Rain delay; Parker returns

Rain washed out the Pittsburgh Steelers morning practice and threatened to do the same with the afternoon session – even though the team traveled back to Pittsburgh from Latrobe to work out at its indoor practice facility.

Midway through the afternoon session, another thunderstorm ripped through the area and knocked out the lights here, stopping practice for 15 minutes.

The players erupted in a loud cheer when the blackout occurred, but head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t let them off the hook that easily, waiting out the loss of power to finish up practice.

Though Tomlin didn’t announce anything about him at his morning press conference, left tackle Marvel Smith did not practice – bringing his status in Saturday’s preseason game into question. Smith wouldn’t talk to reporters and Tomlin was not available following practice to clarify why the left tackle sat out.

One player who made a surprising return was running back Willie Parker. Parker was dressed for the first time in nearly two weeks – this coming just a couple of hours after Tomlin declared him out of action for Saturday.

While Parker didn’t take part in a full practice, he did do a little running in position drills, testing out his sore left knee. He'll be back Monday at full speed.

Guard Alan Faneca, defensive end Derrick Jones, center Chukky Okobi and linebacker Lawrence Timmons also did not practice.