TAMPA, Fla. -- " His knee feels better, Hines Ward said, but then he has not tested it either.

That will come tomorrow, he hopes, when the Steelers begin their practices at the University of South Florida.

"It feels better," Ward said several hours after the Steelers' charter landed around noon yesterday. "I don't have a brace on, I walk around fine. It's not going to be 100 percent, I'm not going to trick anybody, but I think I'm going to be good, to be able to go out and perform like I want to."

The Steelers receiver took a break yesterday from a stepped-up pace of rehabilitation on his injured knee.

"I've been rehabbing all weekend long. Off today -- I did a little rehab this morning before we came down here."

He will resume this morning, then attend the Steelers media interviews at Raymond James Stadium and "see where we're at."

"I really can't say because I haven't run or cut or done anything," said Ward, who did not practice last week after the right MCL was sprained in the first quarter of the Jan. 18 AFC championship game. "I was just constantly getting treatment, 24 hours around the clock."

The Steelers' offensive line hoped to exit their charter wearing Dermontti Dawson No. 63 jerseys to honor the former Steelers great center.

The shipment of jerseys, though, carried sizes too small for them to wear. They're hoping for a second shipment to arrive soon so they can wear them at one of the media interview days that continue through Thursday.

Dawson is one of 15 modern day finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame class that will be selected Saturday by 44 voters. He played for the Steelers from 1988-2000.

There is no dumb question, the theory goes, but whoever authored it probably never attended a Super Bowl interview session.

Steelers linebacker James Harrison decided to have a little fun when one was thrown his way yesterday. Players and coaches often are amazed when they are asked what tactics they plan to use on offense or defense because they consider those things top secret, especially before a Super Bowl.

So when someone asked Harrison his strategy for rushing Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, the Steelers' record-holder with 16 sacks this season kept a straight face and did not hesitate with his answer.

"I won't be rushing as much. Actually, I don't think I'll be rushing too much at all. We're going to do a lot of stuff where it looks like I'm rushing but I'm actually not because the offense is starting to turn toward me. So, we'll get in there and try to fool them a little bit, I guess."

A radio reporter asked Harrison what he would have said in August if someone told him he would be the leagues defensive player of the year competing in the Super Bowl.

"That they're a mind-reader or a fortune teller," Harrison said.

When he was asked if he could envision such a situation, Harrison replied, "Nah, probably not."

Most of Dick LeBeau's defensive players agree that his schemes are intricate and difficult to learn.

But can they be any more difficult to decipher than what James Harrison said when asked why he trusts LeBeau so much?

"Because things that he has done that he may not know I know he's done," Harrison said. "It's not things I know that you know I know; it's the things that I know that you don't know I know that makes me trust him."

Got it?

Two former Pro Bowl Steelers from the 1970s landed assistant coaching jobs yesterday, one in the NFL and one in college.

Former Steelers linebacker Kevin Greene has been hired to coach the outside linebackers for the Green Bay Packers, where Dom Capers was recently hired as defensive coordinator. Capers held that job with the Steelers when Greene played for them in the 1990s.

Greene twice served as a coaching intern at training camp with the Steelers, once under coach Bill Cowher and last summer under Mike Tomlin. This will be Greene's first full-time NFL coaching job.

Former Steelers strong safety Carnell Lake, an All-American at UCLA, was hired to coach the Bruins cornerbacks by coach Rick Neuheisel.

Landing in Tampa, where they were greeted outside their hotel by screaming Steelers fans and temperatures in the high 70s, it hit home to some Steelers that, yes, this was the Super Bowl.

"Coming down here you start to realize that you're in the Super Bowl, being in Tampa -- great weather, great environment," said Hines Ward, MVP of Super Bowl XL.

"This is a great team, obviously, or we wouldn't be sitting here," said defensive end Brett Keisel. "All year we talked about hoisting the Lombardi. To realize that it's here and to realize that the opportunity is right in front of our face is quite a special feeling."

Brett Keisel just laughed when he was asked about the Steelers' defensive line playing against the Cardinals' offensive line, coached by former Steelers assistant RussGrimm.

"Russ is going to have those guys ready to play," Keisel said. "Any weakness he sees in us, I'm sure he told those guys [about it] a long time ago.

"In my opinion, I can't say enough good things about Russ Grimm. He was a great coach and a great player and he does a wonderful job teaching those guys good technique and winning football."

Ben Roethlisberger arrived just in the nick of time to make the scheduled departure of the Steelers' charter at Pittsburgh International yesterday.

"He just wanted to make a grand appearance, you know Ben," Brett Keisel said, laughing. "I don't think he was late, I think he actually had five minutes to spare."