Pittsburgh Steelers Still Taking Us Vs. Them' Mentality

Demanding respect

Pittsburgh Steelers still taking `us vs. them' mentality

By Rob Amen

TRIBUNE-REVIEW NEWS SERVICE

There's paranoia, and then there are the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They're owners of the best record (14-3) in the AFC. Winners of their 15th AFC Central Division title. Nine-point favorites over the New England Patriots (12-5) in the AFC championship game at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Heinz Field.

And while they claim to need no extra motivation for their first conference title game in four years, they're drawing plenty of it from their good-old, standby cliche: They simply receive no respect.

No respect despite owning the best defense in the league. No respect despite having the third-ranked offense. No respect despite being considered by many a lock to reach the Super Bowl.

It's the us-against-the-world mentality. And the Steelers are hoping to ride it all the way to New Orleans.

"Until we finish this season with doing what we intended to when we started, we haven't done anything, and that's how we have to approach this, and that's how our guys will approach it," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "You won't gain respect with one game. You won't gain respect by a series of games.

"You gain the respect when it's all said and done."

It's the game outside of the game for these Steelers. It's the game -- the mind game -- the Steelers have dominated this season.

PSYCHOLOGY 101

Athletes have played mind games with themselves for years. Quantifying the benefits of convincing themselves the media and opposing teams are out to steal their publicity is another matter. "At high levels of performance you need both (ability and motivation)," said Dr. Stephen Russo, director of the sports psychology program at the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine. "I wish I could break it down."

Russo said he doesn't buy into the old Yogi Berra quote that, "Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical." But several Steelers said the mental aspect of football hovers higher than most outsiders might think.

"Ninety percent," defensive end Aaron Smith said. "Physically, at this level, everybody's got the talent. Physically, it's not the biggest thing. It's how you approach the game.

"How hard are you going to learn? How hard are you going to study? Stuff like that. How to find motivation, how to stay on top of your game, if your mind can stay good, you can play in this league. A lot of people come in the league with a lot of talent, but then they don't have the mind strength or the discipline to play in this league."

Cornerback Dewayne Washington, an eight-year veteran, said mental motivation is 70 or 80 percent of the game.

"Everybody," he said, "can run and jump and make tackles."

Russo said dismissing the factor of motivation, whether that stems from disrespect or dislike, would be a mistake by a coach.

"To play with purpose, to have goals for yourself, motivation is a key part of all of that," Russo said. "That's sometimes why I would imagine coaches don't like to hear the bulletin-board quotes. Why give another team more motivation?

"It's an important part of competition."

Cowher has long been considered a strong motivator, one of the best in the league, in fact.

When he became the Steelers' head coach, he could be found emotionally charging his players on the sideline. While he is still demonstrative, Cowher appears to have found alternative methods of motivation.

In particular, he mentally challenges his players.

"When you get involved with athletics I think the greatest motivation any athlete can experience is the challenge, the challenge you present them," Cowher said. "And the challenge usually takes you to another level, or the challenge in itself becomes such that you walk away from it. It tests you. It tests you individually; it tests you collectively. "Some of the greatest things is to do something nobody thinks you can do. That's probably the greatest satisfaction in sports, I think, is to do something that nobody thinks you can do."

Few thought the Steelers had a chance to be playing in the AFC championship game Sunday. They had finished out of the playoffs the last three seasons. They improved to 9- 7 last season, but entering this season, Jerome Bettis was considered too old, Kordell Stewart was thought of as inconsistent, and the wide receivers were considered underachievers.

The same, however, can be said for the Patriots. They finished 5-11 a year ago, then lost starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe after an 0-2 start.

Receiver Terry Glenn was suspended, and their old defensive leaders were relegated to backup duty.

Yet behind second-year quarterback Tom Brady, who was given little chance of turning around the Patriots' season let alone make the Pro Bowl, and running back Antowain Smith, who gained more than 1,000 yards, the Patriots are a game away from the Super Bowl.

They're even using the d-word -- destiny -- when describing the Patriots in Massachusetts.

The one team that could trump the Steelers in the lack-of-respect column is.

Like the Patriots with Brady and Smith, the Steelers have been improbable Super Bowl contenders because of Bettis and Stewart.

Bettis gained 1,072 yards this season -- the sixth time in six years he has done so as a Steeler, while Stewart finished a career year by being named to his first Pro Bowl. Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress reaped the benefits, becoming the first Steelers duo to surpass 1,000 yards receiving in a season.

Bobby Shaw, who caught 24 passes for 409 yards this season, said neither he nor the rest of the offense took offense to a lack of respect it received. But he admitted, "When you get people that are at this level, and you get somebody that's doubting you, that just makes you feel like you have something to prove."

Enter the Steelers defense.

GETTING DEFENSIVE

Lee Flowers went public with his and his defensive teammates' anger over a perceived disrespect from the league following the Steelers' 17-10 victory at Tampa Bay on Oct. 21. "We're taking every game personally," the Steelers starting strong safety said then. "Like somebody walked into your house and slapped your wife or something."

Seemingly every week since, Flowers has found an angle to play against his teammates. One week it was a lack of respect. Another it was the Steelers being underdogs.

"I remember watching a game during (our) bye week," inside linebacker Earl Holmes said. "Somebody was talking about maybe the Chicago Bears or maybe the Rams, I forget, but at the same time, no one actually gives this defense credit.

"We're not looking for any handshakes. We're not looking for pat the guys on the back. We just want our respect. Hey, we finished No. 1 in the NFL. ... Everyone seems to just overlook that, which doesn't bother us. We just feed off that and keep going."

What particularly rubs the Steelers wrong is what they believe is a greater respect around the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens' defense than theirs.

The Steelers dominated the Ravens three times this season, including last week in an AFC divisional playoff game at Heinz Field. The Ravens, meanwhile, struggled to stop the Steelers' running game and shut down Stewart.

"They got all the publicity," Smith said. "We've been No. 1 for 15 weeks, and they're still getting all the pub. Every time I turned on the TV, they were talking that Baltimore's defense is back and not even once about the Steelers.

"(They said) we didn't play anybody. And when we did play somebody, we got lucky. It's never we've actually beaten somebody.

"I don't think we'll get the respect until we win the Super Bowl."

Need further proof? Outside linebacker Jason Gildon said look no further than this: "We've been the No. 1 defense the whole year," he said, "but we've only got one guy voted to the Pro Bowl."

That one player is Gildon.

There is a real hatred for outsiders among the Steelers.

They said they don't actually think of such things during games. But it never hurts in their preparation.

"We keep winning games and keep winning," Smith said, "but no one wants to believe we're this good, I guess."

"People have been jumping on and off the bandwagon, we probably need new springs, because people are on, they're off, they're on," Cowher said. "But that's what sports is about. There's nothing wrong with that. We welcome everybody. Jump on, and hopefully we'll finish this thing up, and hopefully everybody will be on top of it."

Perhaps then the Steelers would say they finally feel respected.

Chaz Palla photos

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