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Sunday, December 10, 2000

The e-mail from a West Coast Steelers fan said it all. "Please tell Kordell I am sorry I doubted him."

A lot of people feel the same way and shouldn't. There's no reason to apologize. There's nothing wrong with skepticism in the face of incompetence, which is what Kordell Stewart gave the Steelers for the better parts of the 1998 and 1999 seasons.

The Stewart bandwagon is rolling again, pushed hard by people who believe he has found himself and once again is the Steelers' quarterback of the future. No question, Stewart's play has improved markedly in recent weeks. He seems like a different quarterback. In fact, he seems remarkably similar to the one we viewed in 1997 and early 1998 when he was celebrated throughout the football world.

This time, there's another factor involved in the praise surrounding Stewart. Not only is he playing well, he is said to be playing courageously.

Let's examine that.

When Stewart left the game at the end of the first quarter last week against the Oakland Raiders, the Steelers issued a vaguely worded statement in the press box that said he had a knee injury and made it sound like he would not return. Although Stewart left the field without so much as a limp, there was speculation of a serious injury. When he did return for the second half and played well, it was labeled as a heroic accomplishment by a lot of writers, including this one.

On second thought ... what if the Steelers had accurately depicted Stewart's injury? What if they had announced that he was leaving the game with a calf strain, not a knee injury? What if they had made it clear he would return once his calf muscle had been taped?

If that had happened, no one would have been labeling Stewart's action as bringing to mind Terry Bradshaw, who was famous for returning to play after seemingly serious injury.

But the greater issue here is the excitement generated by Stewart's recent play. It's out of control.

The signs have been encouraging. He's throwing the ball more accurately, making better decisions, playing with significantly more confidence. But we're still waiting for his first 200-yard passing game of the season, which is a pedestrian accomplishment for an NFL quarterback.

How can there be such runaway optimism when less than a month ago he completed 14 of 31 passes against the Philadelphia Eagles? The game before that he completed only 7 of 22 against the Tennessee Titans.

Please, no talk about his won-loss record. The Steelers' seven victories are much more a factor of the team's defense and its running game than of its quarterbacking.

There is a widely held belief that Stewart's confidence was destroyed by the costly interception he threw against the Denver Broncos in the 1997 AFC title game. What's forgotten is that he had a stretch of good play in the second half of the 1998 season. In consecutive games against Green Bay and Tennessee he had passing ratings of 117.8 and 126 -- hardly the play of a quarterback whose confidence had been broken almost a year earlier.

The point is that he has done this before. He has had flashes of good play in the past that have inspired people to believe he was the answer. And that good play was followed by longer stretches of inadequate play.

This is not to suggest the Steelers should dismiss Stewart as their future starter. They have a scarcity of options and simply can't do that. It is to suggest that the applause be held until this season plays out. There are three games remaining, two against teams with playoff aspirations. If Stewart can continue to play well, then the Steelers have little choice but to designate him as the quarterback who will lead them into the 2001 season and their new stadium.

But if his play falls off even slightly in the remaining games, they have to give serious thought to going in another direction. It's not like Stewart doesn't have a history. It's there and it is filled with a lack of consistency.

To base a decision on these most recent games would be the height of foolishness. Of course, when it comes to Stewart, that's familiar ground with the Steelers.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.