Kevin Gorman: After Hall call, Bill Cowher can't wait for a lights-out Steelers conversation

We watched Bill Cowher’s famous jaw drop Saturday night upon learning of his selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and saw his chin quivering Sunday when his daughter’s social media post was read aloud.

Now that the live reactions to his induction in August in the 20-member Centennial Slate to the Hall of Fame in celebration of the NFL’s 100th anniversary can be followed by reflection, Cowher is looking forward to a conversation in Canton between the bronzed busts of one Super Bowl-winning coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers and another.

“John Madden made a statement that he’s convinced when the lights go out, those busts in that one room all talk to each other,” Cowher told the Tribune-Review on Wednesday. “If that’s the case, you know who I’d want to talk to? Chuck Noll.

“I don’t think I ever really had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him to reflect on him and what he did. I’d love to sit down in that Hall with him when the lights go out, just talk about football, talk about football in Pittsburgh, to talk about some of the great players that have gone through there and the traditions and standards, the milestones that have been reached by so many people.”

Oh, how we would love to be a fly on the wall for that one.

A Crafton native, Cowher embraced the challenge of succeeding Noll, the four-time Super Bowl-champion coach of the 1970s dynasty, only to become the personification of Pittsburgh football in his 15 seasons as Steelers coach. We saw the jaw jut out and the spray of spittle when Cowher unleashed his fury and the joy of triumphantly hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and handing it to late Steelers chairman Dan Rooney at Super Bowl XL.

“I’m proud of what we were able to do,” Cowher said. “I’m still a Pittsburgh Steeler. I’ll always be that. I’ll always pull for that football team.”

Cowher, like many coaches, often lamented the losses more than he allowed himself to enjoy the wins despite 161 career victories, 10 playoff appearances, eight division titles, six AFC championship games, two Super Bowls and the ring that finally gave the Steelers one for the thumb.

“The question is, did we overachieve or did we underachieve?” Cowher said. “I would argue, in some respects, that we probably got as far as we could with what we had. A play here or a play there, we probably could have gone further. But we didn’t, and I’m OK with that. I think about the excitement of playoffs that we brought to the city, the level of expectations and standards that we set, they’re still there today. I’m very proud of the efforts of all the players we had and all the coaches we had. It’s a special journey.”

So Cowher never allowed himself to dream about Hall of Fame enshrinement. He had come to peace with the possibility he would be passed over for this class, given Don Coryell, Tom Flores, Mike Holmgren, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves and Dick Vermeil also were among the eight finalists.

“I never really thought about it. It wasn’t really that important,” said Cowher, who will be joined by Jimmy Johnson as the two coaches in the Centennial Class. “That Super Bowl was the validation that I needed to walk away from the game. What this was is a reward, for what I had done on the job. If I didn’t get in, so be it.”

No wonder Cowher has been counting his blessings since Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker surprised him with the announcement on the set of “The NFL Today” on CBS on Saturday night.

“It was crazy. It was almost like when you win the Super Bowl. All these emotions run through your head. I didn’t even know what I said,” Cowher said. “I had a chance to sleep on it and wake up the next morning and say, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that really happened.’ ”

Cowher choked back tears when the Instagram message by Lindsay Kelly, the youngest of his three daughters, was read. She wrote of the sadness that her grandparents, Dorothy and Laird Cowher, and mother, Kaye, who died of skin cancer in July 2010, won’t be there to see and celebrate his induction.

“As soon as they read that, that’s the first three people that I said that I wish could be there that won’t be with me: Kaye, my wife, and my mom and dad,” said Cowher, who married Veronica Stigeler in 2014. “It really resonated. I broke down because it means so much to me. It’s probably the reason I stepped down from the job. My three daughters and the women in my life mean everything to me. … We’ll all be together in Canton.”

Cowher takes immense pride in the values he learned from his family that took him on a journey from Crafton to Canton, where his blue-collar work ethic led to the Hall call and a date with a gold jacket.

“I think it’s a reward more than a validation,” Cowher said. “It’s almost like an overtime walk-off field goal. I don’t know if this was a 48-yarder or if it was a 24-yarder. All I know is it went through the uprights and we won.”

Cowher gets to go out a winner and a Steeler for immortality, one who can’t wait for the lights go out.

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