Latest / In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers) / HR1: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 4

Transcript

HR1: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 4 · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

0:01
Speaker 1: This is live coverage of twenty twenty six Steelers training
0:06
Speaker 1: Camp on the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
0:11
Speaker 1: Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, and brought to you
0:14
Speaker 1: in part by Pennsylvania one Call Systems Dial eight one
0:18
Speaker 1: one before You Dig SNT Bank People Forward Banking by
0:22
Speaker 1: kalucy Chevrolet, serving the Pittsburgh area for over one hundred
0:26
Speaker 1: and eight years. Clearview Federal Credit Union. For every touchdown
0:31
Speaker 1: the Black and Gold score in twenty twenty six, Clearview
0:34
Speaker 1: will donate five hundred dollars to the Light of Life
0:37
Speaker 1: Mission Listit CLEARVIEWFCU dot org and by iron Workers Local
0:42
Speaker 1: Union number three. We don't go to the office, We
0:46
Speaker 1: build it.
0:49
Speaker 2: And welcome me. Say if it's in college and la
0:51
Speaker 2: trope inside the locker room where we get a chance
0:54
Speaker 2: to ceason football, I'm gonna say kill you. We got game.
1:00
Speaker 3: Yeah. Those whistles you hear are real live whistle. We're
1:02
Speaker 3: not making it up.
1:03
Speaker 2: Nope, we didn't.
1:04
Speaker 3: We didn't bring it up into the booth. We have
1:06
Speaker 3: actual practice going on.
1:07
Speaker 4: This practice today I think extends into like one sixteen sixteen, Yeah,
1:12
Speaker 4: not one seventeen, just another you know underline underscore for
1:18
Speaker 4: how much every second UH is scripted out here for
1:22
Speaker 4: or scripted out or prepared for whatever, whatever you want.
1:24
Speaker 2: To call it for. For head coach Mike McCarthy seeing
1:28
Speaker 2: Sante Samuel Junior with a nice.
1:29
Speaker 4: Pass break up there against DK Metcalf h from Aaron Rodgers.
1:33
Speaker 3: Right, let let's let's let people know these whether the.
1:36
Speaker 4: Starting unit is out here right now, one's on ones,
1:39
Speaker 4: good on good competitive team period right now to move
1:42
Speaker 4: the ball down the field. So sitting at a third
1:44
Speaker 4: and long, so we're getting our first like kind.
1:47
Speaker 5: Of team speed, team combativeness, I guess is probably the
1:52
Speaker 5: best word to use drills of camp because mostly everything's
1:56
Speaker 5: been two minute drills.
1:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is not a two minute situation. This is
1:59
Speaker 4: just regular are down in distance, first, second, third and
2:01
Speaker 4: fourth down.
2:02
Speaker 2: Helmet's some guys, most guys doesn't look like anyone. We're
2:06
Speaker 2: in shoulder pads really out there. That's a beautifully throw
2:09
Speaker 2: them all on the far side of the field. Just
2:11
Speaker 2: shell protectors, Yeah, shell protectors for DK Metcalf in front
2:15
Speaker 2: of Brandon Echoles along the far sideline. Chris Week thrown ball,
2:18
Speaker 2: but the Paul still just of course we talked about
2:21
Speaker 2: this yesterday, everybody's eyes are on the quarterback position. Man,
2:24
Speaker 2: it just still looks Chris coming out of the hand
2:26
Speaker 2: of Aaron Rodgers. Here's a handoff to Lout Nichols off
2:29
Speaker 2: the left side. He's getting to run with the ones,
2:33
Speaker 2: a little change up there.
2:34
Speaker 4: You want to see what all of these guys can do, because,
2:36
Speaker 4: let's be frank, you know, outside of Rico Duo and
2:39
Speaker 4: Jalen Warren, you want to know who your third and
2:41
Speaker 4: fourth running back is. So full audition for Lou Nichols,
2:45
Speaker 4: for Caleb Johnson, Eli heiden Reich. Right, we have all
2:49
Speaker 4: these guys that are available to us to see what.
2:52
Speaker 3: They can do.
2:52
Speaker 4: Travis Homer and Riley Nolkowski more full back. But you know,
2:57
Speaker 4: maybe maybe he'll get maybe he'll get a little plug
2:59
Speaker 4: and hug here and there.
3:00
Speaker 2: Right, you know, and again, one of the things that's
3:03
Speaker 2: going to be interesting to see is how things are valued.
3:07
Speaker 2: You know. So Mike McCarthy was asked about a Sante
3:10
Speaker 2: Samuel Junior yesterday. We talked about that I coached against
3:13
Speaker 2: his dad, and he went on to rave about how
3:15
Speaker 2: good is Sante looked in practice thus far. Again, it's
3:18
Speaker 2: early days, you know, we haven't seen the hitting and
3:21
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff, but his aggression and all the
3:23
Speaker 2: things that he's like. Even going back to OTAs and
3:26
Speaker 2: you know, he was asked about Travis Homer and what
3:28
Speaker 2: a good special teams player is and he goes, you know,
3:30
Speaker 2: he said, look, he's got to make a team. Now, again,
3:34
Speaker 2: that's not We're not We're not. I'm not sure he's
3:37
Speaker 2: trying to send a message. We're certainly not trying to
3:39
Speaker 2: send a message. What we're what we're saying is that
3:42
Speaker 2: there's there were for Mike Tomlin, it felt like there
3:46
Speaker 2: were going to be several players whose special teams prowess.
3:49
Speaker 2: And there's a lofted ball this time knocked away intended
3:53
Speaker 2: for Metcalf on the near side by Eccles, And you know,
3:57
Speaker 2: so I think Carson Brunner is a guy that's going
4:02
Speaker 2: to be interesting. Travis Homer is a guy who's going
4:04
Speaker 2: to be interesting. Because Mike Tomlin had guys like Miles
4:06
Speaker 2: Killibrew who's a Pro Bowl special teams player, and that's
4:10
Speaker 2: what he did. I mean, there were times in which,
4:12
Speaker 2: certainly if somebody got hurt during the game, you see
4:14
Speaker 2: Miles Kilbrouge safety, but you know, if safety got hurt
4:17
Speaker 2: and you need to start somebody, they might bring up
4:19
Speaker 2: somebody from the practice squad. You know, so Miles's abilities
4:23
Speaker 2: on special teams were highly valued. We don't know how
4:28
Speaker 2: this staff is going to evaluate some of some of
4:31
Speaker 2: those guys a little further down the roster, like the
4:33
Speaker 2: third running back.
4:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you want to put every opportunity out there
4:37
Speaker 4: to put film for all these guys and put them
4:40
Speaker 4: in a variety of situations.
4:43
Speaker 2: You know.
4:43
Speaker 4: I think that's one of the key things is how
4:46
Speaker 4: do I put these guys in a stress test? Because
4:48
Speaker 4: what if it does happen in a game and you
4:50
Speaker 4: happen to be dressed Lou Nichols and Rico du or
4:53
Speaker 4: Jalen Warren's unavailable and I need you to jump in. Well,
4:56
Speaker 4: you need to not get enamored with the fact that
4:59
Speaker 4: Aaron Rogers talking to you, you know, or worry about
5:02
Speaker 4: who else is in that huddle, like you have a
5:04
Speaker 4: job to do.
5:04
Speaker 3: How are you going to respond to that pressure of
5:06
Speaker 3: the moment.
5:07
Speaker 4: And I think that's you know, we talk about Mike
5:09
Speaker 4: Mike Tomlin being a master of situational football, like putting
5:13
Speaker 4: guys in un comfortable situations and trying to make them comfortable.
5:16
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy is also a guy. He's not gonna leave
5:19
Speaker 3: any stone unturned and he's going.
5:21
Speaker 4: To be methodical about putting guys in these situations so
5:25
Speaker 4: that it becomes reactionary.
