Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist and local curmudgeon Bob Smizik rips former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher in today's paper. Apparently, Smizik thinks Cowher "lacks the main quality necessary to be part of a studio show." He's not a likable personality. That's not meant to be mean toward Cowher. It's a fact. He's not warm and fuzzy. He doesn't relate well to people. But ESPN has managed to make Michael Irvin, widely despised outside of Dallas as a player, a reasonably likable person, so perhaps CBS can do the same with Cowher, who doesn't enter with nearly the handicap of Irvin.That sound you hear is Smizik grinding his ax. Of course, his perspective is a bit different than mine -- he covered the team. There aren't many head coaches who had a warm, fuzzy relationship with the press -- or if they did, they weren't head coaches for very long.
Smizik goes on for several more paragraphs with similar complaints -- Cowher has no style, Cowher butchers the English language, Cowher kills puppies -- and in the process he comes off sounding like a bitter old man. Which I don't think is too far from the truth.




