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Tuesday, January 14, 2003

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Kordell Stewart never said he has played his final game with the Steelers. He never said he will part ways with the team that drafted him in 1995 and quickly turned him into one of the most diverse and marketable players in the National Football League. He never said Slash is trash with the Steelers.

	Kordell Stewart Won't settle for No. 2. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

He didn't have to.

After meeting yesterday with Coach Bill Cowher, Stewart went around to most of the people in the Steelers' front office, including president Dan Rooney, to say goodbye. Then he effectively said the same thing when he met with members of the media.

"To be in this moment, speaking about this, I never thought it would occur or even come close to this," Stewart said. "But it is coming toward that."

Stewart said he made it clear to all parties he wants to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. If it's not with the Steelers, who appear to be committed to Tommy Maddox, then he wants it to be with another NFL team.

"I want to be a starter," Stewart said. "That's the key. Obviously, if that's not here, there's your answer.

"It's been a great ride, a great run. I had a great time here. I had some ups and downs, like any other quarterback in the league has had. I wish I could have had the opportunity to bring [Super Bowl victory] No. 5 back here to the city, but if I don't get that opportunity to come back, it's been fun, it's been great. It's been an experience I'll never, ever forget.

"Everybody knows, Mr. Rooney, everybody knows [I want to be a starter]. I am a starter in this league and I do want to be a starter and have the capabilities for a few more years to do that. With all of that, it's just a matter of time of figuring out what's the best thing to do. Hopefully, we can all go in that direction where everybody can be happy."

Stewart has one more year remaining on his contract with the Steelers and his salary-cap number will rise to $7.9 million in 2003. For that reason, it is unlikely he will be kept on the team's 53-man roster next season if he is not the starting quarterback. The Steelers are expected to seek a trade for Stewart or release him.

Stewart said he doesn't even want a chance to compete for the starting job next season.

"Let's be realistic," Stewart said. "That will be shooting Tommy in his foot and that wouldn't be fair to him.

"To accept having to compete against Tommy, when I've already been the starter, I'll be sitting around here looking crazy, talking crazy. I'm not going to lie to you about that. That's not going to happen."

Stewart helped lead the Steelers to three AFC championship games in eight seasons, two as the starting quarterback. The most recent was 2001, when he was named the team's most valuable player and was selected to the Pro Bowl after leading the Steelers to a 13-3 regular-season record.

But, after the Steelers started 0-2 this season, he was replaced by Maddox in the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Browns in Week 3. When Maddox led the team to a comeback overtime victory, Stewart was benched and never regained his job.

He started two more games during the regular season when Maddox got a cerebral and spinal-cord concussion Nov. 17 in Tennessee. Stewart led the Steelers to victories in those two games. But, when Maddox returned Dec. 6 against Houston, Stewart never played in another game.

"What I have to do as an entrepreneur and businessman in this game is market myself the best way possible and allow myself to succeed and not get caught up in decisions that are made by coaches or anybody else, and that's in life as well," Stewart said.

"As far as me being given a fair shake, I've gone out there and performed well with the time that I had. You wish the outcome could be much better, but it's not. Sometimes the business takes over, and that's where we are."

After replacing Kent Graham in the middle of the 2000 season, Stewart was 22-9 in the regular season, 23-10 including playoffs, as the starting quarterback. But Cowher and the coaching staff are committed to Maddox because his passing style is more conducive to Mike Mularkey's offense.

Stewart said he thinks his agent, Leigh Steinberg, will be able to work out some kind of deal -- either a trade or release -- with the Steelers.

"If you were loyal to something, you would hope that would happen," Stewart said. "In my heart, that's the way I feel it's going to be. That's just a gut feeling I have. It's going to work out. I'm going to keep playing the game, and I'm going to be a starter somewhere, if not here.

"Something is going to get resolved. I don't know what's going to happen, but something is going to get resolved. The good thing about it all is we will all be happy come next season. That's what it's all about."

Despite being benched just three games into the season, Stewart never complained publicly about the way he was handled by Cowher.

He had a good relationship with Maddox, the man who replaced him, and often spoke how Maddox deserved to be the starter. What's more, he never brooded in the locker room.

It was in direct contrast to the 1998 game in Tampa Bay when Stewart, after being benched in the second half against the Buccaneers, angrily wagged his finger at Cowher on the sideline and began to cry.

"Sometimes your feelings can get you in trouble," Stewart said. "It can cause you to say some things that won't best benefit yourself, first and foremost, let alone your team and the people around you.

"I just had to sit back and pray about it and calm myself down and let everything take place and unfold the way they wanted it to unfold. The unfortunate thing is, we didn't get back to that last game, which was the AFC championship. That's the most hurting thing of all -- sitting on the bench, watching, and not getting back to at least that game or the championship.

"I hurt just like the rest of my teammates hurt. People may have thought I didn't care, but I did. But I just had to do what was the right thing for me to do, which was sit back and not say anything and let it go when my number was called and perform. And I did."

Stewart kept up the diplomacy until the end.

"The funny thing about the two times we went to the AFC championship, those were the two years where I played the entire season," Stewart said. "Those are the only two years out of the six years I started that I played the entire season. We went to the AFC championships in those two years.

"Now the other years, there were coaching changes and all this other stuff going on. I know what I did. You guys know what took place. The fans know what took place. Sometimes that really doesn't matter. Sometimes people don't care about that. They want what they want, which is a championship, and we came up short again this year, with the change we made and everything."