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HR1: Pro Bowl · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio, brought to you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store, the F-150 is the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: And thanks very much for being with us in the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: locker room here on this Wednesday afternoon, along with Max
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Starks and Willie Colon.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: I'm Rob King. Thanks for being with us, guys.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Getting there, and I guess before we start, I want
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: to ask you both, you've been through camp, you've played
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: your preseason games. This is that sort of in-between week,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: There's no game to look forward to. You're not into
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: the grind.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: Of the season.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: What is it, like mentally, Max, this week of practice,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: what is it like for players? Is it a Is
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: it a bit of a breath and a chance to
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: take a break? Or is it like, let's get on
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: with some games, man. Let's get this thing going.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: Well, I tell you, I'm going to jump in there
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: for Max. I'm going to beat him to the punch.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: It's just, you can develop preseason fatigue, right? Like you can,
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: as much as you're excited about football and you're excited
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: about the season starting, you have all this angst about
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: how your team is going to play this year and
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: who you want to see and all the above.
• 1:32
  Speaker 6: But this week in between go.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: Time is a marvelous one because this is the time
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: where you can properly prepare the man cave. You have
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: some time to get the grill together and you have
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: an obligation to your family to spend quality time with
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: them because once this.
• 1:52
  Speaker 6: Week is over, it's no longer about them.
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: It's about your mental state and where your team is headed.
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: And so that requires ample amount of man cave time.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: That also requires your wife to have a better understanding
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: that if she wants the best husband, the best version
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: of you, she must dismiss herself during the hours while.
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: Football are on. So this is this is the build
• 2:16
  Speaker 6: up to the season.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: So this is a good time to say goodbye to
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: people you care for and love because football now becomes
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: priority number one for you.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Max, want to weigh in?
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Was that for me?
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, weigh in. I'm sorry. Yeah. You know, it's always funny.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: We're trying to figure out how do you piece and
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: play it. So ask that question one more time, Rob.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: I apologize.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: What this week is like in practice because you're in between,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you know, camp and the preseason and all that stuff
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: winding down, and it's not a game week. You know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: game week is next week, and then the grind of
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the season starts next Is it mentally difficult?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Is it a welcome break?
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Is it both?
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: What is your sort of mentality in this week of practice?
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: You are nervous if you're not the top 35 guys.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: You're nervous because this now gives the team an additional
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: week to look elsewhere. So you have to prove them
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: right on why they kept you or why they side
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: you to the practice squad because you can be changed
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: out as interchangeable parts all the way up until– we
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: get to that first Saturday before the first game for
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: the team that's playing on Sunday. Now, obviously, we have
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: teams playing in Australia. We have the season opener on
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: a Wednesday. Those teams have a little bit different emphasis,
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: but this is what it's for. It's for guys to
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: continually show up and have that same preseason training camp
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: mentality for this extra week until you get to that
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: first game, and then you can breathe a a mild
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: sigh of relief, but then you have to worry about
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: the veteran entrance and the mass exits that happens after
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: week one and week two when the guaranteed salaries are
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: no longer in play for veteran players. So that's what
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: you're weighing against. So this week is still nerve-wracking for
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: a lot of young guys and a lot of guys
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: who are newly signed, and you kind of feel like
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: you're in that second and third tier behind the starters.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: You've got to keep your tape hot every day in practice,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: so it's still an additional level of stress.
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: Well, let me jump out there first and apologize to
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: Rob for totally misfiring on that question. I don't know
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: what the hell I was just talking about. I thought
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: you was talking about what does the fan, how do
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: we prepare as a fan?
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: Oh, no, no.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about you guys as players, what this is like.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Right. You have to let the old guys. You have
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: to let the old guys know that.
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: I totally recognize you were talking about from a ballplayer standpoint.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: So I apologize. I don't want fans to be like,
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: what the hell is Willie talking about? So my man
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: cave and snacks, Max is over here talking about how
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: does a player survive this downtime before the start of
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: the season?
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: So I apologize, Rob.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: No worries. Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Are you glad the preseason and all that's behind you?
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Are you welcoming a little bit of a break? You know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: how are you feeling right now as a player?
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: Well, so first and foremost, I think Max kind of
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: hit a lot of it spot on.
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: You're really just trying to, one, you survived it, right?
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: You're blessed to have another opportunity to have a seat
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: on a bus where you can live out your dream.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: But I think as this week builds and you start
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: to kind of build up to the start of the season,
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: I know one of the things that I always wanted
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: to do was.
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: Really just kind of.
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: Find some reassurance in the playbook, man, and And, and
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: I used to, one of the things I used to
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: do outside of just preparing in the weight room and
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: all that stuff and continue with my conditioning is go
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: back and go back to things that within the playbook
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: that I felt like I struggled with. So it was
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: pretty much sharpening your tools.
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: And watching film.
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: And I think sometimes the biggest thing that happens from
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: a fatigue standpoint, you watch so much film on your
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: week one opponent.
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: You just, by game week, you're over it. You just
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: don't want to see them anymore.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: You just want to actually want to play the game and,
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: and get the season underway. I know, you know, especially
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: when you have a team like the Falcons and, you know,
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: like sure you may feel like you're the better team
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: walking into that matchup, but they're not, you know, they're
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: looking at the Steelers like, man, we got to show
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: up and show out or this can get bad early.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: So you have to now start going into it like, man,
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: you never want to like play down to your opponent,
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: which the Steelers have done in the past. But you
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: have to start gearing up mentally, like, all right, what
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: do I have? What can I do from a mental
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: standpoint that I'm a lot more sharper week one and
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: prepare for the battle?
