STEELERS Maddox has return to Denver

He began his professional career as a backup to John Elway.
DENVER (AP) -- Tommy Maddox began his career as the prodigy who would replace John Elway. Since then, he's been bounced from the league, sold insurance, played in the Arena League and XFL, been temporarily paralyzed on the field and crafted one of the more improbable comeback stories in league history.
Now he's headed back to where it all started.
Touchdown Tommy isn't likely to get a real warm welcome in his first game back in Denver, but there will be at least one fan on the opposing sideline.
"It's such a tough road that he's gone through," Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer said. "That's why you can't really help but feel for the guy and root for him. We want to go out there and beat him and hope he doesn't look good against us, but you root for the guy just because of what he's been through."
Maddox would love to make a triumphant return to the Mile High City, where he spent his first two seasons as Elway's backup. Then again, he'll take a win anywhere he can get it the way things are going this season.
Success not matched
Maddox was the feel-good story of the NFL last season, winning the league's Comeback Player of the Year award and leading Pittsburgh to the playoffs after nearly everyone in the league had given up on him.
It hasn't carried over this season.
Maddox leads the league with 1,347 yards passing and has five touchdowns, but he's also thrown eight interceptions in five games -- three that were returned for touchdowns.
Last week against the Browns, he threw for just 136 yards and had two interceptions in Pittsburgh's second straight lopsided loss at home. That led to calls for Maddox's job and teammate Hines Ward to stick up for him in a team meeting earlier this week.
"When you've been through as much as I've been through, you realize there's going to be tough days," Maddox said. "I don't think through all that I've done here, two games is going to indicate that I can't play."
The Steelers (2-3) are struggling, but the Broncos (4-1) aren't convinced they are a bad team. All they have to do is point to Pittsburgh's defense.
The Steelers are giving up 243 yards a game, best in the league, and hadn't given up a touchdown in the first quarter until Cleveland did it last week. Pittsburgh also is one of the few teams to still use a 3-4 defense, which makes for a difficult week of preparation.
"We know this is a very dangerous football team," Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe said. "This is the best defense that we'll see from top to bottom. They're very fast and you don't see very many 3-4 teams. You don't see this type of defense very often and they can cause you some problems."
Not that the Broncos don't present problems for the Steelers, particularly Plummer.
Using designed rollouts to take advantage of his agility and making good decisions when things break, Plummer has hit 61 percent of his passes and has a rating of 92.5 -- 23 points higher than his career average.
He's also thrown eight touchdown passes and hasn't had an interception in a career-high four games, a span of 108 passes.
But Plummer is questionable with a sore right shoulder.