Welcome to Steelers Takeaways!

First off, what sparked your interest in sports law?

At the core I’m a civil rights lawyer. I started off at a small firm in Washington, D.C, as an associate. That’s when a number of coaches came to us – they were concerned about not getting equal opportunities in the NFL to coach. We convened with them- they felt they needed help advocating for themselves. Our firm helped them in that matter and I ended up being a part of that. That’s where the intersection of race and sports began.

The firm produced a report after Dennis Green and Tony Dungy were fired and that left just one head coach of color in the NFL. The report covered the way race impacted head coaching searches. The University of Pennsylvania did the study and it revealed that coaches of color had success – just not a lot of opportunities.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Sports and Entertainment Lawyer, Professor and Author, N. Jeremi Duru”

First off, what are you up to since you stopped coaching?

Well, I do a little consulting for my alma mater Vanderbilt – I go there three times a year to help there. When James Franklin was at Penn State I’d go there for a week and look around and see how I could help them too. Other than that, I’m done coaching.

When I was fired from Houston – I wish I had been there longer – but I said that would be the last time I’d work for anybody. I liked this gig, but when I went to Houston, I told John Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome that I appreciated them everything they did for me. I told John too that if they ever needed me, he’d be the only one I’d ever go back and coach for. I coached for 44 years  – John and Andy Reid were as good as you get.

Baltimore was an unbelievable organization – top to bottom.  I felt the same with Pittsburgh.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receivers Coach David Culley, 1996-1998”

You started off as a media person – how did you make that transition to the “others side” into PR and then authorship?

It was just an opportunity that came up. The Penguins reached out to me a few years earlier and it didn’t feel like it was the right time. They reached out again a few years later and I figured they wouldn’t reach out a third time. I was 40 years-old and I figured “Why not?” I Might like it or I might not – but I figured if not I could always go back to the media.

Teams now tell their own stories – now that the internet has exploded. At the time they wanted someone someone from the media to run their media. I didn’t have a PR or marketing background -I didn’t have that experience – but we all do the job in our own way anyway. I relied on my background and hopefully I did some good – I’m sure I screwed up sometimes too. The landscape changed so much over those years – in 1996 I couldn’t imagine all of the social media outlets that arose. It was an exciting time. They said I was smart for taking the job when I did but I didn’t see that all coming, honestly.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Tom McMillan, Author/Former Vice President/Communications for the Pittsburgh Penguins”

First off, what are you up to now – still playing?

I grew up in Peters Township – that’s when it was mostly farmland – I graduated with 80-to-90 kids! My uncle and cousins were there to – I grew up with them.  My uncle was the president of a life insurance company based in Ligonier. When he passed away years later I took his place as president of the company. It was an 11 million dollar business then. Then another insurance company in Pittsburgh hired me – I drove to Pittsburgh and back from Ligonier every day for 20 years until the company merged with my former company. I ran that and it went from a $300 million company to $3 billion. I retired since then – four years ago. Now I’m the artist formerly known as Atlanta Bliss!

Continue reading “Exclusive with Matt Blistan, Trumpeter/Member of Prince and the Revolution”