Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Art Rooney II -- Expects Bill Cowher to make decision in next few days Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Dick Hoak retires after 45 years with Steelers as coach and player Steelers Notebook: Assistants to get head coach interviews Bob Smizik: Cowher owes the Steelers a quick answer

Bill Cowher met with Steelers president Art Rooney II yesterday morning, then drove to his new home in Raleigh, N.C., to spend at least several days before deciding if he will step down as the team's coach.

Rooney said he anticipates a verdict from Cowher in the next few days at the earliest.

"I expect to hear from him later in the week, early next week, something like that," said Rooney, who denied an ESPN.com report that he pressured Cowher to decide yesterday.

"I met with Bill this morning. We had talked last week about talking today, and then he was going to take a few days to go think about things, which is what he's going to do. So, I think he certainly deserves to take his time, get away, think hard about it. That's what he's going to do."

Rooney did not say what he believes that decision will be, but insisted he did not believe it's about money. He also said he would welcome Cowher back if he wanted to coach the final season of his contract in 2007.

"I don't think it's money," Rooney said of Cowher's possible reasons to quit at age 49 after 15 seasons as the team's coach. "Beyond that, I think really it is a question he has to answer. I could speculate, but there's no sense in me speculating. The only thing I would say is I don't think it's money.

"We haven't gotten to that part of the conversation. Now, maybe we will and maybe it will become money but at least where we are today it's really not about money. It's really about him deciding whether he wants to continue.

"Obviously, he has another year on the contract. If he wants to coach one more year he can do that, and if he wants to coach more than that we would have to work something out. He has to think about those kinds of things.

"We'd rather him do an extension, but if he came back and said, 'I'd like to take one more shot with this group of players.' I'm fine with that."

The first time Cowher told his boss that he contemplated quitting after the 2006 season was in a meeting last spring before the draft.

"He said, 'I don't know what I want to do,' " Rooney said. "I knew it wasn't business as usual then. I didn't know where it was going.

"He said he wasn't sure he wanted to do an extension because he didn't know if he would coach after this season."

Rooney was surprised when Cowher said at his weekly news conference Dec. 19 that he thought of retiring after the 2005 season, too.

"He didn't say anything to me. I was unaware of that. I didn't know he thought about retiring before this season."

Rooney said in March that the goal for the organization was to win a second Super Bowl. That makes an 8-8 record unsatisfying. But he does not blame Cowher for it, nor did he see anything that would lead him to believe his head coach might have been distracted from his job.

"I think in spite of the disappointment we had this season I certainly didn't see anything that would cause me to say, 'Well, he's lost something or he's not the same.' He's a good coach and he'll be a good coach if he coaches next year. Those kinds of things are not an issue."

Neither, apparently, was the fact that Cowher's wife and youngest daughter moved to Raleigh before the season. Rooney said the coach never asked him if he could spend more time away from the team in the offseason to be with his family in North Carolina.

"He said if he comes back, he'll be as committed as ever and I believe that," Rooney said. "We talked about whether his family situation was a distraction this year, and we both felt it wasn't.

"You look at the players and talk to the players and kind of look at the way the season went. If that were a distraction, it certainly would have been the kind of thing that would have impacted the second half of the season.

"Everything was set up for a [downward] spiral if there ever was one and we didn't have that. So in my mind and in his mind it was not a distraction. I don't think that's an issue."

With Arizona and Atlanta ready to talk to two top Steelers assistant coaches, Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm, about head coaching jobs, the Steelers can't afford to wait too long to hear from Cowher.

"I think he understands the time frame, he understands this business," Rooney said. "From my understanding in our talks, I don't think he's going to drag this out to a point where we can't deal with it, let's put it that way.

"It will be a sad day for me if he does decide to step down. I've enjoyed working with him and we've had success. Yes, it will be a sad day if he decides to step down, but the other side of it is I certainly would respect his decision and where he is in his career and his life.

"I couldn't ask for any more from him and I told him that. I think he's given us everything he's had every year and I appreciate what he's done."