steelers at age 34.

Now completing his sixth season, Cowher is only the second coach to qualify for the playoffs in each of his first six seasons, equaling a standard set by Paul Brown, founder of the Browns.

Still, Cowher is far from the standard set in Pittsburgh by his predecessor, Chuck Noll, who won four Super Bowls in 23 years of coaching.

Cowher is 0 for 1 in football’s big show, having been beaten by the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX.

He has been on a road he hopes will lead to a return appearance ever since, learning lessons along the way.

Like Saturday’s fourth-down call.

“That’s part of it,” Cowher said. “It’s not going to change how you approach the game. It doesn’t change your thinking. All it does, you bank it in at your memory banks and, the next time it comes up and there’s 3:30 to go and you’re up by one point and you have the ball fourth and one at the one-yard line, you kick a field goal.”

But Cowher is not about to calm the emotion that powers him.

“You can’t lose the essence of the game,” he said. “The game is still played with emotion. You shouldn’t lose sight of that.”

Nor is he about to stop listening to the whispers of that wild and crazy guy perched on his shoulder.

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Bill Cowher’s Coaching Record

REGULAR SEASON

*--*

Year W-L-T Pct. Fin. 1992 11-5-0 .688 1st 1993 9-7-0 .563 2nd 1994 12-4-0 .750 1st 1995 11-5-0 .688 1st 1996 10-6-0 .625 1st 1997 11-5-0 .688 1st Total 53-27-0 .663

*--*

POSTSEASON (4-5)

* 1992--Lost to Buffalo, 24-3, in divisional playoff game.

* 1993--Lost to Kansas City, 27-24, in overtime in a wild-card game.

* 1994--Defeated Cleveland, 29-9, in divisional playoff game; lost to San Diego, 17-13, in AFC championship game.

* 1995--Defeated Buffalo, 40-21, in divisional playoff game; defeated Indianapolis, 20-16, in AFC championship game; lost to Dallas, 27-17, in Super Bowl XXX.

* 1996--Defeated Indianapolis, 42-14, in wild-card game; lost to New England, 28-3, in divisional playoff game.

* 1997--Defeated New England, 7-6, in divisional playoff game.