Thursday, August 07, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Injured halfback Amos Zereoue will not play Saturday in the Steelers' first exhibition game, and for a brief moment last night there was concern Jerome Bettis might have a problem as well.

At the end of a team drill in Greensburg, Bettis carried the ball and went down in a heap, writhing on the ground. The first concern was his left knee, which has had four surgeries, most recently in February.

But it turned out Bettis was in pain because he got kicked in the head.

"As long as it's the upper part of his body, he's fine," Coach Bill Cowher said after the night practice, which attracted an estimated 10,000 fans.

Still, for precautionary reasons, Cowher kept Bettis out of the live goal-line drill that traditionally ends these twice annual summer-night events. Bettis is expected to resume practice today and play Saturday in Detroit.

Zereoue, though, will be held out of that game to make sure his sprained left ankle is fully healed. It turned stiff and swelled, and Cowher said Zereoue will wait until Monday to practice. Cowher also said he was leaning toward not playing center Jeff Hartings, who has not practiced this week because of a sore knee.

"It doesn't do me any good to be out," Zereoue said. "But at the same time I have to be careful with it."

Last night, the first and second offenses each scored in the goal-line drill. Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala ran behind left guard Alan Faneca for a 4-yard touchdown on fourth down to cap the series when the first teams were on the field. In the next series, quarterback Charlie Batch rolled right from the 2 and flipped a pass into the back of the end zone to tight end Jay Riemersma for the score.

Under the weather

Rainy weather has made for some unsteady footing on the practice fields at St. Vincent College.

"I'm not going to bash the fields," Cowher said. "This is the weather we've been dealt. We've had a lot of rain here. These guys have done as good a job as they can based on what they have to deal with."

The Steelers moved one practice to Latrobe Memorial Stadium, and had plans to practice on the artificial turf at Penn-Trafford High School if things got worse.

The Steelers practiced again yesterday morning on the new fields on top of a hill behind their dorm. Built next to a cornfield, it was dubbed a Field of Dreams by Cowher. The players say it's more like Hard Rock Cafe. Despite all the rain, the surface is hard and the players detest it.

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