Former Crusader starts for Steelers

By Alan Robinson
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH — The man the Pittsburgh Steelers call Fu isn't worried about starting against the New York Jets. It's the finishing part that concerns him.

St. Louis School graduate Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala will make his first start of the season for Pittsburgh. Associated Press

Bettis, the NFL's rushing leader, has not yet officially been ruled out of one of the Steelers' most important games of the season, but Fuamatu-Ma'afala has been told he will start.

"Oh, yeah, I'm ready to go," Fuamatu-Ma'afala said yesterday. "This is my fourth year, and I'm ready. In my first or second year I might have said I was ready, but I really wouldn't be relaxed.

"Now, when they told me I was going to start, I said, 'Cool, that's fine.' I'm not all jittery like I might have been a couple of years ago."

If nothing else, Fuamatu-Ma'afala's first start this season probably can't go any worse than his last start on Oct. 22, 2000 against the Browns.

Replacing the injured Jon Witman at fullback, Fuamatu-Ma'afala broke a foot during a 20-yard run and was finished for the season, the latest in a long list of injuries that would seem more appropriate for a 15-year veteran.

Even though Fuamatu-Ma'afala never has been a full-time starter since being a sixth-round pick out of Utah in 1998, he has been sidelined by a shoulder injury, a pulled hamstring, a sprained ankle, a broken hand, broken ribs and the broken foot.

It's probably a good thing for the Steelers (9-2) that Bettis almost never gets hurt — he has missed three games in nine seasons — because it seems Fuamatu-Ma'afala is almost never healthy.

"I've had a lot of freaky things happen to me," he said.

Fuamatu-Ma'afala had barely carried the ball this season until replacing Bettis last Sunday against Minnesota, yet gained 74 yards on 12 carries in the fourth quarter. He sealed the Steelers' 21-16 victory with a 46-run run on the next-to-last play.