Smizik: Enough to silence his one of a kind voice
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Peter Diana, Post-GazetteMyron Cope mans the booth for a game vs. the Baltimore Ravens in December -- one of Cope's final broadcasts as it turns out.
Click photo for larger image.
As befitting so momentous an occasion, eight television cameras lined the back of the Steelers' media room, almost going wall to wall. In front of them, 30 or so men and women, armed with notebooks, pens and tape recorders, stood poised to chronicle what they had been all but promised was a major news event.
The making of this monster media scene began about 18 hours earlier when the Steelers quietly sent out word they would have an announcement of serious import the next morning.
Literally within minutes, speculation within the media was out of control. Included among the more obvious scenarios worth investigating were:
The long-awaited signing of Hines Ward.
The coming to terms of No. 1 draft choice Heath Miller.
By early evening, serious reporting proved that neither of those were the story in question. Which meant the speculation took a giant step forward to these fairly far-fetched scenarios:
Dan Rooney was retiring.
Jerome Bettis was retiring.
The Rooney family was selling the team.
By 11 a.m. yesterday, no one knew anything, which is almost unheard of when there is nearly a full day to work a story.
At which point, a short, balding, pot-bellied man with a gnarled ear walked into the media room, and in an instant everyone knew.
This was bigger than Hines Ward, bigger than Heath Miller.
The word legend is tossed around much too casually in the sports business. It's often used to describe men whose accomplishments don't begin to merit it. But this was one time where the word fit. So did all the cliches.
A legend in his own time was retiring, and this truly was the end of an era.
Myron Cope, the most recognizable man in Pittsburgh and probably the most popular, was taking the final step in a series of cutbacks in his working life that began with the closing down of his famously successful, extraordinarily entertaining, one-of-a-kind talk show in April 1995. He was retiring as color analyst for the Steelers, a position he had held since 1970 and was his last link to an adoring public.
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  Myron Cope never gained a yard nor scored a touchdown in his 35 years doing Steelers games. Yet his Steelers numbers are unparalleled. Consider that he worked:
First Published June 22, 2005 12:00 am
