PITTSBURGH - At the same time the Colts and Patriots are looking ahead to their pivotal AFC game in Indianapolis on Sunday night, they might be tempted to peek over their shoulders at the Steelers. With a look of worry, too. The Super Bowl champions are gaining on them. Winners of five in a row, the Steelers are looking again like a team no one would willingly play in January or February.

The Super Bowl-winning Steelers’ season was starting to unravel with consecutive losses in the final 15 seconds to the Bears and the Bengals. Determined to make sure their bad start didn’t last a moment more, they needed less than 15 minutes to effectively put away one of the AFC’s best teams.

PITTSBURGH - Offensive tackle Max Starks has signed a four-year contract that keeps him with the Pittsburgh Steelers through the 2012 season and frees up several million dollars in salary-cap room for the team. Starks, the starting left tackle, was designated as the Steelers’ franchise player on Feb. 20 - less than three weeks after they won the Super Bowl - and he initially accepted a 2009 salary of $8.45 million.

Receiver Roydell Williams yesterday signed with the Washington Redskins. Williams played three seasons for Tennessee, catching 84 passes for 1,139 yards. He had 55 catches passes for 719 yards in 2007, but ankle injuries led the Titans to cut him before last season. Williams was on hand for the start of voluntary spring practices yesterday.

PITTSBURGH - James Harrison isn’t one of the NFL’s biggest bargains any longer. The Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker reached terms yesterday on a $51.75 million, six-year contract that will make him the second highest-paid player in franchise history. The contract will pay the NFL defensive player of the year a guaranteed $20 million - more than any other player in team history except Ben Roethlisberger. The quarterback signed a $102 million, eight-year contract last year that will pay him a guaranteed $36 million.

BALTIMORE - The Baltimore Ravens are expected to sign tight end L.J. Smith today, an NFL source said. The parameters of a one-year, $1.5 million deal are in place with Smith, the source added. Smith, 28, the best tight end left in free agency, is scheduled to meet with the Ravens today. KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Chiefs yesterday came to terms with linebacker Monte Beisel and wide receivers Bobby Engram and Terrance Copper.

PITTSBURGH - More than 300,000 black and gold-bedecked Pittsburgh Steelers fans packed the streets of “Sixburgh” yesterday for a parade celebrating the storied franchise’s unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title. From infants to senior citizens, fans braved freezing temperatures and crowds so deep that for some even seeing the parade was impossible.

Ben Roethlisberger wears No. 7 to pay tribute to John Elway. Fittingly, too, because Roethlisberger is the NFL’s new king of the comeback. Roethlisberger calls it playground ball: his Pittsburgh Steelers down or tied in the fourth quarter, the quarterback eluding the pass rush, evading the pocket, getting the ball off with multiple defenders draped over him, making a play that seemingly can’t be made.

TAMPA James Harrison can’t tell you precisely when it happened. He can’t even tell you what game it was. All he knows is that at some point late last season, opponents started paying more attention to him. All of a sudden, Harrison said, entire offensive lines started sliding his way on running plays. Chip blockers began appearing in front of him on passing plays. Where there was once just a single blocker, he now saw double teams.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Scott Pioli, who helped build and lead a dynasty in New England, is now in charge of a Kansas City franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game in 14 years. Pioli, 43, will be introduced today as the Chiefs’ general manager, replacing Carl Peterson. “He will have complete charge of football operations,“ Ryan Petkoff, an assistant to Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt, said. “He will report only to Clark.“

CINCINNATI—The NFL suspended Cincinnati Bengals reserve linebacker Darryl Blackstock for the next four games because he used a performance-enhancing sub stance. The Bengals signed Blackstock as a free agent from Arizona in the offseason. He has played in all five games, including one start, and has four tackles. The fourth-year veteran from the University of Virginia said in a statement that one of his nutritional supplements contained an ingredient banned by the league.