PITTSBURGH - You think the Pittsburgh Steelers' overtime triumph against the Cleveland Browns here Sunday afternoon was weird -- a strange but treasured victory that was forged when kicker Todd Peterson knocked home a 31-yard field goal, one play after his 24-yard attempt was blocked?

Sure it was, since no other overtime contest in league history ever ended on such a bizarre circumstance, with such a mind-boggling sequence of special teams tomfoolery.

	Maddox completes a fourth-quarter pass to Plaxico Burress.

But if you want weird, bizarre, convoluted -- heck, break out the thesaurus to appropriately describe the insanity of Pittsburgh's 16-13 victory in what was the 100th matchup of this bitter turnpike rivalry with Cleveland -- consider the road traveled by Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox to have departed Heinz Stadium on Sunday as the man who salvaged the '02 season.

Then again, having resurrected his own football livelihood from somewhere near the very bottom of the NFL scrap heap, Maddox probably pulled off the biggest miracle of his embattled career long before replacing starter Kordell Stewart with 4:14 remaining in regulation against the Browns.

That he even earned a spot on the Pittsburgh roster in 2001, five full seasons removed from his last NFL snap and after stints with the New Jersey Red Dogs of the Arena Football League and the Los Angeles Xtreme of the ill-fated XFL, is a tribute to perseverance.

One of the nicest players you'd ever want to meet, Maddox has been like a poster boy for bad things happening to good people, and you would think he could view Sunday's events as redemptive. Instead he regarded the victory as reward for a Steelers team that hung in despite the ominous specter of opening the season with three straight defeats.

"All the experiences you have in life, the good ones and the bad ones, they ultimately make you who you are," said Maddox, who has been nose to nose with rock bottom, and long ago discovered there is a sub-basement below it. "Today, well, today was one of the good experiences. Today was one of the kind you savor, believe me, one you remember for a while."

As well he should.

Coach Bill Cowher, who in a rare moment of candor announced during the week of preparation that he would have no qualms about yanking Stewart if the offense again struggled, acknowledged he is "leaning strongly" toward maintaining the status quo at the starting spot for next week's game at New Orleans. And Maddox allowed that the indications are Stewart will keep his No. 1 job for now. So there was, indeed, reason to cherish a performance in which Maddox torched an undermanned Cleveland secondary.

Cowher described Stewart as "fantastic" in supporting Maddox after the starter was pulled. "I told him, 'This is not anything where we deem that you will never play here again,' and he knew that," said Cowher, who posted his 100th career NFL victory. "We just needed somebody to lift us and I felt that (Maddox) does a good job in the two-minute drill."

Everyone is supposed to have been allotted 15 minutes of fame and Maddox squeezed his quota into 11 minutes and 28 seconds Sunday, coming off the bench to rally the sputtering Pittsburgh offense, completing 11 of 13 passes for 122 yards in the final moments of regulation and in overtime. Given his background, the tribulations that have accompanied a career that began way back in 1992 when he was a first-round draft choice of the Denver Broncos and heir apparent to John Elway's job, Sunday was a day the football gods have owned Tommy Maddox for a long time.

Here is a guy who, after being released by the Atlanta Falcons in 1997, made a living selling insurance. Ironic, isn't it, that a guy who once solid insurance policies has become the Pittsburgh safety net?

This was certainly the kind of glorious moment that Dan Reeves envisioned when he took Maddox, then a 20-year-old sophomore from UCLA, with the 25th overall selection in the 1992 draft. It's the kind of performance Reeves felt possible when he dragged Maddox with him to the New York Giants in 1995 and to the Atlanta Falcons in 1997. It seemed wherever Reeves went as a head coach, Maddox followed, tethered to his famous patron.

Well, on Sunday evening, probably relaxing somewhere during the Falcons' bye week, Reeves was likely smiling. If so, however, it couldn't come close to the grin Maddox wore into the interview room.

Forget being a late-bloomer. Maddox, 31, has been most a fallow field, has started only four games in his NFL career, none since his rookie campaign. Given all the derring-do of Sunday, his NFL career has been defined mostly by derring-don't, and by the relationship with Reeves.

But operating almost exclusively out of a four-wide receiver formation on Sunday, and throwing from the shot gun, he rallied the Steelers on a seven-play, 77-yard touchdown drive in the closing minutes, knotting the score on a 10-yard rocket to Plaxico Burress with 2:02 remaining. In the drive, he hit six of seven passes for 77 yards.

The first two completions, for seven and 12 yards, went to wideout Terance Mathis, and that wasn't happenstance, since the two had worked together in Atlanta's 1997 training camp. During that camp, on their first time together, Maddox had thrown an "out" pattern at Mathis' feet, and the wide receiver screamed at the quarterback to "get the damn ball up."

There were no such exhortations necessary on Sunday afternoon.

Said Mathis: "He kind of came into the huddle and just said: 'OK, guys, two-minute (drill), now let's get the ball in the end zone.' Only he said it with a lot stronger words, stuff you can't get into print, believe me. He was really calm but, man, everyone else was fired up. He gave us a spark that we really needed."

It helped that the Browns played nearly the entire second half and, of course, the overtime session, minus starting cornerbacks Daylon McCutcheon and Corey Fuller. When the Steelers went to the all-out "spread" formation with Maddox in the game, Cleveland was forced to use little-used rookie Kalvin Pearson, an undrafted free agent, as a "nickel" cornerback. Safety Earl Little also was pressed into service at cornerback.

"A lot of times, we were just running around out there, and (Maddox) sort of knew it," said Browns free safety Devin Bush. "Give him credit. He put the ball exactly where he had to put it on some of those throws."

Mathis pointed out that Maddox possesses a much stronger arm and also a noticeably quicker delivery than when the two were together in the Falcons camp. Earlier this spring, when Mathis came here to audition for Pittsburgh coaches and personnel officials, Maddox was the guy who threw to him. It was immediately obvious, Mathis insisted Sunday evening, this wasn't the same guy who was short-hopping balls to him in Suwanee, Ga., during the summer of 1997.

Long after everyone else had deserted the locker room, and with his family members cooling their heels outside in a corridor, Maddox took the time to explain he improved his release and decision-making skills in arena football. And he noted that, in the XFL, the base formation usually featured four wideouts. It didn't hurt, either, that he spent much of last week operating the "spread" formation for the "scout" team, against a Steelers defense that had seen way too many four wideout alignments in its first two defeats.

Just as opponents had done to the Steelers in those losses, Maddox threw the ball well underneath, spread it around to his receivers, and made big plays. A lone mistake, an interception on a brilliant play by Andra Davis on the first snap of the overtime session, was negated when the Steelers deflected a potential game-winning field goal by Phil Dawson.

On the touchdown drive that tied the game, Maddox completed passes to all four of his wide receivers, including a 21-yarder to Burress and a 20-yard hitch to Antwaan Randle El. "I always felt confident," said Maddox, "that the one thing I could do in this life was throw a football. No matter whatever else happened, I still knew I had that ability."

There was a poignant moment, during the end of his interview session, when Maddox was asked if he felt like a starting quarterback or a backup. Maddox paused a few seconds, rubbed his chin and smiled, having found the apropos answer, he felt.

"I just feel like a quarterback," he said.

At long last.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.