5:27
Speaker 3: Right, and I think the same.
5:28
Speaker 4: So two different ways to skin that cat, but still
5:31
Speaker 4: the same result in it.
5:32
Speaker 2: Right. And what we don't know is are there going
5:35
Speaker 2: to be that handful of players that make the team
5:39
Speaker 2: because of their prowess on special teams? And that's that
5:43
Speaker 2: that's going to be, you know, like Connor Hayward, Right,
5:46
Speaker 2: Connor Hayward could do a bunch of different things, but
5:49
Speaker 2: his bread and butter was that special teams. Miles Killerbrew
5:52
Speaker 2: special teams are other guys who's you know, ability Carson Bruner,
5:56
Speaker 2: his ability on special teams was his ticket to making
5:59
Speaker 2: your roster. It might be your ticket to making the roster.
6:03
Speaker 2: Is we want the best fifth inside linebacker, best third
6:06
Speaker 2: running back. Now, if you're that guy, you better be
6:10
Speaker 2: able to play special teams also, right, So.
6:13
Speaker 3: Or have a willingness.
6:14
Speaker 4: You might not be good at it, but you better
6:16
Speaker 4: have a willingness to go down there track and do
6:19
Speaker 4: your job.
6:19
Speaker 2: So this might be a nice little crossing pattern to
6:21
Speaker 2: Jeremy Bernard there, this might be another way of putting it.
6:24
Speaker 2: So let's say you had three running backs, right, one
6:27
Speaker 2: running back which really good on special teams, not much
6:29
Speaker 2: of a running back. Another guy, and I'm just making
6:32
Speaker 2: this up. I'm not trying to innimate who's one guy
6:34
Speaker 2: was a really good running back but not good on
6:37
Speaker 2: special teams. That last guy was split the difference that
6:42
Speaker 2: might be enough to make the team. You know, hey,
6:44
Speaker 2: you're our best third running back. You're not our best
6:46
Speaker 2: special teamer, but you're you're not our worst special teamer
6:50
Speaker 2: in that group, you know what I mean. So we
6:52
Speaker 2: don't know how the roster is going to be constructed.
6:54
Speaker 2: You just need to be the eighth best special teamer, right,
6:57
Speaker 2: you know, right, like the eleven that go on the fields.
6:59
Speaker 4: Right, And like you said, and maybe that running back
7:01
Speaker 4: is a little bit better, has a little bit better
7:03
Speaker 4: hands out of the backfield to catch some swing passes
7:06
Speaker 4: or some screenplays. He's a little more elusive, and like
7:09
Speaker 4: you said, and as a decent special teamer, that's right,
7:11
Speaker 4: that might be the guy versus the guy who's like, oh,
7:13
Speaker 4: he's just straight ground and pound. Right, a traditional running
7:16
Speaker 4: back that doesn't really catch a ball here and there.
7:18
Speaker 4: He might catch a check down.
7:20
Speaker 2: Or he's a special team's ace, but not much of
7:21
Speaker 2: a running back.
7:22
Speaker 3: So exactly, he's just a he's a decoy when you
7:24
Speaker 3: get there.
7:25
Speaker 2: Offensive lift seam pattern completed to Pat Fryar.
7:28
Speaker 3: Mood he heard him moves you knew who you know.
7:33
Speaker 2: Who've caught the football. Yeah, a nice seam pattern to
7:36
Speaker 2: the back shoulder. Patrick Kuman was in good coverage on that.
7:39
Speaker 2: But again just to the only expression. He threw him
7:41
Speaker 2: open there.
7:42
Speaker 3: He threw him open.
7:43
Speaker 4: And that was a second pass in that drive for
7:45
Speaker 4: Pat Fryar move that he caught across the middle.
7:47
Speaker 2: Yep.
7:47
Speaker 3: So great job there of them moving down the field.
7:51
Speaker 4: They had one fourth down situation during that drive that
7:54
Speaker 4: we didn't really highlight. That was the play that that
7:57
Speaker 4: kept the chains moving. And now we'll get a look
7:59
Speaker 4: at what will Howard maybe.
8:00
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I would imagine Mason Rudolph will see though.
8:04
Speaker 3: He's Rudolph is off to the side, so it might
8:06
Speaker 3: be Rowler.
8:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, because Mason's right in the backside over here to
8:09
Speaker 4: our left, and he's sitting there next to Will Hawens.
8:12
Speaker 4: Got to be it's got to be Aler that's going
8:14
Speaker 4: to get a crack here with the second unit offensive,
8:16
Speaker 4: Why Maxiana Schore And at the right tackle position, Ryan McCollum,
8:21
Speaker 4: I can't tell who's that guard?
8:22
Speaker 2: So interesting thing happened again today. You know we talked
8:26
Speaker 2: about this yesterday. Troy Foutan, who looked like he flinched
8:29
Speaker 2: a little on a drill. It comes Maxie hona Art
8:32
Speaker 2: right tackle over to left tackle goes Dylan Cook. So
8:35
Speaker 2: even the veteran guys, you know, it's attention to detail
8:38
Speaker 2: small things. You make it premake a free stan right.
8:41
Speaker 2: Here's a quick, good cross to cole Purchase thrown by
8:45
Speaker 2: a quick slant.
8:47
Speaker 4: I asked Stephen Jones at the right guard next to
8:50
Speaker 4: you and in between McCollum as well, Roger Jones had
8:55
Speaker 4: left tackle on that boy.
8:56
Speaker 2: Pretty good catch by a T Perry on a ball
8:58
Speaker 2: that was behind him on a slant to the left
9:02
Speaker 2: that led him. It might have been intercepted.
9:03
Speaker 3: Who's that in the backfield? It's a Navy man like
9:07
Speaker 3: hid and right from Mount Lebanon.
9:11
Speaker 2: And rosstat that is that's not a good throw to
9:13
Speaker 2: cole Bert just behind him. And falls in completely. Loo's
9:16
Speaker 2: think they're still going to hurry up even though it's
9:18
Speaker 2: an incomplete pass.
9:21
Speaker 4: And to round out that offensive line, you have brock
9:24
Speaker 4: Hoffman playing the left guard. So I just want to
9:25
Speaker 4: make sure we got the five linemen in there. My
9:29
Speaker 4: area of expertise, because I think this is what kind
9:31
Speaker 4: of your second line looks like.
9:33
Speaker 3: I mean, not a bad line. I mean you think
9:34
Speaker 3: of definitely, yeah, vets.
9:37
Speaker 4: In the middle and two first round draft picks on
9:39
Speaker 4: the edge of Yeah, that's pretty nice, and hide and
9:40
Speaker 4: right moving out to the left here, so you have
9:42
Speaker 4: two receivers to the left, three to the right.
9:44
Speaker 2: But you know, watching that show, that throw from jew Aller,
9:47
Speaker 2: you know he is he is, he's got the size.
9:50
Speaker 2: It's just this sort of fluidity, the arm strength you like.
9:53
Speaker 2: But again he just siales one there. You know again,
9:57
Speaker 2: whether it's these are mechanical things like that little cross
10:00
Speaker 2: that's one where you got to it's.
10:01
Speaker 4: Not it's not a difficult throw. I said, Dolly put
10:03
Speaker 4: it on him. Yeah, you need to put a dart
10:05
Speaker 4: on him.
10:05
Speaker 3: That one. That one was a touch drow and yeah,
10:08
Speaker 3: and he just kind of lofted that one. That would
10:10
Speaker 3: look more like.
10:10
Speaker 4: A like a twelve or thirteen yard seam route versus
10:13
Speaker 4: versus a stop route on the eighth.
10:14
Speaker 3: So you know, these are some of the things.
10:17
Speaker 4: And this is why he was kind of a project, right,
10:19
Speaker 4: why you while you wait for the third round to
10:21
Speaker 4: go get him. There's a lot of the measurables, but
10:24
Speaker 4: you got to have some of that intangible that coach McCarthy's.
