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First of all, Cowher and Donohoe both came in in '92. Anybody wanna explain to me exactly what Donahoe did to turn that mediocre team into a contender during that first year? Zip. Nadda. It was Cowher who picked up the pieces of the '80s and coached 'em into one of the winningest teams of the '90s. Granted, Donahoe pulled off the only good draft of his tenure in '92, but none of those players were major contibutors during that surprising turnaround year. Noll and his staff deserve a much bigger pat on the back than Donahoe for already having an outstanding core of players in place (Rod Woodson, Greg Lloyd, Carnell Lake, Hardy Nickerson, Dermontti Dawson, Barry Foster, John Jackson, Eric Green, Ernie Mills, Neil O'Donnell, Gary Anderson, et al). Critics seem quite content to knock Cowher's performance over the last two seasons... justifiably so. But the plain facts point to the glaring overall lack of talent as the source of the Steelers demise. So why is it that Tom Donahoe, who had FAR more control over personel decisions than Cowher, has somehow not only remained unmolested by the Pittsburgh press, but is almost being hailed as a savior? I mean, the guy is not exactly Art Rooney, Sr., folks... I have yet to hear even ONE player say he left because of Cowher. The players LOVE Cowher. Yet... Cowher is being cast as the one with the "ego." Cowher is the one the local writers are ripping for "chasing away" Dick LeBeau and Bobby April. Interesting. What about Donahoe's public ripping of Woodson, needlessly costing the team it's best player of the last 15 years (and an important team leader)? Woodson (a Pro-Bowler yet again in '99) expressed interest in returning to Pittsburgh before the '98 season, and Donahoe's response was, "We're not the Salvation Army." So he chased Woodson off not once, but twice, and now Rod is a Pro-Bowler for the AFC Central rival Ravens. Hey, great move, Tom. Just one example of a wealth of horrible free-agent moves. Yet, Tom's a God to those in the media. Does ANYONE think we've EVER done well in free agency? And while we're at it, where are the bogus rumors of Donahoe's affair with Kordell's sister? After all, baseless innuendo and insults seem to be the modus operandi of the Pittsburgh press when it comes to Cowher, but the catcalls are mysteriously absent when it comes to Donahoe. Why is that? You figure it out. Fact: Historically, Cowher's teams have overachieved, and I'll tell you one thing about Bill Cowher that is irrefutable: Give him a little bit of talent and he WILL win football games. In the span of 2 short years, the Steelers have gone from being one of the most talented, winningest teams in the league to a veritable laughing stock. Why? I've said it before, I'll say it again: An avalanche of free agent losses & draft blunders. The blame for Pittsburgh's downfall, folks, lays squarely on the shoulders of Tommy "Two-Face" Donahoe, not Bill Cowher, who remains one of the absolute best coaches in the league. The Pittsburgh Media, on the other hand, who seems to be marching in a locked goose-step on this issue, is a disgrace to their profession. The Press may be aligned against Cowher, but the FANS are behind him all the way. What do YOU think? Tim McMillen Webmaster, McMillen & Wife |
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Cowher didn't go. Donahoe stayed, free agency reared its ugly head, some of our better players were hurt and that brought on the winter of our discontent. S--- happens. Just take a look at politics in our country today. The Steelers don't have such a big problem. Except maybe Mr. Stewart. Speaking of Stewart, I`ve been whineing about this guy for too long. Whenever I wrote the Steeler Digest, they ignored me. Put it this way... remember when Kordell said "I'm goin' to the hall of fame"? And then his tantrum on the field in front of the world and everyone else, pointing his finger dangerously close to Cowhers' face? Look into his eyes... hello, anybody there? I would just like to know one thing... what kind of spell does Kordell have on Bill? I was the happiest Steeler fan on the left coast when we got Cowher. Everything was great until Kordell let it be known that he had no intentions of being Slash if he was going to extend his contract. Downhill ever since. I have to say "give him away." I was a Raider fan until thay moved to L.A. where I was born and knew well enough to get the hell out before it was too late. But I remembered how great the games were and how much I hated the Steelers. Bingo. I don't think there is a more intense fan within three thousand miles. I'm going to hang in there for as long as I can, but ya'll know the pain... Let the pain cease. Do the right thing Bill... it's getting late. Hey, maybe if we're lucky, we will wake up and it will just have been a bad dream. Now just click your heels three times and say... Grandpa Zig - Zag Q. Why haven't any of these sniveling, paunchy, butt-ugly losers in the Pittsburgh Sports Press been picked up by newspapers in larger markets? Why are they stuck working for small market newspapers? A. Total flippn' losers. Out of touch, lack of talent. No clue of reality. Doomed to wallow in mediocrity and filth of character. Mean spirited, hateful, deceitful, lonely, grumpy, balding, cranky, stankin', chicken chokin', moronic, imbecilic, inbred, illiterate, desperate, depressed, vile, paranoid, bi-polar, chemically imbalanced idiots. Oh yeah, I almost forgot... panty wearing, pabulum puking, snot