Retirement befits Cowher

Sixteen months after finally winning a Super Bowl and five months after retiring from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Cowher is a happy man.

Known for his intensity on the sideline during his 15 years in Pittsburgh, Cowher now says he’s so content with his family in Raleigh, N.C., that he might not coach again.

“I’m very happy,” Cowher told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I don’t second-guess it at all. I guess it has reaffirmed more than anything, being down here. I still haven’t experienced a whole season or August when training camp’s going on. But I feel great.”

When he’s not spending time with his family or playing racquetball three times a week at 6:30 a.m., Cowher often is on a golf course. He said he’s not bored or missing football.

“I have really enjoyed spending time with Kaye and Lindsay. It’s been good, you know?” said Cowher, who will work for CBS this season. “I realized it was much needed after I got down here. I didn’t know what it would entail, didn’t know what you’re going to do. I can honestly say it’s gone much smoother than I anticipated.”

He did, however, leave the door slightly open for a return to the league.

“I’m staying very open-minded,” Cowher said. “I never want to say never because that can come back and haunt you. But I can foresee not coming back ever. I just won’t etch it in stone.”

That’s good, because Cowher figures to have his choice of jobs come January.

If the Redskins don’t rebound, coach Joe Gibbs could step aside at 67 with one year left on his contract. Speculation is that Browns coach Romeo Crennel and his New York Giants counterpart, Tom Coughlin, kept their jobs in part so their teams could join the Cowher hunt in 2008. And if Carolina doesn’t make the playoffs, coach John Fox could be in trouble with Cowher just down the highway.

“Bill’s still young,” Steelers owner Dan Rooney said. “I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he went back into coaching.”

Imagine Joey at QB — If Michael Vick becomes so enmeshed in the dogfighting scandal that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is forced to suspend him, Atlanta’s playoff chances would be severely damaged.

With Matt Schaub traded to Houston, the Falcons’ other quarterbacks are Joey Harrington, a washout in Detroit and Miami (68.1 passer rating in five seasons); Chris Redman, who hasn’t been on an active roster since 2003; and the untested D.J. Shockley. No wonder new Falcons coach Bobby Petrino has been publicly supportive of Vick.

“I need to believe in Michael,” Petrino told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Since I’ve been here, a couple of situations have come up. We’ve sat down and talked about them, and certainly his track record with me has been that he’s told me the truth. So I’m going to believe in what Michael tells me.”

Follow the last two, young man — Ravens rookie quarterback Troy Smith hopes his NFL career will be more like that of the last two Heisman Trophy-winning passers, Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer (2002) and Arizona’s Matt Leinart (2004), and not their predecessors.

The eight immediately previous Heisman-winning quarterbacks were Andre Ware (1989), Ty Detmer (1990), Gino Torretta (1992), Charlie Ward (1993), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Chris Weinke (2000), Eric Crouch (2001) and Jason White (2003).