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Saturday, October 10, 1998 By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
CINCINNATI -- They have begun digging for the new stadium here, but they will find all the old bones buried in Cinergy Field, the place they once called Riverfront Stadium, where Bubby Brister made his first start, where Neil O'Donnell made his mark.
Kordell Stewart caught a 71-yard touchdown pass from O'Donnell here in 1995, which is longer than any pass Stewart has completed in the pros.
Terry Bradshaw, Mark Malone, Brister, O'Donnell and Stewart all played quarterback for the Steelers here, but no two ever started at the same time on this field, until today.
O'Donnell and Stewart, linked forever by the touchdown pass in Riverfront in the Steelers' Super Bowl year, will pull on different uniforms and square off when the Bengals (1-3) and the Steelers (3-1) meet at 1 p.m.
Back in the TV booths, Bradshaw and Malone can comment on it. Back in Denver, Bubby Brister can sit back and finally, with some authority, shout: "I can out-run him and out-throw him."
Old Steelers quarterbacks do not die, they either graduate to network TV or they get run out of town and play somewhere else. For Mark Malone, both happened and he has some appreciation for what O'Donnell might go through when he plays against the team that drafted him, that nurtured him and that he helped get to the Super Bowl.
"You like to be able to walk away as a winner," said Malone, the host of "NFL Tonight" on ESPN. "If anything else, at least in your own mind, it bolsters your belief that the decision they made was wrong, that you're still a good quarterback capable of winning. To beat the team that left you go - for whatever reason - that lends credence to that, at least in your own mind."
The Steelers did not exactly let O'Donnell go, but he questioned the direction in which they were going when they offered him $18.75 million to stay and he opted instead for the $25 million the Jets dangled in front of him. Two years later, the Jets cut him and he signed with the Bengals, leading up to today's drama.
Malone and Steve Bono are the only other former Steelers starting quarterbacks to return to play against them since Bradshaw's days. Brister has been in Three Rivers Stadium three times, once with the Eagles and twice with the Broncos, but did not play.
Malone left the Steelers after the 1987 season, when the atmosphere here became so poisoned against him that Coach Chuck Noll advised him it was better for him to go elsewhere. They traded him to the Chargers after the 1987 season and he helped beat the Steelers in San Diego, 20-14, in 1988.
Bono started for Kansas City in 1996 when the Steelers went there and beat the Chiefs, 17-7. Bono, though, started only the strike games for the Steelers in 1987, then became their backup. Stoudt came back here to play in Three Rivers Stadium against Pittsburgh, but it was the Maulers of the USFL in 1984 and the sellout crowd that late winter pelted him with snowballs.
Malone and now O'Donnell are the only two full-time starters who departed and will have started against their old team since Bradshaw.
"Going into that game," Malone said of the '88 return match, "I still had a very good relationship with the owners, the coaching staff, Chuck and my teammates. I don't know if that's the same situation Neil finds himself in. I don't know if he left with disdain, but reading Lethon Flowers' comments, there seems to be a disdain for him with some of his ex-teammates."
Flowers criticized O'Donnell last week for not apologizing to his teammates for throwing two killer interceptions in Super Bowl XXX. This week, Flowers said he was sorry he said it, but stood by his earlier comment.
The fans here also have been crucifying O'Donnell on talk shows all week. Nothing personal. They did it to Bradshaw, they did it to Stoudt, Malone and Brister before him.
"It's tough," Tom Donahoe said of the city's love-hate affair with its quarterbacks, past and present. "I'm not sure it's tougher than anyplace else. Towns generally are hard on quarterbacks. Fans get impatient a lot more quickly with the quarterback than they do with someone in another position."
No Steelers quarterback has been able to retire in peace other than Bradshaw, who was prematurely forced out by an elbow injury following the 1983 season. David Woodley, who virtually shared the position with Malone in 1984 and 1985 because of injuries to both of them, abruptly quit after the 1985 season.
Malone was traded to make room for Brister, who was forced out after Coach Bill Cowher and his new staff picked O'Donnell to replace him in 1992. When O'Donnell was injured near the end of that season, Brister came on to lead the Steelers past Cleveland in the last game to clinch the best record in the AFC.
Even though O'Donnell had not fully recovered from a broken fibula, he started the first playoff game and played poorly in a 24-3 loss to Buffalo at home.
The next day, Brister popped off, saying, "It's very frustrating . . . to sit there and watch somebody else play when you feel you're better than they are."
He added, "I can out-run him and out-throw him."
That got him bounced. The Steelers tried to trade him, then released him the following June. Philadelphia signed him, then he moved to the Jets, and now he's on top of the world with the Broncos, where he earned a Super Bowl ring in January and has the highest passer rating in the AFC at 111.3 as the backup to the injured John Elway.
"In his own mind, he thought he was better than Neil and maybe he was," said Donahoe, who spoke on Brister's behalf after he was out of football in 1996. "But he knew that the commitment here was to Neil and he was not going to play, and financially it probably would have been impossible to keep both of them."
Turns out, it was impossible to keep either. That's the way it has been with Steelers quarterbacks since Bradshaw retired.
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