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Jim O’Brien: Spending Weekend with Steelers and Pirates

O’Brien: Spending weekend with Steelers and Pirates

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

It was a wonderful extended weekend, with temperatures into the 70s each day, as good as it gets in May inPittsburgh. I spent time at three different venues with some of my favorite people in Pittsburgh sports.

There was a dinner at Heinz Field on Thursday night, a brunch at The Club at Nevillewood before a golf outing on Friday morning, and three days at the Sewall Center at Robert Morris University in Moon Township.

And, thanks mostly to good luck and good timing, I found openings to see the finish of the Preakness with I’ll Have Another finishing ahead of Bodemeister once again, Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers tossing a one-hit shutout against the Pirates, and Andrew McCutchen hitting a pair of two-run homers to lead the Pirates to a 4-3 victory over the same Tigers in Detroit.

What a great weekend.

The 36^th annual Andy Russell Celebrity Classic and the XXXIV Annual Classic Sports Card and Sports Memorabilia Show were both enjoyable events. Andy Russell’s uniform number was 34.

It usually rains or rain is threatened at Andy Russell’s golf outing and loyal participants were saying this was the best weather ever for the event. I’ve been to at least 15 or more of these outings, going back to one of the early ones where Arnold Palmer participated as a host at the Latrobe Country Club back in the late ‘70s. I was happy for Andy that the sun was shining on his big day.

Russell raises money to support the UPMC Department of Urology, the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program and the Andy Russell Charitable Foundation. He’s raised millions through the years for local non-profit organizations.

I was able to spend time and talk to Gerry “Moon” Mullins, Franco Harris, Frenchy Fuqua and L.C. Greenwood, and touch base with John Banaszak, Mike Wagner, Dwayne Woodruff, Lynn Swann, Craig Bingham, Robin Cole, Emil Boures, Glen Edwards, Marv Kellum, Mike Merriweather, J.T. Thomas, J.R. Wilburn and, of course, Andy Russell at Heinz Field and The Club at Nevillewood.

My wife Kathie and I sat next to Joe Gordon at dinner. Gordon was named the best public relations man in the league during the ‘70s, and was a valuable aide to all of us on the beat. Gordon is now a good friend.

I also spoke with Steve Blass and Kent Tekulve, two former Pirates who participated as celebrities in the fivesomes, as well as Troy Benson, a member of the Pitt football team when I served as assistant athletic director for public relations at Pitt in the mid-80s.

Anybody who loves sports would have enjoyed tagging along, as did my good friend Gene Musial.

I had a chance to say hello to two of my all-time favorite Pirates, Dick Groat and El Roy Face, at the RMU campus, as well as Mike “Hit Man” Easler, Whammy Douglas, Bob Bailey and Jim Rooker.

I also visited with Jim Gentile, who was a power-hitting first baseman with the Kansas City Athletics. I was an editor at the U.S. Army Home Town News Center inKansas Cityin 1965 and helped out in the press box at Municipal Stadium in the evenings when Gentile was playing for Charles O. Finley’s A’s in the American League.

I also worked in the press box as a spotter at the same stadium when the Kansas City Chiefs of Len Dawson and Buck Buchannan were playing there in the American Football League.

That was one of those fortunate developments in my life, serving in the U.S. Army and getting a chance to see the pro teams in “the other league” while I was in Kansas City.

L.C. Greenwood was the lone figure in the dinning room at Nevillewood for a brief spell on Friday morning. Everybody else had gone out to play golf, but Greenwood stayed behind.

Gene Musial and I joined L.C. at his table. “I can’t play today,” said Greenwood. “My back won’t allow it.”

He told us he’d had 15 surgeries on his back since he was a star defensive end for the Steelers in the ‘70s. He was a stalwart member of the Steel Curtain. He always stood out in the crowd, at 6-6, and he just always stood tall and walked tall. There has always been a noble look about L.C. Greenwood.

I asked him if he was still a member of the Williams Country Club inWeirton,West Virginia. “I still pay dues,” he said, “but I haven’t played golf there in quite a while.”

I knew that he had grown up in Canton,Mississippi, and I knew that he should have ended up inCanton, Ohio, as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He and teammate Donnie Shell and Andy Russell and Mike Wagner, to name a few, suffer because there are so many of their teammates in the Hall of Fame.

There is a reluctance to name too many Steelers to the Hall of Fame. Two more, Jack Butler and Dermontti Dawson, are going in this summer, along with two Pitt products, Chris Doleman and Curtis Martin. Greenwoodis no longer eligible in the regular voting having been on the ballot for the maximum 15 years. His only chance now would be to get nominated by the veterans’ committee, which is how Butler became a Hall of Fame inductee.

