PSR Showdown
Who was your sports hero as a child?

Mike Webster
By Bill Toth
Sports Network

I decided to do a little spring cleaning this past weekend…the garage version. I was going through the grease and grime when I stumbled across an old, wrinkled poster. As I started to unravel it I got chills because inside was the man that I grew up idolizing, Mike Webster. I immediately fell into a time warp and I was transported back as a young boy to St. Vincent's College and Steelers training camp.

We would go there every summer and at the end of practice we would watch the players go by. But we always had to wait a little longer for Webby because he was still working out in the makeshift weight room down on the field. When he came out we saw a man with guns so big that he needed a license to carry them, legs that looked like timber and a barrel chest.

Like Mike, if I could be like Mike, pre-Jordan days.

I got to junior high football and I had to pick the number 52. I even had to tighten my shirt and bare my arms in freezing temperatures to follow in my hero's footsteps.

It was a sad day when Mike retired but an even a sadder day when I heard about all of his off-field troubles. With all his football success - and there was plenty to be sure: nine-time Pro Bowler, NFL Hall of Famer, credited with revolutionizing the position of center in the league - Webby was never the same away from the game. His once sculpted, chiseled body was nothing but a memory (Barry Bonds take note).

But more importantly, his faculties were lost. It seemed that he couldn't survive without the game that he loved. Rumors swirled over the years indicating that he was virtually homeless, broke and living out of his car.

Anywhere his tired body would take him.

However, I prefer to remember Mike Webster the football player. My favorite image of him is the highlight from Super Bowl XIII which has been captured forever by NFL Films. No. 52 in slow motion, snapping the ball, doing his famous backpedal pass block with his head on a swivel.

That is the image that I choose to remember of my hero… Iron Mike Webster.

Pittsburgh native Bill Toth is an analyst for the Sports Network in Maryland.

Larry Bird
By Rob Cochran
#1 Cochran

Growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1970's, I had many choices for a boyhood idol: Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mean Joe Green, Lynn Swann, Willie Stargell, Tony Dorsett… As much as I cheered each of them, my one idol did not play in Pittsburgh, was not from Pittsburgh, and for all I know, has never been to Pittsburgh.

As someone who was playing junior high basketball in the late 70s, there was a college player who seemed to embody all of the things I admired. That player was Indiana State's Larry Bird.

What did I like so much about Bird? Other than height and peripheral vision, all of his skills were developed from a tireless work ethic. Of course I marvel at phenomenal athletes - but I respect deeply an average athlete who creates his legend by beating phenomenal athletes. This was Larry Bird.

The second thing that drew me to Bird was his raw simplicity. He was who he was. At Indiana State, during his brilliant Boston Celtics' career, with the USA Olympic Dream Team, as the Indiana Pacers' coach, or now, running the Pacers' basketball operations - he's never changed.

My wife and I recently had the opportunity to see the Pacers play in Indianapolis. There was Bird, at work, with his two kids. Were they in the owner's suite? No. Behind the team bench? Nope. Courtside seats? No, they were sitting about 20 rows up in the end zone seats behind the backboard.

But my favorite Bird story was in 1981 when I was a high school junior. Boston was playing the 76ers and Dr. J in the Eastern Conference Finals. I made a $5 bet with a guy-Matt Robinson was his name-in my history class on the series. The Sixers jumped to 3 to 1 series lead and Robinson was tormenting me. So out of foolish pride, I doubled the bet. Well, the Celtics came back and I won my 10 bucks.

I also got in trouble for running up my parents phone bill by calling the 1-900-sports-score line every 10 minutes on game nights.

But I'll never forget that $10. For that, and a whole lot more, Bird was my guy.

Rob Cochran is the President and C.E.O. of #1 Cochran.