When it comes to football, this has never, ever, been a place short on opinions.

After all, this is Pittsburgh.

A place where football transcends age, race, sex, religion and nearly all other socioeconomic factors that often divide the populace.

		Listen In Steelers fans share their thoughts on Bill Cowher's departure with the PG's Colin Dunlap: Andrea Slater, Mt. Lebanon: "Pittsburgh will really miss Bill Cowher" Mike Perrucci, Hazelwood: "He's a winning coach" Paul Watson, Peters: "He's a spoke in the wheel"

But this is Pittsburgh, this is football and, predictably and understandably, public opinion flowed yesterday after -- and even before -- it became official just a few ticks past 1 p.m. that Bill Cowher was resigning after guiding the Steelers the past 15 years.

Just a few blocks from the team's palatial South Side facility, John Porter, 42, was trudging along East Carson Street on his way home to Crawford Square.

With a shopping bag in one hand and a mist of rain dancing off him, Porter stopped, looked for the right way to put things and said this about the now former coach: "When I think about it, well, coach Cowher deserved to [resign] and go out the way he wanted.

"He deserves to do things his way because of all the things he's done for Pittsburgh and the Steelers.

"That is really how I feel."

In one of the more than 450 e-mails the Post-Gazette received in the three hours before Cowher's decision, Greg Hagler of Tallahassee, Fla., weighed in more on Cowher the man, father and husband than Cowher the football coach.

"As much as I hate to see Cowher resign, I respect his decision to be with his family," a portion of Hagler's e-mail read.

"He should have the right to live life like a normal man, husband, and father. Living the life he has the past 15 years, being away from his family, has to be tough. I respect his decision and feel that he is making the right choice for him."

And as Mt. Lebanon resident Andrea Slater, 33, polished off the last few drags of her cigarette under a Fourth Avenue building eave to escape the Downtown rain, she, too, decided Cowher's decision was more about his regular life and less about football.

"Pittsburgh will really miss Bill Cowher," Slater said.

"I think it is admirable what he's done. He is making the point that he is a family man and father before he is a football coach, and that is something that he should be commended for."

Not all opinions were warm and fuzzy.

While he was busy turning about a dozen hot Buffalo wings into a plate full of chicken bones at The Locker Room Bar & Grill on East Carson Street, Peters resident Paul Watson, 44, downplayed Cowher's significance in the Steelers' grand scheme.

"He was simply a spoke in the wheel and he is replaceable," Watson said of Cowher. "It isn't like a superstar player. Just like Chuck Noll was replaceable, Bill Cowher is replaceable."

Mike Perrucci, executive chef at The Locker Room and a 25-year-old Hazelwood resident, chose to look at Cowher's departure a little differently, viewing Cowher -- or any Steelers head coach for that matter -- as neither a hindrance nor benefit to how this city views the franchise.

"No matter who is on the sideline coaching, if the team goes 0-16 or 16-0, this town is still going to support the Steelers," Perrucci said.

"This town bleeds black and gold and always will."

During his farewell news conference, Cowher said in an ode to his Pittsburgh roots, "This Crafton boy lived a dream."

He soon followed that with, "You can take the people of out Pittsburgh. But you can't take the Pittsburgh out of people."

And part of that "Pittsburgh" in people is that, no matter what, they will always have an opinion on all things football, particularly when it comes to Steelers football.