I also knew that when L.C. was a young man he wanted to be a pharmacist. He went to Arkansas AM & N on an academic scholarship.

“I spend a lot of time in pharmacies these days,” said L.C., smiling that great warm smile of his. “I used to go to the pharmacy only to pick up some aspirin. Now everyone in the pharmacy knows me. ‘Hi, Mr. Greenwood, how are you today?’ I am a frequent visitor.”

Greenwood still works as a broker in the coal business out of an office in Carnegie and he does not complain. “Hey, I thank the Lord each morning when I wake up,” he said. “I just lost a former teammate, so many of the guys I played with here are gone. I’m thankful to be around. I count my blessings.”

“Moon” Mullins still works as well. He owns the Industrial Metals & Minerals Company inSouth Fayette, near the Bridgeville border. I have been to his office as well asGreenwood’s through the years when I interviewed them.

“You were one of the guys we trusted,” Mullins told me at Heinz Field. “We could talk to guys like you and Myron Cope and we knew you weren’t going to throw us under the bus. I’d tell Myron something and he’d say ‘a little bird told me’ when he’d use the item on his show. You guys weren’t out to hurt us. That wasn’t true with some of the media.”

Mullins reminded me of just how good we had it in those days. I came to cover the Steelers for the 1979 season after spending the previous nine years inNew York, and one year before that inMiami.

The Steelers would go on to win their fourth Super Bowl title in six seasons under Coach Chuck Noll. “They used to have that big room in that building off by the dorms,” recalled Mullins.

“The offensive line used to have our post-practice meetings in a room under that room that was reserved for the media and the coaches. I went in there once and, man, you guys had a big supply of beer and wine and whiskey. That was tempting, I’ll tell you.

“Ray Mansfield always had us leaving the dorms after our curfew and going down the road. I told him we ought to just go down to that media room. But I am sure we could have gotten into trouble for that, too.”

The Steelers’ coaches would go to that room following the second practice of the day, and the writers and broadcasters were invited to come as well for “happy hour.”

You could talk to the coaches, but everything was off the record. It was not a place to conduct an interview. But I always found that I learned something I could discuss with a coach later, on the record.

They had a family day then, too, with wives and children and friends of the players invited to come for a picnic style outing. The media was welcome to join in the fun. The media has not been welcome at that picnic for the last 30 years, not since Bill Cowher replaced Noll as the head coach. The media used to stay in the same dorm as the players, but that ended around the same time that “happy hour” went by the boards.

Since then the media has been made to feel like second-class citizens. In my days on the beat, we could make arrangements on our own with a player to do an interview, and then visit him in his room between sessions. The media must request interviews through the public relations office these days. Some interviews are monitored by a member or the p.r. staff.

Now the media grabs a player or two on a sidewalk outside the dining room and is lucky to get five to ten minutes of time, usually with a half dozen leaches with tape recorders shoving them into the faces of any mouth that is moving in the Steelers’ ranks.

Let’s just say it’s not the ideal situation. The fans don’t get as close to the players or have the freedom they did in those days. There are more security guards, more ropes, more restrictions, and more boundaries. The media, for the most part, is kept at a distance.

The p.r. staff behaves more like security guards; timing the interviews and cutting them short for no legitimate reason, just to control the action. It’s much more challenging for the writers and broadcasters to get to know the players, and to get their best stories.

I’m glad I came along when I did. Chuck Noll used to sit down with us once a week and we’d just talk about the team and how things were going. It wasn’t a TV reality show. It was just for us. The TV interviews came later.

I am pleased to learn, so many years later, from Andy Russell and Moon Mullins, and Mel Blount, that there was a trust factor. I always felt that if you exercised some journalistic judgment, and respected what the players said was on the record and off the record, and you didn’t take cheap shots, that in the long run you would have more and better stories.

Some of those old Steelers even give me a hug now that we’re all seniors, still moving, and doing our best to stay erect. We shared something special together and we remember the great times we were fortunate to experience together.

Some one chided Craig Bingham for calling me Sir. “I do that out of respect,” Bingham came back.

“Because he’s your elder?” the man persisted.

“No, because that’s how I was raised,” said Bingham. “Besides, he’s not much older than me any more.”

We hear about so many former football players who have difficulty dealing with the real world, but those Steelers of the ‘70s have been pretty good about getting on with, what Chuck Noll always referred to, as “their life’s work.”