10:27
Speaker 3: Gonna have to coach into him.
10:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that size and arm strength. You know, as
10:31
Speaker 2: they say, like in basketball, when a guy's a seven
10:34
Speaker 2: footer and there's an errant throw intended for cole Burgess
10:38
Speaker 2: out to the right to three off the mark here
10:39
Speaker 2: in row for aller But you know they say, you
10:41
Speaker 2: can't teach size, right, you can't teach you can't teach.
10:45
Speaker 3: Arm strength, and you can't coach speed. Right.
10:48
Speaker 2: There's little things you can do to make people faster,
10:50
Speaker 2: there's little things you can do to improve arm strength.
10:52
Speaker 2: But you know those are those are you know, those
10:55
Speaker 2: aren't the talents that attract you and the talents that
10:59
Speaker 2: can get you.
11:00
Speaker 3: You want to get off the bus team first?
11:01
Speaker 2: Yeah that's right, Yeah, that's right. And now fourth and
11:05
Speaker 2: ten heres we're watching.
11:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, fourth and ten, well four to two Nickel deployed
11:10
Speaker 4: by the defense, Jack Sawyer off the defensive.
11:13
Speaker 2: Left, Henderson and Castro the deep safeties. Yeah, hour's gonna
11:21
Speaker 2: zip went up the left side. Ohful back shoulder throw
11:25
Speaker 2: caught by at Perry. And again that's the sort of thing.
11:28
Speaker 2: So that ball, I'm gonna say that traveled maybe forty
11:33
Speaker 2: yards vertically.
11:34
Speaker 3: In the air.
11:34
Speaker 2: Now you have to remember the high pot news of
11:36
Speaker 2: the triangle. You got to add another seven eight yards
11:39
Speaker 2: at that was loft and everything that was forty five
11:43
Speaker 2: to fifty yards on mostly.
11:45
Speaker 3: On a rope. I mean, you know, not everybody here
11:49
Speaker 3: on power.
11:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, not everybody can make that throw. You know, we
11:52
Speaker 2: were talking about this yesterday, Like I'm a big believer
11:55
Speaker 2: that you've got to be able to throw a ball
11:58
Speaker 2: on a line about forty yards. Yeah, And you know
12:01
Speaker 2: that's that covers the deep out, you know, the deep
12:04
Speaker 2: middle throw. If a guy's running a twenty yard cross
12:07
Speaker 2: and you've taken a you know, a five step drop
12:11
Speaker 2: or whatever, you know, that's that's a twenty five yard
12:14
Speaker 2: throw over the middle and they take that same pattern
12:16
Speaker 2: and running out. Now it gets closer to forty yards
12:18
Speaker 2: You've got to be able to throw that ball on
12:21
Speaker 2: a line, not hanging up there so it gets intercepted.
12:23
Speaker 2: That's what I've always thought. And then you know, we
12:26
Speaker 2: think about like a Joe Montana who didn't have maybe
12:28
Speaker 2: that elite arm strength, but he had the savvy, the
12:31
Speaker 2: ability to run defenses, the touch or redefenses, the touch,
12:36
Speaker 2: the timing to make those throws to Jerry Rice, so
12:39
Speaker 2: they didn't have to vombit seventy eighty yards down field.
12:43
Speaker 2: They could throw it fifty and catch Jerry and stride
12:45
Speaker 2: and bye bye.
12:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was bye bye. And and just kind of
12:49
Speaker 3: think about this. This is kind of what you get
12:50
Speaker 3: with Drew Aller, Right, you had that spectacular.
12:52
Speaker 4: Play, but if you look at the last five throws
12:55
Speaker 4: for completion, right two of five, so that's kind of
12:59
Speaker 4: the boom or bust. You kind of get what Aller
13:01
Speaker 4: right now, and that's the potential you have to weed
13:03
Speaker 4: through to figure out what he can do in the future.
13:06
Speaker 2: And just overthrowing Burgess on a crossing pattern in the
13:09
Speaker 2: back of the end zone, now, yeah, and that was
13:12
Speaker 2: Darren Perry and trail carverage back there, or Daryl Porter.
13:16
Speaker 3: I beg your Daryl Porter junior. Yeah. Yeah, And did
13:19
Speaker 3: I say Darren Perry, Yeah you did.
13:23
Speaker 2: Uh No, it's Darryl Porter.
13:24
Speaker 4: It's junior.
13:25
Speaker 3: It's okay, he he He was a defensive back here
13:27
Speaker 3: at one point.
13:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that was a while ago.
13:34
Speaker 3: And he was a coach here, so.
13:35
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, I mean, it's not like you just
13:37
Speaker 4: pulled some name randomly. It wasn't like the fifty six
13:40
Speaker 4: Pirates roster.
13:40
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, I could probably run that down for you.
13:43
Speaker 4: You could, you could. I don't doubt that at all.
13:47
Speaker 4: But this is kind of where we're at. We're in
13:49
Speaker 4: that no man's land, right fourth down and you're four. Yeah,
13:53
Speaker 4: hide and right to the right of aler in the shotgun.
13:58
Speaker 4: Let's see what we got here.
14:01
Speaker 2: Rollout.
14:04
Speaker 4: Oh that might that might Hey, that might have been
14:07
Speaker 4: a whole first and goal on the one because that
14:11
Speaker 4: was a pretty good tug on the back shoulder.
14:13
Speaker 2: I don't know if they're gonna call that.
14:15
Speaker 3: They're not gonna call it.
14:16
Speaker 2: Now. If we could see the jersey being stretched from.
14:19
Speaker 3: Here, yeah that was that was not a good one.
14:22
Speaker 3: The throw was the at Perry, but uh, the jersey
14:26
Speaker 3: grab already.
14:28
Speaker 2: I couldn't tell who that was, but I think it
14:30
Speaker 2: was Jack Henderson, but I'm not sure, but it might
14:32
Speaker 2: even Castro. I couldn't tell in the back of the
14:35
Speaker 2: end zone there whether it's forty eight or forty nine.
14:38
Speaker 2: Still trying to get a look out of here from
14:40
Speaker 2: our vantage point, and that's yeah.
14:41
Speaker 4: I have a big I have a big like poll
14:44
Speaker 4: post here that I can't see a lot, So I'm
14:47
Speaker 4: like trying to duck between two.
14:48
Speaker 3: Pieces of glass or one piece of glass.
14:50
Speaker 4: To see on the far side of the field going
14:52
Speaker 4: towards the scoreboard at Saint Vincent College.
14:55
Speaker 2: That's a visibility herder. So the Ring of Honor class
14:59
Speaker 2: announced today. We're gonna dive into that. This practices ended here,
15:03
Speaker 2: but it was fun to watch.
15:04
Speaker 3: It was good practice and gave us.
15:07
Speaker 4: A nice little moment where we could banter back but
15:10
Speaker 4: live matriculation of the football.
15:12
Speaker 3: That was a good That was a good little little
15:14
Speaker 3: teaser for us. Good times.
15:16
Speaker 2: The last of the acclamation practices next week they get
15:20
Speaker 2: into it with with pads and uh and doing some
15:23
Speaker 2: hitting and that sort of thing. So that'll be fun
15:25
Speaker 2: to look forward to you. Yes, what are you pointing out?
15:27
Speaker 3: That's pretty cool.
15:28
Speaker 4: Mike McCarthy just wheeled down a young man in a
15:30
Speaker 4: wheelchair and the players all did.
15:33
Speaker 3: A tunnel for him. Oh yes, and brought him down.
15:35
Speaker 3: That's that. That's pretty often.
15:37
Speaker 4: You'll know if there's make a wish or something uh special,
15:40
Speaker 4: maybe somebody that he knows.
15:41
Speaker 3: That's that's pretty awesome. That's pretty special.