drooling, venom spouting malcontents, who don't know a football from a typewriter. COWER POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Doug Fredericks And yes, he has been a winner, but (and this is a big butt)... has he ever been part of a winning championship effort? He is a disciple of Marty Schottenheimer, and everyone knows how his teams folded when playoffs started. Elway may have beaten Marty in the final minutes many times, but Elway wasn't the only one who beat Marty's teams in the playoffs. His Browns (excuse my language) have never amounted to much in the postseason, EVEN WITH ALL THE TALENT they had at any given time. He probably lacked a Great QB in Kansas City, but the real gist beyond the personnel thing, is that Marty just could not coach the total winning effort. And it appears to me that Bill Cowher has learned that lesson all too well. Lombardi (NY Giants), Noll (Browns), Parcells (Don't Know), Holmgren (49erks), Shanahan (ditto) to name but a few all came from Championship teams and it showed. They had total team commitment and one goal in mind. Yeah, you can talk about going to the Super Bowl every year, a lot of times it is just that: talk. You've gotta know how to get to the big game, what is that combination of coaching, skilled players, getting the team to peak at the right time, to gel at the right time, to keep their focus through a long, grinding season, and more. Does Cowher have that? I do not know. Being 1-2 in HOME AFC Championship games does not give me a warm and fuzzy, coz say what you will about Stewart, 2 of those games were with O'Dummell. To carry it a step further, Zimmerman (Pete?) from SI did an analysis of all the Super Bowl teams through 1986 or so. He considered the Steelers games (at that time) to be the best, even considering the Jets Super Bowl win. Why? As dominant as the Steelers were, they did not overwhelm teams during the regular season like the '86 Bears (how many HOFer's will come out of that bunch you ask? About 2, I would say), so when post season rolled around, expectations were low. And when they won, it was not considered as significant because they weren't winning by scores like 50-10. The games were close and decided in the final minutes usually, but they simply found a way to win. Either score early and hold you down, or come back in the 3rd quarter and hold you down. What that dynasty did was simply be consistent and win. Nothing pretty or spectacular, just win. Dr. Z compiled this statistic. Against teams they were expected to beat, i.e., sub 500 or non-playoff bound, the Steelers of the 70's were something like 50-2 or like that. Consider that for a moment. For 6 straight years, against teams like the Browns of today or the Bears or Rams or the Pack, the Steelers maintained a droning effeciency of WINNING. They did not blow you out, they did not embarass you (unless it was the playoffs and the Oilers at home, in 79, hee hee, saw that one and did not mind that it was a blow out by the 2nd quarter and was freezing my tail off at the same time), they simply WON. And this carries into the playoffs and beyond. This is what Noll brought to the Steelers of the 70's, a consistency on the field and a way to win, no matter what. It seems to me that few football fans realize that. He had GREAT coaching skills and the teaching methods to show people how to do what he wanted. Holmgren, Shanahan, Parcells, are no different. Of course, he had a hell of a draft in the early 70's, from Greene to Swann. So Noll had a luck, but that should in no way diminish his stature as a great coach. So in my mind, both Donahoe AND Cowher should be gone. Donahoe no longer was bringing in the talent, for one reason or another. And I do not think that Bill has the ultimate champioship skills nor the patience to take this team to the next level, and I do not think that he will bring in One for the Thumb. Enough for now, Dick Fronko Bay Area, California (formerly of Moon Twp, PA) The bottom line is, the Steelers made the right choice. Dumbahoe is an idiot and he proved it over his years with the Steelers. Outbidding himself to get Gandy. That was a great move. Letting Rod Woodson, Carnell Lake, Chad Brown, John Jackson, Leon Searcy, and Kevin Greene go were great moves, too. Yeah, he was a football mastermind. Goodbye, Dumbahoe... don't let the door hit you in the ass. Don Rossbach (AKA, Muddy Water) Bill Cowher is an excellent coach. Period. All you have to do is look back at the draft for the last 5-7 years and you will see the lack of production, and the bulk of the blame for that belongs to Tom Donahoe. Everyone makes mistakes, but some of the draft picks by the Steelers have been incredible flops. If Tom Donahue is so good let us see how well he fairs in Miami or New England. Jamain Stevens? Come on. Even the free agent signings have been curious at best. Travis Davis? I think the reason the Steelers are 6-10 or whatever is the need for character in the locker room. Players like Woodson, Lake, and Lloyd were those type players. It seems that element is sorely missing. The character players like Bettis, Flowers, and Kirkland should be used to rebuild this "team" into a champion again. Given the right player, Cowher can do that. A Lifetime Steeler Fan (in Tampa Bay), Dave My first reaction was and still is that Dan Rooney had to choose between Cowher and Donahue, and he chose the wrong man. And I still think he did make the wrong choice. The undisiplined and at times half-hearted play of the Steelers this past year can certainly