During Bill Cowher’s fifteen seasons as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team won eight division titles and made ten playoff appearances. Cowher led The Steelers to the Super Bowl twice, winning one. He is the second coach in NFL history to reach the playoffs in each of his first six seasons as head coach, a feat previously accomplished by Paul Brown.
Cowher is now an analyst for the NFL on CBS. He returns to CBS on September 8th, for The NFL Today, a pregame show now in its 46th season. This will be the 54th year that CBS has covered the NFL. He will be joined this season by Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe and Dan Marino; with James Brown anchoring.
I had an exclusive with Cowher at NFL on CBS Media Day where I asked him to size up the AFC.
“I would say New England, Denver, Baltimore,” Cowher said.
“Pittsburgh if they can stay healthy, I like Houston with Arian Foster, but the sleeper team to me is Indianapolis. A lot of people thought that was a one-year run, but I’ll tell you what, I think that team is for real,” he said.
“They’ve got Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton, I think they’ll get a running game and Andrew Luck is the real deal,” Cowher continued about the Colts.
“I think you’ve got to watch out for Indianapolis, I think they can sneak up on some people. It sounds funny saying that, but no one is talking about them. I don’t think last year was a fluke. I think Andrew Luck ran a very conventional scheme. I think he’s a very good quarterback, and he’s got much greater mobility than people give him credit for, and he’s got some play-makers around him,” Cowher articulated.
Cowher had a part in the movie The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which was filmed at Heinz Field, the home of the Steelers, in downtown Pittsburgh. He played the head coach of the Gotham Rogues
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)