15:43
Speaker 2: It is, Uh, you know, you're reminded that these guys
15:45
Speaker 2: are they're young men and you know, yeah, they're just
15:49
Speaker 2: so many of them happy to help out, most of
15:51
Speaker 2: them in situations like that.
15:52
Speaker 4: So you have a lot of people looking up to
15:54
Speaker 4: them and they unders I think I think this generation
15:56
Speaker 4: of player understands kind of mind.
15:59
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I grew up in the no
16:01
Speaker 3: role models, Charles Barkley era, you know of of sports.
16:06
Speaker 4: But now these guys they understand there's a there's a
16:07
Speaker 4: social responsibility right to do things the right way and
16:11
Speaker 4: that you know, people are watching you.
16:13
Speaker 3: So that was a pretty cool site. It was.
16:15
Speaker 2: Indeed, we're gonna we have much more to come. We're
16:18
Speaker 2: gonna talk about the Ring of Honor Class one that's
16:20
Speaker 2: gonna hit home very close to both Max and myself,
16:23
Speaker 2: and we'll go through that more. To discuss here obviously
16:27
Speaker 2: about this year's Steelers team. We continue here from Saint
16:30
Speaker 2: Vincent College in the locker room. Here on this year
16:33
Speaker 2: there's audio.
16:33
Speaker 1: Network please live Covery Jump dot twenty twenty six Steelers
16:41
Speaker 1: Training Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
16:47
Speaker 1: Easy to drink, easy to enjoy, and brought to you
16:50
Speaker 1: in part by Always Safe Flagging and Traffic Control making
16:54
Speaker 1: traffic safe again called four one two three oh one
16:57
Speaker 1: twenty three hundred or visit us online at aw yousafe
17:01
Speaker 1: dot net for a quote today by FedEx the new
17:04
Speaker 1: power move Independence health System expert Care. Here we Max
17:09
Speaker 1: Select Realty, they said, Wemax Select Pittsburgh dot com, the
17:13
Speaker 1: Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania visit go Laurel Highlands dot com.
17:18
Speaker 1: The Steelers Pro Shop visit shop dot Steelers dot com
17:22
Speaker 1: and buy Condiente Pizza and Drafthouse.
17:30
Speaker 2: Welcome back inside the locker room and Saint Vincent College
17:34
Speaker 2: in Latrover Max Field, Max and I had a nice
17:37
Speaker 2: discussion during the break, continued on.
17:40
Speaker 3: We love sports.
17:41
Speaker 2: We love sports. We do love sports. So Ring of
17:44
Speaker 2: Honor just an incredible them class. Oh it just uh
17:49
Speaker 2: so let's start with JT.
17:53
Speaker 3: Thomas.
17:54
Speaker 2: I mean first, round pick in nineteen seventy three. He
17:59
Speaker 2: was the first African American football player to play football.
18:01
Speaker 3: And graduate from Florida State University.
18:03
Speaker 2: He's an impressive guy. J J.
18:05
Speaker 3: Thomas, JT. I mean, and listen, I met JA. It's funny.
18:08
Speaker 4: I used to I used to always when I saw
18:10
Speaker 4: JT calling the ribman right because he had red hot
18:12
Speaker 4: and blue uh down in the waterfront for a long time,
18:16
Speaker 4: I had, I had a barbecue, a restaurant tour. So, yeah,
18:19
Speaker 4: he's an entrepreneur, yeah, exactly, so I restaurant, Yeah so
18:23
Speaker 4: I So that's how I first got introduced to him.
18:25
Speaker 3: When I first got here to Pittsburgh.
18:27
Speaker 4: I was going down to the movie theater and I
18:29
Speaker 4: was like, oh, there's a barbecue restaurant. I'm from the
18:31
Speaker 4: South Love Barbecue. Went in there, and JT is in there,
18:35
Speaker 4: and so I'm talking to him, and then you know,
18:37
Speaker 4: I didn't know all of the Steel Curtain, right, coming
18:40
Speaker 4: from Florida and not really being exposed to Pittsburgh as
18:43
Speaker 4: a young rookie coming into this league, and you know,
18:46
Speaker 4: and then you learn the.
18:47
Speaker 3: History, You're like, oh my god, there was JT done.
18:49
Speaker 3: He's like four Super Bowl titles. Yeah, he got nineteen interset.
18:52
Speaker 4: Like he started three of the four Super Bowl The
18:54
Speaker 4: only reason he didn't start the first one was because
18:56
Speaker 4: he was he was ill and he was injured, so
18:59
Speaker 4: he did not get it, but he still got a ring.
19:01
Speaker 4: And so you know, rare air when you're talking about
19:04
Speaker 4: a key contributor at the cornerback position at you know,
19:08
Speaker 4: for for j T. Thomas, he makes it in all
19:10
Speaker 4: the other four Super Bowl guys that are already in
19:13
Speaker 4: this Hall of Honor, right, so it kind of you know,
19:15
Speaker 4: it's FNN. I was talking with Mike Pursuita. He was like,
19:18
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be honest, because he's been on he's been
19:20
Speaker 4: on the voting board for it.
19:22
Speaker 3: He's like, I thought he was already in. I saw
19:24
Speaker 3: his name, like, oh oh yeah, we gotta get him in.
19:27
Speaker 4: Because he's right there with the with those core guys
19:29
Speaker 4: of the Steel Curtain era that won four Super Bowls, uh,
19:33
Speaker 4: you know, in that time. So it's really cool to
19:36
Speaker 4: see JT get in and he wasn't here today, but
19:39
Speaker 4: you know, you can't imagine when we have when we
19:41
Speaker 4: have the Hall of Honor game, when it's announced, you
19:44
Speaker 4: know where he'll be down there and take his rightful
19:46
Speaker 4: place with the rest of his his teammates that are already.
19:48
Speaker 3: In the hall.
19:49
Speaker 2: Right. Well, I mean he was you know, he played
19:53
Speaker 2: opposite of of mel Blunt, right, I mean you know
19:58
Speaker 2: this is uh, this is just an restive, impressive player.
20:01
Speaker 2: And I mean you talk about, you know, a pair
20:03
Speaker 2: of lockdown corners. And of course everybody knows all about
20:06
Speaker 2: Mel Blunt and the rule changes and all that. But
20:09
Speaker 2: JT made himself a pro Bowl and you know, a
20:11
Speaker 2: starter on again four different Super Bowl championship teams. I
20:17
Speaker 2: mean its starter throughout the year of course, as you
20:18
Speaker 2: mentioned in that the first Super Bowl. But you know,
20:21
Speaker 2: a great player on I think what you would just
20:24
Speaker 2: have to call the greatest defense of all time.
20:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, Steeve curtain for that reason, Like you don't
20:29
Speaker 4: even it's like you say steel curtain and it's already
20:32
Speaker 4: synonymous with it. You don't even have to say steel
20:34
Speaker 4: curtain defense, Like it's just you say steel care like
20:36
Speaker 4: oh shoot shoot, Pittsburgh defense.
20:38
Speaker 3: Right all you think of the seventies.
20:40
Speaker 4: And like you said, you go down that list and
20:42
Speaker 4: you say the mel Blunt, you say the Joe Greens,
20:44
Speaker 4: the Jack Lambert's.
20:45
Speaker 3: Right, there's all these guys on this defense and there's like,
20:49
Speaker 3: oh yeah, by the way, JT.
20:50
Speaker 4: Thomas as well, another Pro Bowl or nineteen to like
20:54
Speaker 4: they threw at him because they were scared of Mel
20:56
Speaker 4: Blunt and that's how I got so many more opportunities.
20:59
Speaker 3: But he also had to hold his water right, because.
21:01
Speaker 4: You couldn't have any weak links along that group. Donnie
21:04
Speaker 4: Shell right, also another another devastator and the secondary for
21:09
Speaker 4: that group, Jack Hamm, Like we just you could keep
21:11
Speaker 4: going to White White, el C Greenwood, right, Ernie Hult,
21:15
Speaker 4: like you know who these names are, and he's just
21:18
Speaker 4: one of those many names in that group.