Pittsburghsports author Jim O’Brien has written a series of books about the Steelers, including “Steeler Stuff” and “Lambert” and “The Chief,” that are still available in area bookstores. His website is www.jimobriensportsauthor.com

Tim Jorden, Steelers Tight End, 1992-1993

First, can you let readers know about what you’ve been doing since your playing days and how you got involved in your line of work?

I have been in the mortgage and banking industries for the past 17 years. I started as a Loan Officer in the off-season before my last season and it has turned out tobe a good career for me. In 2002 I started a bank with some fellow bankers and we sold the bank in 2006. Since that time I have been running the Arizona operations for a mortgage lending company.

Continue reading “Tim Jorden, Steelers Tight End, 1992-1993”

Stephen Austin, Director, NFL Regional Combines

Stephen Austin:

First, can you let readers know how you got started in the combine business?

I got into it by chance. I was working in DC for an insurance company giving a presentation to employees. I was twenty-eight years old then and two retired football players were in the audience. I didn’t know they were players – they looked athletic but that was all I knew.

Those guys were Frank Grant and Dennis Johnson – former Redskins. After the speech, they asked me to visit with them. They told me they wanted to be agents and needed a business man to help them. Well, my business was not that great and I loved football, so I jumped at the chance.

I worked with them in their agency for a couple of years. In ’84, I decided to try to be an agent on my own. At the same time, the USFL had just come into being. So, I jumped into it. Back then, becoming an agent was easy. There was no certification – you could wake up one day and decide you want to be an agent.

I found I was more of a manager than an agent of the players., I had to make sure they were ready. I found out their workout numbers were not what they told me they were. They all ran 4.4, no matter if they were receivers or linemen (laughing).

I recommended a player to George Young – New York’s GM. The player was a tight end and told me he was 6’5″ and ran a 4.6. Well, it was the biggest mistake and best thing I ever did. The player ran a 5.0 flat and was 6’2″. I got an earful from George and vowed after that that I would never recommend any player until I measured them myself.

So, how did you do so?

The USFL’s San Antonio team called me and said they had twenty guys they wanted me to get together for them to take a look at. Their GM and head coach were coming in. Well, word got out, and by the time they got there we went from twenty to 120. Then, I was in the combine business.

I had an epiphany and wrote down the words “Scout camp”. I had the combine title. What I did was different than others at the time. I introduced pre-registration. Instead of half players and a bunch of drunks guys, I just had football players. We were going to run six combines with a target of 300 players. Well, we ended up with 740 and ran them in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa, Rutgers and Houston.

Twenty years later, the NFL bought me out and hired me.

How did you plan those first regional combines and fund them?

I was an agent then. When it took off I wouldn’t take on new players – I just let my current players retire. My life was the combine. My regional directors were players and clients who were popular in their cities. We needed about ten guys for each combine to get and receive the equipment, to be the eyes and ears of the combine. Then we got Wilson Sporting Goods as our national sponsor which gave us credibility right off the bat.

I was $80,000 in debt then. I went to my banker friend to borrow another $5,000. I told him if he didn’t loan me the $5,000 he’d never see the $80,000. Worst case, I would owe him $85,000….He said ok, and I used every penny to launch those pre-registrations by mail. When we got those $85 checks back, we went from there.

How were the regional combines accepted by the NFL front offices?

We didn’t do more than what was needed. these were qualifiers for the Super Combine. It didn’t mean teams didn’t come and look – but we never advertised them to the general public. This was supposed to be a substantive view of these players and the evaluation process. We didn’t want to make it a function of entertainment or commercialize it. We had no clever awards or prizes. We wanted to be a part of the NFL and to be taken seriously.

The older GM’s and front office people were reluctant to accept us. They were stuck in their ways. They weren’t fans of technology and I was. We had streaming videos in ’96 before most people had email. The guys who got it then were today’s bosses now.

Do you think the older teams viewed this as cutting into their scouting edge over some of the poorer teams in the NFL?

That’s a good point. That was a philosophy shared by some teams. Bobby Beathard’s view of scouting was the beat the bushes and find the diamonds-in-the-rough. he and others didn’t want a centralized staging of players. They viewed it more like a treasure hunt, while others wanted it all out i front of everybody.

I took a lot of negative “communication” from clubs not wanting me to stick my nose in their world. It took years for many of them to retire, get fired or lose power. I had to outlast them.

When did you know you succeeded?

The watershed moment was when we launched the first online, searchable database of players. We did it before the NFL Teams would use it and tell us they weren’t, but they didn’t know we were tracking their usage – they had to key in a username and password. I told the GM’s who weren’t using it that they looked at a number of player profiles, and they just let the conversation end (laughing).

