Memo to the Steelers: Rookies do have a place in the NFL, and not just first-rounders.

Teams actually play rookies, start them and count on them to make contributions. There's no better example than the two Super Bowl teams. New England's starting center is Dan Kippen, a fifth-round draft choice from Boston College. He's one of a gaggle of rookies who made the Patriots' roster this season.

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Carolina has two rookie starters, offensive tackle Jordan Gross and Ricky Manning Jr. The Panthers would not be in the Super Bowl if it weren't for Manning, who intercepted three passes to help Carolina beat Philadelphia last week, and saved a victory in St. Louis the previous game with an overtime interception.

Manning is a cornerback and a third-round draft choice. That's the same round in which the Steelers had no pick. They traded it along with a sixth-round choice in order to move higher in the first round to draft a safety who did not start a game last season.

Troy Polamalu, the rookie safety the Steelers drafted with the 16th choice last April, did not start a game but may eventually become as productive as his secondary coach, Darren Perry. But the Steelers drafted Perry in the eighth round in 1992 (there are only seven rounds in the draft now). Because of Thomas Everett's holdout and an injury to Gary Jones in training camp, Perry moved up and started at free safety, the Steelers went 11-5 that season with him and he remained their starter for seven years, six of them playoff seasons and one in the Super Bowl.

An injury is how Manning got his break, too. He replaced starter Terry Cousins the final four games of the regular season and intercepted three passes in those games before his playoff heroics. At least the Panthers had a rookie to step in at cornerback.

The Steelers are desperate to find a cornerback, and the Panthers found one in the third round. Many personnel people in the NFL believe third-round picks are the most valuable because good players are available in that round at reasonable prices.

The Steelers need to have more patience when it comes to drafting and less patience when it comes to playing rookies. Polamalu is a good example in both cases. While the Steelers tossed away picks in the third and sixth rounds to draft him, the Indianapolis Colts drafted strong safety Mike Doss in the second round and he started for a team that reached the AFC championship game.

In the second round, the Steelers picked pass-rusher Alonzo Jackson. In a season in which their sacks dropped from 50 to 35, the fewest by a Bill Cowher-coached team, they did not dress Jackson for the final 14 games.

Another rookie who started for the Colts the past season from the beginning is guard Steve Sciullo, a Shaler native who played at Marshall.

Sciullo was drafted in the fourth round.

In the meantime, the only rookie who started a game for the 6-10 Steelers this past season is cornerback Ike Taylor, a fourth-round draft choice. He started one game when the Steelers opened with three cornerbacks Nov. 23 against Cleveland.

Lions club

Western Pennsylvania would seem to have enough Lions clubs, yet the Steelers seem determined to maintain another on the city's South Side. It's as if they want to add a Detroit Lions logo to the blank left side of their helmet.

Cornerback Terry Fair is the latest former Lion to find a home with the Steelers. Even though a broken foot and a broken ankle have left him with speed below acceptable standards for a cornerback in the NFL, stands just 5 feet 9 and weighs only 185, has not played since the third game of the 2002 season, the Steelers this week signed him to a one-year contract.

Granted, they did not give him a signing bonus and they can release him at any time until the first week of the season and not have to pay him anything, but why even bother? If he gets hurt, as he has done often in his career, they will be stuck with his $535,000 salary.

He joins a bushel of former Lions who have found a dock on the Monongahela. That makes six former Lions on the Steelers' roster and at least two others who have played for them since former Detroit personnel man Kevin Colbert became the Steelers' director of football operations in 2000. His boss in Detroit, Ron Hughes, is now the Steelers' college scouting coordinator.

Other former Lions on the team are CB Chidi Iwuoma, OT Barrett Brooks, C Jeff Hartings, QB Charlie Batch and LB Clint Kriewaldt. QB Kent Graham and OT Larry Tharpe, also former Lions, have played for the Steelers since 2000. Others have been signed and cut, as it appears will be Fair's destiny.

Iwuoma and Kriewaldt have been superb special teams players and Hartings has done well at center. Brooks was an emergency pickup last October. Graham was a disastrous signing. Tharpe gave them depth, briefly, and Batch gives them a solid backup.

Quiet signing

The Steelers, without making mention of it, signed Colbert to a contract extension that will keep him as their director of football operations through the 2006 season. That's one more year than Cowher's contract, which goes through 2005.

QB controversy?

Dan Rooney had some interesting things to say about the controversy swirling around quarterback Tommy Maddox's contract and what promises may or may not have been made to Maddox last June about reworking it.

Maddox earned $725,000 last year in salary, roster and workout bonuses on a contract he signed in the summer of 2002, the year after starter Kordell Stewart made the Pro Bowl and was voted team MVP. The Steelers last year re-signed backup quarterback Charlie Batch to a two-year contract. Batch made $1 million last year, including his signing bonus. He will make $1 million this year in a straight salary. Maddox is scheduled to make $750,00 in straight salary this year.

Because he started every game last season, Maddox likely earned another $400,000 in playing time and performance bonuses.

Last June, Maddox met with Rooney to discuss his contract that goes through 2006, a year in which he would finally get a $1 million salary as things now stand.

Vann McElroy, Maddox's agent, said his client told him that Rooney promised in their meeting last June that the team would do something to beef up his contract in February 2004.

Rooney was asked where that stands in a question-and-answer story in the latest Steelers Digest published Friday.

"As far as the contract," Rooney replied, "we're going to look at that when we get down to it. There's some difference of opinion on what happened and what was said. This idea that he got less money than Charlie Batch, the backup, is just not so. It was structured in a way that whichever one of them played would get paid more. Kevin Colbert was the guy who set up the structure of it to our people, because that's the way he thought it should be. The media picked up on this idea that Batch was making more than Maddox and ran with it. In reality, Maddox did OK and we are going to take a look at it. But there are other things that are involved in this. The quarterback isn't the only position on the football team."

Things could get interesting come February. What if the Steelers do not rework Maddox's contract and then don't draft a quarterback? What if they rework his contract and then draft a quarterback in the first round? And will Batch be used by the Steelers as a hammer over Maddox?

Bad timing

Jack and Joe Bushofsky, North Catholic High School graduates, have worked in the NFL for a combined 57 years in scouting and personnel.

Jack started in 1979 after coaching in the high school and college ranks. He worked for Tampa Bay, the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers. Joe coached North Catholic and worked as a scout for the Steelers, Blesto, Dolphins, Lions and Carolina Panthers.

Neither have worked for a Super Bowl team, partly because of bad timing. Joe Bushofsky retired as a scout from the Panthers after the 2001 season. Jack Bushofsky retired early last year after seven years as the Panthers' player personnel director.

Many of the Panthers who will play in the Super Bowl next Sunday are there because of Jack Bushofsky.

The Panthers have invited him to join them in Houston, and he plans to attend. If they win, they should order an extra Super Bowl ring.