A league source tells us that Steelers starting quarterback Tommy
Maddox is quietly miffed about the team's recent announcement that it
won't adjust his salary in 2003.

As it stands, Maddox will earn $650,000. His understudy, Charlie
Batch, will bag $1,000,000.

According to the source, Maddox will keep his mouth shut about the
disparity for now. Once training camp opens and he further
entrenches himself as the No. 1 man on the depth chart, Maddox's
agent (Vann McElroy) will start making noise about the importance of
doing the right thing and bumping up Tommy's take.

The problem is that the Steelers are skittish about making another
huge financial investment in a quarterback, given their past
experiences with Kordell Stewart and (to a lesser extent) Jim
Miller. Stewart got a big-money deal in 1999, and he proceeded to
stink it up over the next four seasons (with the exception of most of
the games in 2001 -- but not the AFC Championship).

In our view, we think there's more to the issue than the Kordell
factor. Like Maddox in 2001, Batch was kept tightly under wraps in
2002. Now that Batch has had a year to learn the team's Stewart-
proof offense (which is sort of like spending a decade studying "Hop
on Pop"), the thinking could be that Charlie will emerge as the best
option after training camp.

Also, don't rule out the possibility that the Steelers will draft
their quarterback of the future later this month -- especially if
Byron Leftwich does the Randy Moss/Deuce McAllister free-fall through
round one. If that happens, there's no need to pay Maddox like the
long-term starter, since he won't be.