More Coverage: Ed Bouchette's Short snaps: 1/8/06

Twenty-five percent of the head-coaching jobs in the NFL were declared officially vacant two days after the season ended.

And for the 14th consecutive season, the one in Pittsburgh was not.

Patience is a vice, not a virtue in the National Football League. And it's not just the owners. Dick Vermeil quit in Kansas City, which hired him after he quit in St. Louis. Herm Edwards has worked his way out of the New York Jets' job to replace Vermeil. And Bill Parcells, a notorious job-jumper, considered his options in Dallas and accepted a contract extension Friday rather than move on again.

Mike Mularkey, whose Buffalo Bills went 9-7 in his first season, was told to fire assistant coaches in order to preserve his own job after just two seasons. At least 87-year-old Bills owner Ralph Wilson has an excuse for his lack of patience.

That brings the number of NFL head-coaching changes to 97 (going on 98 when Edwards becomes the Chiefs' coach) since the Steelers hired Bill Cowher in 1992. That's an average of more than three per team. Perhaps, a portion of the 31 other NFL teams could find a lesson in the Steelers' patience, which has helped to produce 10 years of post-season play in Cowher's 14 years -- and that earned four Super Bowls under Hall of Famer Chuck Noll, their previous coach of 23 years.

Steelers defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, who also played for the Cincinnati Bengals, said it takes awhile for a coach to build up a trust with his players, but, once he does, it's an enormous advantage.

"Then, whatever decision he makes, no one questions him or doubts him. To have that, you have to have stability.

"In some cases, I don't think on some teams players work hard enough. I don't know if they know how to. They think they're in the NFL, they have money, the standards are OK, 'if we play, we play.' Here, you're in that weight room every day. And if [conditioning coach Chet Fuhrman] doesn't se you or I don't see you or Joey [Porter] doesn't see you in there, you're going to get it from us. We work, man.

"I own four businesses, and the hardest one is construction. A lot of the standards and principles that a business has, they have to stick to them, no matter what. Never give in on anything ... and the Rooneys won't.

" They set their principles 20 years ago, and they will stick by them, and, when players see that and see the standards and they see good players coming in and talking all this noise and a few years later they're gone, that sends messages.

"You look at this team since I've been here, you don't have punks because the punks go. Other teams may put up with them because they paid them a lot of money, this or that. We don't. It starts from that, starts from the top."

When is chew foo-foo?

Von Oelhoffen, 34, had a different take on the little luxuries other teams lavish on their players that the Steelers do not.

"You look around at the players, we don't get the foo-foo stuff."

Foo-foo?

"Oh, man, valet parking at the stadiums. So much stuff. Toothpaste and chew in the locker room, for free. Just a lot of stuff. Unnecessary stuff. Sometimes, people think they deserve stuff like that.

"No, this is a regular locker room. It's not a million-dollar atmosphere, you might say. All the players here enjoy it.

"We get what we need -- sometimes more when we deserve it. We cannot, as players, look at this as 'I'm in the NFL, treat me like a king.' Noooo. We work for people. We entertain our fans. That's what we do."

The Butler does it

The Indianapolis Colts are more than Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James.

They are Dwight Freeney and Mike Doss and Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne, and more. All four were Colts draft picks, all during the time in which Mike Butler has been the Colts' director of college scouting (since 2000). Indianapolis is a team built through the draft, not free agency, and Butler, a Pittsburgh native, has had a big hand in it.

It runs in the genes. Butler, 46, is the son of Jack Butler, the former Steelers great who has headed the BLESTO scouting organization since its inception in the 1960s. Mike Butler, an IUP grad, landed his first scouting job with the Steelers and has worked for the Colts for 19 years. The way he has helped to build Indianapolis into what is, at the moment, the best team in the NFL should make him a candidate for general managers' jobs that have and will come open.

Old order of Bills

Ralph Wilson, 87, pronounced himself as Bills president and hired Marv Levy, real age unknown but conservatively listed as 80, as his general manager. If Mike Mularkey does not survive as coach after next season, Wilson could always try to hire Joe Paterno, who will have turned 80 by then.

Tom Modrak, former Steelers college scouting coordinator, keeps his title of assistant general manager, but will have to do all the work. Levy was a good coach, but he also had a good GM in Bill Polian when he was winning football games in Buffalo which, by the way, happened more than a decade ago.

Missed, Pacman

Just when Tennessee thought Pacman Jones was starting to behave himself, he was benched in the third quarter of the Titans' final game last week after two personal foul penalties in three plays. The second was for cursing at an official.

Coach Jeff Fisher has reached the breaking point with the former WVU bad boy.

"I know for a fact, he has a long way to go to become a true pro in this league," Fisher said.

"His actions on the field were inexcusable. I don't care whether it was a preseason game, a scrimmage, what have you, you do not respond the way he responded. I am hopeful that he'll learn from this."

Perhaps, the Titans should have done more homework on the Pacman before they drafted him.

Steelers and Ricky?

If the Steelers need a big running back for next season to pair with Willie Parker, the Miami Dolphins have just the man for them -- Ricky Williams.

Williams rehabilitated himself this year, especially late. He averaged 4.9 yards a carry in the final seven games and topped 100 in each of the final two games.

The Dolphins plan to feature Ronnie Brown in his second NFL season, and Williams is on the trade block.

Of course, there were those three failed drug tests, a suspension and the nagging little problem of quitting on his teammates in 2004. But, if you can overlook all that, Williams could be your man.

Said Miami coach Nick Saban, "The guy has been nothing but first class in every way, shape and form in terms of everything we've asked him to do, everything he's said he's going to do and the way he's gone about everything that he has done. He's worked hard. He's never complained. He's set a great example for others."

Spoken like a real salesman. There's another advantage: Williams will make the NFL minimum of $545,000 next season.