Posts tagged KordellStewart at FanHouse

New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has a new book out in which he addresses the rumors that his former teammate with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kordell Stewart, is gay.

Burress says that while he doesn't personally know or care if Stewart is gay, he does think that the rumors affected Stewart. From Pro Football Talk:

"People were talking about [Kordell] being gay," Burress writes in Chapter 5. "The players heard that, but we never talked about it. I don't know if Kordell is gay or not. It was none of our business. If ever we would have talked about it, it would have made everybody uncomfortable. If some player was gay, I don't think he could come out while he was still playing. It would be real hard. It would mess a team up mentally and it wouldn't be good for that person."

If Burress is right that a player couldn't come out while he was active in the NFL, that's a sad commentary on the NFL. I'd like to think that we're enlightened enough as a society that in most workplaces, coming out to a co-worker wouldn't be a big deal. Burress seems to think NFL locker rooms are among our society's least-enlightened workplaces, and I fear he's right.

As we wade through the third version of PatriotGate, now that Arlen Specter has learned that the Patriots taped four Steelers games, it's worth remembering that Hines Ward had spoken out about the Patriots' cheating back in September.

At the time Ward said:

"Oh, they knew ... They were calling our stuff out. They knew, especially that first championship game here at Heinz Field. They knew a lot of our calls. There's no question some of their players were calling out some of our stuff."

Kordell Stewart should be joining Willie Gary in that lawsuit. His career effectively was destroyed by that three INT AFC Championship game. A Pro Bowler in 2001, Stewart lost his starting job early the next season to Tommy Maddox. He got one more chance at a starting job in Chicago, but was out of the league by the 2005 season--if Stewart had led the Steelers to the 2001 Super Bowl, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have had a longer career.

The Steelers' front office may say it's no big deal, but some the players know better. If the Patriots were cheating, they weren't doing it if they didn't think it was going to help in some way. And why did Roger Goodell not mention these other games when he was announcing the Patriots' punishment back in September?

I'm guessing if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had it to do over, he wouldn't have destroyed all the evidence related to Patriotgate. Now, five months later, the story is back in the news, the Patriots' three Super Bowl championships are under scrutiny, and the league's credibility is in question.

All thanks to Senator Arlen Specter, who spent Wednesday quizzing Goodell about the scandal and the league's role in covering it up promptly putting the incident in the rearview. Amazingly, Specter chose not to pimp Comcast during the meet-and-greet, but instead actually managed to unearth some before-now-unknown nuggets.

And there's more, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Bouchette:

"I think Steelers fans have a lot to be concerned about this and I'm one of them,'' Mr. Specter told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an interview yesterday, adding that "maybe Steelers ownership should think about it a little."

Two days ago, I wrote that following his meeting with Goodell, Specter indicated that the Patriots had videotaped two Steelers games during the 2004 season. Well, now it's four games, including the 2001 AFC Championship and the 2002 season opener. Finally, we can all stop blaming Kordell Stewart and his two costly end-of-game interceptions for that 2001 loss. Okay, maybe not.

The headline in Friday's Chicago Tribune: "Bears Could Get New Blood at QB in '08."

Now there's an idea that makes you think: Hey, this would've been great, say, LAST YEAR. But as everyone remotely affiliated with professional sports is seemingly fond of saying these days: it is what it is. Rex Grossman is in the last year of his rookie deal, and if things continue on this southward trajectory (and why wouldn't they?), it's fair to think that the Bears won't re-sign him, and even if they offered, Grossman might decline.

Anyway, Dan Pompei lists the top candidates for Bears' job in 2008:

* Derek Anderson
* Brian Brohm
* Daunte Culpepper
* Josh McCown
* Donovan McNabb
* Chad Pennington
* Jake Plummer
* Tony Romo
* Chris Simms
* Billy Volek

Jeebus, I'd love to see the guys who didn't make the cut. A couple of thoughts: you know the current quarterback situation is dire when Anderson (will lose Browns job before the season's out) McCown (about to lose Raiders job), Plummer (retired, really into handball), Simms (recovering from spleen surgery) and Volek (red-headed backup) all make the list.

Second, Brohm, McNabb and Romo are such long shots, it makes you wonder what, exactly, Chicago's front office has planned. Or, more importantly, what they've been doing the past few drafts. Good news, though: I hear Kordell Stewart and Erik Kramer are available.