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Steelers QB
Kordell Stewart
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He isn’t quite "Slash" anymore, but he doesn’t make his coaches
want to slash their wrists anymore either. As steps up go, Kordell Stewart and Bill Cowher
will both take it.
In 1997, Stewart played quarterback in a way that seemed destined to change the
position forever. In his first full year as a starter in Pittsburgh, he threw for 3,020
yards and 21 touchdowns and rushed for 476 yards and 11 more scores. The Steelers lost the
AFC championship game to Denver by a field goal, 24-21, that season. Stewart was the
future of football. Not only in Pittsburgh, but in the NFL.
But as time passed — and he passed more often — Stewart’s game began to
desert him. Soon after, so did Steelers fans, who had loved him in his first three years
in Pittsburgh, when the name that would come to haunt him — Slash — became a
national phenomenon because of his ability to pass, run and catch.
As Stewart’s game unraveled over the next three years, so, it seemed, did he,
until Stewart reached emotional rock bottom. People began to no longer question when
he’d become one of the best quarterbacks in football, but rather if he was still the
best quarterback in Pittsburgh.
A year ago, Stewart barely completed 50 percent of his throws (52.2). In the three
seasons that followed his incredible ’97 performance, he tossed more interceptions
(36) than touchdowns (28) while his rebuilding team repeatedly failed to make the
playoffs.
Stewart seemed beaten down not just by the Steelers’ opponents, but by impatient
and often impertinent Steelers fans and a coach who was growing more and more critical of
him, three years of erratic play and constantly slipping production. To all the world,
Kordell Stewart seemed a beaten man. Except to the most important person in that world.
The guy once known as Slash.
"I never really doubted myself because I always said things happen for a reason,
and if there’s some patience, things are going to come back," Stewart said
recently from the new perspective of guiding a division-leading Steelers team into the
final month of the season. "That’s what maybe a lot of people didn’t have
with me, but I had it with myself, and that’s really all that matters.
"If you have problems here and you take that baggage with you, it will be the same
thing over and over again. Now that I’m back at this point, if I was an
unlevel-headed individual, I would be exploding and blasting people and saying, ‘I
told you so.’ But I felt very confident in myself, and I knew it was going to come at
some point. That allowed me to relax and smile again and just have fun and not get caught
up in all the other stuff.
"A lot of things were being said, but I never got myself to the point where I was
thinking change is good. What makes you think it’s going to get any better anywhere
else if you don’t have yourself together? What I had to do was remove myself from all
of the things that were taking place that were not positive and get my mind away from
wondering what’s going on as far as coaching changes, receivers, players just
changing all over the place and really putting myself in position to where I was focused
on what I needed to do and just go out and be the leader of the team, whatever happens
around me."
Starting late last season, what has happened is that Stewart is doing what he has to do
to help his team win. After more losing than winning from ’98 to late last season,
Stewart’s understated play has helped him lead the Steelers to 14 victories in his
last 17 starts. While he may have thrown only six TD passes in the first 12 games this
season, he has been unaffected by those personal numbers.
Rather than look for Slash to return, he’s looking for the Steelers to return.
Return to the top of the AFC with him as their leader.
Stewart has accepted the controlled approach of new offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey
and QB coach Tom Clements, the first coach at that position in Pittsburgh since 1973, and
responded by completing 60.5 percent of his passes while throwing only five interceptions.
But while Slash may have faded into history in Pittsburgh, Stewart has emerged from the
ashes of the years playing for departed coordinators Ray Sherman and Kevin Gilbride and
shown that he is still the only kind of quarterback that counts in the NFL. A winning one.
"When you’re not sure of some things, you’re going to be lacking some
confidence because you’re not really sure what’s going on," Stewart said of
his struggles. "You feel like you know, but you really don’t know. Then when you
consistently don’t play at a certain level week in and week out and you feel like
it’s all on you, sometimes it’s going to cause you to check yourself and wonder
what’s going on.
"At one time, things were just so inconsistent, it caused me to think inconsistent
and not react. Now that things up above are pretty consistent, I think it’s allowed
me to have the confidence — not just in myself, but in the things around me —
that allow me to just go out and perform again."
And perform Stewart has. Perhaps not in the way he did in ’97, but in a way that
has made his team one of the favorites to go deep into the playoffs this year — and
maybe all the way to a homecoming party at season’s end for their reborn quarterback.
"That would be a dream come true," Stewart said of the possibility of playing
the Super Bowl in his hometown of New Orleans. "I don’t really want to get
caught up into that because I can’t be focused on something more than what I need to
be focused on, but in the back of my mind, I know it’s in the crib. That would be a
beautiful thing. But right now, I have to take care of what I need to take care of
first."
Which is running the Steelers’ offense. Not being the offense, just running it.
For as long as he can — which looks like a long, long time again.
Ron Borges is a columnist for the Boston Globe. |