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: So, guys, we got through most of the roster, the
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: 53 man. Let's clean that up before we move on
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: to some other topics. I'd forgotten, I wanted to ask
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: you guys about the fact that there's no Pro Bowl
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and get your guys' opinions on that and.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Some other subjects.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: But first, let's finish up with our look at the
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: cornerbacks and We're kind of looking at this from the
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: angle early on here of were we surprised by any
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: moves that were made or not made on the 53-man roster.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: We kind of saved corners for last because– Max, we'll
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: start with you on this one. I think that, for me,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the six guys they kept were the six guys I
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: expected them to keep.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: And I agree. I think it is– Very easy. I
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: think we kind of had this probably pigeonholed probably from
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: the second week of practice. We knew who the six
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: guys were going to be for the Steelers that they
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: were going to keep. Obviously, you weren't going to move
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: on from Joey Porter Jr. You weren't going to move
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: on from Jalen Ramsey. They both started the training camp
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: on the pup list. And then Jamel Dean, you went
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: and got him in free agency. So he's one of
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: your top guys. And I'll say this. Asante Samuel was
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: the brightest of bright spots of the guys in that group.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: And when thrust into that starting role because of Joey
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Porter Jr. 's injury, has just looked fantastic from the
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: start of training camp up until this point. He has
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: gotten back. The biggest thing was we signed him in November.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: We worried about coming off the neck injury. He literally
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: had the same neck surgery that I had in the C4, C5.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And how would he.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: Come back from that. How would he fully heal? Had
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: a little bit of reserve duty, looked a little rusty,
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: but still competed hard. And now you could tell it
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: is completely out of his mind. He's completely, you know,
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: injury-free or non-symptomatic and is playing tough and playing back
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: to the Pro Bowl caliber that he was before the
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: injury when he was still with the Chargers. And so
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: you're saying, man, that was a steal in hindsight. So
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: to have really that top four of guys already in place,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: now who fills in behind them? was going to be
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: the next question. Then, of course, we knew what Brandon
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: Echols was, and Daylon Everett, you just took him in
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: the draft, so you knew you were going to have
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: that young guy. So when I look at that six,
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: it was a pretty easy choice.
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm with you, Max.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: I think what's interesting about this group, man, and I
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: think we're all on the same accord, the six that
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: survived is the six that we pretty much thought that
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: would be.
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: Locked in on the roster.
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: But as you kind of go through some of the
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: injuries i mean i mean jalen ramsey he's dealing with
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: a knee you told my echoes uh dealing with an
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: ankle brisker is dealing with i mean his maybe i
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: think his situation is undisclosed deshaun elliott um is on
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: ir uh and so there's this is a group man
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: that's you know from a safety position they're thin but
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: as a as a as a secondary unit man um
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: There's some injuries that these guys are dealing with right
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: out of the gate. So you hopefully, you know, Rob,
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: you mentioned what are guys doing as they kind of
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: prepare for.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: Week one.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Hopefully these guys are getting healed up because they're going
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: to be neat, you know, especially with Joey Porter Jr.
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: and his situation. This unit is going to have to
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: be sharp. And, you know, the strength of the Steelers
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: is being able to get after the quarterback and their
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: front seven being dominant. The backing has to hold up, too.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: And so hopefully with these injuries, a lot of these
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: guys can heal up and feel a lot better. But
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: I'm comfortable with the six, and I think a lot
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: of people should be excited about it.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: I agree.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: And I want to get into how this group is
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: perceived and how this team is perceived a little bit nationally.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It's something we'll touch on a little bit over the
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: course of the season, certainly when we look at power
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: rankings and things. which are valuable just from the standpoint
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: of how is the team perceived? What do the prognosticators
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: and the pundits around the country think of the Steelers team?
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Before we do get to that, though, I wanted to
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: ask you guys, it happened, I think it was late
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: last week, where the NFL announced that there would no
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: longer be any Pro Bowl festivities. Of course, they used
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: to have the game. It was after the season. Then
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: they tried to put it before the Super Bowl to
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: whip up some enthusiasm for it, and I think they
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: went into two-hand touch or something.
• 11:22
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I don't even know what the format was.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Flag football. It was flag. It was flag football. Wyman
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: didn't even participate. They were just there.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so, you know, to me, well, okay. I'll
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: give you my opinions on what I think of the
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Pro Bowl, but first I want to ask you guys
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: about this fact that now it's just going to be
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Here are the honorees.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: So there's no longer an alternate who then gets to say,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: I'm a pro bowler.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Um, when they get added to the team that no
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: longer gets on a guy's resume, they're just going to
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: select the team and that's that. So your guys thoughts
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: on there no longer being a, uh, this sort of
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: pro bowl festivity, I guess everyone's going to get together
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: in LA to take a picture.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I think that's the plan right now.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: And honored at the dinner. And that's about it. And you,
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: I guess you get a plaque or something. Um, I'm
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: just going to be honest. I hate it. I hate it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: I hate that we couldn't figure out how to do
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: this game because this game used to be something that
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: you look forward to. I mean, I still think about
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: like the early 2000s, like when Sean Taylor played in
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: those days. I don't know, Willie, if you remember those days.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: Sean Taylor was trying to take your head off in
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: the Pro Bowl. It was a physical matchup because guys
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: were fighting for that bigger bonus check. And you got
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: a trip to Hawaii. for a week for you and
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: your family. We've participated in a Pro Bowl that went
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: to Hawaii. We can tell you that that's for In
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: the Locker Room After Dark with Willie and I. We'll
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: be hosting that sometime in 2020, 2000 and never. But
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: it was an honor. And I think I look at
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: my first Pro Bowl experience that I went was after
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: we won the Super Bowl. And It was awesome because
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: Jeff Hardings, Alan Faneke, and Marvell Smith both went from
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: our offensive line. So three-fifths of our offensive line got
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: voted to the Pro Bowl. And then, of course, you
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: had like Hines. You had Jerome. You had a bunch
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: of guys. I think it was Joey was out there.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Troy was out there. We had this large swath of guys.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: And what made it so special was when it was
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: a week after the Super Bowl, They did the team
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: announcements and they announced the Steelers group last and they
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: got to be honored as Super Bowl champions walking into
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: the stadium about to play in this Pro Bowl match.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: And I thought that was the coolest sight that I'd
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: ever seen was that, man, this was a celebrated event.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: And then the NFL said, oh, well, we hate that
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: lag week because that week after the championship game leading
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: into the Super Bowl, there's that dead week. And so
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: they felt like they lost interest in fans and everything.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: And then, of course, after the Super Bowl is done,
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Fans traveling to Hawaii, it wasn't as big of a
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: deal for them because they'd already spent all their money
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: at Super Bowl. So they're trying to capture and then
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: they send it to the same city so they can
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: have a two-week experience for whoever hosted the Super Bowl
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: as far as for tourism and money. They changed that
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: and then the game started getting more watered down. And
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: then you started seeing guys deferring to get their other
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: buddies a Pro Bowl honor as well. So you had
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: this flood of quote-unquote Pro Bowlees that were elected, decided
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: not to play because they didn't want to, or they
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: were playing in the Super Bowl, so they were opting out.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Guess what a large majority of your guys that make
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: the Pro Bowl are probably coming from? The two Super
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Bowl teams that are going to play the following week.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: So the guys that you might have voted in and saw,
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: you're not going to see them play because they have
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: a bigger game to play, whereas afterwards you got higher
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: participation from players that were in that game and the
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: guys that you originally voted for Because they got to
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: play in the game, and they either won or lost,
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: and they wanted to come out and play this additional
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: game after winning a championship, and they were already kind
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: of in the mode. So I hate that this is this,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: but I get why they're doing it now because you've
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: changed this game so much. It went from a tackle
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: football game that was in Hawaii to then a traveling
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: kind of road show game that then got less and
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: less contact because players were getting higher salaries and also–
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: It wasn't as big of a deal, and it was
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: the week before the Super Bowl. Then you went to flag.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Then you went to the Pro Bowl games, which was
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: essentially the obstacle course and dodgeball and all this other
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: stuff that didn't matter, whereas before you had the Pro
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Bowl games before the Pro Bowl. So you had the
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: old strength man competitions, Willie, which Larry Allen and Warren
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Sapp would go head-to-head. And seeing them do the bench
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: press contest, the obstacle course, and all the kickers doing
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: kind of like, their version of horse, the quarterback doing
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: the passing. Like you had all these other fun events,
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: and they kind of just scaled it down and changed
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: it so much that it just didn't resemble what we
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: think of as an all-star game like every other sport.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Like NHL has this all-star game, and it's a phenomenal event.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: NBA all-star, we could argue, is just a scoring fest, right?
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: There's no defense, but do you expect defense in that
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: because it's in the middle of the season? The three-point contest,
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: the dunk contest. Like you think of all these other
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: sports that have these other signature events around their sport,
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: And for football not to have that as a major
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: sports in the United States, I think is just one
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: of those. I just hate that it never got figured
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: out and they never put the right team together to
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: figure out how to maximize that actual event.
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: Sorry. Yeah, Max is right. No, no, no.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: You're right.
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: You're right, Max.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: At one point, I remember, I don't think people, Rob,
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: maybe you remember this too. I remember when Neil Smith,
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: the big time nose tackle for the Broncos, had a
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: hell of a career, even with the Chiefs, man.
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: He got kicked out of.
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: The Pro Bowl game for getting in a fight. He
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: actually got ejected. And I've said to myself, I'm like–
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: I remember I was– I may have been a teenager
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: or a kid, whatever. But I remember watching that, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: I'm like, man, the NFL is the real deal. Like,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: this is supposed to be an all-star game. These guys
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: are getting in fights. Like, this is amazing.
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: Like, I loved it.
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: And then– Year after year, you start to see it
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: kind of unwind a little bit. And I think what
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: scared a lot of players, I don't know if you
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: guys remember this. Remember with Tyler Eifert, the tight end
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: from the Bengals?
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: Yeah. He tore his ACL in the game.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: And that became like a beacon call, like a signal
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: to every guy in the NFL or every guy who's
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: worthy of being nominated to the Pro Bowl, if you
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: play in this game, and you get hurt, look what's
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: happened in the title after. Because I think after he got–
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: and I could be wrong. So if anybody's out there,
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: you can definitely claim me up. I think after he
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: got hurt, he was up for a contract. And because
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: of that ACL, you know, things kind of went awry
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: for him. And it was hard for players to stomach that. Like, man,
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: if I go in this game and get hurt, you know,
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: this is going to jeopardize my money. And guys started
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: kind of pulling back from the game. And I also think,
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: and Max alluded to it, when it was in Hawaii,
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: it had a mystique. And it was kind of something,
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: not only were you able to make the Pro Bowl,
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: but you were able to bring your family along. And
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: then your family had a trip to Hawaii. And on
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: top of that, like Max talked about, if one of
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: your guys made it to the Pro Bowl, you not
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: only went out there with your family if you wanted to,
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: but you definitely went out there to celebrate him in
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: the Pro Bowl. And the trip to Hawaii, it was
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: fan crazy. It was all about the NFL. It was
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: an amazing time. Then when it was forced to come
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: to Orlando, the house was like, I'm not– you know,
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: I'm playing 16, 17 games, and the reward is to
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: go to Orlando?