Ray Anderson – the Executive VP of the NFL, was a friend of mine then and still is. As was Tony Dungy, Ozzie Newsome and the players’ union. I became a known person in the NFL.

When NFL Europe shut down and the Arena League went dormant, they needed a player development system. Ray said, “Why reinvent the wheel?” They bought out my combines. Ray stuck his neck out and it went well for everybody.

What would surprise readers most about the combines today?

How quiet they are. There are 250 kids and you can hear a pin drop. We’re highly focused. It’s scientific measurement – we need to be accurate to capture the data on that day. We identify size, speed. quickness, strength and lower-body explosion. We run players through the Indy style drills by position after and film it all. teams can see all the results and footage online the next day.

Now, they can go into the database and, say the need a wide receiver. They can search by position, minimum height and weight, speed …basically create their own player and it will produce a list of only those players that meet or exceed those requirements. Complete with a profile, picture, video, contact information, their agent, coaches, college infomration….everything….

We don’t do drug or Wonderlic tests – those are left for the Super Combine.

How do you select who of all of those players go to the Super Combine?

We start off with 2,500 kids across the regional combines. It’s very structured. After each regional combine the NFL flies in three former NFL scouts. They meet with three of our combine scouts – usually former players who conducted the drills. And one consultant – John Beake – the former GM of wo Super Bowl winning Broncos teams. So there are seven guys, and me.

We all go to a room at a hotel after the combine and discuss each position one at a time. We go around the room and settle on one of three classifications for every player: A – invited; B – on the bubble; C – rejected. We present the list for John Beake to sign off on. The “B” players may end up being added later if we have room after all the regionals are done.

If we have more “A” players than we expected, we don;t limit it to 150 invites. We can go to a day two, and we’ve done that.

As the level of play in college improves over the years, how do you redefine what an “A” player is?

The best player in the last group scouted becomes the standard. All the guys in the next combine have to be at that level. The bar changes, but we know what we are looking for. It’s the small things that separate scouts from fans. Fans could probably pick out 90% of these guys to invite to the Super Combine. But scouts know the finer points of the last ten percent.

Ever run one in Pittsburgh?

I did years ago. I planned it too early and it snowed. We were all wondering what we were doing there. I’d like to come back to Pittsburgh but we want the clubs to reach out to us and tell us as we use their facility. We don’t invite ourselves. But you better believe the next time we do it will be indoors!

What’s next on the horizon for you and the regional combines?

It was the general vision of Ray Anderson to start with the regional combine and make sure they were successful first. The next step is to deal with the fact there is more talent than there are spots for on the clubs. You don’t want to waste that talent by sending players home where they lose their skills and real football conditioning. Where their only workouts are at the local gym.

The next step we are looking at is to organize an Academy. If a player is not drafted but is a rock solid guy, he can live and work out and the NFL Academy and will be game ready as clubs suffer injuries during the season and need players. This way they aren’t coming in off the street.

We could have twenty-five to thirty to start with and build to a hundred or so guys. Then you can start a grapefruit league and they can play games against each other and be really game ready. This would begin to supplant NFL Europe. It’d be much less expensive and much more manageable.

We’re also talking about more network broadcasted content – shows like “Undrafted” and “Dream Chaser” may or may not come to pass.

I would also like to resume the clinics we had for players on how to become a scout, how to be a trainer, how to be a coach….There’s a lot of content and things we can spin-off from the combines.

Jim O’Brien: These Pirates of the past part of special times

O’Brien: These Pirates of the past part of special times

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

A youngster with the wonderful name of Nicholas Nottingham sends me e-mails from time to time. I met him at a book fair at the Greenville Library last fall. He’s on the middle school’s wrestling and football teams and seems like a nice kid. He recently sent me an e-mail with a photo attachment. It showed a baseball with a signature that wasn’t so clear, and asked me if I knew the name of the ballplayer. I told him it looked like Ralph Kiner to me. Nick wrote back and asked me if Kiner was any good. I told Nick that Kiner was a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Pirates back in the ‘40s and ‘50s and had the distinction of leading the National League in hitting home runs for seven straight seasons. No one else can make such a claim.

“How much is that ball worth?” wrote Nick in his next e- mail. I told him I don’t know the value of sports memorabilia, but suggested he contact a friend of mine, Diamond Jim Tripodi at his sports memorabilia shop in Rochester, Pennsylvania, or attend the annual Sports Card and Sports Memorabilia Show at Robert Morris University where there were hundreds of card dealers from around the country who could tell him the value of a baseball signed by Ralph Kiner. That show, the 34th of its kind at the Sewall Center at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, is being held this weekend, from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. I will be there to sell and sign the sports books in my “Pittsburgh Proud” series, and visiting with some ballplayers who once played for the Pirates and some from other National League and American League teams.

