Tomlin makes winning debut

Moments before Mike Tomlin’s debut as Pittsburgh Steelers coach, wind-blown rain was pelting the field. Suddenly, the skies cleared, the rain ceased and the stands filled.

Less than three minutes into the game, the Steelers made it feel like a warm, sunny summer afternoon for the man replacing Bill Cowher.

A dominant first half made Tomlin a winner, 20-7 over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night in the Hall of Fame game at Canton, Ohio.

“We had a good first step,” said Tomlin, only the third Steelers head coach in the last 38 years. “We did some good things, got some big plays, some chunks [of yardage].

‘“I took myself out of it. I tried to create an environment for the coaches and players to do their jobs. You do that, you get involved in the process.”

Ben Roethlisberger was sharp in his only series, completing two of his three throws for 73 yards to Cedrick Wilson.

Defensive end Michael Strahan said his holdout with the New York Giants has nothing to do with money and everything to do with uncertainty about a 15th NFL season.

“When an athlete like myself who does what I do for a living starts having doubts, then it’s time to take a step back and seriously consider my future,” Strahan said in an open letter to Giants fans distributed via e-mail by his agent.

“Anyone who plays in the NFL with doubts or second-guessing is not only putting themselves at risk, but their teammates also,” he said. “I will never do that.”

Strahan, 35, insisted the holdout has nothing to do with his recent divorce. A judge awarded his former wife $15.3 million. He has paid half that amount, and an appellate court granted him a temporary stay while it considers whether the award was too much.

Strahan, scheduled to earn $4 million this season, said the belief that he is holding out for more money is “nonsense.” He said that football has been good to him and he is set for life financially.

Fans who traveled to Canton, Ohio, for the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame induction this last weekend learned that Michael Irvin hasn’t lost his penchant for grabbing the spotlight.

During a Friday news conference, Irvin moved from the speakers’ area into the media section, where he grabbed a microphone and began to grill fellow inductee Thurman Thomas. At issue: Whether Thomas and the other Hall inductees would cede some (all?) of their allotted time on Saturday night so he could fully speak his mind.

On Saturday night in Fawcett Stadium, Irvin ended up talking -- without notes, from his heart and in a preacher’s cadence -- for more than 25 minutes. His induction speech was deeply personal and fans listened intently.

In a reference to the popular wedding vow, Irvin apologized to his wife, Sandi: “I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the better. But I also gave you the ‘for worse,’ and you didn’t deserve it. You didn’t deserve it.”

He told of asking God for help in guiding sons Michael and Elijah: “Help me raise them for their kids, so that they could be a better father than I.”

During a Sunday roundtable discussion in downtown Canton, Irvin explained the reasons for the serious tone of his acceptance speech. He talked of his two young sons and not wanting to be seen as “a hypocrite” when it came to his past “bad decisions.”

He recalled the day when he realized that his children would have to be told about his past brushes with the law -- including an arrest for cocaine possession during a 30th birthday party.

One of his sons had used Google to find a new picture of his father from his playing days: “My heart leapt from [his chest] and landed here on my toes. I said, ‘little brother, we have to talk.’ ”

Irvin drew sustained applause from the audience with his declaration that “all of us will stumble. It’s important that we, we all, get back up, get on the horse and keep going.”

-- Greg Johnson

Terrell Owens missed the Dallas Cowboys’ practice because of tightness in his lower back. Owner Jerry Jones said he wasn’t worried about the receiver’s absence, and that the team didn’t consider the muscle stiffness to be serious.

Buffalo Bills reserve defensive end Anthony Hargrove was charged with several misdemeanors after a confrontation with police outside a nightclub about 2 a.m. Sunday in Rochester, N.Y.

Hargrove was allegedly arguing with a bouncer when police arrived and is accused of shoving an officer in the face, breaking his glasses but not injuring him. Hargrove was charged with harassment, resisting arrest and criminal mischief. His brother, Terrence, joined in the confrontation and was charged with obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest, a police spokeswoman said.