PITTSBURGH - The Steelers released a statement by team President Art Rooney II yesterday announcing that contract extension talks between the club and Coach Bill Cowher would resume after the 2006 season, further fueling speculation that Cowher plans on leaving the Steelers when his contract expires. In an effort to calm a nervous public, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato held a press conference shortly thereafter to announce that he was placing Coach Cowher “under house arrest, effective immediately, to ensure the continuity necessary in Steelers management required to maintain civic order.” Onorato said that members of the County Delta Force team were “already on the ground at St. Vincent” – the site of Steelers training camp – and had placed Cowher under “protective custody.” Reportedly, Cowher is being housed in a suite at the Pittsburgh Hilton. “I want to assure the citizens of this region that he can check out any time he likes, but he can never leave,” Onorato said. He added that Cowher would remain under twenty-four hour guard for an undetermined amount of time, being escorted to and from Steelers practices, meetings and games by a heavily armed team of twenty to thirty members of the Allegheny County Special Forces. He said he would consider allowing Cowher the opportunity for conjugal visits in the Heinz Field parking lot on game day, “in the event of a Steelers victory.”
When reporters asked Onorato if he was concerned about possible violations of Cowher’s constitutional rights, he became irritated. “What about the rights of the people who depend on the Steelers to give their lives meaning? The rights of Steelers fans trump the Constitution every time. I believe Chief Justice Frenchy Fuqua said that.”
