The Steelers will make National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell available to the media this morning at 10:30, smack in the middle of what figures to be an hour-long practice devoted exclusively to special teams.

Very clever, actually.

Perhaps the commissioner, engrossed in the queries of pundits and chatterers, will therefore fail to notice that the special teams frolicking behind him aren't up to league standard.

Nineteen of the 32 teams in Goodell's kingdom got through last season without allowing a kickoff to be returned for a touchdown; 10 others allowed one; two more allowed two. But the team he visits today got scalded an embarrassing four times by kickoff-return touchdowns last year, a new Steelers record.

In fact, were it not for four special-teams plays, the Steelers would be coming off a 12-4 season instead of dragging around that 9-7 playoff-free legacy of 2009.

"That's why I'm here," said new special teams coach Al Everest after practice yesterday.

Uh-huh, or at least that's why old special-teams coach Bob Ligashesky isn't.

Two of those runbacks, a 96-yarder by Cincinnati's Bernard Scott in an 18-12 loss Nov. 15, and a 97-yarder by Kansas City's Jamaal Charles in an overtime loss one week later, combined with the two field goals Jeff Reed missed in the fourth quarter at Chicago in September, turned three very likely wins into losses.

"Not only that," said safety Ryan Mundy, one of Mike Tomlin's few reliable coverage men on punts and kickoffs, "the opponents scored on eight plays when the defense was not even on the field. When that happens, it's only natural that it makes or breaks a season."

As long as we're playing Not Only That ...

The defending Super Bowl champions won in spite of themselves in the first of the Cleveland episodes last season, when Joshua Cribbs went 98 yards with a kickoff. Won in spite of themselves at home against Minnesota when Percy Harvin took another 88 yards to the end zone. Won in spite of themselves against San Diego, when Jacob Hester picked up a fumbled punt and went 41 yards for a touchdown.

That's what Ligashesky's specialists looked like in victory.

Three other touchdowns came with the Steelers' offense on the field, a couple of pick sixes and a fumble return, all part of a remarkable eight-game streak in which the opponent scored on some kind of return every weekend.

"It's like I told them last night," said Everest, "when you're giving up that many returns, you have to start on the perimeter. You're only going to be as good as your people on the perimeter. They make the play. They squeeze the play. They prevent the big play."

Or fail to do so.

Linebacker Keyaron Fox, whom Everest will soon discover is his best cover man in these precarious situations, said yesterday it is not clear whom perimeter responsibilities will fall to, but he agreed with Mundy that Everest is bringing a very different approach.

"There are a lot of new techniques, a lot of new assignments," said Fox. "I'm not quite used to there being such elaborate schemes on special teams. But he's a high-motor guy. He really pushes us."

Mundy, whose 16 unassisted special teams tackles last year were second only to Fox's 17, sounded sold after less than a week of on-field exposure.

"With special teams, you're going to see a world of difference," said the second-year Steeler out of Woodland Hills High School. "This guy is an amazing special-teams coach."

Everest's background is as varied as his first impression has been muscular. He coached professional football in Italy for the Legnano Frogs and the Pesaro Angels, coached the secondary for the Arkansas Minors of something called the Pro Spring Football League (anybody?), and had his first special-teams coordinator gig with the Canadian Football League's Birmingham Barracudas. Before that, he coached at the American School Foundation in Mexico City, then earned a doctorate while coaching baseball at U.S. International University.

It likely takes a background like that to figure out Reed, to figure out why Steelers opponents average better than 24 yards per kickoff return and nearly 10 on punt returns. And to figure out why, in the past seven years, the Steelers have returned one kickoff for a touchdown while watching opponents score on the such plays eight times. Moreover, figuring out how to get these guys to believe in the remedies is quite another, and watching the remedy take shape among the total chaos of open-field politics is something else again.

"It's a great job," Everest insisted. "It all depends on the head coach and the amount of support you get, and coach Tomlin has been very supportive."

And Tomlin will continue to be, right up until he sees Atlanta's Eric Weems run past him at the 50 a few seconds after 1 p.m. Sept. 12.

"With that first kickoff, you have to signify, you have to answer the question, 'Have you come to play?' " said Mundy. "If it's the second half kickoff, it's 'Have you come to win?'

"We really have to embrace that this year."

Better embrace somebody. Try Cribbs. Because four more of those kickoff return touchdowns between here and Jan. 2 will virtually guarantee a losing season.

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.