Editor's Note: This is the final installment of a three-part series of stories CUSportsNation is publishing based on a recent interview with former Colorado quarterback Kordell Stewart, who played with the Buffs from 1991-1994.

Stewart was the No. 60 pick in the 1995 NFL Draft by Pittsburgh and enjoyed a 11-year professional career with the Steelers (1995-2002), Chicago Bears (2003) and Baltimore Ravens (2004-2005).

Part I deals with Stewart's recruitment to Colorado and playing on the stacked 1994 Buffaloes while Part II examines Stewart's role in the Miracle at Michigan play on Sept. 24, 1994.

Below, Stewart looks at his early career with the Steelers, namely how he earned the nickname "Slash" due to his usage at multiple positions.

Stewart's early career was an example of traditionalist NFL values regarding positional boundaries being challenged.

By the time Kordell Stewart joined the Pittsburgh Steelers in the summer of 1995 after being selected 60th overall in that year's NFL Draft, his versatility was no secret.

He left the University of Colorado as the Big Eight Conference's all-time offensive leader, having produced 7,770 yards in total (6,481 passing, 1,289 rushing), earning second team All-American honors from the Associated Press and CU's Team MVP for the 1994 season.

A big part of Michael Vick's legacy will be how he brought the NFL into the 21st century. Vick's ability to run the ball, something that did not compromise his passing skills, created a new dialogue in the NFL about what a quarterback can and should look like.

Defensive schemes across the league had to be readjusted to account for a QB that would make you pay if given the opportunity to use his legs and run upfield. Ultimately, Vick paved the way for players like Cam Newton and Russell Wilson.

Dual threat and versatile quarterbacks are far from viewed with skepticism in today's NFL. In 2020, it's quite the opposite.

While Vick's lasting impact on the NFL is still reverberating, Stewart also was a trailblazer in how he refused to do one thing or play one position for the Steelers. Before he settled into strictly playing quarterback for Pittsburgh in 1997, Stewart famously earned the nickname "Slash" in 1995, as he was used as a QB/WR/RB.

He played in 10 games for the Steelers that season, who advanced to Super Bowl XXX in Stewart's rookie year. While he only attempted seven passes on the year, Stewart became a player Pittsburgh used as a Swiss army knife.

Although his 1995 stats (15 rushes for 86 yards, 14 receptions for 235 yards) were modest, his versatility made him a hard guy for other teams to prepare for.

Stewart joined the Steelers in 1995 as the team's fourth string quarterback. Initially, he found his first NFL experiences to be far from entertaining, especially coming from being the starter at Colorado who'd led the Buffs in 1994 to an 11-1 record and No. 4 national ranking at season's end.

“It was boring," he said. "You go from the hype, excitement and joy of being a starting quarterback on the national stage and then having to sit back and be a rookie all over again watching Neil O’Donnell, Mike Tomczak and Jim Miller — that camp was boring. I say that out of respect to the excitement I had leading into it."

Luckily for Stewart, his boredom would not last once the Steelers' 1995 campaign got underway. His rookie season turned out to be highly eventful for him personally and for the Steelers, who reached the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1979 season.

The Steelers fell to Dallas, 27-17 in Super Bowl XXX as O'Donnell threw three interceptions in the game. Stewart rushed the ball four times and gained 15 yards. The 1995 season was one Stewart continues to remember fondly.

"When the season started, I found out my role, which was “Slash” and now all of the sudden, it’s back to the excitement again because I was doing things I’d never done before on the field officially and unofficially playing around with buddies," he said.

Stewart particularly relished the opportunity to take reps against decorated and veteran members of Pittsburgh's defense, but he also found more than one familiar face on roster with him.

When Stewart became a Steeler, a Boulder to Pittsburgh pipeline had already been developing.

Beginning in 1991 with offensive tackle Ariel Solomon, the Steelers selected five more Buffaloes in consecutive years — NT Joel Steed in 1992, CB Deon Figures and LB Chad Brown in 1993, WR Charles Johnson in 1994 and lastly Stewart the next year — through the 1995 NFL Draft.

