Kovacevic: Martavis lets the right light outshine all the rest

Brief and to the Point ...

• Positive reinforcement can be OK, too.

There's been no more significant development over the Steelers' summer, at least not from this perspective, than Martavis Bryant being cleared to return to the NFL, then reporting in exemplary shape and producing extraordinary play after extraordinary play.

No, not Sunday against the Falcons, of course. His preseason debut at Heinz Field saw one 3-yard catch, another for 20 and an end-around where he was clocked so hard the ball popped loose:



It didn't go all that great.

At least it would seem that way until you see the man smile.



"I'm just so blessed right now, so happy to be back on that football field," Bryant was telling me as part of a long talk he and I had afterward. "I'm out there with my teammates, my brothers, our fans ... after everything that's happened over the year, that's just how I feel. I made a couple catches, took a hit ... whatever. It's beautiful to be back out there playing football."

I don't have too fine a point here: I'm just not worried about him.

Yeah, he messed up. No matter how anyone feels about marijuana, legally or morally, he broke a rule of his employer's governing body. Repeatedly. That was his crime.

But he did the time. Sat out a whole season in the prime of a burgeoning career. Watched and listened from afar as he was publicly panned, cast off by the whole football fraternity, portrayed as everything from pothead to idiot to -- worst of all in the world of sports -- a poor teammate. He heard his name dragged right through every one of those long balls that slipped through Sammie Coates' broken fingers in Foxborough.

Most of it was justified, I'm sure. But maybe that's why his postgame joy, his relief, struck me more than anything else Sunday. Because there was no visible chip on his shoulder, no resentment, no I'm-out-to-prove-you-all-wrong. There was just an overgrown kid thrilled to be doing the thing he's always done best.

And man, that sure feels like a healthy restart.

"I'm here, and I'm back," Bryant would say before we were done. "There's no place I'd rather be."

• Oh, about that 20-yard catch ...



That corner for Atlanta up there is C.J. Goodwin. He was assigned one-on-one coverage with Bryant, with no significant safety help.

Now, the Steelers weren't about to take a whole lot of deep shots with Joshua Dobbs at quarterback, I'd later confirm, but that didn't mean Dobbs couldn't check out of something else if he'd notice something as insane as, say, Bryant going against a single defender: