Thirty seconds after Terry Bradshaw arrived at the Steelers' UPMC facility, a gaggle of news media surrounded him smack in the middle of their offices.
"Wow!" said Bradshaw, looking into the cameras and microphones jutting toward him. "It's like a Super Bowl."
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Terry Bradshaw and Kordell Stewart. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette) |
Bradshaw should know. He then turned toward an old acquaintance in TV and apologized: "I got gum in my mouth; I wasn't expecting all of this."
It's a rare day when Bradshaw visits the city, but he was motivated to stop on his way to New York so he could interview Kordell Stewart, the latest in a long line of quarterbacks trying to succeed the Hall of Famer 18 years later.
The two quarterbacks, who shared rough beginnings with the Steelers years apart, got together after practice for an interview that will be on the Fox television network pregame show Sunday.
Stewart and Bradshaw hugged before they sat down for their second interview in four years. Bradshaw talked to him before the opener of the 1997 season when the Steelers played an exhibition game in Carolina.
"It was good to see someone who can understand," Stewart said. "He's been through it individually, by himself, to the point where everybody pointed a finger at him and made him feel like he was the Lone Ranger, as I call it. I've been that guy; the only thing is now I just have to go ahead and I don't know if I can win four [Super Bowls], but at least get one."
Bradshaw, who has been critical of Stewart in the past, called him a "totally different guy" who has benefited from new offensive coaches, including coordinator Mike Mularkey and Tom Clements, the Steelers' first quarterbacks coach since Bradshaw had Babe Parilli in 1973.
"It looks like it's been a settling effect," Bradshaw said. "It appears when he sets up now, he really sets up and really looks like something's going to happen. And when it doesn't, he doesn't panic -- like last week, he took off and went down the sidelines.
"He just looks like a totally different guy. It's amazing when some good things happen and you surround him with good people and [Plaxico] Burress is playing better for him. Your confidence comes back, and now he really looks good."
Bradshaw said he knows what Stewart went through during down years in 1998, 1999 and part of 2000, when things did not go well for him or the team and he was benched.
"You have to be emotionally strong because it will destroy you," Bradshaw said. "Look at you guys. Negative press -- and I'm part of that, and it is fun. And what happens is natural, you're a human being, you start second-guessing yourself. You start saying, maybe I'm not this, maybe I should be a wide receiver like Bill Cowher wanted him to be, whatever.
"And when you do that, you're not ever going to grow, you're not ever going to perform, and the football team needs you sorely or else they have to go out and find someone else. And this all started when Neil O'Donnell jumped after the Super Bowl and goes to the Jets."
O'Donnell left after the 1995 season, Mike Tomczak started in 1996 and the Steelers turned to Stewart in 1997. He was benched for the final five games of 1999 in favor of Tomczak, and Kent Graham won the job to open the 2000 season, but for the most part the Steelers have stuck with Stewart. That patience, Bradshaw said, is paying off.
"He's really lucky because I think they've probably tried to replace him here, because you only have two, three years, and then they have to evaluate.
"They've invested a lot of money in Kordell. The salary cap puts a lot of pressure on Cowher, puts a lot of pressure on the Rooney family and Steelers fans. People aren't patient anymore because you don't have time ... so you have to perform, and he's been very fortunate they haven't been able to replace him. Now, by the stroke of the football gods, you know, it's looking good.
"Let's just hope. I'm sure everybody is kind of sitting back and they're wondering, OK, he's had five good games, he hasn't thrown any interceptions, let's not jinx him, lets wear the same underwear, the same shoes, do the same thing; we don't want to mess this up.
"A real test for him now would be if he struggled in a game, then he would have to face the negative gods and the criticism, well it was good while it lasted. But the good ones don't normally have back-to-back bad games, and the following week come back. That's kind of the growth pattern."
Bradshaw said the kind of excellence Stewart has displayed in the past five games doesn't make a career, "but boy it sure gets you started."
"It's vital to this football team that he play well. He doesn't have to put up Kurt Warner numbers, that's not what this is all about and that's not how you win Super Bowls anyway. But this football team, always, historically -- great defense, really solid running game, and, if you can get the guy in there to throw it, that's a plus."
When the interview ended, and Bradshaw was racing to catch another plane, Stewart called the visit inspiring.
"From what I understand, he was a guy who didn't want to come back to this place, and for him to come back here just to interview me and coaches, that's big.
"That's somewhat of an honor when you have the quarterback that pretty much set the tone here for all quarterbacks. Like I told him, he's making it hard for the quarterbacks coming through here because if they don't win the Super Bowl, they'll get booed out of here. But I said it in a joking way."
Even if the Steelers do win a Super Bowl with him as their quarterback, Stewart said he would never remind people that they were wrong about him.
"I won't say 'I told you so' because I don't have time for that. Not even later on. That's like throwing it in their face."
Words of wisdom: Bradshaw shares experience as quarterback with Stewart 
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