Starks has proven key

By Scott Brown, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

You are sitting in your car before school, wiping the remaining sleep out of your eyes, when a 1957 Cadillac Hearse pulls into the space next to you.

You can't help but stare, as if the space shuttle has just touched down on the football field at Lake Highland Preparatory School. The new kid at the private school in Orlando has been a curiosity because of his immense size. Now, dressed in a black suit, a white shirt and a tie, he rolls down the window and calls out with a smile: "Hey, how you doing?"

Max Starks laughed in a quiet corner of the Steelers' locker room as he recounted the start of a friendship that lasts to this day -- and also revealed why his teammates at the University of Florida later nicknamed him the "Undertaker."

What is more relevant to Starks' story is how he has risen from a near-football-death experience to again become an anchor on the Steelers' offensive line.

Since re-signing the left tackle they released in July, the Steelers have won 10 of 12 games. The stabilizing effect Starks has had on the offensive line is one reason why the Steelers, who visit Denver tomorrow for an AFC wild-card game, have posted a second consecutive 12-4 season.

"It's been a roller coaster this year, but I wouldn't change it for the world," Starks said. "When you look back on life, it is always about the journey, not the destination, and it has been a pretty fun journey this year."

Odyssey is more like it, considering Starks watched the Steelers' regular-season opener at a sports bar in Arizona.

Read more: Steelers' Starks has proven key - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_775488.html#ixzz1ikZGzG6A

He has played well. He's as good now as he's ever been for us.

solardave wrote:

He has played well. He's as good now as he's ever been for us.

Maybe that extra time off, and apparently time well spent in the desert has helped re-vitalize a player I once thought was dead on the line.

stlrtruck wrote:

solardave wrote:

He has played well. He's as good now as he's ever been for us.

Maybe that extra time off, and apparently time well spent in the desert has helped re-vitalize a player I once thought was dead on the line.

I felt the same way watching him stand there and watch DEs pass right by him but so far he's been pretty stable.

This is related to the entire line, not just Starks ... No matter how poorly the line plays in the regular season, they seem to always step up in the playoffs. I don't know why and I don't care, as long as they do.

Wallace108 wrote:

This is related to the entire line, not just Starks ... No matter how poorly the line plays in the regular season, they seem to always step up in the playoffs. I don't know why and I don't care, as long as they do.

You got that right!!!