be put at Cowher's feet. And while I think past sucess meant that Cowher deserved another year, I think he only deserves that. In that light, Cowher should have been the one to go early. But, it would also be a mistake to overreact to Donahue's departure. Certainly, he was a wiz in the early 1990's. Put bluntly, Donahue knew how to draft to replace current and future free agent departures. Leon Searcy for Tunch Ilkin. Levon Kirkland for Hardy Nickerson. Earl Holmes for Chad Brown. Mark Bruner for Eric "Fatboy" Green. With out getting too heavy into detail, that started to go sour after the Super Bowl. Again a few examples. Jamin Stephens for Leon Searcy. Will Blackwell for Ernie Mills/Yancy Thigpen. Chris Conrad for Will Wolford. You get the point? Later, KT Now along comes Ron Cook who buys into the recent theory of "If they don't have one good season, can 'em!" Too many potentially good coaches haven't been given the chance to prove themselves because organizations are only giving them one season for results. It's grossly unfair to the coach, the players, and the fans. But if it's results Cook wants, Cowher has already proven himself with 6 seasons of great results. I think it was Joel Steed (?) who said in the Tribune-Review earlier in the season that no one wants to actually say it, but this is a rebuilding year. So let Coach Cowher rebuild and give him a chance to come back with a great team. Let's not put him on the Caravan of Traveling Coaches who visit a city for only a season or two. We all know that Cowher and the players can do better. I think they deserve that chance before they have the rug pulled out from under them. I'm a believer… WHO'S WITH ME?!?! Steelers Head Cheerleader West Coast Division Jimmy Grant The exodus of Tom Donohue leaves only Cowher to either praise or blame for the performance of the 2000 Steelers. This time next year we will either be talking about how happy we are that the Steelers are going in the right direction or we will be looking for a new head coach. Let me say, first, that I do not expect a super bowl out of the Steelers next year. In fact, I'm not even sure that I expect them to be in next year's playoffs. Still, I do expect them to show improvement, and that is the X factor for Cowher going into next season. Show us some hope for the future of get off the ship! In my opinion, I still believe that Cowher is the right man for the job. I am hoping that we don't have a scenario where he gets the team going in the right direction and then takes off for greener pastures. However, it is a possibility considering the crap that the Pittsburgh media has put him through. Anybody have the system password for the Trib-Live's web site? I'd love to go in and just wipe that thing off the Internet! Could you really blame him for wanting to get out and let his kids grow up without their father being accused of having an affair due to the fact that he hasn't benched the QB? I couldn't. I'm hoping that discipline does return, and better talent in the backup roles will help that along. When Bill got to Pittsburgh, he had the luxury of having talent in the backup positions as well. If a player dogged it, he could bench them and go to the backup without much of a drop off. That incentive keeps players playing at their best level because if they don't play and put up good numbers, then they don't get big contracts come signing day. Now you have a situation where the starters are okay but the backups, as we saw when injuries reared their ugly head this year, are nowhere near as good. Now Cowher doesn't have the option of going to the backup and the starter has that comfort zone of knowing that his job is pretty much safe. He can essentially say to the coach "Go ahead and bench me. I dare you." and Cowher's hands are tied because of the drop-off that would occur. Therefore, better talent will eventually lead to better discipline. Hopefully. I don't want to hear about not having enough money to pay players since Tom went and gave Kordell, a shaky at best QB prospect, so much money. We need to pay the players that have performed and not the ones that we hope will come through. However, the latter approach is the one that Donohue chose to take, and we all know how it's turned out. This team is one of the most popular in the country (second to Dallas I believe in merchandising) and they will have a new stadium in a year or two. There's no reason not to pay players what they are worth. This brings me to this year's draft/free-agent season. I've got one word for you: line! We have to rebuid that offensive line and take the pressure off of the defense. Give the Bus some running lanes and we will be able to see him start running for the kinds of yards that he did a couple of years ago. We also need to make some sort of decision about Kordell - is he the QB or not. I know we all would rather see him go right now, but I also remember watching him at Colorado against us in the Fiesta Bowl; this guy ripped us apart and it was only the fact that Pasqualoni outcoached the Colorado coach and their kicker couldn't kick to save his life that we beat them. I have seen Kordell throw the ball effectively before and he can do it again - if he still has confidence in his abilities and the coaches and players around him still have confidence in him. If they don't, then they have to get a quarterback. Hey, Flutie is available! I honestly hope that they wouldn't go that way in terms of a long-term solution. If you are going to get a free-agent or a trade, get one for