The best known ballplayers are Dick Groat and El Roy Face, heroes of the 1960 World Series champion Pirates. Most of the rest of the autograph signing cast were not headliners, but they were part of special events in baseball history. Long-time Pirates’ fans will be familiar with Bob Bailey, a third baseman from Long Beach, California who was a “bonus baby” with the Pirates in 1961. There was no draft in those days and teams tried to outbid one another to get a whiz kid to sign with their club. The Pirates signed Bailey to a contract for $135,000, the largest ever paid to a ballplayer at that point in baseball history. A “bonus baby” had to stay with the major league team as a rookie and bypass the minor leagues. It was part of the system. Bailey, who will turn 69 this October, played five seasons with the Pirates and 17 years in the big leagues and had a career batting average of .257. His best season with the Pirates was his fifth and final one, hitting at a .279 clip with 13 home runs. He hit 28 home runs and 26 home runs in two of his seven seasons with the Montreal Expos. Charles “Whammy” Douglas, who pitched briefly for the Pirates in the late ‘50s, is another intriguing figure scheduled to sign at the XXXIV Sports Classic Show. Douglas was toiling in the Pirates’ farm system when he was tossed into a trade with the Cincinnati Reds that I regard as the greatest trade in Pirates’ history.

On Jan. 30, 1959, the Pirates dealt Frank Thomas, one of the team’s all-time greatest home run hitters and a Pittsburgh product, along with Douglas, Johnny Powers and Jim Pendleton, to the Reds in exchange for Harvey Haddix, Smoky Burgess and Don Hoak. Haddix, Burgess and Hoak would all play major roles in the Pirates’ winning the National League title in 1960 and then beating the highly favored New York Yankees in the World Series. That’s when Bill Mazeroski hit the home run leading off the bottom of the ninth inning to decide the contest, 10-9, in the Pirates’ favor. Maz, by the way, won’t be at this year’s sports card show even though he has been a mainstay for most of the previous events. Other Pirates participating in this show include Mike “Hit Man” Easler, who provided the kind of consistent offensive force the Bucs could use these days, was a productive player for the Pirates from 1977 to 1983, in his 14-year career. Jim Rooker was a reliable pitcher for the Pirates from 1973 to 1980, and later was a member of the broadcast team and the owner of a bar/restaurant in Ambridge called “Rook’s Saloon.”

Al Jackson started out with the Pirates as a left-handed pitcher in 1959 and 1961 but was picked up by the New York Mets in the expansion draft in 1962. He also pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals during his ten years in the major leagues. Hobie Landrith, who’s 82, will be there, too. He never played for the Pirates, but he was witness to one of the most spectacular home runs in baseball history when he was catching for the Chicago Cubs. Hobie Landrith sounds like the name of a baseball player and he had the distinction of being the first player picked in the expansion draft. Casey Stengel, the manager of the Mets, defended the draft choice by saying, “You gotta have a catcher or you’ll have a lot of passed balls.” Landrith was looking through his catcher’s mask behind home plate when Roberto Clemente hit the only inside-the-park home run in baseball history to win a game, 9-8, at Forbes Field on July 25, 1956. Pittsburgh sports broadcaster John Steigerwald was there and has included it in his book “Just Watch the Game.” Former Pirates’ pitcher and broadcaster Nellie King told me about that game when I interviewed him for one of my books. King said he came in as a relief pitcher in that game and threw one pitch and was the winning pitcher and that Jim Brosnan, later famous for writing the behind-the-scenes book called “The Long Season,” threw one pitch and was the losing pitcher. The bases were loaded and the Pirates were trailing 8-5 when

Clemente came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning. He swung at the first pitch by Brosnan and hit what Steigerwald called “the ultimate grand slam.” A player has hit a grand slam home run to win the game only 20 times in baseball history, but Clemente is the only one to do it with an inside the park home run. King said the ball struck the base of a light pole at the scoreboard in left field and caromed along the wall to the deepest part of center field (458 feet) at Forbes Field. Steigerwald says he can still see Hobie Landrith jumping up and screaming at the umpire when Clemente was called safe sliding under the tag at home plate. It was that close. Landrith later hit a home run of his own that became part of Mets’ lore. It was his only home run as a Met. He was sent to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning with the Mets down 2-1. He was facing Warren Spahn, one of the all-time great left-handed pitchers. Stengel called time out and went up and whispered something in Landrith’s ear. Then Landrith hit a two-run home run to win the game. After the game, when asked what he had said to Landrith, Stengel said, “I told him to hit a home run.” No wonder the New York writers loved Casey Stengel.

