**MICHAEL COOPER FROM CHAGRIN FALLS, OH: What Kaleb Johnson did on that kickoff in the game against the Seahawks was just plain negligence. He is not a high school kid; he is a paid professional. There is no excuse for not knowing a basic rule of your job. That said, how does a coaching staff deal with a mistake like this?**
ANSWER: In the above answer, I explained the situation in 1990 when rookie running back Barry Foster committed a similar error in a game against the defending Super Bowl Champion 49ers. I was in the Candlestick Park press box that day, and while I'm not ready to say I believed the Steelers were on the path to pulling off a huge upset, but Foster's brain cramp handed the 49ers 7 points and effectively killed any chance of one.
Above all, Coach Chuck Noll was a teacher, and he used that as a teaching tool rather than lose his temper and rip the player, and then either cut him or bury him on the bench. Noll proved that the following week, because in a win over the Rams at Three Rivers Stadium, Foster got a decent amount of playing time and finished with 6 carries for 53 yards (9.8 average). He went on to finish his rookie year with 36 carries for 203 yards (5.6 average) and 1 touchdown in a season where he was behind three veterans on the depth chart.
Then in 1992, in Bill Cowher's inaugural season as coach, Foster won the job as the primary running back, and he finished the season with an NFL-leading 390 carries for a franchise record 1,690 yards (4.3 average) and 11 touchdowns. Foster was voted first-team All-Pro in 1992 and also finished second in the MVP voting to San Francisco's Steve Young. Foster's 1,690 rushing yards remains the single-season Steelers record.
**BRUCE THOMAS FROM FURNACE RUN, PA: On the botched kickoff return, the Seahawks player didn't maintain any kind of possession; the ball obviously bounced back into the end zone as he rolled out of bounds. Was that ruled correctly, or should the Steelers have contested the TD call?**
ANSWER: I agree with you in that watching it from the press box and then on replay provided by the FOX broadcast, it also seemed to me that Seattle RB George Holani didn't clearly control the ball in the field of play before momentum took him out of the end zone. But the play was ruled a touchdown on the field. And then because all touchdowns are automatically reviewed, the decision was made with league office approval that the play was a touchdown. At that point, the ruling is final.
**BOB SCOTT FROM VENETIA, PA: As I write this, I'm watching the Seattle game and noticed that Aaron Rogers does not appear to wear a wrist band with a list of offensive plays on it. Is that indicative of how well and quickly Rogers digested the Steelers playbook? Or am I reading too much into this, and it's something as simple as he just doesn't like wearing them and never has?**
ANSWER: The wrist band you are describing contains the call-sheet for a particular game where the plays are numbered and listed by category relating to situations, such as "first down runs," or "short-yardage," or "goal-line." The quarterback wears the wrist band, and the play-caller uses his own call-sheet with the same plays categorized and numbered the same way. This way, rather than have to recite all of the play's verbiage, the play-caller communicates it simply by calling out the category and the number into the in-helmet communicator. Then the quarterback can read the verbiage off the wrist band to the players in the huddle without having to understand/remember all the verbiage describing the play.
I don't know if Aaron Rodgers ever wore that kind of wrist band before coming to the Steelers, but he never has worn it since joining the Steelers for minicamp in June. Rodgers is that smart, that experienced, and that accomplished not to need any kind of cheat-sheet.
**JOSE JUVES FROM FORT MYERS, FL: Do team captains have any official standing in the NFL, or is the designation strictly a recognition by his teammates? Must there be one team captain on the field for every snap?**
ANSWER: Team captains have no official standing within the league, and there is no rule requiring that a team have one of its captains on the field at all times. It is largely an honor/designation bestowed by players to one of their own.
**JONATHAN EARLEY FROM NEW BETHLEHEM, PA: Which Steelers player would you bring from the past to help improve the Steelers of the present?**
ANSWER: For me, the answer to this question always has and always will be the same. Joe Greene. Dominant at his position. Charismatic leader. No nonsense. Singularly focused. A demeanor that's intolerant of anything that gets in the way of winning. A transformational player and leader and man, all wrapped into one.
**RON HAMORSKY FROM YORBA LINDA, CA: Buffalo beat Baltimore in the opener, 41-40, with a last-second field goal. On third down with 33 seconds left in the game and no timeouts, Buffalo decided to run one more play. The ball was snapped to QB Josh Allen, who went to the left hash, downed the ball, the field goal unit ran on, the ball was snapped with 3 seconds left and Matt Prater kicked the field goal. In your opinion, was that great clock management or were they fortunate to get the kick off in time?**
ANSWER: I happened to be watching the NBC broadcast of that game during the sequence you describe, and I would say it's both. Great clock management, and lucky to get the ball snapped before time expired and then execute the snap-hold-kick component perfectly. And if the Bills hadn't made the field goal, then it would've been idiotic clock management. Just the nature of the beast.
**PÁL PÉTER BÁRDOS FROM SOLYMÁR, HUNGARY: Our pass rush production against the Jets was below what was expected initially. Watching the game, I spotted several instances where the offensive linemen of the Jets grabbed the jerseys and the protective gear of the Steelers pass rushers. I thought that would qualify as holding, but no flags were thrown, not even for cases that seemed pretty obvious to me. Am I missing some changes in the rules?**
ANSWER: You are not missing anything. What I always tell people who ask about rules is that it's not how the rules are written but how the rules are interpreted on the field in real time. So much of holding, or pass interference, and other such penalties is subject to judgment. How much contact is allowed before it becomes pass interference? How much grabbing and grappling is allowed before it becomes holding or illegal use of the hands? I don't want to contaminate you with my cynicism, but one of the things I maintain about NFL officiating is that it's inconsistent and arbitrary. Certain quarterbacks get better protection in the pocket than others when it comes to roughing calls, or maybe it's that some referees are more conscious of protecting the quarterback than others. It's not how the rule reads. It's what the officials do or don't call.