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: You know what I mean?
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: Like, it lost its mystique. It lost its allure, if
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: you will, and it felt kind of dead. And then,
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: you know, everything kind of just fell apart from there. Nevertheless,
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: the Pro Bowl has always been something– that you wanted
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: to make because.
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: It was honor.
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: You were playing amongst the best and considered one of
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: the best. So that was always a badge of honor.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: But at the same time, it was something that you
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: kind of, I think, as an NFL community, you wanted
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: to see happen after the Super Bowl. It was a
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: great cherry on top to a great season. And so
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: it's sad that the Pro Bowl is no longer here.
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: We can no longer bask in our champion, so to speak,
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: But at the same time, man, the writing was on
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: the wall. The NFL just couldn't stomach it. They couldn't
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: stomach the bad viewership. They couldn't stomach the complaints. And,
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: you know, I don't know if it'll ever come back.
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: But if it does, it would have to. be the
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: players leading the charge.
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: Rob.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great, great thoughts. I'm going to weigh in with
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: a couple more thoughts on that. We're going to look
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: at the Steelers practice squad.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Again, important.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: We just got to look back to last year. Dylan Cook,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: James Pierre. I don't need to say more than that.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: And we'll look at this unit as it rounds out
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: the rest of the team. Mike McCarthy's underscored its importance
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: to him. We're going to get to that. Also look
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: at where the Steelers units rank according to at least
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: one national publication. When we continue in the locker room
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: And we thank you very much for being with us
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: in the locker room on this Wednesday afternoon. A little
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: bit of a hump day here. We'll get into all
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: that and our regular guests coming up next week. Really
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: thrilled to have Willie Colon joining us this year in
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: the locker room. And, you know, Willie, you were talking
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: about you and Max both about the Pro Bowl game.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: And it was Tyler Eifert who was hurt, suffered a
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: major injury. He was a really good player. Really impacted
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: his career. Robert Edwards is another guy back in 99
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: for New England. And then guys have been even hurt
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: doing these obstacle courses and stuff on the beach and
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: You know, it's always been, to me, a strange All-Star game.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: You know, it's the only one that's played after the year.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Every other sport shuts down and they have their midseason All-Stars. Now,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: in some ways, that's weird in and of itself. For example,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: there's a pitcher, Blake Snell. I don't know if you
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: guys follow baseball. Blake Snell, terrific pitcher. He's won two
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Cy Youngs as the best pitcher in baseball. but he's
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: only been to.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: One All-Star game.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's crazy, right?
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Like if it was after the season, he'd have been
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: All-Stars in both those years that he won the Cy Young, right?
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Because he'd proven it throughout the course of the year.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: That happens sometimes in sports where the guy who's the
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: best at the midway point of the season isn't necessarily
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: the best when the season is over. So in football,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: you get the best judge of who had the best
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: year because those guys are nominated and awarded after the
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: season is concluded. But with that being the case, it's
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: the one, and I love sports. I love watching sports.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I love broadcasting sports and being involved in it. It's
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the one game that I never really watched. I've talked
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: to former players who loved exactly what Willie was talking about,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: the trip to Hawaii and how special that was and
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: could be for the family and friends. Now, you get
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: a little wealthier. You start making some of the money
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: you guys are making now. Maybe it doesn't mean as much.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: to those guys. But I think certainly for the majority
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: of players, that was a great trip. And if they could,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: you know, and Hawaii, like you said, really embraced it.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: If they could do something along those lines without actually
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: having the game, somehow have a, you know, four days
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: in Hawaii and you get to hang out with other
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: pro bowlers, because that's another thing that's lost. And I'm
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: going on a bit of a ramble here. But, you know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: if you talk to players in other sports, guys who
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: have who have made an all-star team or two. The
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: cool thing is to walk into the clubhouse and there's
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Willie Stargell or Dave Parker or there's Magic Johnson or
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: there's Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby. These are the guys
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: you're in awe of and all of a sudden you're
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: putting on a uniform next to them and you're kind
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: of watching them practice and you're watching the way they
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: do things and you're just kind of soaking up that experience.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And I assume it would be similar to that in
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: a Pro Bowl. So that is something that I think
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: is just lost by not having some sort of event
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: after the year to reward these guys.
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: Can I say one thing, Rob?
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry, man.
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: I want to say, I think it's also important because
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: I remember when Alan Fanica would make the Pro Bowl
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: and how he talked about it. It was also, as
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: much as it was about making the game and being
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: around the guys and and all the fanfare and the
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: big trip to Hawaii and everything that comes along with it,
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: you know, hearing how he would talk to other guys
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: from the NFC and guys in the NFC and how
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: these guys would have somewhat of a meeting of the
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: minds about the state of the league, right? Things they
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: wanted to see and things they were interested in. And
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: they would kind of have like this behind the curtain
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: meeting about the NFL. And they kind of, I think collectively,
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: especially that generation of men, really kind of spearheaded some
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: of the issues or some of the things that were
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: kind of either they were happy about or not happy about.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: And it was a time where they can collectively have
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: that conversation during the Pro Bowl.
