PITTSBURGH — Kordell Stewart came back to Pittsburgh to retire as a member of the Steelers in 2012, seven years after his final NFL game with the Baltimore Ravens. I didn't understand it at the time. I really don't understand it now after reading Stewart's powerful first-person story in The Players' Tribune on Thursday.
If I had been Stewart, I would have said the hell with Pittsburgh.
For the first time, I believe, Stewart addressed the abuse he had to endure from many Steelers fans during his time with the team from 1995-2002. I'm not sure why he picked now to speak from his heart, but it made for fascinating reading. It also brought back sad memories of Pittsburgh sports fans at their absolute worst.
The city turned on many of its sports stars after they left. Antonio Brown comes to mind. So do Jaromir Jagr, Barry Bonds and Neil O'Donnell. But I can't remember another athlete dealing with so much hate during his playing time here. Maybe Dave Parker, who had batteries thrown at him at Three Rivers Stadium. Maybe Tommy Maddox, who had garbage thrown on his lawn after a bad game with the Steelers. But who else?
It was worse for Stewart than for Parker or Maddox for two reasons. One, he played quarterback — the most scrutinized, pressure-filled position in Pittsburgh — after breaking in as a multi-threat athlete as a receiver and runner. And two, he did it a time when much of Pittsburgh wasn't ready for a Black quarterback. Maddox is white.
Even now, decades later, I'm not sure at least part of the city still is ready for a Black head coach, but that's a different story.
This was Stewart in The Players' Tribune:
"I always felt like Pittsburgh wanted to love me. But they wanted to love me on their terms. They wanted me to be SLASH. They were more comfortable with SLASH."
I remember the racial slurs directed at Stewart. I remember seeing a beer poured over his head as he walked down a ramp at Three Rivers Stadium after a loss. I remember the vicious, unfounded rumors about his sexual preferences and how he was arrested in Schenley Park for committing lewd acts. Stewart talked about the rumors in the article.
"Come on, man. You know what it was. It's sad to say, but at that time, it was a death sentence ...
"How does a rumor travel around a whole city at the speed of light — wayyyy before social media? A rumor that was designed to ruin somebody's reputation in a blue-collar town? How does it spread so fast? Man, it's easy. All you need is enough people who are more than happy to believe it. ...
"It never happened. It was a lie. ... What killed me was that there were people in the city who really wanted to see me suffer."
According to Stewart, Dan Rooney investigated the origin of the rumors and found they came from an unnamed Pittsburgh police officer. Bill Cowher called Stewart into his office and asked him to address the team about the rumors. Stewart did, reluctantly, as he wrote in the article.
"Imagine this happening in 2021. Imagine a team suggesting to their quarterback that he should get up in front of everybody and defend himself against some wild lie from Twitter. No police record of it happening. No one standing behind it. Nothing."
Stewart wrote the rumors left him in a "dark place."
Stewart didn't deserve that treatment. No human being would deserve it. But Stewart endured and never once tried to fight back. I always respected him more as a man than as a quarterback — and I respected him a lot as a quarterback. He was a much bigger, better man than his anonymous, hate-filled critics.
Here's what stands out to me:
Stewart was a really good quarterback who never received the credit he deserved here. His greatest sin was not being as good as Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw. He was better than any quarterback the Steelers had in the two decades between Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger. He was Lamar Jackson long before the football world knew of Lamar Jackson. Stewart led the Steelers to a 46-29 record. He took the team to the AFC championship game in 1997 and again in 2001 when he was the Steelers' MVP, made the Pro Bowl and was the AFC Offensive Player of the Year.
Stewart didn't let Pittsburgh down.
Pittsburgh let Stewart down.