I was a college student at Pitt in 1962 and interviewed Stengel after a Pirates-Mets game at Forbes Field and he was delightful, offering his best stuff even for a college student on one of his early magazine assignments. The Mets, by the way, won that game for their first victory after losing, I think, their first eight games. In typical Mets’ fashion that first year in the National League, the win was almost voided when Rod Kanehl, a pinch- runner for Gil Hodges, failed to touch third base on his tour of the bases. Solly Hemus, the third base coach, gave Landrith a sign to hold up between second and third and ran after Kanehl and escorted him back to the bag. If Landrith had passed him and touched third before Kanehl it would have voided one of the two runs.

In 1961, in his debut for the San Francisco Giants, the Pirates were up 1-0 in the bottom of the 11th inning when Landrith hit a game-tying home run to deep left field off relief ace El Roy Face. So Landrith had his moments in major league baseball. I’ve always said that you never know what you might see that you’d never see again when you attend a baseball game. These guys are proof of that. To check the lineup and the signing times for this show, check jpaulsports.com. Admission is $5 a day and children under 12 are admitted free. Friday’s time frame is 4 to 9 p.m., Saturday it’s 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., and Sunday it’s 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. It’s fun just to walk around and see all the baseball and sports cards, the old photos and sports publications, the old uniforms. The Pirates are on the road, playing Jim Leyland’s Tigers in Detroit, so it’s a good weekend to get out for a nostalgic look at baseball.

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien will be appearing all three days at the sports card and sports memorabilia show at Robert Morris University. His website is www.jimobriensportsauthor and his e-mail address is jimmyo64@gmail.com

R.J. Bowers, Steelers Running Back, 2001

First, can you let readers know what you have been doing with yourself since your time in the NFL?

Just trying to make a living like everyone else. I have two sons, Jaden (9) and Carson (6), a daughter named Sophia (newborn) and a stepson Ryan (9).

Coming out of Division III Grove City in 2000, you broke eight NCAA all-division records including all-time leading rusher and scorer. What were your expectations in terms of an NFL career after all of that success?

Honestly I was just hoping to make a team. It had been a dream of mine to play in the NFL since I was six.

Continue reading “R.J. Bowers, Steelers Running Back, 2001”

Shar Pourdanesh, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1999-2000

First, can you let readers know about Kamrans House – what the organization does and what made you decide to start this foundation?

Kamran’s House is an organization developed to improving the standard of living for autistic children. Our aim is to develop homes in which these children will not just survive, but thrive. Every autistic child deserves the opportunity of a chance to reaching their maximum potential.

I started this organization because my oldest son Kamran suffers from severe autism, and he is the driving force behind the development of the endeavor.

Continue reading “Shar Pourdanesh, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1999-2000”

Will Blackwell, Steelers Wide Receiver, 1997-2001

First, can you let readers know about your post-NFL coaching career – how you got started and what you enjoy most?

I’m the head coach now at Skyline High School. Some guys pointed out to me when I was playing that I would be a good coach. As a player you have confidence in your skills and I shared a lot with others. I didn’t see it as coaching then – I just saw it as showing them how to destroy defensive backs.

I had three different wide receivers coaches at San Diego State. Dino Babers was one of them – he wanted to know what we knew and let us critique one another. That showed me a lot. I didn’t like to be embarrassed if I dropped a pass or was covered. I wanted revenge – it was hard for me to get over it. I didn’t want anyone to say I got you. Sometimes it got comical, sometimes they got sensitive and took it hard. But I learned a lot that way.

Continue reading “Will Blackwell, Steelers Wide Receiver, 1997-2001”

Richard Shelton, Steelers Cornerback, 1990-1993

First, can you let readers know how you became a Titans scout and what you enjoy most about your position with Tennessee?

After my time in Pittsburgh I knew I still wanted to be involved with the NFL – through coaching or something else. After talking to Tom Modrak {head of Pittsburgh’s scouting department then) I wanted to pursue scouting. I pursued that for four years.

How so?

I did research first on how they did things – the ins and outs. It took a couple of years to get in front of someone. I went to the combine for a couple of years and left my information with general managers and other people. That’s how I finally got my interview with Tom in Philadelphia. Bill Cowher also tried to help me and set up an internship for me in Kansas City, but I couldn’t do it due to other things going on in my life at the time.

Continue reading “Richard Shelton, Steelers Cornerback, 1990-1993”

Coach Billy Rolle Miami, Northwestern Sr. High, on Steelers Draft Pick Sean Spence

Coach Billy Rolle:

You’ve had a number of terrific college and NFL athletes come through your program. Who are some of the more memorable players you’ve worked with, and what made them so?

