Cowher will put the lid on 2005
Players will get the word to look ahead, not back.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Celebration's over.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are still selling truckloads of Super Bowl gear.
Their players are vacationing all over the globe -- Hines Ward is back from Korea, and Ben Roethlisberger is headed to Switzerland.
And such is the team's popularity that three former players were recruited to campaign for three different companies competing for a downtown slot machines parlor license.
But to coach Bill Cowher, that Super Bowl victory in Detroit nearly three months ago is fast becoming long-ago history.
The Steelers will be recognized on June 2 at the White House, but Cowher plans to officially put the Super Bowl in his team's past by then.
When his players arrive for their three-day minicamp May 12, he plans to tell them there will be no further talk about what they accomplished last season.
One more party
He doesn't want to ruin anybody's Super Bowl party -- especially not the one planned in Washington, D.C. -- but, he said this week, it's time to move on.
To Cowher, it's easy to forget now how close the Steelers came to not making the playoffs after needing to win their final four regular-season games last season to finish 11-5.
The difference was that, unlike the season before when the Steelers went 15-1 but lost big at home to the Patriots in the AFC championship game, they peaked when it counted.
"We weren't the best team in the National Football League, in my opinion," Cowher said. "We played the best at the right time.
Cowher points to the Steelers' 6-10 season in 2003, which came after they went 13-3 and reached the AFC title game in 2001 and had a 10-5-1 record and reached the second round of the playoffs in 2002.
"The foundation is set in the offseason, at training camp," Cowher said. "We're starting 0-0 with a big bull's-eye on our chest. We have a tough schedule and it's not going to be that easy. If we understand that, then we'll be fine. If we think it will get done by showing up, then we're badly mistaking ourselves."
While a number of players already are working out at the team's practice complex, most veteran players aren't required to report until the minicamp.
Attendance expected
After that, Cowher wants the veterans staying around for 14 days of coaching sessions that run through June 8.
"We condense it to a very short period of time so everybody's here," Cowher said. "Hopefully, we'll get some productive work done."
Once the coaching sessions end, the players will have seven weeks off until training camp starts July 28 or July 29 in Latrobe, Pa.
Four veteran players may not be ready for minicamp: linebacker Andre Frazier, who broke an ankle in the AFC championship game; wide receiver Quincy Morgan, who injured an ankle in the AFC playoffs against Cincinnati; right tackle Max Starks (postseason arthroscopic knee surgery); and defensive back Chidi Iwuoma (shoulder).
And that right thumb that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger injured in late November against the Colts, causing him to wear a glove and a protective splint the rest of the season?
"He's fine," Cowher said. "He's probable."
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