a couple of years that will be effective - not necessarily outstanding - with the intention of drafting your QB of the future from college. Let the FA QB run the team for a couple of seasons while the QB of the future is groomed for NFL play within the system. With the large crop of WR's this year, they better get a couple of good receivers. This is a situation where you might want to trade down and pick up a slew of first round picks because this is a receiver-rich draft and we need receivers almost as badly as we need linemen. While you can draft a lineman from the first round, most good ones are taken in the later rounds. Free-agency may be a better avenue for getting linemen than the draft is anyway if you can get quality and a little bit of NFL experience. Before I panic about the D-backs, lets see what another year of experience and a little R and R can do to make them better. Although it wouldn't hurt to throw a couple of second or third round picks in there to get some depth at that position. Then there are the "what if we" scenarios. What if we trade Kirkland for draft picks? Blasphemy you say? I say not, at least don't discount it without a little examination. Kirkland is a great player, but there have been games the last couple of years where he hasn't shown up. So maybe you package him (maybe with a Stewart?!?!?) and get a couple more first and second round picks for him. Remember when Dallas did that with Walker and the Vikings? It set them up for a Super Bowl run of three years (one against us). Maybe it isn't Kirkland, but the possibility of a package deal can't be overlooked. Although I'd rather still be watching them play, the possibilities are a lot of fun to play with for next year. Let's just hope that Donohue leaving was the right addition by subtraction formula that the Steelers needed. Scott Springer Very Cold in Hershey, PA - but hey, at least we have the Chocolate! They are clueless and I have written them e-mail to tell them so. Cook wrote a column not long ago about how Kordell was misused. Kordell shouldn't be used at all. Old man Tomczak proved Kordell hasn't got a clue. But of course, I am sick of all the media. I would rather have news than commentary, entertainment, and political brainwashing. In the early 90's, Donahoe did bring in some decent talent. Two players that come to mind are the draft day steal of Jerome Bettis and the signing of another former Ram, Kevin Greene. However, what about all the great talent that Donahoe let walk out of the Steel City? Rod Woodson, Greg Lloyd and the aforementioned Kevin Greene. Not only that, but who masterminded the monumental screwup of making Jamain "FATBOY" Stephens as a number one draft pick?! Also, the absolutely INSANE decision to hand Kordell Stewert an 8 million dollar signing bonus when it was obvious to everyone that this kid was a complete STIFF! Why is Cowher the "bad guy?" He may not be the easiest person in the world to get along with, but the guy is a proven winner when the talent is in place around him. The talent that Donahoe was bringing in the last several years would have been hard to win with on the college level, much less the pros. When Cowher finally gets the talent back that he had in the mid-90's, he will win again, guaranteed! That would never have happened if Donahoe had stayed. Tom Bragg http://community.webtv.net/francoharris/TomsPittsburgh * Lack of player dicispline - This team absolutely quit down the strech 2 seasons in a row. In both instances they were still in the playoff hunt when the wheels came of and the coaching staff seemed to be unable to motivate the players. Lack of talent can be a reason for losing games but not to teams like Cleve. and Cincy. My guess is that during his meeting with Rooney, Cowher pledged to whip the boys a bit more. His track record as a winner is probably why ole' Dan decided to stick with the Chin. But Cowher's reluctance to sit vets and look at some youngsters after all was lost this year is perplexing. * Failure to sign key free agents - You can talk about the signing of Kordell and Bettis all you want but the way this team has let talent walk away borders on insanity. Imagine a Steeler team that still had any of the former Steelies that participated in the NFL Playoff Pagent. Chad Brown, Hardy Nickerson, Yancy Thigpen, Leon Searcy, (And even though he wan't in the playoffs, I agree with you, I'll never forgive them for letting Woodson go) the list goes on and on. I can understand not being able to keep all of them, but none of them? This franchise has made some very poor personnel descisions and while Tommy D lost his head because of this the blame lies at the feet of the Rooneys. I don't envey the Chin the first time he tries to convince Danny that to properly rebuild the offensive line they'll have to do better that bargan basement free agents like Wayne Gandy. I hope that all involved are able to admit to themselves that the Steelers should be in total rebuilding mode. I have had season tickets for 10 years and have missed 2 games in that time. I have seen the team go from the Bubby-lead joke of the Emporer's final years to the Cowher-fueled juggernaught that took us to the brink of the tittle. Realizing that the Chin-Donohue relationship was killing their chances to improve shows that the Rooneys aren't asleep at the switch. Let's hope they realize that more action is required to get this team back to where it needs to be. Bill O. Springdale Back to McMillen & Wife's 
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