"I got the chance to go up against Greg Lloyd, Carnell Lake and Rod Woodson in practice," Stewart said. "To then take it from the practice field and be with Charles Johnson and all my guys from Colorado and then Yancey Thigpen to Ernie Mills, Andre Hastings, Mark Bruener and the receiving corps, getting the ball thrown to me from Neil O’Donnell, then to go to the Super Bowl in my first year — (1995) was probably, other than the 1997 season, the most fun in football that I honestly could say I ever had in all of my days playing football."

Stewart continued with his "Slash" role in 1996 as an NFL sophomore, rushing for 171 yards on 39 carries while catching 17 passes for 293 yards.

He still was used sparingly at QB, registering only 30 pass attempts as Tomczak handled most of the signal calling duties that season.

Stewart won the starting quarterback gig in 1997 and led the Steelers to an 11-5 record and appearance in the AFC Championship Game. In 2001, he was named to the Pro Bowl and earned AFC Offensive Player of the Year honors.

The Steelers posted a 13-3 record that season and once more advanced to the AFC Championship.

But in both seasons, the Steelers came up short, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champions (Denver and later New England).

"There’s nothing to put my head down about, and not reminiscing but calling it what it is — it was a great run, a great opportunity, I had a tremendous amount of success, but also some failures," Stewart said. "That’s what makes the successes so much more special, is when you can bounce back. If I had to do it again, I’d do it the same exact way. That’s how much fun it was and that’s how much excitement there was.”

Stewart's legacy in Pittsburgh is without doubt conflicted. His uniqueness and versatility gave the Steelers a pop early on his career and he played for the team for nearly eight seasons.

But Stewart will be the first to tell you that coming up short in two AFC Championship contests — in which he threw three interceptions apiece, with the Steelers losing the two games by a combined 10 points— were struggles he continues to reflect on.

"I always look back on (my years with the Steelers) and think, 'dang, we got so close,’ but we never got a chance to win the big one (Super Bowl)," He said. But it was a lot of fun. I wish I would have stayed (in Pittsburgh) a little bit longer — I wanted to retire a Steeler and I didn’t want to go anywhere else, but obviously it’s a business and a multitude of other things take their course and cause you to go separate ways."

Stewart remains friendly and in semi regular contact with his former head coach Bill Cowher, a relationship he has maintained since his playing days after leaving the Steelers, to now.

"When I was in Baltimore, when (the Steelers) beat the Ravens (in 2005) and went to the Super Bowl, I went over to shake his hand and told him congratulations," Stewart said. "I also texted him once he got inducted into the Hall of Fame. We’ve stayed in touch along those lines and every time I see him, I treat him with respect, knowing that the opportunity he gave me was a great one."

Inconsistent play and underachieving Steelers teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s resulted in Stewart receiving his fair share of criticism and venom from Steeler Nation, but upon retiring in 2012, he did so as a member of the Steelers.

As Stewart said, he never got a chance to win "the big one." But on-field accomplishments and accolades aside, an under appreciated aspect of Stewart's legacy is how he was an early challenger to entrenched NFL values.

Early in his career, "Slash" fought the notion that NFL players should play one position and also did much to advance the credibility and respect given to dual threat quarterbacks.

Vick would later become the torchbearer of that fight with the Falcons.

The NFL in the year 2020 continues to shed its previously firm stance on positional boundaries. Nowadays, the top running backs — given how many of them are used routinely in the passing game — are 'Slash" players themselves.

The "Edge" position has had a significant schematic impact on defenses and how defensive ends and outside linebackers are used. And of course, dual threat quarterbacks are no longer outliers.

But in 1995 and 1996, when Stewart was a pioneer in establishing a normalcy for players who could play more than one position, it was within a very different NFL.

Stewart should be noted as being an early player through the brick wall — someone that helped force the NFL and its fans evolve.

"I did everything — there weren't any boundaries," he said. "There weren’t those traditional thoughts of how a football player should look or what you can or can’t do. You look at the game today, and you see that style of play at the quarterback position now. Back then, I was just being myself: a guy who was able to do whatever he wanted to do on the football field."

"But of course, the league was such a traditionalist organization, to where if you played quarterback, you were just supposed to be a quarterback. If you played receiver, you were just supposed to be a receiver. To go into Pittsburgh, where there was a very traditional way of thinking and being, there was excitement for those first seasons, not just for the team but for myself."

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