21:20
Speaker 2: Yep, a great, great group and nineteen interceptions with this yee,
21:23
Speaker 2: there's twenty in his career because he went out and
21:25
Speaker 2: played nine games with Denver in nineteen eighty two as
21:29
Speaker 2: a thirty one year old. But JT. Thomas goes into
21:32
Speaker 2: the ring of honor Kevin Colbert.
21:37
Speaker 3: I mean, what an.
21:38
Speaker 2: Incredible job he did as an executive general manager. They
21:43
Speaker 2: didn't have that title for many years and finally was
21:45
Speaker 2: awarded that title. And you know, you think about two
21:49
Speaker 2: Super Bowl champions, but you also think about all the
21:51
Speaker 2: teams he was involved in all came close and then
21:54
Speaker 2: drafted all the players. He drafted left tackle at A Florida.
22:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, this this dark scrub, little small kid that
22:04
Speaker 3: had potential.
22:07
Speaker 2: But we think about you know, I mean, you just go,
22:10
Speaker 2: you know, just instantly. Of course, you did get Troy Polamalo,
22:13
Speaker 2: and you get n Roethlisberg, and then he executes the
22:16
Speaker 2: trade that gets you Jerome Bettis, you know, and just
22:19
Speaker 2: on and on and on. The acquisition to the players,
22:22
Speaker 2: you know, the ability to find free agents on the
22:24
Speaker 2: team and give them opportunities. You know, guys like Willie Parker,
22:28
Speaker 2: who's in the Hall of Honor, Guys like James Harrison.
22:30
Speaker 2: You know, Casey Hampton. Casey Hampton was a was a
22:33
Speaker 2: was a first round selection. So just I mean, well
22:37
Speaker 2: deserved for a really really modest, unassuming guy in Kevin Colbert.
22:44
Speaker 4: Yeah no, I mean, and Kevin served in that role
22:46
Speaker 4: for twenty two years here in Pittsburgh and responsible for
22:50
Speaker 4: bringing over Charlie bass because he was GM over in Detroit.
22:53
Speaker 4: Came over here, brought brought Charlie Basch, brought Jeff Hardings
22:56
Speaker 4: over in that initial wave of guys that came that
23:00
Speaker 4: he felt comfortable with to help construct a roster for
23:02
Speaker 4: Bill Cower, and then of course all the time that
23:05
Speaker 4: he spent with Mike Tomlin. You're right, but constructed three
23:07
Speaker 4: super Bowl teams in his time here, and I would say,
23:13
Speaker 4: when it's all said and done, he'll have probably about
23:15
Speaker 4: five six seven Hall of Famers under his under his
23:19
Speaker 4: watch that he that he brought in. And of course
23:22
Speaker 4: I have a personal feeling for him because of the
23:24
Speaker 4: fact that he chose to take me in the third
23:26
Speaker 4: round of the two thousand and four draft pick number
23:28
Speaker 4: seventy five, but number seventy eight in your programs in
23:32
Speaker 4: our hearts, yeah, and one in our heart number one
23:34
Speaker 4: in our hearts of course always.
23:36
Speaker 3: But I would say the second most GM in Steelers history.
23:42
Speaker 4: Obviously Dick Haley gets that number one nine because of
23:45
Speaker 4: the aforementioned steel curtain in those seventies for super Bowl teams,
23:49
Speaker 4: but he's responsible for the other two. So combined between
23:51
Speaker 4: those two GM stewardships, you have all six Super Bowl
23:55
Speaker 4: championships comprised between two men that helped construct these rosters.
23:59
Speaker 2: Right, and you know, again totally different eras of football.
24:04
Speaker 2: So I think that, and again I'm not trying to
24:07
Speaker 2: say one is easier than the other. But you know,
24:10
Speaker 2: in the in the first tenure of you know, the seventies,
24:13
Speaker 2: when you won the four Super Bowls, two things were prevalent.
24:17
Speaker 2: One is that the Steelers were way out in front
24:20
Speaker 2: of every school, every other team frankly and sadly still
24:25
Speaker 2: segregated America in many ways of going into those you know,
24:30
Speaker 2: southern schools and finding the Joe Greens and the Melballants
24:33
Speaker 2: and the on and you know, Donnie Shell's and and
24:34
Speaker 2: so on and so forth. You know, so many of
24:37
Speaker 2: those great players came from those schools, and the Steelers
24:40
Speaker 2: were just way out and thanks to Bill nn just
24:43
Speaker 2: way out in front of everybody else, the historically black
24:45
Speaker 2: colleges and US and universities HBCUs.
24:50
Speaker 4: And I'm proud to say that I get to call
24:53
Speaker 4: the a SBCU National Championship every year, so I get
24:55
Speaker 4: to see those schools.
24:56
Speaker 3: I grew up as a kid.
24:58
Speaker 4: Around a lot of those colleges and had parents who
25:01
Speaker 4: went to those schools, and you know, to think about
25:04
Speaker 4: just the pioneering job that a Bill Nunn did, you know,
25:08
Speaker 4: and and they're there and there's some legendary stories between
25:11
Speaker 4: Bill Nunn and Gil Brandt, so Cowboys Steelers. It didn't
25:15
Speaker 4: just start with the America's team and going back for
25:17
Speaker 4: Super Bowls in the seventies, there was a scouting like
25:21
Speaker 4: feud and rivalry where Bill Nunn would famous famously stole
25:25
Speaker 4: the John Stalwart tapes that gil Brant was looking for,
25:28
Speaker 4: and that's why they were able to get him laid
25:30
Speaker 4: in the draft because nobody had any tape because you know,
25:33
Speaker 4: as the story goes, he ran a bad forty, it
25:36
Speaker 4: was wet, it was all this other stuff, and Bill
25:38
Speaker 4: Nunn hung around and then he ran him privately the
25:41
Speaker 4: next day on a forty and saw it and went
25:44
Speaker 4: and took all the tape with him and drove back
25:46
Speaker 4: to Pittsburgh.
25:48
Speaker 3: Gil Brant was looking for the tape and he couldn't
25:49
Speaker 3: find it.
25:50
Speaker 4: So, you know, you just think about those type of
25:52
Speaker 4: stories and like you said, going in there and finding
25:54
Speaker 4: these type of players, and like you said, we're talking
25:56
Speaker 4: about A.
25:56
Speaker 3: JT.
25:56
Speaker 4: Thomas, the first African American to play at Florida State University.
26:00
Speaker 4: I'm from Florida, you know, I went to University of Florida.
26:03
Speaker 4: Florida State was another school that I looked at and
26:06
Speaker 4: just that history. And we had John Mitchell here on
26:08
Speaker 4: the staff, one of the first African American players to
26:11
Speaker 4: play for Bear Bryant. Like, there's all these different things,
26:15
Speaker 4: and so it's really cool to kind of see those
26:18
Speaker 4: individuals kind of highlighting especially on this day the Hall
26:21
Speaker 4: of Honor class pretty special occasion and situation. Yeah, and
26:26
Speaker 4: the other thing that there's a lot of Jaquan Brisker fans, Like,
26:30
Speaker 4: I know we're talking about this, but I'm like, there's
26:33
Speaker 4: a flood of yellow shirts with three Brisker down on
26:36
Speaker 4: the field. There's got and there's got to be at
26:38
Speaker 4: least like fifty sixty people on the field here for
26:42
Speaker 4: Jaquan brisk So it's just it's out of the corner
26:45
Speaker 4: of our I we got it, but we got to
26:46
Speaker 4: make note of it. You can't see it, but we
26:47
Speaker 4: can here sitting up top the press box area. But
26:51
Speaker 4: his family is here in full effect. It's like a
26:55
Speaker 4: Brisker family reunion down there.
26:56
Speaker 2: It looks like So I had the chance to talk
26:59
Speaker 2: to Khalem Morris, I think he I think he might
27:04
Speaker 2: be an uncle, yeah of Jakwan Brisker. I didn't catch
27:09
Speaker 2: the family connection because we were talking about other stuff.
27:12
Speaker 3: But his nephew was in the autograph.
27:13
Speaker 4: I was signing autographs earlier today in the in the
27:16
Speaker 4: fan zone, and his nephew came through and I signed
27:20
Speaker 4: one of those yellow shirts down there.
27:22
Speaker 3: So a lot of his family came in town today
27:25
Speaker 3: for practice.
27:25
Speaker 2: So Kalem, how about this for a degrees of separation?
27:30
Speaker 2: So Khalem Morris born in Pittsburgh, by the way, doctor
27:33
Speaker 2: Khalem Morris, Okay is now in Virginia where he is
27:40
Speaker 2: a math teacher and teaches nine through twelve and is
27:46
Speaker 2: the instructor for.
27:49
Speaker 4: Daleen Evertts younger brother Don. That's crazy about that. That's
27:52
Speaker 4: a small world.
27:53
Speaker 3: Is a small words awesome connection.
27:56
Speaker 2: That was fun. So yes, there's there's it's it's got
28:00
Speaker 2: to be fifty.
28:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, easily, easily.
28:02
Speaker 2: People wearing Jakwan Brisker number three jerseys and yeah yeah,
28:09
Speaker 2: and uh oh, there goes a little a little girl
28:11
Speaker 2: zipping across the field, got her hair done up. She's
28:14
Speaker 2: got a she got a jersey on thought number three jersey.
28:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, got a jersey. There's jerseys. There's Cusho T shirt,
28:21
Speaker 3: but all brisker. You definitely know who they're here to
28:24
Speaker 3: see today. It's not a questions less. We'd like to
28:27
Speaker 3: see nineties and ninety seven's right, t J. Watson, Cam
28:30
Speaker 3: Haywards and Aaron Rodgers.
28:32
Speaker 4: These are all threes. These are all and it's not
28:34
Speaker 4: Jeff Reed, and it's no, it's not Jeff Reed.
28:36
Speaker 2: And it's so very cool. I mean, look, you have
28:40
Speaker 2: to you have to make the team on your own merits.
28:44
Speaker 2: But when you have you know, a Joey Porter whose
28:48
Speaker 2: dad obviously played for the Steelers, but he went to
28:50
Speaker 2: you know, North Alleghania High School. Jakwan went to Gateway
28:53
Speaker 2: High School. When you see these guys that are local
28:56
Speaker 2: and that connection that you know they have with this
28:59
Speaker 2: the city of Pittsburgh, it's so awesome. I mean the Bines,
29:03
Speaker 2: you know, the ties at Bine Runs, you know, are
29:06
Speaker 2: just so tight, so snug that that tie the uh,
29:12
Speaker 2: the Steelers to the community of Pittsburgh. And then you
29:15
Speaker 2: get a chance to see a local guy.
29:17
Speaker 3: Like this, right, you know, you come back home and
29:22
Speaker 3: there's always that dream.
29:23
Speaker 4: Like we talked about the Jaquan Briskers, right, the Eli
29:25
Speaker 4: heyden Reich's and different guys throughout time.
29:29
Speaker 3: I mean I played with a couple I talked.
29:31
Speaker 4: About my time with Russell Stuven, So it was my
29:33
Speaker 4: roommate my first year in the league, and Russell was
29:36
Speaker 4: was from here. You also have Mike Logan, so you
29:39
Speaker 4: get these local guys who go from you know, they
29:41
Speaker 4: go to other schools, but you get to come back
29:44
Speaker 4: home and and it is that homecoming family reunion type
29:48
Speaker 4: of feel out here for those local guys. And like
29:51
Speaker 4: I said, people gonna come out for you. And and
29:54
Speaker 4: and his family is in full representation here at up
29:57
Speaker 4: here on Saturday.
29:58
Speaker 2: Full representation. Just wonderful to see. We're going to take
30:02
Speaker 2: a break because we want to talk at some length
30:05
Speaker 2: about the third and final member going into the Hall
30:08
Speaker 2: of Honor Class Press. He's going to get one when
30:12
Speaker 2: we continue in the locker room here on the Steelers
30:14
Speaker 2: Audio Network.
30:15
Speaker 1: This is live coverage of the twenty twenty six Steelers
30:19
Speaker 1: Training Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
30:24
Speaker 1: Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, and brought to you
30:27
Speaker 1: in part by Clearview Federal Credit Union. For every touchdown
30:31
Speaker 1: the Black and Gold score in twenty twenty six, Clearview
30:35
Speaker 1: will donate five hundred dollars to the Light of Life
30:38
Speaker 1: Mission visit CLEARVIEWFCU dot org easy home mixteriors, fast, reliable
30:43
Speaker 1: and affordable Schneider Downs discover the value of big thinking
30:48
Speaker 1: with a personal focus. US steel Mine Melted and made
30:53
Speaker 1: in the USA, your neighborhood Forward Store and by the
30:58
Speaker 1: Steelers Pro Shot the Shop Dog Steelers dot Com.
31:04
Speaker 2: And welcome back inside the locker room where nobody, and
31:07
Speaker 2: I mean nobody is having more fun than the Brisker
31:10
Speaker 2: family still hanging out out of the field. They're in
31:14
Speaker 2: no hurry to leave. They're enjoying themselves out there. You know,
31:18
Speaker 2: there is a lone fifty six Jersey out there. I
31:22
Speaker 2: noticed that. I don't know if that's part of the
31:23
Speaker 2: Brisker family.
31:24
Speaker 3: Everybody else You can a La Woodley fan.
31:27
Speaker 4: Okay, I mean it's a Super Bowl Lamar Woodleigh Jersey
31:30
Speaker 4: at least Super Bowl forty three.
31:32
Speaker 3: Patch on there.
31:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, good job knowing that, right.
31:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I think I can kind of id that one. Yes,
31:38
Speaker 3: I kind of remember what that looks like. Yes, that's
31:40
Speaker 3: probably a good one.
31:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was wondered if that was maybe an
31:44
Speaker 2: Alex Heismith jersey.
31:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, not in the past. That that is.
31:49
Speaker 4: That's Woodley, So ring of honor announced for this year's class.
31:56
Speaker 2: We talked about J. T. Thomas, the outstanding corner place
32:00
Speaker 2: a little safety but mostly opposite of of melt Blunt,
32:04
Speaker 2: the steel curtain defenses of the seventies, parts of four
32:08
Speaker 2: Super Bowl Championship teams. Kevin Colbert, the architect of two
32:12
Speaker 2: more Super Bowl champions another super Bowl team.
32:15
Speaker 3: Oh.
32:15
Speaker 2: The other thing I was gonna say about that era,
32:17
Speaker 2: just to talk about that quickly, is the fact that
32:20
Speaker 2: no free agency. So you signed Joe Green, you got
32:24
Speaker 2: him for life. You signed Jack Ham, he got him
32:26
Speaker 2: for life for as long as you right, Yeah, I
32:29
Speaker 2: mean maybe he said we're done with you. Well I'm
32:31
Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna wand drop the seattle to see if
32:33
Speaker 2: there's anything left in the tank. But yes, you were
32:35
Speaker 2: able to keep those guys, and so when you when
32:39
Speaker 2: you did a great job drafting, and yes, the front office,
32:43
Speaker 2: for sure, the scouts for sure, had to keep those
32:46
Speaker 2: but you get to keep those guys, not wondering you
32:49
Speaker 2: know who am I gonna lose in free agency? And
32:51
Speaker 2: how am I going to navigate that? So different errors,
32:52
Speaker 2: just different errors, but but both incredible and our buddy
32:57
Speaker 2: Craig Wolfley.
