Kordell Stewart earned the nickname “Slash” for his abilities in the NFL to be an effective quarterback, runner and receiver. Now he’d like to be known for another skill.

The former University of Colorado and Pittsburgh Steelers star is entering his second season as offensive coordinator at North Forsyth High School, outside Atlanta, Georgia, after previously having been an assistant for five years at North Atlanta High School.

“When you’re ‘Slash,’ you do a whole bunch of stuff,” Stewart told The Denver Gazette. “Coaching is something I love to do tremendously. I would love to have it be at my institution, to be honest with you, because I just love being here.”

Yes, Stewart, who starred for the Buffaloes from 1991-94 and was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday at the Hilton Denver City Center, is interested in being an assistant coach at his alma mater under Deion Sanders, who has long been a good friend.

“We’ve had conversations (about a possible job), but he has to do what he has to do,” said Stewart, 53, who gladly would move from the Atlanta area back to Colorado. “He’s a friend more than anybody I need to have hire me as a coach. And if it’s time for me to have that opportunity to be here with him or anybody else, I’ll bite on it real quick and come in and do it.”

Stewart has known Sanders since entering the NFL in 1995 and he faced the cornerback as a rookie when the Steelers lost to Dallas 27-17 in Super Bowl XXX. He lauded the staff that Sanders, entering his fourth season as the Buffaloes’ head coach, now has in place.

“He’s got a great staff since he’s been here,” Stewart said. “He doesn’t owe anything to me. … He knows I love to coach. If there’s a space for me, trust me, I’ll take it and run with it.”

With the Buffaloes, Stewart ran their option offense with precision. The quarterback had three seasons with 2,000 passing yards and two with more than 500 rushing yards.

“This is a blessing,” Stewart said about getting into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. “This is a big deal. … You always wonder whether you would ever get in. I don’t call it an award, I call it a reward because when you put in the work, you get rewarded.”

Stewart is best known for his miraculous 64-yard Hail Mary touchdown heave on the final play to Michael Westbrook to give Colorado a 27-26 win at Michigan in 1994. A tape of the epic play was shown at his Hall of Fame induction.

“Every time I look at it, I always think something different is going to happen,” Stewart said with a laugh. “But it never does.”

After that season, Stewart moved on to the NFL from 1995-2005, which included spending his first eight seasons with the Steelers. He initially played mostly at receiver, catching 31 passes in his first two seasons while also lining up at times in the backfield. He had four carries for 15 yards in that Super Bowl against the Cowboys.

Stewart was Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback from 1997-2002, which included making the Pro Bowl in 2001 and leading the team to the AFC Championship game in the 1997 and 2001 seasons. He had two seasons of throwing for more than 3,000 yards and four with more than 400 yards rushing. He even found time in his NFL career to punt six times.

“It indicates all the things that I’ve done in one word,” Stewart said of how much he likes the “Slash” nickname. “And it was done at a high level in each category. I threw it well. I ran it well. I caught it well. I punted it well. … (Being so versatile has) never been done before.”

Lately, Stewart has added coaching to his resume. A spot on Colorado’s coaching staff certainly would beef it up.

Warfield on mend from health issues

When it came to the deep ball, few did it better in the NFL than Paul Warfield.

The Hall of Fame wide receiver averaged 20.1 yards per catch, the highest mark in league history for a player with more than 300 catches, while with Cleveland and Miami from 1964-74 and 1976-77. While playing for the Dolphins in the 1971 opener, he had six catches for 146 yards, with a 31-yard touchdown catch, at Denver, but the Broncos somehow managed to escape with a 10-10 tie.

This decade, the master of the long ball has been on a long road to recovery.

“For the past three years, I’ve been recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage,” Warfield, 83, told The Denver Gazette from his home in the Palm Springs, California, area. “I’m feeling pretty good (now). It’s just that I have been impacted from a negative standpoint in my cerebral area. My short-term memory has been drastically affected. I’m more secure with a longer-term memory.”

Warfield caught 427 passes for 8,565 yards in his NFL career, and is best remembered for winning Super Bowls with the Dolphins during their undefeated season of 1972 and the following season. He can recall details from his career but plenty following his retirement is hazy.

“I think that the Seattle Seahawks are the team that won the Super Bowl but I can’t even remember who they played against in the game,” Warfield said of Seattle’s 29-13 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX in February. “It’s just my short-term memory from roughly zero to almost 20 years has really been wiped out. I don’t know if it will be fully restored but I’m doing things medically to try to help me.”

While Warfield used to closely follow the Browns and Dolphins, he said he can’t recall anything about them from recent seasons. But he said he “can comment on my career because it goes back that far.”

Warfield, though, did stress that, “I’m making a recovery.”

What I’m hearing

–Defensive back Steve Foley, who played for the Broncos from 1976-86 and is their all-time interception leader with 44, told The Denver Gazette before he was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday about a hit he delivered on Browns receiver Dave Logan in a game at Denver in 1981. “He always accuses me of giving him one of the hardest hits he’s ever gotten,” Foley said. “He says I put my facemask right in his ribs and stretched him out.” Well, Logan, now the Broncos radio play-by-play announcer and co-emcee at the banquet, began his introduction of Foley by saying about the hit, “I never really liked him. … I’m pretty sure he did it on purpose.” Logan was joking, saying he is “good friends” with Foley. But Foley did open his speech by giving a “formal apology” to Logan.

–Could the Mr. Irrelevant show be going on the road? The Broncos currently hold the No. 257 and last pick in the April 23-25 draft, and the player selected at that spot will be dubbed Mr. Irrelevant and be taken to Newport Beach, Calif., in June to be honored during a week of fun. Melanie Salata-Fitch, CEO of Irrelevant Week, will be in Pittsburgh to announce the final pick of the draft. “If the Broncos keep the pick, we may come out to Denver and celebrate Mr. Irrelevant there,” Fitch said in addition to the June celebration in Southern California.

What I’m seeing

–The Broncos’ first pick in the draft is in line to be No. 62 in the second round, and it could be just the fifth time in their history of having just one selection in the first three rounds with it not being in the first round. But in each of the previous four times that happened, the Broncos came up with a gem in a late round. In 1986, they took productive receiver Mark Jackson in the sixth round. In 1990, they landed Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe in the seventh. In 1994, they got Ring of Fame center Tom Nalen in the seventh. And in 1995, they landed Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis in the sixth round.

–Running back Gary Downs, who played two games for the Broncos in 1995, is becoming well known for being the father of football players. Downs’ son, Josh Downs, is an Indianapolis receiver, having caught 198 passes for 2,140 yards in his first three seasons. Now, Downs’ other son, safety Caleb Downs, is projected to go as high as the top five in the draft coming out of Ohio State. The father played in the NFL from 1994-2000 with the New York Giants, Denver and Atlanta, rushing for just 149 yards but being a stalwart on special teams. He had two tackles on special teams for the Falcons in their 34-19 loss to the Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII in January 1999.