ghz in pittsburgh
01-08-2007, 05:56 AM
I did not listen to the entire press conference, but from I heard, especially the part where he had a list of people to thank for his time with the Steelers, he did not mention Donahoe.
You'd think he might want to, considering Donahoe was widely considered instrumental in bringing him to the Steelers. Instead Cowher gave that honor to Dan Rooney and gave him a hug, the only hug he gave out that day.
So maybe Donahoe got too much credit for the hiring of Cowher back in 1992 and it was really the Rooney's who chose Cowher then, which could mean that Donahoe was never really good at picking coaches after all.
Cowher did mention Colbert, the current GM, prominantly as the 2nd most important person he wanted to thank for. "You gave me the second wind," he said. No doubt here, he referred to the fallout with Donahoe in which case he actually submitted a resignation letter (as did Donahoe) but the Rooney chose to stay with Cowher and got Colbert afterwards. Together they made steady improvement of the team all the way to a superbowl champion.
The local media has already began speculating some kind of a rift between Cowher and Art Rooney, the current executive president of the Steelers because of the cold gesture of Cowher towards him in that conference, in contrast to the warm fuzzy language and body posture Cowher displayed towards Dan Rooney.
Any way, as some already stated on this board, Cowher resigned, but not retired. If his desire to stay close to home is true, then John Fox can pretty much enlist his house on the market because anything short of winning out next year - and I don't think he can with Jack Delhomme - people will be calling for Cowher down there: it's not about Fox being bad, it's just that Cowher, a shoo-in future HOF coach in his prime, is better than him.
You'd think he might want to, considering Donahoe was widely considered instrumental in bringing him to the Steelers. Instead Cowher gave that honor to Dan Rooney and gave him a hug, the only hug he gave out that day.
So maybe Donahoe got too much credit for the hiring of Cowher back in 1992 and it was really the Rooney's who chose Cowher then, which could mean that Donahoe was never really good at picking coaches after all.
Cowher did mention Colbert, the current GM, prominantly as the 2nd most important person he wanted to thank for. "You gave me the second wind," he said. No doubt here, he referred to the fallout with Donahoe in which case he actually submitted a resignation letter (as did Donahoe) but the Rooney chose to stay with Cowher and got Colbert afterwards. Together they made steady improvement of the team all the way to a superbowl champion.
The local media has already began speculating some kind of a rift between Cowher and Art Rooney, the current executive president of the Steelers because of the cold gesture of Cowher towards him in that conference, in contrast to the warm fuzzy language and body posture Cowher displayed towards Dan Rooney.
Any way, as some already stated on this board, Cowher resigned, but not retired. If his desire to stay close to home is true, then John Fox can pretty much enlist his house on the market because anything short of winning out next year - and I don't think he can with Jack Delhomme - people will be calling for Cowher down there: it's not about Fox being bad, it's just that Cowher, a shoo-in future HOF coach in his prime, is better than him.