Kordell Stewart was, and remains, the most coddled player in NFL history. The Great Seven Year Kordell Stewart Experiment is what I dubbed the sickening era in Pittsburgh in which Bill Cowher gave Stewart countless opportunities to succeed, including never bringing in or drafting serious competition at the position. As it turns out, journeymen like Tommy Maddox and Kent Graham were better than Stewart anyway.
Stewart had a few good games, but mostly he was terrible. For all the mocking of Tim Tebow's accuracy, Stewart's was far worse all through his pro career. When he managed to throw a 10 yard pass accurately, announcers became excited and DWFs swooned.
While there was always a smallish minority of Kordell haters (i.e. the ones who weren't so blinded by afflete luv to see how bad he was), there was a far larger group of DWFs who sported Kordell replica jerseys and could only see his non-existent "upside" year after year because he was admittedly fast afoot and could run well. By contrast, the same DWFs have hated every single White quarterback who's played for the Steelers for the past 40 years, including Terry Bradshaw for much of his career. The above-mentioned Maddox was driven into early retirement after he came into a game cold and rusty in the fourth quarter and threw a couple picks, causing "fans" to pelt his house with eggs and scream at his young daughter. Mark Malone and Cliff Stoudt were hated with a vehemence that bordered on insanity. Neil O'Donnell will always be hated for throwing two interceptions against Dallas in the Super Bowl, even though only one was his fault. Even the great Ben Roethlisberger still has a significant amount of DWF critics that think he's the weak link on the team.
Stewart would have made a decent to very good NFL receiver or tailback, but he was the late '90s poster boy for the NFL's attempt to force a blackening of the QB position, and Cowher was the ideal coach for the failed experiment.
