Russell Returns After Serving Suspension

Darrell Russell returned to the Oakland Raiders on Monday after serving a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Russell, who claimed the violation stemmed from a missed visit with a league representative, was welcomed back by the Raiders (3-1), who have been banged up on defense in recent weeks.

“I’m going to give as much effort as I can,” Russell said as he emerged from the team’s headquarters. “I’m going to go 100 miles per hour.”

Russell spent the past four weeks at an athletes’ training facility in Arizona, where he shaved his weight from 340 pounds to 318. He said he had cut his body fat to 6 percent.

“I really want to see what I can do when I get out there,” he said.

Coach Jon Gruden would not speculate whether Russell would start on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.

“The way I look at it is we’ll see what kind of shape he’s in, and if he’s ready to go, let’s go,” Gruden said.

The Raiders lost pass-rush specialist and captain Trace Armstrong Sept. 30 with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon. The veteran defensive end went down with the injury late in the Raiders’ 38-14 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Defensive tackle Grady Jackson has been nursing a sore right shoulder for much of the season and fellow tackle Rod Coleman sat out of Sunday’s 28-21 victory over the Dallas Cowboys with an injured hamstring.

Russell, the second overall pick in the 1997 draft out of USC, was selected for the Pro Bowl in his second season. The 6-foot-5 tackle had three sacks and 31 tackles last season.

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Tennessee Titan cornerback Samari Rolle will be out three to four weeks after bruising his spinal cord against the Baltimore Ravens.

“That’s a conservative estimate,” Coach Jeff Fisher said.

The All-Pro cornerback was hurt with five minutes left in the first half Sunday when his helmet struck the hip of another player at the end of a run. He was motionless on the turf for five minutes before being immobilized and taken off on a cart to a nearby hospital for X-rays and an MRI exam.

Rolle reported tingling and numbness in his neck and shoulders.

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Heinz Field was built less than 100 feet from where Three Rivers Stadium once stood. When it comes to ambience and opponent-rattling acoustics, however, the two are miles apart.

The Steelers opened Heinz Field with a 16-7 victory Sunday over Cincinnati after winning their two exhibition games there. However, even before they have lost a game in their new stadium, the Steelers are worried the home-field advantage that long existed at Three Rivers might be gone.

Running back Jerome Bettis was among several who complained the crowd of 62,335 lacked the intensity, passion and decibel level of those at Three Rivers, the Steelers’ home from 1970-2000.

“There’s no comparison,” Bettis said. “Three Rivers was clearly a louder stadium, and we didn’t have the same fans. I feel bad saying this but, for us to go into our first game here, it was nothing like Three Rivers Stadium. The fans never even stood up.”