Exclusive with Steelers Strength and Conditioning Coach Walt Evans, 1982-1988

I had more control doing what I do now than I had in football.  I felt I could be more successful if I was doing something where I had that control.

Now, I have more accountability and leadership. I’ve been able to advance my career every time I went to a new company and have done well for myself. It’s hard to replace that exhilaration you get out of football – it’s hard to replicate that. But now I have more stability.

Seeing how guys prepare today – does it worry you how much they do on their own and how much they do in general compared to when you coached?

One thing we had when I coached was consistency. Every year players all came in in February to work out at the stadium. At first some didn’t want to come in but Chuck called some of them and after the first year we had 50-to-60 guys at the facility every day in the offseason. It was all geared on developing players. Not just conditioning – it was all specifically applicable to what they did on the field. I did what they did as well – I wanted to be a good leader and show them that everything we did we needed to do together.

Today, everyone has a guru – it’s all fragmented. Everyone is doing something different and doing it differently. A lot I think is overkill too. We did it all together and I really enjoyed that. Today it’s much more individualized. We did things much more by position and did a lot of measurement testing.

What was that like?

I wanted to measure every player – I did a study – to see what made them successful. I remember trying to measure Lambert’s arms and legs – we wanted to understand what factors made players successful.

Talent and conditioning aside, we looked at what basic attributes – what body types made players successful. Lambert for example had long, long arms. That helped him to shed blockers.

Bradshaw – no one could convince him at first to come in. But I finally talked him into coming in. He came straight from his flight and went on the treadmill. It was phenomenal – he had the conditioning of a very good defensive back. It was incredible – he was such a phenomenal  physical specimen. I don’t think people realized how he stood out as far as his physical attributes were concerned.

How did you get started with the Steelers in the first place?

I was coaching high school football on the Southside and also worked with GNC – they were running a program in their stores – they had equipment in their stores and having people come in and do programs there. We worked with the Steelers and had some guys come in to promote the programs. I got to talking with Jon Kolb about training camp and they had me come in to work in camp. After camp Chuck asked me to stay. The workouts had gone well and he felt I had shown good leadership skills and knowledge to help run the strength and conditioning program.

What was it like working with Jon Kolb?

Jon was totally and completely dedicated. This was his bag – training and conditioning. He was in it 100% and was good to work with.

What changed over the six years you were there in terms of how you and the team approached the conditioning work?

When I got there we upgraded some of the things we did. We broke down the training into seasons – periodization. We did different things at different times of the season. We started with baseline development then went on to work on explosive stuff and speed. We had different things each position would do. There were things Mark Malone would do we wouldn’t have Gary Dunn do, for example.

Chuck – he preached that the game was played mostly from the waist-down. He was right. It’s about leverage. We worked on lower body strength  – that was key. A lot of power lifting.

We also ran along the Allegheny – we ran across the 6th Street Bridge, around the Point and came back again – we did that almost every day. When the young players came in they had the longest mini-camp of any other team. It lasted six weeks.  We got players into playing condition. Application was the key – we trained by position.

How did players adjust to the changes?

We had a lot of high-round picks that couldn’t do a lot of this stuff. We told them that going from college to the pros was like going from grade school to college. It was that big of an adjustment. But it helped Chuck with the selection process – he could see better who could compete at a high level.

In training camp, we lifted every day after practice. It was all tailored and designed to peak mid-season. Not too soon. The game we played versus Denver – when we beat Elway when we weren’t supposed to win. That helped show the success of our conditioning.

We had coaches come in from other teams like the Giants to see what what we were doing. We shared what we did – Chuck was a big believer in that. But not everyone had success doing it.

Any of the players you worked with stand out to you today?

There was one player who never missed a workout or session during my time there. David Little was such a talented player and totally dedicated. I really enjoyed working with him.

Terry Bradshaw invited me to his ranch in Louisiana – he had a full gym there and I’d help him there.

And I remember Mike Webster at the end of every practice saying “Ok – let’s go!”. Even in those cold, dark days after practice we’d go to the top of the steps in Three Rivers and run the steps. I measured it out once it was like running a mile – uphill.

What was Mike like to work with?

Mike did more than he should have. He was so driven – so afraid of failure. I never saw anyone like that.

Any other guys that were fun to work with?

Lambert did his own thing in the offseason – I talked to him though and he always came to camp in shape. He always said what was on his mind. He didn’t mince words. When I was doing the measurement study and trying to measure his arms, he would just yell at me “Are you crazy? What are you doing – this is crazy!” But I just asked him to let me do it and he finally said ok.

I’m not sure the fans truly appreciated how much time and effort the team put in in the offseason. They didn’t have their own trainers – we did everything together and we were one of the only – if not the only – team doing that in the offseason at the time.

Any good stories to share?

We were constantly getting guys cramping up and getting injured. I got with Chuck and told him I wanted to implement a new menu at the Allegheny Club where they all got together to eat – something healthier. Ralph Berlin and I set up a meeting with Alex – the manager at the club – to talk to him about a new menu that had more options. The players were eating a lot of high-sodium foods like hamburgers and soda and that helped caused some of the issues. We told him we wanted to talk to him but not to make any changes until we came in on Monday after practice to talk with him about it.

Well, Monday comes along and Ralph and I go to the club. But when we walked in we saw he already changed everything. He had nuts, seeds, seaweed….he put out all of this stuff. I got the worst feeling – I knew the players would go ballistic – especially Tunch and Wolf who were big babies about this stuff, and of course Lambert.

Sure enough, they all started yelling at us. Lambert was sitting there, then he got up, grabbed a cup, filled it with seeds and walked over to Chuck’s office and threw the cup down on his desk and said “Here’s your lunch!”

I always got blamed for that – Ralph and I took a lot of heat for that!

After that though, we made our changes to the menu and Chuck talked to the team. After a while the players grew to like it. And we had practically zero cramping after that. Myron Cope even mentioned it.

What do you think of the way the NFL has handled CTE in general – I know you have spoken about this before?

I don’t think they handled some things well. Specifically, with Mike’s case, his situation brought CTE into the light, and his family didn’t get any of the payout other guys got because of some timing issue. It was entirely unfair. He willingly sacrificed his body for the NFL.

I know the NFL is trying to do more but it’s not doing a great job. The preventative measures came after CTE was exposed by the media – after it all came crashing down. You’ll still have that stuff no matter what you do – CTE and concussions will happen. It’s a contact sport – you can’t make that go away. And, players also have the choice to play or not to play.

I can’t see how you can avoid some head trauma. It’s still the same game and you can’t take the risk completely out of the game.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your thoughts on how the NFL can/should be handling Covid?

When the season started I thought there was no way the NFL could possibly play when they are in contact with each other every week and in the locker room together all the time.

There are so many players. In the NBA they all went to Orlando and stayed there. But you can’t do that in the NFL. I think there will continue to be lots of stops and starts with games. You can’t control all of the players. And testing – you can be asymptomatic and test negative and still be positive and spread the disease. It’s a very difficult thing to do. I struggle with it every day at my job.

So, I didn’t think it would be completely successful. They’re doing a good job trying, but you need total control and isolation to control this and that’s just not possible.

Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades.  To order, just click on the book: