Cowher Revels in Super Recall

Say so long to that ‘70s show.

The new Pittsburgh Steelers, who for so long toiled in the shadows of the past, have forged an identity of their own.

Finally, the past is past.

“What the Pittsburgh team did in the ‘70s, they brought the city of Pittsburgh, they put them on the map,” Steeler Coach Bill Cowher said Monday, basking in the afterglow of his team’s 21-10 victory over Seattle in Super Bowl XL. “What they did was a phenomenal run.

Along the way, they made NFL history, becoming the first sixth-seeded team to reach the Super Bowl -- and to win it.

It all started after the most disappointing loss of the season -- the team’s last loss -- a 38-31 home defeat by Cincinnati on Dec. 4. It was the third consecutive stinker for the Steelers, who dropped to 7-5 and were in peril of missing the playoffs.

The day after that game, Cowher stood in front of his team, grabbed an eraser and wiped clean the grease board he used to keep statistics. This wasn’t about numbers anymore, it was about pride. It was his way of starting anew, rebooting a team hurtling toward irrelevance.

Some time after that, he gave his players the soon-to-be-legendary Christopher Columbus speech, one about the bold explorer ignoring the world-is-flat chatter and risking his life for his beliefs. Only Cowher was a little fuzzy on the facts, even as later he tried to correct himself.

“I got screwed up in some of the details,” he said, smiling, evoking chuckles at Monday’s news conference. “I know that he discovered the West Indies; it wasn’t America. I said ‘periscope’ one time instead of saying ‘telescope,’ [the players] thought it was a submarine the other day.

“The whole thing with Columbus ... He took off sailing, and they said, ‘Don’t go there, because it’s flat. The world is flat. And you keep going in that water, you’re going to drop off.’ But he kept going. He kept going, not knowing what was ahead of him. Unsure, uncharted waters, but he found land.

“I’ve said, ‘They’ve said nobody could ever make the playoffs, and no one’s ever been able to do this. And all of a sudden you get into the playoffs. And they said that no sixth seed has ever gone [and] won a championship game. Someone tells you something, you’re not supposed to do it. The bottom line is ... history did not dictate our fate.”

Instead, the Steelers dictated history. They won their final four games of the regular season, sneaking into the postseason with a do-or-die victory over Detroit in their regular-season finale, then gathered steam with odds-defying road victories over Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver.

And in a performance at Ford Field that wasn’t perfect but was perfectly sufficient, the Steelers sealed the deal. They won their first title since beating the Los Angeles Rams at the Rose Bowl in January 1980 -- before Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Troy Polamalu and more than a dozen other Steelers were born.

Cowher -- the coach who before this season had made it to five AFC title games, winning one -- now can be included in the pantheon of great NFL coaches. And he has put Pittsburgh in a class with San Francisco and Dallas as the only franchises with five Super Bowl rings.

The day before Super Bowl XL, Cowher had lunch with Steeler great “Mean” Joe Greene, now a scout for the club. The two talked about what was, and what might be.

“He said, ‘You know, you guys got it, don’t you?’ ” Cowher said. “And I said, ‘You know what, Joe, yeah.’ It’s like a basketball player is in the zone.”

Funny that Cowher should be thinking basketball. That’s what figures to consume his thoughts in the coming weeks. His wife, Kaye, played for the New York Stars of the now-defunct Women’s Professional Basketball League, and their three daughters are standout players too. Meagan, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, plays for Princeton, and her sisters, Lauren and Lindsay, play for Fox Chapel (Pa.) High.

“I’ve got to get the kids back to Fox Chapel at 1 because they play a game at North Allegheny tonight,” Cowher said. “I was the head coach yesterday, and I’m back to the assistant coach for about the next six months. My wife will be telling me where to go and what to do and who to take.

“I think that’s the thing I’d like to be able to do is get back now, to being a dad.”

A dad with a big weight lifted off his shoulders, that is. A dad who has stepped out of the shadows of the past.