Vernon Carey (Miami Dolphins), Antonio Bryant (Dallas Cowboys/Cincinnati Bengals), Torrie Cox (Tampa Bay) . First off all of these players were in our Medical Magnet Program during their High school days. All hard workers on and off the field and possessed great leadership qualities.

What has made that program so successful?

Basically the pride and passion that our community has for our football program along with generations after generations of student-athletes that has passed through Miami Northwestern. And lastly the overwhelming number of student-athletes that earn academic and athletic scholarships. No matter what the sport is.

You coached Steelers’ third round pick Sean Spence in high school. What stood out most to you about him during his time there?

That Sean was a natural-born leader, an excellent role-model for his teammates and peers.

What other positions did you consider him for before you settled him in at linebacker – and why linebacker, ultimately?

In ever considered him for any other position besides linebacker . But he did play major roles in our special-teams. Sean could play all the linebacker positions and led the team in tackles the two previous years.

He’s been touted as a leader by scouts – what examples of his leadership do you remember – how did he conduct himself on the field with other players?

Going into his senior campaign, Sean along with our quarterback Jacory Harris (UM) and DT Marcus Forston (UM) led the team through summer drills without any coaches around. He conducted himself real well, you could always see him counting the players to make sure we had enough or simply getting in someone’s face when he had to . I called him “Coach Spence” ! (smiling)

What did you feel he needed to adjust to most at the college level – and did you follow him and his career at Miami to see how he did so?

What all high school kids need and that’s proper weight training. In college I watched him go from 205 to about 225 in muscle alone.

The obvious question some had on him is his size. How has he made size a non-issue in the past and do you think it becomes an issue for him in the NFL? Why/why not?

His quickness and instinct is second to none, he’s always had a nose for the football! I don’t think it will be a major issue but the NFL is the NFL.

When the Steelers spoke with you about Sean Spence, what did see were their biggest concerns they asked you to address, and how were you able to do so?

Again it was mainly about how physical he could get. Which is no problem if he’s given the right and best program to train!

Describe his coverage skills – can he help neutralize guys like Ray Rice or does he still need work in coverage?

Sean has the ability to cover any back. His cat like quickness gives him the ability to get under a tight end as well as to close on any back.

Some thought he may be able to play safety at the NFL level. Any thoughts on this?

Sean is capable of playing safety if he had to, however he is a bona fide LINEBACKER.

Any other thoughts for readers?

Coach Billy Rolle and the staff along with the Miami Northwestern Community Sr. High and Family would like to wish Sean and all of his former high school teammates Jacory Harris , Marcus Forston, Tommy Streeter, Lavonte David, Brandon Washington, Aldarius Johnson, Terrell Killing and Brandon Drayton good luck in the NFL and to represent the Bull Family with “BULL PRIDE” !

Thank you!

Jim O’Brien: Do Steelers look for trouble in draft?

O’Brien: Do Steelers look for trouble in draft?

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

Sometimes the Steelers do something that baffles me. The team’s owners and administrators like to boast about doing things “the Steelers’ way” and then they turn around and do something that doesn’t jibe with this proclamation.

The team likes to think it conducts it operation on a higher level than the majority of teams, and drafts altar boys for the most part, but sometimes the Steelers stray from that modus operandi.

The latest example came last Friday when the Steelers selected Ohio State’s Mike Adams in the second round of the newest TV reality show that is billed as the National Football League’s college draft.

The Steelers need to bolster their offensive line. So they drafted David DeCastro, a guard from Stanford, with their first round choice and then Adams, an offensive tackle, on the second round.

There’s a big difference between DeCastro and Adams.

DeCastro appears to have a clean record while Adams failed the drug test at the scouting combine in February. How stupid is that? The combine was on the calendar and one would think anyone regarded as a potential first rounder would resist the temptation to toot some marijuana for a few months in advance of the test with their pro football career on the line.

Adams had tested positive for marijuana several times in his early career at Ohio State. He also had to sit out the first five games of his last season at Ohio State because of an NCAA suspension. He was one of the Buckeyes who got into trouble with quarterback Terrelle Pryor of Jeannette for accepting improper gifts and services.

By coincidence, I was in Columbus, Ohio visiting our daughter and grandchildren to celebrate our granddaughters’ respective birthdays, so I was able to learn more about Adams by reading reports in The Columbus Gazette.

Adams had told the Steelers he has changed and has agreed to submit to counseling to correct the errors of his ways.