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: Because, you know, yes, the NFL is a fraternity.
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: Of brothers and you can get on a great line
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: and call a guy that knows a guy to get
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: to a guy. But during the Pro Bowl, you can
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: really have these conversations. in-depth conversations over beer, right, or
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: over dinner, and then the wives get to talking and
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: other wives get to talking. So there was this sense
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: of community that came out of that that was able
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: to echo throughout the league.
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: That's now severed. And so now, you know, guys aren't able.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: To talk to different guys from different teams and how
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: things went and how were training camps and all these
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: things that the minutia of football is really lost. And
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: I think that's the tragedy at all.
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: Max, sorry about that.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, no. And I think, I think, you know,
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: you're right, Willie. I mean, that was an opportunity to
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: kind of have the unofficial state of the football address
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: and like with your, with your league stars, right? I mean,
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: how often would you have been able to sit down
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: and talk to Tom Brady over a beer about some
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: of the issues, whether it's health and safety, whether it's, okay,
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: we need more time off in the offseason to recover
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: to get better. Like, a lot of those conversations were had,
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: and I think it also was a badge of honor. Like,
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: you wanted to be in that game because that was
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: voted on by your peers largely. So that gave you,
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: even though there's an all-pro list that people go on
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: and that's voted on by mostly, you know, news writers
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: and everybody else, but the Pro Bowl was like the players' picks.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, Willie, you remember we would have, like, the
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: meeting of the minds of the big meeting room and each,
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: each position group would get up there and give you
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: their list of guys to vote for.
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: You know, from their experience.
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: And why am I vital? You'd be like, why am
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: I voting for this guy? Cause this is what Heinz was.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: That's fine.
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: That's what Heinz was. And Heinz would talk about, you know,
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: who he thought the best DBS were that he went against. Right.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: And guys would get up and present. And then we
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: would have a compiled list. that we would use for
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: our pro and it was another chance for us to
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: kind of have that, that team bonding, right? Because we're
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: having to get in front of our peers, explain our position,
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: why we think this guy is good and make all
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: of these different votes. And listen, sometimes it was strategic.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: Sometimes we would pick a guy just so we could
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: get our guy in, you know, if we're like, ah,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: votes are going to be close, man, vote for this
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: guy to make sure that I could get in. You know,
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: we had that. I mean, there was that part of it,
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: but a lot of it largely was based off the
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: merit on what you saw on the field and how
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: you played against that guy. And what you felt was like,
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: I remember when I, you know, I definitely never went
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: up there and advocated for Terrell Suggs ever in my life.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: I just want to make sure we get that out there.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: But Dwight Freeney, Dwight Freeney, I'm like, shoot, dude put
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: me in a spin cycle, man. This guy needs to
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: go to the Pro Bowl. You know what I'm saying? Like,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: we would have those. Robert Mathis. We would have these conversations.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: Even Elvis Dumerville when he was in Denver. Like, we
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: had these conversations. And also for me, it was something
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: that Wolf and I, I know, both held very dear.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: We were second alternates like three years in a row.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: And it was like, man, I want to get there.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: But I remember Willie Anderson was literally on IR all year.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, man, I'm going to get
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: to my first Pro Bowl because Willie Anderson's out. And
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: I was excited. The next thing I know, Willie Anderson
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: showed up in Hawaii.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: I'm like, dude, you're on IR.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: You didn't play a game this season.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: How did you?
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: What?
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: And that was the closest I ever got. And I
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: just remember the heartbreak of that. Because it meant something.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: It was valued when you talked to those guys that
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: made it. Now, like I said, because of all of
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: that diminished it because it's going to Orlando. Okay, yes,
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: unbridled access to Disney World. Whoop-de-doo with my family. I'm
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: trying to get away and actually have a beach vacation.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: I don't want to have to drive to Daytona to
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: have the beach in Orlando. And so that's where it
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: kind of just– it myths me that we can't have
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: that type of event or figure out how to bring
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: the mystique or the prestige behind what it meant to
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: be a pro bowler. And I felt like that was
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: kind of lost over the last couple of years and
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: why this game kind of went downhill was that it
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: wasn't a prized accolade or achievement for an individual player.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I'd like to ask you guys something because I'm fascinated
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: by that. I've never heard that. You guys would get
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: up in the locker room, and, I mean, would it
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: be after.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: Practice, before practice?
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: Oh, we were in the meeting room, yeah.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: We were in the meeting room after practice, yeah.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, you'd pick a time and say, okay,
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: today we're voting on Pro Bowl. Is that how it
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: would work, something like that?
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: Well, there was a mandated time that we all had
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: to vote on the Pro Bowl, so that was already, scheduled.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: But we just took it the extra degree and said,
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: we're going to go in the meeting room and we're
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: going to close the door, coaches out, and we're going
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: to pick our Pro Bowl list. And that's how it happened.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: See, I think that's still pretty cool.
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And that's now lost. That's now lost.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: Why wouldn't guys do that?
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: Because it's not a game anymore, and Like you said,
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: distinction has worn off because guys don't really appreciate it
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: as much because it didn't feel like an achievement. It
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: felt like a task or another thing to do at
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: work because of the location and because of the parameters
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: of what the game became. It became a flag football game,
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: which means both your lines are now out of it.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: It's essentially a highly effective seven-on-seven for your skill guys.
