When referee Tom White threw a flag on Bill Cowher for his antics Sunday in Buffalo, the guys in the TV truck wanted to throw their arms around the Steelers' coach and shout, "Welcome back, Wild Bill!"
The old, raging Bill Cowher returned to the sideline Sunday -- if only for an instant -- for the first time in several years. He bounded a dozen yards onto the field to argue a penalty in the second quarter, and White added another 15 yards by giving Cowher his first NFL penalty, for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Steelers players and coaches can testify that Cowher never has let up on his unsportsmanlike conduct toward them when he wants to make a point on the sideline. But he has clearly restrained his demonstrative manners the past few years -- until Sunday in Buffalo.
He apologized for having argued to the point of penalty, and it might have been just an instant's worth of the old B6ill, but it surely was a demonstrative side he has not shown in several years. The television networks, for one, wouldn't mind seeing the old Cowher return for good.
"He's been one of the favorites on Monday Night Football for a long time," said Mark Mandel, vice president of media relations for ABC.
"Roone Arledge long ago determined that personalities really bring in viewers. The more colorful a personality and interest in him, the more connection there is between the viewer and the people you're covering."
Mandel said the network doesn't actively encourage coaches to become more demonstrative in a game, but if they do, they'll make sure everyone sees it on TV.
"It's wonderful TV," said a CBS producer who asked not to be named. "You always strive to get them on camera."
Said CBS broadcaster Sam Wyche, "There's always a camera on the coach and quarterback, and he's going to get a closeup on that one."
In his first six seasons or so, Cowher routinely ranted and raved along the Steelers' sideline and crossed over it to argue calls and shout encouragement to his players. He looked not unlike the man who got his start as a special teams coach madly racing up and down the sideline for the Cleveland Browns.
Any number of players and most of the special teams coaches were at the receiving end of Cowher's sideline wrath. Punter Josh Miller was often a target of Cowher's outbursts in games. His most entertaining sideline antics were in a Monday night game in Jacksonville in 1997, and the cameras caught many of them. At the end, he stepped onto the field, raised his forearm and later admitted he wanted to tackle Jacksonville's Chris Hudson as he sailed past the Steelers' bench on his way to a touchdown with a blocked field-goal attempt.
Cowher once stuffed an instant photo into a referee's pocket in protest of a call in 1995 as the first half ended. He kissed quarterback Kordell Stewart on the field in '96 in Baltimore. A Denver columnist called him a big, dumb golden retriever in '98, when former Broncos end Alfred Williams criticized Cowher for roaming onto the field all the time.
Cowher was depicted that way in a Dr Pepper commercial, screaming on the sideline and grabbing a soda pop away from a cheerleader.
The legend lives even in the new Madden 2001 NFL video game. In commercials for the game, Cowher is shown angrily slamming a clipboard to the turf.
But until Sunday in Buffalo, Cowher has not had many outbursts on the sideline or broached the playing field in a few years. He said four years ago that his wife, Kaye, had caused him to stop swearing on the sideline because the viewers easily could read his lips.
What would provoke him in the past -- a kick that went awry, a stupid penalty, a lack of effort -- had been greeted more by relatively stoic sideline behavior.
That is why the outburst Sunday drew so much attention, that and the fact it also was his first penalty as a coach in the NFL, not counting a preseason penalty Pittsburgh official Jeff Bergman called on him.
Cowher claimed yesterday that he is unaware of any changes in his sideline demeanor the past few years.
"I have consciously not done it or consciously done it. I don't know that I was any further out [on the field Sunday] than I have been in past years.
"You have to be yourself. I really feel that I have always been myself ... I get into the game for those three hours; it is a focus that you have to sustain. If you are asking your players to do it, I think that you should have to do it as well. I just have always tried to take that same approach."
Wyche, a CBS analyst for NFL football and former coach of the Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has said he loves to watch Cowher on the sideline. He said several years ago that Cowher might be "pushing the envelope" by constantly roaming onto the field but he thought it was good for the game.
He still believes it's good for television.
"To the director or producer, they would say it's good theater, that this spices up the game or holds fans' interest for a little while," Wyche said yesterday from his home in Daytona Beach, Fla. "But to the analyst in the booth, you have empathy for the coach. When you react on the field, you generally have some regrets off the field."
Wyche, also a demonstrative sideline coach, said he calmed down in his later years. Perhaps that is what happened to Cowher the past few years.
Fans also have noticed it. They bring it up in letters to the editor and on talk shows and often tie it to the Steelers not making the playoffs the past three years, intimating that Cowher had lost his zest for the game.
Interviews with players and coaches show no such perception on their part. They say their coach has not lost his pizzazz, even if he does not often display it during games.
"He kind of got riled up and he was in the game," linebacker Jason Gildon said. "He may have asked for it, but that's just him."
Return of Cowher's sideline antics endear him to television executives 
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