Nov 24, 2002 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – Last Sunday Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox left the field in an ambulance, the victim of a frightening neck injury. His story turned out well. After a night at the hospital and extensive tests, it was determined that Maddox suffered no lasting damage.

In fact, he’ll be in uniform for today’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, although he’s not expected to play.

Kordell Stewart will start at quarterback and Charlie Batch will be his back-up.

Last week, when there was fear for Maddox’s future, everyone talked about how incidents like that “put everything in perspective.” Football, after all, is just a game. Other things are more important.

It will be interesting to see if that feeling lasts. Now that Maddox is in the clear medically, the emphasis is back on football.

People will probably boo the first time Stewart overthrows an open receiver or throws an interception.

That perspective hasn’t been lost but it’s not in then forefront like it was seven days ago.

Considering how scary the scene was last week, it will actually be a relief to obsess about football again.

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ESPN analyst Barry Melrose suggested Penguins defenseman Marc Bergevin’s rant about NHL officiating had been orchestrated by Mario Lemieux, who can’t be as openly critical of the NHL because of his position as owner.

Interesting conspiracy theory but Bergevin wasn’t acting. He was genuinely upset and he wasn’t the only one.

Melrose also suggested the Penguins were plotting to “work” the officials – make officiating an issue and get more favorable calls.

Also an interesting idea but it presumes too much thinking. Mostly the Penguins were angry about losing a game they expected to win and thus looking for reasons. An officiating crew that gave the New York Islanders five consecutive power-play opportunities was a handy target.

General Manager Craig Patrick called a team meeting a few days later and supposedly told the players they were out of the business of evaluating officials.

From now on, if the Penguins have a complaint they’ll go through channels and Patrick’s office will send a video tape. No more on-ice tirades, no more inflammatory statements to the media (Darn).

The delivery methods were different but the Penguins got the same basic message from both Patrick and the NHL: Shut up and play.

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Last Sunday’s near-tragedy with Maddox was destined to bring out the aggressiveness in the local TV stations.

KDKA-TV had a hit and a miss on the story. The station decided to keep John Steigerwald in Nashville, where Maddox was hospitalized in the trauma unit.

KDKA was able to get Steelers spokesman Dave Lockett’s statement outlining the basics of Maddox’s condition. Oddly, though, the station trumpeted Steigerwald’s continuing presence in Nashville, even though Lockett clearly said further updates would be issued by the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

Then things got silly when KDKA bragged that Kelli Olexia was the only local reporter to meet the Steelers’ plane when it arrived in Pittsburgh.

Turns out the other stations didn’t miss a thing. KDKA had murky, long-range footage of men leaving a plane, then had equally dubious tape of expensive vehicles leaving a parking area. You presume they were the Steelers but who could tell?

Player reaction to Maddox’s injury had already been covered in the post-game locker room.

There was no point in going to the airport, where there was also apparently no access to the team.

So Olexia’s faux “scoop” turned into interviews with fans at a sports bar, where KDKA was presumably the only local station at the Coors Light tap.

All the stations went overboard on the follow-ups, offering detailed explanations of the injuries Maddox sustained.

Not to be insensitive but the relevant questions for most viewers were: 1. Will he be OK? and 2. When might he play again?

They really didn’t need that model of the human spine some doctor was wrestling with on WPXI.

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WLS, a talk radio station in Chicago, recently circulated a memo instructing its producers to ban callers who “sound old.”

WLS isn’t checking IDs, it’s just hanging up on people it judges to be demographically undesirable before they get a chance to get on the air.

If that policy were in effect at KDKA radio, hosts would be doing monologues.

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Wouldn’t a Pitt-Penn State football game be nice right about now?

Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com.