Cowher, Steelers Sign On The Line
The Pittsburgh Steelers proved Tuesday they can sign a high-priced potential free agent: Bill Cowher.
Cowher, the only current NFL coach to go to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons, signed a three-contract extension Tuesday that ties him to the Steelers through the 2002 season.
|
The contract, the first ever negotiated by a Steelers coach through an agent, is worth about $2 million a year and makes Cowher one of the NFL's four highest-paid coaches.
Cowher was paid slightly more than $1 million, including bonuses, last season as the Steelers reached the AFC championship game before losing to Denver 24-21.
The New York Jets' Bill Parcells makes $2.4 million a year, but also is general manager. Miami's Jimmy Johnson, also a coach and general manager, reportedly makes slightly less than Parcells. The only other $2 million-a-year coach who doesn't double as a general manager is Green Bay's Mike Holmgren.
Cowher's signing came less than a week before the Steelers open their seventh training camp under him and a few days after they learned they will likely get a new stadium in 2001. It also ends speculation he might leave his hometown to coach in Cleveland, which returns to the NFL next season.
"I'm just happy we've got this contract thing behind us," said Cowher, whose .667 regular season winning percentage ties him with Holmgren as the best among active coaches. "No one feels more uncomfortable talking about salary than myself, so I'm glad it's over with.
"I'm happy the questions that were out there have been answered."
Soon after Cowher hired Robert Fraley, a prominent agent who also represents several other NFL coaches, it was reported he might try to get out of his Steelers' contract to coach in Cleveland.
Cowher himself called the Browns job "an exciting opportunity."
But Cowher said Tuesday he never wanted to leave Pittsburgh, and the only reason he wanted an agent was that he felt so uncomfortable talking contract with Steelers president Dan Rooney and son Art Rooney II.
"Both Bill and Robert Fraley made their intentions clear from the start that Bill waned to stay in Pittsburgh and wasn't trying to get out of his contract," said Art Rooney II, who is increasingly taking on more of the day-to-day responsibilities for running the Steelers.
Still, Cowher was the first non-playing employee in the Steelers' 65-year history to retain an agent, and Dan Rooney admitted the idea didn't thrill him.
"My first reaction wasn't very positive," Rooney said. "But it worked out. He (Fraley) and Art worked it out, and very amicably. I am one who realizes that time does march on, and the way we did things in 1933 isn't always the way we do them in 1998."
The news was initially unsettling to Dan Rooney in part because, only a few months before, director of football operations Tom Donahoe negotiated a lengthy contract extension and pay raise without using an agent.
Cowher denied he wanted to get the contract out of the way so that it wouldn't be a distraction when training camp begins Monday.
"It wasn't a distraction to me, and I don't think it was a distraction to the players," Cowher said. "They didn't say anything to me about it."
The Steelers have recently lost a number of high-priced free agents -- Neil O'Donnell, Yancey Thigpen, Chad Brown, John Jackson, Leon Searcy -- and also lost scouting director Tom Modrak to the Philadelphia Eagles. Yet they might have retained potentially the biggest free agent of them all.
Cowher is 69-38 in six seasons and has reached the AFC championship game three times in four years, yet, at 41, remains the NFL's second-youngest coach. His 69 victories rank only behind predecessor Chuck Noll in Steelers history.
"It's like I said recently at a banquet, I plan on being here a long time," Cowher said.
© 1998 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved