Latest / The Irish Steelers Podcast / From Latrobe, PA: Alex Highsmith on the 2025 NFL Season and his career to date

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From Latrobe, PA: Alex Highsmith on the 2025 NFL Season and his career to date · The Irish Steelers Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Irish airline aer Lingus will proudly serve as the presenting
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Speaker 1: partner of Steelers Ireland twenty twenty five. Airlingus's growth in
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Speaker 1: North America continues in twenty twenty five as the airline
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Speaker 1: prepares to fly to two new US destinations, Nashville and Indianapolis,
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Speaker 1: using its new Airbus eight three twenty one xl or aircraft.
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Speaker 1: This brings the number of transatlantic routes operated by the
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Speaker 1: airline from Dublin, Shannon and Manchester to twenty four. Steelers
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Speaker 1: fans traveling to Ireland for the Big Game can enjoy
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Speaker 1: a relaxing journey when they fly with air Lingus. Air Lingus,
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Speaker 1: You're very welcome.
0:40
Speaker 2: Welcome into a very special edition of the Iriships podcast
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Speaker 2: presented by aer Lingus. From the trope deep in the
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Speaker 2: hearts of the facility, here with the man himself, Alex Heidsmith,
0:51
Speaker 2: Alex Balsha. It's great to be here, Man Hoiden.
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Speaker 3: Doing great, Okay, it's going great so far. You know,
0:57
Speaker 3: we've been getting after it. Pads have been popping this week,
1:00
Speaker 3: so we've been we've been looking good, just get better
1:03
Speaker 3: better every day, so you know, just looking forward to
1:05
Speaker 3: the season ahead.
1:06
Speaker 2: The subject that I'm sure people and I are like
1:08
Speaker 2: I've talked, we've we've talked that much. But to actually
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Speaker 2: sit here and shot to you, you know, we're we're
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Speaker 2: seven weeks today from this game in Dublin, which is
1:17
Speaker 2: crazy to think as a fun first and foremost, what's
1:20
Speaker 2: the mood like in the locker room? Is there a
1:22
Speaker 2: real excitement? And how do you feel about actually going
1:24
Speaker 2: over to iron in the player for the first time.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. You know. Ever since the
1:28
Speaker 3: game was announced or even rumors of the game, just
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Speaker 3: thinking about going over there would just be so cool
1:33
Speaker 3: because you know, me and my wife have have been
1:35
Speaker 3: to Europe and traveled a good bit, So being able
1:37
Speaker 3: to be being able to go over there and you know,
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Speaker 3: play a game and represent this organization is going to
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Speaker 3: be so awesome. And so I was just excited to
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Speaker 3: you know, be there, see see Ireland, see see the
1:48
Speaker 3: whole city. So I think it's gonna be a great time.
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Speaker 3: You know, I think a lot of guys are amped
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Speaker 3: up for it.
1:51
Speaker 2: So you're from Wilmington, North Carolina. For people listening to
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Speaker 2: this in Europe, and what's that like? And you wherever
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Speaker 2: you travel in Europe.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, so born and Race for went to North Carolina.
2:01
Speaker 3: You know, I was like ten minutes from the beach,
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Speaker 3: so nice during the summer, I could always go to
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Speaker 3: the beach and stuff. So I grew up in a
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Speaker 3: beach town, so that was awesome. And uh, we've been
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Speaker 3: all over the place for the seas two three years
2:13
Speaker 3: ago we went to Greece for our honeymoon, so that
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Speaker 3: was amazing. We did like a big Europe trip last year.
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Speaker 3: We went to London, Paris, Barcelona, and then Venis, Florence, Rome,
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Speaker 3: And this past year we went to like the Mafy
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Speaker 3: coast and south of Italy. So yeah, we're big travelers
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Speaker 3: and we love doing it and so we just love
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Speaker 3: love exploring the world and so just ready to you
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Speaker 3: know at Ireland, you know, to our you know, to
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Speaker 3: our next travel list.
2:38
Speaker 2: You imagined Wilmington, UNC's actually coming to Ireland next year,
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Speaker 2: which is really cool for us a standing on the
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Speaker 2: Steelers stuff. You were awarded the key to the city
2:46
Speaker 2: this off season in Wilmington. Like does it really head
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Speaker 2: home when something like that what happens in terms of
2:50
Speaker 2: like Jesus, you sort of have meet it or it
2:53
Speaker 2: must be you must be very proud to get that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's cool, but you know, just knowing that for me,
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Speaker 3: it's always on. One thing that I knew, know when
3:00
Speaker 3: I made it to the league is that I wanted
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Speaker 3: to just impact others. And I know that my platform,
3:05
Speaker 3: you know, it isn't about me. You know, I've been
3:07
Speaker 3: bussed to be a busting to others, and so yeah,
3:09
Speaker 3: just to be able to go back and every single
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Speaker 3: year and just get back to my hometown, that that
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Speaker 3: just means the world, because you know, that's the place
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Speaker 3: they raised me. My dad's from there, and so just
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Speaker 3: you know, it's it's such a special place Wilmington is
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Speaker 3: and it's only it's growing like crazy, and so, like I said,
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Speaker 3: I'm just super thankful for my parents who raised me
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Speaker 3: down there and just being being from the city of Willmington,
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Speaker 3: North Carolina. So it's pretty it's pretty pretty awesome place
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Speaker 3: and it's continually growing.
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Speaker 2: Two big things on the schedule for the organization over
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Speaker 2: the next year, obviously, the first one is the Dubling game.
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Speaker 2: Second one is the draft. You were a third round
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Speaker 2: peck in the draft. What's it like getting a phone.
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Speaker 3: Call it's amazing, you know. I was COVID. I was
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Speaker 3: COVID class, so oh okay, yeah, it was that was
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Speaker 3: the year that I think it was one of the
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Speaker 3: most watched drafts, just because there was nothing else on
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Speaker 3: TV with COVID and whatnot. And I remember I was
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Speaker 3: going to have like a big party. I have all
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Speaker 3: my family and close friends there, but because of COVID,
4:02
Speaker 3: only had like ten people there. So my wife was there,
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Speaker 3: my parents, my sister and her husband, and three of
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Speaker 3: my best friends, and I had like a news anchor
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Speaker 3: there as well. So I just I just remember it
4:12
Speaker 3: was my agent was talking to me and you projected
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Speaker 3: to go, you know, around three, and so that that
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Speaker 3: second night was just it was a long night because
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Speaker 3: I think I just picked one O two and I
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Speaker 3: didn't get picked till like it was at the end
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Speaker 3: of the night. So I think it was like eleven
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Speaker 3: forty eleven forty five and I was sitting there and
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Speaker 3: there was two picks before Pittsburgh when I got the call,
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Speaker 3: and I just remember my phone going off. I'm like,
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Speaker 3: oh my gosh, this actually happened, and uh, it was
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Speaker 3: just a surreal moment. I'd like, I can't believe this happened,
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Speaker 3: like where everyone was talking, my phone goes off and
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Speaker 3: everyone just gets quiet, and I'm on the phone, and
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Speaker 3: it was it was cool. I had some of my
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Speaker 3: best friends from college and teammates, like on a zoom
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Speaker 3: call on my computer right in front of me. And
4:50
Speaker 3: then my dad connected his computer to like a TV
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Speaker 3: and had all my all his family, all moms family
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Speaker 3: on that TV in the zoom as well, and so
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Speaker 3: everyone kind of saw when I picked up the phone.
5:00
Speaker 3: And then I remember getting off the phone for the
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Speaker 3: first time and I jumped up. I was like, let's go.
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Speaker 3: So I was just super excited. I was. If I
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Speaker 3: didn't ejected that night, I was gonna be probably go
5:08
Speaker 3: to sleep within the next thirty minutes. But I think
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Speaker 3: I don't think I went to sleep that night. It
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Speaker 3: was crazy.
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Speaker 2: I'm glad you didn't go to bed anyway, and look
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Speaker 2: at us now, and I'd love that. We'll talk about
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Speaker 2: that draft if you get an our chance properly, because
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Speaker 2: there's much you can go into that, but having no
5:21
Speaker 2: wit and stuff. In terms of this year, you've coached
5:23
Speaker 2: McCurley in his first season the linebackers coach. How do
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Speaker 2: you find him so far and sort of the improvements
5:28
Speaker 2: that you guys are trying to make out here in
5:29
Speaker 2: some menstal college.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been great, you know, and he's coaching this
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Speaker 3: league and I think, you know, he brings a lot
5:34
Speaker 3: of knowledge and wisdom to our defense. And so I
5:36
Speaker 3: think he's done a great job coaching the inside backers
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Speaker 3: and just really getting those guys right. And so I
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Speaker 3: know the guys are really recepted to his coaching, and
5:44
Speaker 3: you know, I think he's out there getting those guys
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Speaker 3: better and better every single day, and so definitely know
5:48
Speaker 3: that he's adding a lot of value to our defense.
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Speaker 2: It's funny, we talked about it on the way in,
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Speaker 2: but I've had a chance to go to like Jacksonville, Minnesota, Indianapolis,
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Speaker 2: even Cleveland and see training coms over the last few days.
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Speaker 2: This place is a pretty special month. What's it like
6:02
Speaker 2: when you're out there and there's fiusands of fans and
6:03
Speaker 2: I know on Friday night you have like thirteen five.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. I mean the Friday night lights
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Speaker 3: special thing is unique. Every senior year's like I think
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Speaker 3: they might be like fifteen twenty thousand. It was crazy.
6:13
Speaker 3: But the thing that just makes this place unique is
6:16
Speaker 3: just the camaraderie that we have every year. So you know,
6:18
Speaker 3: not every team goes off to a destination camp. You know,
6:21
Speaker 3: my first couple of years we stayed at the stadium
6:23
Speaker 3: because of COVID, and then came out here in twenty
6:25
Speaker 3: two and then coming here ever since. But that's just
6:27
Speaker 3: probably my favorite part being out here is just the camaraderie.
6:30
Speaker 3: So every night, you know, as a practice at their meetings,
6:32
Speaker 3: you know, we're playing cards, we're playing video games, all
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Speaker 3: us together, and so I think that's what really I
6:37
Speaker 3: think the best teams are the teams that are the
6:39
Speaker 3: closest teams at least, you know, successful teams that I've
6:41
Speaker 3: been on in my playing career are the teams that
6:43
Speaker 3: are the closest, and so I think that's something that
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Speaker 3: is value to hear, the camaraderie. And so that's probably
6:49
Speaker 3: my favorite part about this.
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Speaker 2: One of the things whenever we ask players if it's Tappenham,
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Speaker 2: Wembley or Germany or international game, about the experience, it
6:57
Speaker 2: always says, but like a ministreating camp, is that something
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Speaker 2: that you guys, maybe you're looking forward to the maybe
7:01
Speaker 2: getting out of it, getting away from the noise, especially
7:03
Speaker 2: over here and it's all a bad thing. Just you know,
7:06
Speaker 2: getting away and actually regrouping them. I really giving that
7:08
Speaker 2: game a good goal before.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's gonna be such a really fun trip.
7:13
Speaker 3: No talking to other guys you know who have been
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Speaker 3: overseas and experience that you know, they've had, They've had
7:19
Speaker 3: good experiences. So I'm just really excited to just you know,
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Speaker 3: see see Ireland, Ce Dublin and just you can't wait
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Speaker 3: to get out there.
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Speaker 2: TJ's back. What's he like as a as a friend,
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Speaker 2: as a player, and you guys, look obviously everyone stoked
7:31
Speaker 2: of him back. It's it's a huge one with this offseason.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been awesome. You know, he was here when
7:36
Speaker 3: I came in my rookie year. Him and Buddy Pree
7:39
Speaker 3: were the two outside backers when I came in. So
7:41
Speaker 3: to be able to come into a situation like that
7:43
Speaker 3: is awesome, you know, to learn from two great guys
7:46
Speaker 3: and you know, being you know this my six year
7:48
Speaker 3: being teammates with him, and it's just been cool. You
7:51
Speaker 3: know we've got pretty close you know, off the field
7:53
Speaker 3: as well, and so it's just been really cool to
7:56
Speaker 3: you know, play with him. You know, he's the best
7:57
Speaker 3: on the way he does. And so for him to
7:59
Speaker 3: get that pay day, you know, he deserved it and
8:01
Speaker 3: to get it done before camp was just you know
8:04
Speaker 3: awesome as well. You know, so don't have to worry
8:05
Speaker 3: about none of that going into camp. But you know,
8:07
Speaker 3: like I said, he's the best in the world for
8:08
Speaker 3: a reason.
8:09
Speaker 2: It's been a fun few weeks. I love Black Coat
8:11
Speaker 2: as well. I think we got that for social media.
8:12
Speaker 2: That's the whatever reason. And Barker, Sure, what's your favorite
8:16
Speaker 2: stadium to plan.
8:17
Speaker 3: Why besides after Sure, let's see, I'll probably say either
8:22
Speaker 3: either the bills of the Chief Stadium. Both of those
8:27
Speaker 3: stadiums are insanely loud.
8:29
Speaker 2: And so last year in Buffalo as well, it feels
8:31
Speaker 2: you know.
8:32
Speaker 3: I think I think to play there two years ago
8:34
Speaker 3: or yeah, I played there two years ago in the playoffs.
8:36
Speaker 3: But I remember in twenty twenty one that was the
8:41
Speaker 3: first like year after code, but I think they they
8:43
Speaker 3: still had some regulations and stuff whatnot. But there's no
8:46
Speaker 3: fans that like, barely any fans in the games in
8:48
Speaker 3: twenty twenty and then twenty twenty one came, it was
8:50
Speaker 3: sold out, even New York. They didn't have any fans
8:52
Speaker 3: all season. I think we had like like five thousand
8:56
Speaker 3: the most sometime. But I remember that first game in
8:58
Speaker 3: twenties thwentyone, and that places like literally deafening and the
9:01
Speaker 3: fans are super close to you, and it's just it's
9:03
Speaker 3: just a crazy environment. And then like I said, Airhead
9:06
Speaker 3: as well, you know, just seeing the Sea of Red.
9:09
Speaker 3: You know, we played there during the playoff game and
9:11
Speaker 3: that was crazy as well. Then they always got to
9:13
Speaker 3: love the Division games too, you know, because those are
9:14
Speaker 3: the hostile ones.
9:15
Speaker 2: And guys travel as well, like the Steelers fans travel.
9:17
Speaker 3: Due they do the I mean I think we for
9:19
Speaker 3: most places, you know, there's more Steeler fans than than
9:22
Speaker 3: than the home team fans, except for you know, like
9:25
Speaker 3: the Division games is the Ravens, Browns and Sheets. You
9:28
Speaker 3: know those games, I mean the Ravens, Browns, Bengals. Those
9:30
Speaker 3: games are always hostile. And so that's probably say those
9:33
Speaker 3: are my favorite takings.
9:34
Speaker 2: You can definitely when you're when you're in Europe and
9:36
Speaker 2: it's maybe live for example, the first light football game
9:38
Speaker 2: last year in the snow, and you can figure that
9:41
Speaker 2: even not just even not far away, it's all them
9:43
Speaker 2: with the fans like it's funny, we'll probably see closer
9:47
Speaker 2: to the time. But the big number of the big
9:49
Speaker 2: question is how many fans are going to be in Dublin,
9:52
Speaker 2: And I think you're we could be looking at thirty
9:53
Speaker 2: or forty fives and Steelers fans, which for an international
9:56
Speaker 2: game is unheard of, but Buffalo is but got a
9:58
Speaker 2: couple of years ago. So I'm sure push you guys
10:00
Speaker 2: on and I want to jump on a couple of things.
10:03
Speaker 2: You've obviously, look, you had an injury last year obviously
10:06
Speaker 2: back night. What's it like mentally when you know on
10:11
Speaker 2: a Sunday morning you can play like does that does
10:13
Speaker 2: that get to you or are you very focused in
10:15
Speaker 2: terms of out there and just try and keep going
10:17
Speaker 2: each day?
10:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's definitely tough, you know. For me,
10:20
Speaker 3: last year was definitely a tough year mentally for sure,
10:23
Speaker 3: not just physically, but I never missed more than one game,
10:26
Speaker 3: you know, in my career in the season, and so
10:28
Speaker 3: I missed six games last year. Had grown into an ankle,
10:31
Speaker 3: and so it was definitely frustrated. But you know, I
10:33
Speaker 3: just kept pushing, kept grinding, kept believing, and so whenever
10:37
Speaker 3: I came back. You know, I feel like I finished
10:38
Speaker 3: the season strong when I was back in at the
10:40
Speaker 3: end of the season, and so just really for me,
10:42
Speaker 3: I've done a lot of things, you know, to make
10:45
Speaker 3: sure that those things will happen again, and done a
10:47
Speaker 3: lot of strengthening specifically their growing area, and then done
10:51
Speaker 3: a lot of ankle mobility and rehab this year to
10:53
Speaker 3: make sure that that's back to where it needs to be,
10:56
Speaker 3: especially for my position and what I do been around
10:59
Speaker 3: the edge. So I was just excited for we going
11:03
Speaker 3: to be able to bounce back this year.
11:04
Speaker 2: Anybody that looks at your social media, it's quite clear
11:08
Speaker 2: to me from looking at at the other day you
11:10
Speaker 2: enjoy giving back and really helping people. You out a
11:12
Speaker 2: football camp. I think it was the fifth annual Family Foundation.
11:15
Speaker 2: What's it like doing that and sit and seeing the
11:17
Speaker 2: youth and to be inspiring them to be a bit
11:19
Speaker 2: like you in the future.
11:20
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just awesome because I know I was
11:22
Speaker 3: watching those those kids shoes and like I said, for me,
11:24
Speaker 3: it's all about I've been blessed to be a blessing
11:26
Speaker 3: to others, and so I had our foundation for five
11:31
Speaker 3: years now that Alex has been a family foundation, and
11:33
Speaker 3: so that's something that's really been important to me and
11:36
Speaker 3: to my family, is that a we give back and
11:39
Speaker 3: so especially in the city of Wilmington where I was born.
11:42
Speaker 3: I'm here in Pittsburgh and then also Charlotte because Charlotte
11:45
Speaker 3: played a huge role in my life. That's where I
11:46
Speaker 3: went to school. And so just really just giving back
11:49
Speaker 3: to the youth and just inspiring the next generation, impacting
11:51
Speaker 3: the next generation. And so it we're still a newer foundation,
11:55
Speaker 3: but you know, we're we're continuing to do more and more.
11:56
Speaker 3: But the football camp is something that we do every
11:58
Speaker 3: single year, and you know, it's awesome being able to
12:00
Speaker 3: be out there and get back to my hometown in
12:03
Speaker 3: that way.
12:03
Speaker 2: Beast luck without in the future add two quick ones
12:06
Speaker 2: to go funniest playing in the locker room? Who is
12:08
Speaker 2: the funniest guy?
12:10
Speaker 3: Oh, let's see, I'd probably say either Darius Slay or
12:14
Speaker 3: Brandon Fojoko.
12:16
Speaker 2: Interesting.
12:17
Speaker 3: Interesting, it's between them two for sure.
12:19
Speaker 2: Okay, at favorite moment is a Steelers So far.
12:22
Speaker 3: Favorite moment was a Steeler? Uh? I would I would
12:27
Speaker 3: probably say when in the division my rookie year that
12:30
Speaker 3: that was really cool. You know, we started off hot
12:34
Speaker 3: that year. Then we lost a couple of games, but
12:35
Speaker 3: you know, to be able to get that division, and
12:37
Speaker 3: when that division my rookie was really cool, you know.
12:40
Speaker 3: Alter you know, they're definitely disappointing that we didn't make
12:43
Speaker 3: a push to the playoffs that year, but I'd probably
12:46
Speaker 3: say to win that division, uh, it was really cool.
12:49
Speaker 3: And that also too, I think it was my rookie year.
12:51
Speaker 3: We were playing first matchup against the Ravens, like I
12:55
Speaker 3: gotta pick my first pick since like Pop Warner in
12:57
Speaker 3: that game against the Ravens, and we ended up winning
13:01
Speaker 3: that game like in like the last second. So that
13:03
Speaker 3: was just a crazy matchup. So so I play probably
13:05
Speaker 3: say those are two of my favorite moments.
13:07
Speaker 2: Just one final one quickly to finish off. You won
13:09
Speaker 2: the Chief Award last year for you know, the way
13:12
Speaker 2: that you've you know obviously portrays up to the media,
13:13
Speaker 2: et cetera talking about the Chief. Did the guys in
13:17
Speaker 2: the locker room under and do they understand the importance
13:20
Speaker 2: of this game in Dublin in terms of there is
13:22
Speaker 2: no team in the NFL that has the relationship with
13:24
Speaker 2: the Island, with any country really quite like the Steelers
13:27
Speaker 2: and they're any family in Ireland.
13:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think you know a lot of
13:30
Speaker 3: guys do understand that. We know that, you know, we're
13:32
Speaker 3: going over there to represent you know, this organization. There
13:37
Speaker 3: were any family and so we know it's a it's
13:39
Speaker 3: a big opportunity for us, and like I said, we're
13:41
Speaker 3: just really humbling on and to be able to go
13:42
Speaker 3: over there and play with there.
13:44
Speaker 2: We're honored to have you over. I can't wait seven
13:46
Speaker 2: weeks or so, depending on the les goes out twenty September,
13:49
Speaker 2: you're going to be running out onto the feeling for park.
13:51
Speaker 2: Enjoy it and enjoy the experience because from speaking to
13:53
Speaker 2: guys in ninety seven, they still talk about it to
13:55
Speaker 2: this day and more so on behalf of Steelers. Fancy
13:58
Speaker 2: your best look the season? Can't wait for Alex Franky
14:00
Speaker 2: how much?
14:00
Speaker 3: Here sir? Thank you.
14:13
Speaker 1: Irish Airline air LINGUS will proudly serve as the presenting
14:16
Speaker 1: partner of Steelers Ireland twenty twenty five. Airlingus's growth in
14:20
Speaker 1: North America continues in twenty twenty five as the airline
14:23
Speaker 1: prepares to fly to two new US destinations, Nashville and Indianapolis,
14:28
Speaker 1: using its new Airbus eight three twenty one excel Or aircraft.
14:32
Speaker 1: This brings the number of transatlantic routes operated by the
14:34
Speaker 1: airline from Dublin, Shannon and Manchester to twenty four. Steelers.
14:38
Speaker 1: Fans traveling to Ireland for the big Game can enjoy
14:41
Speaker 1: a relaxing journey when they fly with air Lingus. Air Lingus,
14:44
Speaker 1: You're very welcome.