The Steelers returned to work yesterday, just like many Americans, their minds elsewhere and their hearts really not into it.
Coach Bill Cowher opened their day with a moment of silence and then spoke to them about the attacks by terrorists on the United States. He allowed them to have five minutes to discuss their feelings about the events of Tuesday during meetings with their position coaches in a football version of grief counseling.
It was a normal day for the Steelers that was anything but normal, just as some of them said the rest of their lives cannot quite be after they witnessed the worst attack ever on American land.
"Every time you turn the TV on, you see the same scene over and over and over," said safety Lee Flowers. "You'll probably see that the rest of our lives. This is the biggest thing that ever happened to me in my life. Right now, it's really difficult for the guys to concentrate on what we have to do this week. If we have to play, I'm sure you're going to resort back to your football instincts and do the best job you can, but at the same time it's hard."
The NFL will decide today whether to play its schedule of 15 games this weekend, including the Steelers home game against Cleveland at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. If the game is played, the ceremonies planned for the official opening of Heinz Field by the Steelers will be scaled back, if not eliminated, replaced by a memorial to those who died in the attacks on Tuesday. The Browns also have changed their travel plans and will ride by bus here on Saturday rather than take a chartered jet.
Steelers President Dan Rooney joined all other NFL owners in a conference call yesterday morning with Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
"Not to be over dramatic, but the National Football League is ... one of the real institutions in this country that we look to," said Rooney. "So it's very important that the right decisions are made, and I have all the confidence in the world in Paul Tagliabue that he will make the right decision. I'm waiting to hear what he has to say."
Rooney pledged that if the game is played, fans would be safe at Heinz Field.
"Safety will be handled properly. We would be involved in that. Every team in the league would be dealing with local law enforcement."
In the meantime, the coaching staff and players prepared as if they were going to play on Sunday.
"You have to apply a degree of resolve not to be deterred from getting back to what we need to do," Cowher said. "It's not easy, but certainly that's our job at this point ... I don't think there's anything you can compare this with -- in my opinion."
The Steelers went through their usual schedule for the day and that included meetings in the morning and a two-hour practice in the afternoon. The team, however, limited access by the media to only three players, Rooney and Cowher.
No reason was given for shielding the rest of the players from interviews.
Those few who were allowed to speak expressed similar opinions, that while they may not want to play on Sunday, they would try to perform as well as they could.
"I think right now we're going to leave it up to the league, see what their decision is," said linebacker Jason Gildon, the team's defensive captain. "It's kind of split right now between the players who would rather play and not play. When something happens like this, as tragic as this incident was, you want to take a timeout and let everyone mourn the situation, but, at the same time, you'd hate to let something like this dictate your life."
Said Flowers, "Today, it was sad. I mean, it's just a sad day, man. The game is really minute right now."
Talk of the tragedies dominated players and coaches conversations throughout the day, and the beginning of practice was unusually quiet before it picked up with the normal sounds of a team preparing for its next game.
"Early, there wasn't a whole lot of talking when we were warming up and stretching," Cowher said. "I think that once we got into it, it was therapeutic and helped us get our minds off of it."
If they play on Sunday, it will be under the most dramatic circumstances of national grief since the NFL played a full slate of games on Nov. 24, 1963, two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The games that weekend were not televised. Rooney said if they play this weekend, TV will carry the games. Super Bowl XXV in Tampa was played on Jan. 27, 1991 amidst tight security and plenty of emotion as the Gulf War raged.
"Right now, to be honest with you, I can't stop thinking about the situation," said tight end Mark Bruener, the Steelers' player representative. "I don't know if that will change in a couple of days. I'm not sure. My entire day yesterday was consumed by this matter. Every TV in this training facility has been tuned into the news, and that's all the players are watching."
Nevertheless, the Steelers tried to concentrate on getting ready for the Browns. They held their regular meetings after listening to Cowher and talking briefly with their position coaches. They, too, will await word from Tagliabue today whether they will play or not on Sunday.
"You could take the stance that we're not going to allow the situation to cripple us," Bruener said. "President Bush, in his speech last night, mentioned some words to that extent. However, there are a lot of unanswered questions right now."
Said Flowers, "If we have to play, then we've got to find some way, some means to getting your mind right for this game.
"It's really hard to be out on the field running around and cheering and trying to get your football mystique right in a stadium. I just can't see 60,000 people sitting in the stadium and you celebrating when possibly 50,000 people just died a couple days ago. It's hard, but at the same time you get paid to play. We, as athletes, are supposed to be so strong and so mentally tough that you've got to put this behind you and go out there and do your job."
Steelers struggle to find focus 
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