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: And then it went to the games, which were obstacle events. Like,
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: I don't know how many offensive linemen want to play
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: dodgeball against Justin Jefferson, right?
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: Like, I'm not winning. I have more surface area to hit.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: He could go sideways, and he's as skinny as a
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: door hinge. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's not fun.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: And running through. you know, essentially it looked like double
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: dare adult, double dare out there. It's not fun anymore.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: It's not fun anymore. It's not a game. And that's
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: where you, you, once you eliminate the big boys, which
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: is the largest swath of any team participation, right? Willie,
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: the biggest percentage of your team are large prairie mammals,
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: and you're not doing large prairie mammal things. That's different.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: If you're saying, Hey man, we're going to have, we're
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: going to have a buffet eating contest at the pro bowl.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: Like nobody, nobody wants to see that. I mean, Lyman
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: would participate depending on the food, but, So you take
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: the big men out of it, which is the largest
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: concentration of your teams anyways, so that just continues to
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: diminish the value of it. So that's why it just
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: sucks that it's not there.
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: There's more ways to make this Pro Bowl thing sexy.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: Once again, the players have to, if this was to
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: come back, the players have to spearhead it.
• 31:40
  Speaker 6: But Max is right.
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: Once you take the big fellas out of it and
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: we feel isolated, I know we sound like a bunch
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: of crying old women about it, but it's It's true.
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: There was a point where the quarterback competition was one
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: of the sexiest events during the Pro Bowl, right?
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: They watched the guys run their 40s. Larry Allen and
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: Warren Sapp benching.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: Fastest man in the world, right? Remember that? Fastest man
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: in the NFL. Daryl Green used to dominate it.
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all those things still have a place, but the
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: game was the main event. And so the guys have
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: to now get back to, these young guys have to
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: feel and want to play in the game and play
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: the game the right way. And I remember talking to
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: some guys in the Pro Bowl because, listen, you finish
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: a long season. If you were like the Steelers, you
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: played deep into the playoffs and you either cracked the
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: Super Bowl. If you didn't, you were at least a
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: division round or AFC championship. Those are long seasons, right?
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: Because you're starting from training camp and you're going all
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: the way through. And I remember talking to some guys like, hey,
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: there was this kind of honor code amongst the players.
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: First quarter, we'll fill this out. Second quarter, you know,
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: we'll give it a little, we'll put a little more on.
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: The gas, halftime, let's reset, laugh, take pictures, do all
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: the pageantry of it. And then by the third quarter,
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: fourth quarter, the level of intensity started to pick up.
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: Guys started getting more dialed in. Tackles started to sound
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: a lot louder. By the fourth quarter, this was full.
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: You had one quarter and it was full game mode.
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: It was like, all right.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: It was bloodbath.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: Gloves on, knuckles up. Let's go. Let's go bang this
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: out for one quarter.
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: So if That's the importance of having the older guys
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: who were used to going to the Pro Bowl, ushering
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: the young guys and saying, this is how the game
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: can be played. This doesn't have to be four quarters
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: of hard-nosed football, but we can have a little bit
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: of a glorified walkthrough all the way up until the
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: third quarter, and let's pick it up, right? And then
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: the fourth quarter, you have that eye, you make that
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: kind of, you look across the line of scrimmage, you
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: look at the other guy like, all right, man, I'm coming,
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: you come, let's have at it for one quarter. These
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: are elite athletes, the best of the best. They can
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: stomach one more hard-nosed football game for one quarter, you know?
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: And so all of that, I think it kind of
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: all just diminished, and it sucks because The Pro Bowl
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: was fun. It was great for families. It was great
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: for the fans. It was great for all the organizations.
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: It was just a treat. And, you know, now we're
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: talking about it, and it's all nostalgia now.
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: We have nothing to hold on to. But, listen, the
• 34:15
  Speaker 6: powers that be, if they want it back, they can.
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: They just have to make it a more digestible destination,
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: and two, the players have to really amp this up
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: and play the game enough with the nonsense of kind
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: of playing patty cake football. for two hours, and then
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: everybody goes home. Nobody wants to see that on TV.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so maybe one more thought on what they
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: could do to clean that up. We'll look at the
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: practice squad for the Steelers. By the way, happy birthday today.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: 76 years old, Terry Bradshaw, one of the great Steelers
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: of all time.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, TB, happy birthday to him. One of the all-time greats.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe some thoughts on him, too, when we continue here
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: in the locker room with Max Sarge, Willie Colon, myself,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Rob King, here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: So, welcome back.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: And we are talking about the.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Pro Bowl, and I think we're all kind of sad
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: to see it just kind of whimper to a close.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: I guess my only question would be, what can you
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: do about it? I think everything about getting the guys together,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: taking them out to Hawaii with their families, the reception
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: that Honolulu, I think the game was in Honolulu, right,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: that gave all the players, the excitement surrounding that was
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: a big event for Hawaii. chance to get away and
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: family and friends and meet guys and now maybe you
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: talk to somebody and you're like hey you know guy's
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: not bad after all the wives get along and all
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: all these wonderful things I think we can all agree
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: that part of it is wonderful I don't know how
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: you can play a football game that's not a football
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: game I mean in in hockey nobody checks that's the
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: closest thing the NBA scores you know 178 to 174
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: because nobody plays defense Nobody's, you know, everyone's trying not
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: to get hurt in baseball. And of course, there are
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: a few injuries over the course of a game anyway
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: in baseball. And that's probably the purest one as far
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: as players trying to win. No, they're not going to
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: barrel anybody over like Pete Rose did and broke Fossey's
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: leg back in an all-star game in the 70s and
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: cost Fossey perhaps some of his career. But I don't
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: know how you can play football without playing football. I
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: think when You know, he always used to say in practice,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: you got to go full board because when you don't,
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: that's when you get hurt. So other than, I think
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: we all love the idea, guys, but is there anything
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: that can be done to keep the idea and keep
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: that camaraderie for the game's elites and keep all the
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: other things that go around it and still have a
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Pro Bowl?
