Cowher

ORLANDO, Fla. — Bill Cowher wants his players to maintain their desire to be champions. Art Shell wants his guys to recapture that old, winning feeling.

On a day when NFL owners discussed a variety of topics and decided nothing, the AFC coaches took the spotlight, with the same thing on the minds of many: avoiding complacency.

For Cowher, that's a very real threat. His Steelers became the first sixth seed to win the Super Bowl, going from 6-5 to champions, including nothing but road wins in the postseason.

So, with one on the thumb, could they get content?

"We've played at a high level for a lot of years, and now they should have the same high expectations as we've always had," Cowher said Tuesday at the NFL meetings. "I think it should be a motivating factor to not let our performance slide."

Among his biggest concerns is team chemistry, particularly with Jerome Bettis retiring. The Steelers also will be without the departed Antwaan Randle El, Chris Hope and Kimo von Oelhoffen.

"I'm very much concerned with the loss of leadership," Cowher said. "Not just what they brought on the field, but off it in their own ways. We have other guys who know they have to step up and sustain that high level of play."

Cowher believes the Steelers need to improve to successfully defend their title. They were, after all, a wild card that needed to win their final four games just to make the playoffs.

"I really don't think we were necessarily the best team in the league last year," he said. "We were playing the best at the end of the season, and we won. But we have many voids to fill."

Not as many as the Raiders do. Shell, who was working in the NFL office and last was a head coach in 1994 — with the Los Angeles Raiders — takes over a team that has won a total of 13 games during the last three years, or since making the Super Bowl after the 2002 season.

"You always have those fires in the bottom of your stomach," the Hall of Fame tackle said of returning to coaching. "I don't mind the challenge. The Raiders are home, where I grew up and spent 27 years. I've come to be part of trying to get the team back to its winning ways. It's exciting to me."

It won't be so exciting if the Raiders stumble again, something Shell isn't used to. Not only was he 54-38 as their coach, but he won Super Bowls as a player.

"The mystique and the attitude, it's all about how you prepare yourself to be a professional football player," he said. "People talk about mystique. Mystique, in my mind, like I told the players the other day, is all about toughness.

"Toughness, to me, is execution. When I can line up and I have to go get a pass, get a touchdown by running a route on you and I run that route and I'm successful; if I run another route, I'm going to beat you.

"That is toughness," Shell added.