33:00
Speaker 4: I mean, such a well deserved, overdue honor for Wolf
33:07
Speaker 4: And the one thing that makes it bittersweet, it's posthumous,
33:12
Speaker 4: I know, like I know, could you imagine the speech
33:15
Speaker 4: he would have given had it been had he been here?
33:19
Speaker 4: And I think that's what you know, gets us a
33:22
Speaker 4: little choked up about it thinking about it, but most
33:27
Speaker 4: assuredly deserves to be in that and that hall mentioned
33:31
Speaker 4: amongst that, and not only for the ten years he
33:33
Speaker 4: spent as an active player here and of course going
33:37
Speaker 4: on to Minnesota after that for a number of years
33:38
Speaker 4: playing with my uncle Joey, but the twenty five plus
33:42
Speaker 4: years as a broadcaster on these airwaves, the show's originator
33:50
Speaker 4: him and Touch like we're carrying on that tradition literally
33:53
Speaker 4: on these airwaves, and we're talking about him being in
33:56
Speaker 4: the Hall of Honor just a sume special moment, and
34:02
Speaker 4: you know he would be overfilled with joy. He joins
34:06
Speaker 4: the ranks with his with his with his brother Touch Yep,
34:09
Speaker 4: they now both get to reside in the Hall and
34:12
Speaker 4: live on in football immortality here in Western PA. And
34:16
Speaker 4: what he's meant not only to the Steelers organization, but
34:19
Speaker 4: I think to the Pittsburgh Western Pennsylvania country, you know,
34:24
Speaker 4: part of the country as a whole.
34:26
Speaker 3: Like what he meant off the field, what he meant
34:29
Speaker 3: in the.
34:29
Speaker 4: Community, light of life rescue mission, you know, adventures in
34:33
Speaker 4: training with the purpose that he that he would volunteer
34:36
Speaker 4: his time with with his good buddy John Colb, one
34:38
Speaker 4: of his former teammates, and the countless lives that he touched.
34:42
Speaker 2: Along the way.
34:42
Speaker 4: He played with a lot of the guys were talking
34:45
Speaker 4: about the Steel Curtain right towards the end of their
34:46
Speaker 4: career was kind of the budding of his. He came
34:48
Speaker 4: right there in nineteen eighty, so he saw a lot
34:51
Speaker 4: of these guys. He played with him, played with the J. T.
34:53
Speaker 4: Thomas for two years before he left for Denver, right,
34:56
Speaker 4: played with Mike Webster and all of these guys, Frank
35:00
Speaker 4: Go and and and the list goes on. And he's
35:03
Speaker 4: just been an indelible part of our lives for the
35:06
Speaker 4: better part of you know, it's called it five almost
35:09
Speaker 4: five decades of him of having him in this in
35:13
Speaker 4: this community. So a remarkable member, our friend, our brother,
35:18
Speaker 4: and uh, you know, it's it's really special to have
35:21
Speaker 4: him come in.
35:21
Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of things that I love
35:23
Speaker 2: about Wolf and you know in the you know, his
35:27
Speaker 2: personality was so out in front that you sometimes forget
35:31
Speaker 2: he was a really, really fine football player.
35:34
Speaker 3: Yes, he was an excellent player.
35:36
Speaker 4: There's some legendary photos of him and and NFL history
35:39
Speaker 4: right sitting on the bench just covered in mud and
35:42
Speaker 4: kind of that grizzled look.
35:44
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, there was a point when Wolf had hair.
35:47
Speaker 4: I know, we we kind of gloss over that because
35:50
Speaker 4: of obviously the later years, and he was out in
35:52
Speaker 4: front with the cue ball.
35:53
Speaker 3: But this guy had the flowing, flowing locks.
35:55
Speaker 4: You know, he had the he had, he had the
35:57
Speaker 4: main and and he was just an excellent guard, an
36:01
Speaker 4: excellent guard in this league, a pulling guard. And he
36:05
Speaker 4: had some Titanic matchups back in the day. I know
36:08
Speaker 4: we talk about like the Reggie White and Tounch Yolkin
36:10
Speaker 4: match matchups, but I mean he was going against some
36:13
Speaker 4: of the best, and you know, he was a guy
36:15
Speaker 4: we used to always kid that we we we were
36:18
Speaker 4: we were the we were the all Alternate team because
36:20
Speaker 4: both of us would get Pro Bowl Alternate nods for
36:24
Speaker 4: a number of years, but never quite made it to
36:27
Speaker 4: the Pro Bowl itself. But but a fine a Fine
36:31
Speaker 4: Human and the and the and the Syracuse Hall of
36:33
Speaker 4: Fame Broadcasting Hall of Fame there at his university where
36:36
Speaker 4: he played his college ball, and you know he and
36:39
Speaker 4: he also had two other brothers that played college ball.
36:42
Speaker 4: And then Ron, who I worked without in Arizona, and
36:45
Speaker 4: it was it was a fun time early on in
36:47
Speaker 4: my career here where you know, I would I would
36:50
Speaker 4: play telephone between the both of them because I would
36:53
Speaker 4: do our show in the mornings and every Wednesday I
36:55
Speaker 4: worked at nine A seven and and and Craig would
36:57
Speaker 4: always get off. He'd be like, hey, tell me I
37:00
Speaker 4: love him. And then I get I get in the
37:01
Speaker 4: studio with with with Ron, I'd be like, hey, Craig
37:04
Speaker 4: says he loves you. He's like, oh my gosh, He's like,
37:07
Speaker 4: tell him I love him that. So then the next
37:09
Speaker 4: morning I would tell So we just had that and
37:11
Speaker 4: I called myself. I jokingly coined the phrase. I was like,
37:13
Speaker 4: between two wolves.
37:15
Speaker 3: You know, it's good, yeah, good stuff. Yeah.
37:17
Speaker 2: You know. I was at a an event with John
37:21
Speaker 2: Coleb last year and he spoke about how you Coleb
37:24
Speaker 2: of course was here earlier and and Wolfe was able
37:27
Speaker 2: to play with him, but that. You know, he's playing
37:29
Speaker 2: left tackle with Wolf. I think it was it might
37:32
Speaker 2: have been a preseason game, might have been a regular
37:33
Speaker 2: season game. And Wolf was up there, and you know,
37:38
Speaker 2: John Colep said, look, you know we used to communicate.
37:41
Speaker 2: We didn't even have to talk. We just grunt or
37:43
Speaker 2: make a movement. Yeah, And Wolf's up there saying, what
37:46
Speaker 2: are we doing? You know, what are we what are
37:47
Speaker 2: we calling? And Colep's like, hey, quiet man, just come on,
37:50
Speaker 2: do what you're supposed to do. And they're communicating back
37:52
Speaker 2: and forth, and and uh, Wolf's kind of getting at
37:55
Speaker 2: his nerves a little bit because he's not just he's
37:58
Speaker 2: you know, he's eager. He wants to he wants to
38:00
Speaker 2: make sure. And then he was Cold was playing against
38:05
Speaker 2: some I think it was a regular season game. Bradshaw
38:09
Speaker 2: was in it. It was a regular season game, and
38:10
Speaker 2: Cold was playing against a premiere pass rusher I don't
38:12
Speaker 2: remember who it was. And it's third and long and
38:16
Speaker 2: he gets spun like a top olaid and now he's
38:18
Speaker 2: down face first on the ground and he hears a
38:21
Speaker 2: roar from the crowd and he gets up thinking it's
38:25
Speaker 2: a sack, and instead it's a Terry Bradshaw touchdown completion
38:30
Speaker 2: and Wolf is standing over the top of the pass
38:33
Speaker 2: rusher he had peeled back and flattened him, and John
38:36
Speaker 2: Colep looked up and Wolf looked at him and said,
38:38
Speaker 2: I got you, old man. So I mean, don't forget
38:43
Speaker 2: with all of the personality that he was a terrific
38:47
Speaker 2: football player. I think, I think one of the things
38:49
Speaker 2: I there's so many things I admired about Craig Wolfley.
38:52
Speaker 2: You know, you touched on a little bit that using
38:56
Speaker 2: he used. He took seriously helping people out, took it
39:00
Speaker 2: very seriously. What he didn't take seriously too seriously was
39:05
Speaker 2: himself and you know the ability, So the wolf you
39:10
Speaker 2: saw with a big personality, that was him for sure,
39:13
Speaker 2: that ability to to to go for it, but also
39:19
Speaker 2: uh you know, laughing yourself like you know, he went
39:21
Speaker 2: on the Strongest Man competition on TV. She remember that
39:24
Speaker 2: he's pulling, you know, pulling a semi truck behind him,
39:28
Speaker 2: jumped up on a on stage with Albert Collins and
39:31
Speaker 2: played some guitar. I mean he was a decent guitar player,
39:34
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean that's that's intimidating. He didn't allow
39:36
Speaker 2: himself to be sim wrestling in Japan. He fought Butterbean
39:41
Speaker 2: in a box. He's most most people. I used to
39:46
Speaker 2: tell my kids be like mister Wolf when they were
39:49
Speaker 2: growing up. I'm like he and I would tell them
39:51
Speaker 2: these stories. I said, he was fearless, and don't you
39:55
Speaker 2: don't when you get to my age, Almost everything you
39:59
Speaker 2: regret is some you didn't do. It's the omission, not
40:03
Speaker 2: the co mission. Of course, there's things I wish I
40:05
Speaker 2: hadn't done in my life, but by and large, you're like, man,
40:07
Speaker 2: I wish i'd I wish I'd done that. I wish
40:10
Speaker 2: I'd tried that. Craig Wolf, we never had to say that.
40:13
Speaker 3: He went for it.
40:14
Speaker 2: He tried it, and you know what if because what
40:18
Speaker 2: holds a lot of us back, I think max is
40:21
Speaker 2: the fear of making a fool of yourself and being
40:23
Speaker 2: laughed at. You know what, if Wolf made a fool
40:26
Speaker 2: of himself, he'd be the one laughing first and laughing
40:29
Speaker 2: the loudest. And it's just that combination of I wouldn't
40:34
Speaker 2: say not caring, because that's not exactly right, but that
40:36
Speaker 2: ability to go for it, no fear, no fear.
40:40
Speaker 4: It was not fearful of himself, that's right, or the
40:44
Speaker 4: image that he's trying to project. He had no pretenses.
40:47
Speaker 4: He was an He lived authentically, He did true within himself.
40:52
Speaker 4: And he's not afraid to admit mistakes. I think a
40:54
Speaker 4: lot of us get fearful of the mistake of the
40:58
Speaker 4: retraction of the fall yep. And he was like, no,
41:01
Speaker 4: this is what the human condition is. We're supposed to
41:04
Speaker 4: fail in order to figure out how to succeed.
41:07
Speaker 3: And he took that part very serious. He took seriously
41:10
Speaker 3: the unserious aspects of life.
41:12
Speaker 4: Yes, and he did not care if it was I
41:15
Speaker 4: mean just talking about when we're up here and he
41:17
Speaker 4: chipped his tooth eating and chicken wing, right, most people
41:20
Speaker 4: be scared to say.
41:20
Speaker 3: That, Oh my god, I gotta cap over my too.
41:22
Speaker 3: He didn't care. He was like, no, this is what
41:24
Speaker 3: it is. Or him trying to.
41:25
Speaker 4: Trying to bend galvanized horseshoes, knowing that galvanized horseshoes cannot.
41:29
Speaker 3: Be bent, you know, so you know, just having that.
41:34
Speaker 3: He enjoyed life to the fullest.
41:36
Speaker 4: He and he enjoyed the experience of life. Yes, it's
41:40
Speaker 4: ups and it's downs, and he you know, he loved
41:43
Speaker 4: roller coasters. That's what his life was, right. You enjoy
41:46
Speaker 4: the falls as well as the climbing back up because
41:49
Speaker 4: it creates a complete story. He wasn't afraid of trying
41:52
Speaker 4: to redact anything from you.
41:53
Speaker 3: He left it all as an open book and and
41:56
Speaker 3: that part of that love.
41:57
Speaker 2: Like you know, I'm thinking, as you're at your time,
41:59
Speaker 2: I think you put it beautifully. You know, when people
42:02
Speaker 2: think about, you know, living life to its fullest. You know,
42:05
Speaker 2: some people might think, oh, going out to the finest restaurants.
42:08
Speaker 2: What that meant for him was all the things that
42:10
Speaker 2: he did, but also that sense of community that he
42:13
Speaker 2: built and the way everybody felt part of that, you know,
42:16
Speaker 2: whether it was doing a high school football game or
42:20
Speaker 2: just you know, unfortunately my one brief year with him
42:22
Speaker 2: in the booth here, when Craig Wolfly walked into a room,
42:27
Speaker 2: you know, he was a big, powerful man. He lifted
42:29
Speaker 2: everybody up. Everybody felt better about themselves in the presence
42:33
Speaker 2: of Craig Wolfly. Everybody felt more energetic in the presence
42:37
Speaker 2: of Craig Wolfly. There's not a lot of people who
42:42
Speaker 2: you can say that about, and wolf is a person
42:45
Speaker 2: you could definitely say that about.
42:46
Speaker 4: Absolutely, he lifted you spiritually, he lifted you emotionally, and
42:52
Speaker 4: he could physically lift a lot of things. As we've
42:54
Speaker 4: talked about as strongman competition and powerlifting like. He took
42:58
Speaker 4: that and brought it to reaspect of his life. He
43:02
Speaker 4: was a power man, you know, so to speak, and
43:05
Speaker 4: he lived that. It was in the core of his
43:07
Speaker 4: being an ethos. He loved his family fiercely. He loved
43:12
Speaker 4: his brothers, He loved where he came up in Western
43:14
Speaker 4: New York, talks about fondly about his days in Buffalo,
43:17
Speaker 4: and loved his wife, love Faith, yep, and what she
43:20
Speaker 4: did for him in his life. He loves his kids.
43:23
Speaker 4: I mean, nobody could be more proud of Kyle Jacob.
43:25
Speaker 4: We know if you say Kyle Jacob, we already know
43:27
Speaker 4: he's a wolf le because he talked about his son,
43:30
Speaker 4: he talked about his daughters, and you know, and I
43:33
Speaker 4: think that's the one thing. He lived life at one
43:36
Speaker 4: hundred percent. He didn't exactly right anything else. He was
43:40
Speaker 4: a one hundred percent pure life bringer and a life
43:44
Speaker 4: giver and he lived it to the fullest.
43:47
Speaker 2: Yep. Just a wonderful, wonderful guy and a great addition
43:51
Speaker 2: to the Hall of Honor Craig Wolfy going in with J. T.
43:54
Speaker 2: Thomas and Kevin Colbert. This year's twenty twenty six Hall
43:58
Speaker 2: of Honor class, going to dive back into the Steelers roster.
44:02
Speaker 2: Want to take a look at the tight end group
44:04
Speaker 2: because it's interesting. It's one of the things that's going
44:07
Speaker 2: to be completely different as far as the approach we
44:09
Speaker 2: think of utilizing the tight end in this Mike McCarthy offense,
44:14
Speaker 2: and it was in the Arthur Smith offense. So that's
44:17
Speaker 2: something we're going to dive into here as we continue
44:19
Speaker 2: to break down this roster, continue to break down things
44:21
Speaker 2: all Steelers at training camp here at Saint Vincent College
44:24
Speaker 2: and the trope when we continue in the locker room
44:27
Speaker 2: on the Steelers Audio Network