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: Anything that can be done?
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like, what can you do?
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Other than playing a game and saying, you know what?
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Here's a massive insurance policy for everybody playing, right? You
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: get hurt in this game and, you know, and you're
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: medically proven to be hurt. Here's $ 15 million, whatever.
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think when you play football, you have
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: to play football.
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: You have to go full speed or you're going to
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: get hurt.
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, it shouldn't be hard because the rules
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: are totally different from what they were compared to now.
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: You can barely touch the quarterback.
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: You can't, you know, there's no– You can't grab a
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: guy behind his jersey and drag him down. They're taking
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: away the hip drop tackle. The game is– there's no
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: more helmet to helmet. Like all these things that we
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: kind of was applauding are gone. They're no longer on
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: the table. So the game is as safe as it
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: could ever be from a logistics standpoint as far as
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: playing in the game. So I don't know from the
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: playing element of it what the NFL can do to add–
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: more of a center for guys to go out there
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: and play, because I think the game is already as
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: safe as, I mean, we got guard, guys are wearing
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: guardian caps for Christ's sakes, right?
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: Like, like everything is about safety and rightfully so.
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: I don't want to sound like I'm talking down on it,
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: but I, I, it really just has to be these,
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: this generation of ballplayers, the Josh Allen, the Joe Burrows,
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: the miles Garrett, uh, the later Williams, the, the, all
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: these elite stars and Michael Parsons have to come to
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: the table and really push for this and say, Hey,
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: This is how we're going to play the game. We're
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: going to play four quarters. And however they want to
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: break it up, but we're going to get after this.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: We're going to put on a show for the fans.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: Because this is what it's about. It's about the fans.
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: It's about how they drive. There were at one point
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: fans flying to Hawaii to see this game and putting
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: on their team colors. And now that the game is
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: starting to expand from an international standpoint, I mean, it's really–
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: you want– people for other countries to fly to Hawaii
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: to see the game and bask in it and show
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: the product.
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: And these are our stars. These are our guys.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: We love them.
• 39:27
  Speaker 6: And look what they can do. And look how great
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: the game of football is. So once again, I think.
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: It takes the powers to be the superstars of the
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: league to have a roundtable discussion and really set the
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: tone and temperature.
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: Hopefully they can sit down with Goodell and be like,
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: we want the game back, but this is what we want.
• 39:44
  Speaker 5: And I think part of it is making the game
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: a little more exciting, faster. from a quarter standpoint maybe.
• 39:52
  Speaker 6: So I don't know.
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: Those are the little things I can attest to, but
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: I think the NFL is already at a good place
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: as far as safety.
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: All right. I'm going to chime in with mine because
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: I'm already in that mode mentally about where we're at
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: internationally as far as the expansion. Make it an international
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: showcase game. Make it an international Pro Bowl game. Where
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: you actually take the Pro Bowl and put it in
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: an international environment. Since we're going and opening all of
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: these different sites year after year, why not go in
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: and give a preview? Like before we went to Brazil,
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: how about we have the NFL All-Star Game in Brazil,
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: and oh, by the way, we're going to open the
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: season next year in Brazil, right? Now, Australia was a
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: different story. I don't know if you want to go
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: all the way over to Australia at the end of
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: the season, but... Why can't we open it up in Europe?
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: Do a game, do, do an all-star game in London,
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: do an all-star game in France, do an all-star game
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: in Spain, do an all-star game in Germany, right? There's
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: a lot of different places.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: Puerto Rico. Listen, I would love, I would love to
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: go cover that. Make sure I'm the, I'm the color
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: analyst for that one. Willie, you do the sidelines and
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: we can do it from the beach. But, but that's,
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: if you're talking about trying to expand your international exposure,
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: if you could put a concentration of your, best athletes
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: like an all-star lineup and put it internationally that game
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: internationally we already see fans come into those stadiums rob
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: when we were in ireland last year they were wearing
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: every single nfl jersey they were just happy to see
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: nfl football imagine if you say we're bringing the best
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: of the best it's not just the team but it's
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: the all-stars like a traveling roadshow almost like team usa
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: when they did the exhibitions the dream team before they
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: actually went into the olympics And they played in the
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: FIBA World Cup, right? And they did all these exhibition matches.
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: Imagine if we did that and said at the end
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: of the year, all right, we're going to do an
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: all-star game. It's going to be in Barcelona. I guarantee
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: you every player that gets voted to the Pro Bowl,
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: I'm there.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: I'm going.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: Sign me up right now. It's like I don't even
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: know if I'm going to make the Pro Bowl, but
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: I'm going to be there. You would have a renewed
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: interest in the player participation, which would then influence the
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: fan participation. And the fans would then look forward to
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: going somewhere internationally for their family trip or whatever to
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: go see their favorite players. See Cam Hayward and TJ
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: Watt over in Barcelona. Because also the other part that
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: I think we kind of glossed over and Willie and
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: I really enjoyed this was. the closeness that players are
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: to the fans when you're in that all-star environment, right?
