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Thursday, January 23, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

SAN DIEGO -- A hot day in Latrobe, mid-1990s, Steelers vs. Redskins practice.

Things started off slowly and then secondary coach Tim Lewis took note of an angry young man in his backfield. Someone had done Rod Woodson wrong.

	Rod Woodson: Three Super Bowls with three teams and still going strong. Gramatica would like big victory

"Something happened that ticked him off," Lewis recalled the other day. "He went off and intercepted like four, five balls in a row."

Yet another example of why you should not tug on Superman's cape.

For all his wonderful athletic ability and career accomplishments, Woodson has been at his best when the chips were down. From his missile-like hit that turned an overtime playoff game around early-on to his extraordinary recovery from a knee injury to this -- a trip to the Super Bowl for the third time with his third team.

Five years after his career seemed on the wane, Rod Woodson is back on top with the Oakland Raiders.

"I've been blessed," said Woodson, who turns 38 in six weeks. "Since I left Pittsburgh, I've made wise decisions on where to go next."

Woodson spent the first part of his NFL career with the Steelers from 1989-96. In that span, he went to seven Pro Bowls, won NFL defensive player of the year, made first team all-1990s and was among a handful of active players voted to the NFL's 75th Anniversary team.

Since he reluctantly left the Steelers as a free agent in '97, he has made the Pro Bowl four more times, earned one Super Bowl ring and has a shot at a second Sunday when the Raiders play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

If he ever retires, he will go straight into the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years later when he becomes eligible. He could be the next Steeler elected if center Dermontti Dawson does not beat him to it as the first from their '90s teams.

Woodson should go in as the greatest defensive back in the history of the NFL. It's a debate that has Deion Sanders in a huff, but while Prime Time could cover receivers a little better, no one had Woodson's all-around ability and used it.

"I'd argue his side," said Tom Modrak, Buffalo's assistant general manager and the Steelers' longtime personnel man who was part of the team that drafted Woodson in '87 from Purdue. "I wouldn't have to back down from any area."

Said Jerome Bettis, here with his mother, Gladys, to promote Campbell's Soup: "He's shown he can be a Pro Bowl cornerback and a Pro Bowl safety. A lot of defensive backs play only one position. He's shown he can be at a top level at each position. He gets my vote."

Woodson is the only player in history to make Pro Bowls at different positions -- punt returner, cornerback and safety.

This year, he tied for the NFL lead with eight interceptions and returned two for touchdowns, one of 98 yards that helped turn Oakland's season around. The Raiders won their first four and lost their next four to go into Denver at 4-4 on a Monday night. The Broncos were driving toward a touchdown when Woodson picked off a Brian Griese pass and ran it back. That extended his NFL record to 12 career interceptions returned for touchdowns and has 69 interceptions in his career.

"Woodson has a unique ability to make big plays," said Gil Brandt, who served as the personnel director of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s through 1980s and now works for NFL.com. "He's like the guy who hits the big basket at the buzzer, the guy who hits home runs in the World Series."

He has the records, the Pro Bowls, the Hall of Fame in waiting, the ring -- and he wants another. That has been a driving force in the years since he left the Steelers, who offered him a contract but at a value he thought was beneath him. He signed with San Francisco, which lost in the NFC championship game his only season there. He moved to Baltimore in time to contribute to one of the league's greatest one-year defenses.

"The biggest difference from Pittsburgh and Baltimore was that I only played about 15 plays for the Steelers," Woodson said of Super Bowl XXX. "With the Ravens, I got the ring and was part of a very special defense."

When the Ravens split apart their team for salary-cap reasons last year, Woodson hopped aboard the Raiders' Super Bowl train.

"I looked at what the Raiders had done the last couple of years and the talent they had coming back and thought they'd have the opportunity to make a run," he said. "Getting here is so special. The opportunity doesn't arrive very often. You can be a great player and never win a Super Bowl."

Through it all, he has maintained his home in Wexford, where his wife, three daughters and two sons live and where, he says, he wants to retire.

Bruce Allen, the son of Hall of Fame Coach George Allen, heads Oakland's football operations and is not surprised Woodson has been able to perform so well at such an age.

"He's taken care of himself," Allen said. "You can't start taking care of yourself when you're 36 and say, 'I'm going to play another year.' He took care of himself his entire career.

"His playmaking skills are incomprehensible at times. He had eight interceptions, three fumble recoveries and a blocked field goal this year! He's our quarterback in the secondary the same as Rich Gannon is our quarterback on offense."

If Sunday is his final postseason game, he could do worse than his first. The Steelers had ended a four-year playoff drought by eking into the postseason in 1989, Woodson's third season. At Houston in overtime, the Oilers were driving in Steelers territory toward what looked like a victory when Lorenzo White ran to his left down the sideline. Woodson rifled into White so violently the ball popped loose. Woodson recovered the fumble, and Gary Anderson went on to kick a 50-yard field goal to upset the Oilers.

That he played in his first Super Bowl in January 1996 was a football first. In the opener of the 1995 season, the ACL in Woodson's right knee was torn when he tried to make a tackle on Barry Sanders. The Steelers kept him on their roster, and Woodson fought back to play in the Super Bowl, the first player in NFL history to come back from such an injury and play in the same season.

"That was unbelievable." Lewis said. "Most guys would have been out the whole year, and people would wonder if they'd ever play again. He played a couple months later. Amazing."

He has been all of that, and it's not over yet.