Steelers' Stewart star of season

MIZELL E-mail: Click here Archive

It'd be easy to vote for Brett Favre or Kurt Warner, former MVPs still unsurpassed in the NFL, but my dimpled chad for this year's trophy will be cast for Kordell Stewart.

Benched last season, tormented by steely Pittsburgh boos and America's doubts, Stewart handled his traumas with class, worked diligently, improved dramatically and today No. 10 is a quarterback who unquestionably has the touch to win the gold and black's first Super Bowl since Terry Bradshaw.

Kordell had been nauseatingly erratic. Bill Cowher often seemed close to exhausting his final vial of patience, erupting as only the Steelers coach can, using that bulldozer chin to drive the perplexing talent from Colorado into one of the town's three rivers.

I'm among the guilty. I'd pretty much given up on seeing a quarterback with the controlled efficiency of the 2001-model Stewart. His hand is firm and dependable, gripping the throttle on a Pittsburgh team that is the AFC's most impressive heading into January's playoff exams.

Through his misery, Kordell wasn't a whiner. Never became a jerk. His rewards came. Something beautiful happened since 2000. Oh, how it helps to have Jerome Bettis and a solid Pittsburgh offensive line, but No. 10 is a Hummer who pairs effectively and powerfully with the Bus, meriting a mention in the same quarterbacking sentence with Favre and Warner.

AUDIBLES: Hiring him was a numbskull Notre Dame idea even before George O'Leary stewed in his own biographical shenanigans. Why does a Rolls-Royce football program settle for a used pickup? O'Liar's mediocrity was exposed at Georgia Tech soon after losing offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen, the legitimate Yellow Jackets wizard who immediately became national coach of the year at Maryland. ... Seldom characterized as a slow learner, Ted Turner needed an excruciatingly long time to decide what a lot of us immediately knew, that the world saw his Goodwill Games as superfluous, unneeded and low in impact. ... George Allen, known for NFL coaching overdramatizations, would say, "With every loss, you die a little. Not all organs go at once; it's one at the time. A big defeat can maybe cost a liver. But with every win, you are reborn." ... If that's so, how can Lou Saban have body enough to still be working as a chief whistle in his 81st year, leading little Chowan College, a Division III school in Murfreesboro, N.C., the former Buffalo Bills coach's 27th different job in 51 years? ... Bo Jackson, an NFL Pro Bowl player and MVP in baseball's All-Star Game, as well as a No. 1 draft pick from Auburn the Bucs weren't able to sign, says he never did want to be the next Jim Brown or Willie Mays, but instead always desired to fly far higher as the next Chuck Yeager.

MULLIGAN?: Maybe the worst mistake made by PGA Tour pooh-bahs, a terribly greedy shank, was passing on an ESPN/Golf Channel combo for senior tour telecasts, opting a year ago for dollar-greener pastures at CNBC, a solid financial network but a sports outpost.

After a season burdened with tape-delayed shows, rotten ratings, shrinking visibility and unhappiness among golf's 50-and-up colony, the tour is locked into CNBC for '02 but will attempt a creative flurry to ease the nose dive.

Among changes are more live tournaments, a corporate quest for unprecedented fan friendliness by the golfers and use of NBC's solid lineup of tour announcers, including Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing and Gary Koch.

BLITZES: When he was a USC Trojans pitcher, Mark McGwire, a budding home run Hercules, finished a season with a 2.78 ERA, best on a team that included a tall, bony, gifted left-hander named Randy Johnson ... It's been 58 years and 9,464 games since the NFL had a 0-0 result. Augie Leo, who became a New Jersey sports writer, could've stopped the scoreless thud but missed three field goals for the Lions against the Giants on Nov. 7, 1943. ... Tiger Woods, like too many of us, erupts in on-course disappointment and spouts a nasty word, but let's be reminded that Raymond Floyd once proclaimed, "They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken." ... Speaking of NBC, where Bob Costas excels, it's now without baseball, a TV system that stinks when the most accomplished broadcaster of the sport has nary an inning to call. ... Beating the Dolphins a week ago must have really been something; coaching sourpuss Bill Belichick not only had a rare smile but also hugged his Patriots and sprinted joyously onto the field after the final regular-season show at Foxboro's crummy old stadium. ... If named King of TV, my promise still stands to fine any announcer a week's pay for spouting the most misused word in the English language -- "unbelievable" -- and there'll also be a two-tournament suspension for any golf commentator who says, when a pro addresses a putt on the 18th green, "Making this one will make his/her dinner taste a lot better tonight."

Whatever happened to Chuck Noll?

-- To reach Hubert Mizell, e-mail mmizell02@earthlink.net or mail to P.O. Box 726, Nellysford, VA 22958.

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