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: When you went to Hawaii, like, you would see Drew
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: Brees on Waikiki Beach, you know? Like, you'd see, in
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: our example, Marquise Pounce, like, we were out and about
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: in that area. We were riding little mopeds looking crazy
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: on the streets. Like, you had that closeness of being
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: able to say, man, I could actually potentially meet this
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: person in a regular environment that's not in and around
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: a stadium or at a practice facility where I'm behind
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: a fence and we're treating them like, like animals on
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: parade at a zoo. Like this would be a more,
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: and it's in an international location. Like get your passport ready.
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: Like this is awesome. And Rob, can I, I think
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: that would be my, that would be my, that would
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: be my, that would be my, my recommendation.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: I love it. Willie.
• 43:21
  Speaker 6: Rob is somebody who's a baseball enthusiast.
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: And I know the MLB does is having to also
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: game during the middle of the season, where it's kind
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: of a break.
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: In between the season. Do you think the NFL would
• 43:32
  Speaker 6: be able to do that? Because I kind of like that.
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: I know one of the reasons, one of the regrets
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: for a lot of guys, a lot of these younger
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: guys is, you know, even though.
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: They make the Pro Bowl, a lot of these guys
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: are banged up, right? They're dealing with injuries.
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: They've been dealing with all season and just playing an
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: extra game where they're not really that passionate about nor
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: want to play.
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: You know, they throw the injury out there. Well, I
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: got a back. I'm dealing with an ankle. I got
• 43:54
  Speaker 6: to have this postseason surgery.
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: I think it's a legit, especially if the NFL adds
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: an extra game, if they can somehow break the season up,
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: dedicate a week or two to the players and say, hey,
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: this is where we want to do our All-Star game.
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: Maybe we fly the guys out to the Caribbean. Maybe
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: we go to Mexico. Maybe we go to Puerto Rico.
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: Maybe we go to some of these countries where we
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: know we have a strong fan base and the weather
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: is nice and it's a good break of the season
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: and we take our best and our most decorated and say, hey,
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: you got four days, let's light it up. You can
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: bring your families. Especially if you're a cold weather guy.
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: Being in Pittsburgh, me and Max would make the Pro
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: Bowl and we had an opportunity.
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: To go to Cancun and play an all-star game. Why not?
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: I don't know if that was, do you think that
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: would be a viable option for the NFL as well?
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: I have to tell you, my initial thought was that's
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: going to be tough because teams don't want to get
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: their players injured. Having said that though, You know, one
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: of the things, I mean, if you made that a
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: focal point, Willie, that's a.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: Really interesting idea.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Now, in baseball, what you're running into is guys don't
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: want to pitch because they don't want to throw off
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: the routine or, hey, it's two days rest, so I'm
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: not going to pitch. You know, they got me starting
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: the first game after the All-Star break, so I don't
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: want to pitch. So you're starting to run into that
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: a little bit. I think what happens to every sport
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: is when it becomes– and it's been this way for
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: most sports, most of the major sports for quite some time,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: but it becomes too big of a business. It's too
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: big of a business venture. And the players, unfortunately are
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: commodities and their commodities. You don't want to damage. And
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: so as a team, you're thinking, you know what? Hey,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: great experience for the guys. We want them to have
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: that experience, but man, I sure want them to start.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: I want to reset my rotation. I want them starting
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: that first game after the all-star break on Monday or
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: on Friday. I mean, so, There's a little bit of
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: that creeping in, I think, that we're seeing some of that.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I think that, though, the more you were talking and
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: the more I thought about it, Willie, I mean, you
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: could actually– you know, every year everyone talks about, oh, man,
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: we got the bad bye this week. We got the
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: early bye. We wanted the later bye. Well, this could
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: be everybody's bye, right? Everybody gets a week off in
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: the middle of the season, and that's one of your byes,
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: especially if they go to 18. There's talk of a two–
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: you know, a two-buy system. You get an extra buy
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: over the course of the season. But I think that
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: the one thing is everybody would be petrified that their
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: players would get hurt. I don't know how the players
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: would feel about it. And those players aren't going to
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: get a buy, right? They're going to fly somewhere internationally.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: It's going to be hard on their bodies. Even if
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: you kept it local, I think those are the only
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: things against it. But I could see some of the
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: things for it. It's certainly a great way to promote
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: the game in a different way. um, you know, abroad
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: or somewhere else, it's, it would be a great opportunity
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: for the players. You'd have to give them a big fat,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: you know, million dollar appearance fee or what have you. Um,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: and I don't know what guys used to make for,
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: for appearing in the pro bowl, but I think it's
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: at least something that's interesting to explore.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: 44 grand for the winner, 22 for the loser.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: Not that I've ever looked. I think players are going
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: to need more than that. Um, to want to risk
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: their career and risk their season. Um, It is interesting, though.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Could it be tweaked? Could that be a possible scenario
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: where it would be tweaked? And I don't know. It's interesting, Willie.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Let's kick that around. Maybe we'll come up with a
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: solution right here for the Pro Bowl in the locker room,
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: and we'll present it to the world and to the
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: rest of the NFL.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: But in the meantime, let's take a break.
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: Shall we? Yeah, let's do that.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: We have Max Starks. We have Willie Colon. We're going
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: to take a look at that Steelers practice squad. We're
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: going to take a quick look around now at how
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: the Steelers are perceived nationally in their roster by position
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: group when we continue in the locker room here on
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: the Steelers Audio Network.