Steelers’ general manager Kevin Colbert is okay with that. “It’s more of a risk than we’re usually comfortable in taking,” said Colbert in defending the selection of Adams, “but again, because he was forthcoming, because he took matters (into his own hands) and met our criteria, we’re comfortable in taking the risk.”

Surely, the Steelers could have found someone else of similar size and skills in the giant player poll that didn’t have such negative stuff in his resume.

I recall how the Steelers selected another marijuana user from Ohio State in the first round back in 2006. That was wide receiver Santonio Holmes. There was a biographical sketch in the next day’s newspaper in Pittsburgh that concluded with this note: Is the father of three children to two different women, neither of whom he has wed.”

Silly me, I looked at that information as suggesting a character flaw. Holmes had great football talent, of course, and caught the game-winning touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger that won Super Bowl XLIII at the end of the 2008 season. So he was a great pick talent-wise.

But Holmes had off the field problems, including being nabbed with marijuana in his car in a police stop, and became a cancer in the clubhouse. He was dealt to the New York Jets and soon wore out his welcome there as well.

Paul Brown, who was such an innovative and successful coach and owner of the Cleveland Browns way back when, believed that players with character flaws and low intelligence would ultimately fail and be detrimental to the aims and aspirations of a pro sports team.

Mike Adams was thought to have first round ability in this 2012 draft, but teams looked elsewhere because of his checkered past and his marijuana history.

Adams, mind you, is some physical specimen at 6 feet 7 ¼, 322 pounds, and hails from Farrell, Pa. It was his dream to become a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He knew the team was interested after he had contacted them in advance of the draft to express his desire to play for them, and to explain his personal conduct, but even he thought he blew his chances of realizing that dream when he tested positive for marijuana at the combine.

Here’s my problem with all this: one would think the Steelers would be sensitive to picking up a potential problem player after what has gone down in recent years with off-the-field misbehavior involving Ben Roethlisberger, James Harrison, Jeff Reed, Plaxico Burress, Santonio Holmes, Cedrick Wilson and Hines Ward, just to name a few of the more publicized cases.

I watched baseball and basketball games on TV throughout the NFL’s three-day draft, checking in on the draft from time to time just to see how it was going. It seems to me that I have been hearing the same talking heads examining the draft prospects in depth for the last six months. If I’m going to spend any considerable time at Radio City Music Hall it will be to watch the Rockettes dancing on the stage.

The Steelers were thought to be desirous of drafting Dont’a Hightower, a linebacker from Alabama, on the first round, but they drafted DeCastro instead and Hightower went on the next pick to the New England Patriots. Hightower is a linebacker and he’s sure to have more of a visible and measurable impact on the Patriots than DeCastro will with the Steelers. It’s the difference in their positions and how most observers see the game.

There were some developments I didn’t understand any more than the Steelers selecting Adams on the second round.

I don’t understand why the Washington Redskins drafted two top-notch college quarterbacks. With the second pick in the first round, they, of course, chose Robert Griffin III of Baylor. Then, in the fourth round on Saturday, the Redskins selected Michigan State’s Kirk Cousins. How is Griffin to interpret that decision?

I would have liked to have seen the Steelers pick up a young quarterback like Cousins to groom as Big Ben’s eventual successor.

Then, too, it was mentioned that the top pick, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck would have to learn a new offensive scheme under offensive coordinator Bruce Arians with the Indianapolis Colts.

They said Luck had been such a success with the West Coast offense employed at Stanford.

If the Colts are virtually starting over with a new front office and a new coaching staff at Indianapolis in the post-Peyton Manning era, why not go with the West Coast offense that Luck has thrived in rather than the system favored by Bruce Arians?

The same thinking applies to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Why do Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the Steelers have to learn a new offense under new offensive coordinator Todd Haley?

The Steelers’ offense was good enough to win one Super Bowl and get to another. Haley is a bright young coach and it’s his full-time endeavor and it would seem to me that it would be easier for him to learn the language of the Steelers’ offensive system, and tweak it a little to get in some of his favorite plays, than it would be for the entire team to learn a new playbook.

I felt the same way when Chuck Noll brought Joe Walton to the team as its offensive coordinator back in 1990, and the entire team, starting with quarterback Bubby Brister – who wasn’t the brightest light bulb in the room – had to learn a new playbook. They weren’t happy with that and it didn’t work out successfully.

I fully expect that ESPN’s Mel Kiper & Co. will begin dissecting the 2013 draft any day now.

Pittsburgh sports author Jim O’Brien has a series of “Pittsburgh Proud” books available at his website www.jimobriensportsauthor.com He can also be found on Facebook and LinkedIn.