Welcome to Steelers Takeaways!
More than 1,000 interviews of Steelers players, coaches, front office staff, media and more with those that played in the 50’s through today’s current roster.
First off, what are you doing now – are you still riding?
It’s my eight-year anniversary of the accident that changed my life and left me paralyzed from the chest down.
Now the only exercises I can do are with my arms. I push a wheelchair on the street in my Manchester neighborhood – it’s a flat street so I can do it easier. It’s been excellent exercise for me. I use a safety flag so I’m visible, and do about 3-6 miles a day – at about two miles an hour.
First off, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?
I’m just raising my kids now. I worked for a telecom company – a small one you may have heard of – AT&T! A friend of mine from church talked to me after I retired from the NFL. I was in Ohio and was looking to move to Indiana for a job with Ameritech and the Yellow Pages when he told me he was looking for someone there in Ohio. So I ended up working for them.
Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Browns Quarterback Mike Pagel”
First off, what have you been up to since your time playing football?
Currently I’m working as then Deputy Shift Supervisor for the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office. I’ve worked in law enforcement now for over 22 years and started basically because of former Steeler Dwight Stone.
How did that come about?
He was a guy who took me under his wing as a rookie and talked to me about the transition away from sports. He was the main reason for me to get involved in this.
Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Defensive/Offensive Lineman Mike Finn, 1992-93”
First off, what have you been up to since your time in the NFL?
When I left the NFL, I was rehabbing my shoulder. Surgery fixed it and I was running every day and stayed in shape, and ended up playing in the CFL. I still wanted to fulfill that chapter as a player. I went to the Gray Cup with British Columbia but unlike Baltimore, we didn’t win the championship. We lost to Toronto by one touchdown.
A couple of years later I went and played for Toronto and British Columbia won it!
Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers (2000), Ravens and Bengals Tight End Jason Gavadza”
First, tell us about your work as a trainer for offensive linemen? What are you doing exactly?
My Academy is the Willie Anderson Linemen Academy. I am based in Alabama but we go all over the country training high school, college, and young NFL offensive linemen. My main focus is on working with high school kids and up, developing young guys.
As a trainer and coach. what experiences and coaches from your playing days helped shape the way you approach training now?
We focus mostly on the techniques Paul Alexander and I worked on and developed when we were in Cincinnati together. He was a great technique coach – I was his first round pick and he was still a young coach with the Bengals then.
Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Bengals/Ravens Offensive Lineman Willie Anderson”
First off, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?
After football I spent most of my time raising my daughter. My wife had some health issues – so I helped take care of her and homeschooled my daughter. I was a field-trip dad – going with other homeschooled kids. I did that until she was a Senior, then we moved to Arizona where she went to high school her Senior year.
Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Browns/Ravens Defensive Lineman James Jones”
First off, can you let us know what new projects you’re working on?
I have a new book coming out on November 14 called Cracking Up – it’s a companion piece to the one man show I’m taking on the road next year. It’s a reflection on my 25-plus years in Hollywood – the weird stuff that went on behind the scenes. These are reflections over my career – the memories gestated over time and when the hamster wheel stopped – after multiple strikes in 2023 – I figured I should start writing about all those projects – those weird things that happened over my career.
At first I thought it would make for a good show – then I thought it would make for a good book too.
First off, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?
I was a high school football head coach for the past few years – I’m taking a year off this year but I coached my son for a few years and fell in love with coaching.
Were there coaches who helped shape the way you approached coaching?
For sure, Nick Saban, Dick Vermeil and Dom Capers too – they all influenced me. For a long time I didn’t want to be a coach – I was close to my father growing up and my son and I are close. As a coach you don’t usually see your family a lot – I watched the coaches I played for and saw they had no lives. I just got bad vibes from it.
Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Ravens Quarterback Tony Banks”
First off, what have you learned about the job since taking over the role this year?
I’ll say this – I did basketball play-by-play on TV before I did football on the radio. It’s almost the opposite experience with football. You have to be much more organized – TV is much easier. You can’t see it live on radio – you have to describe all of it and that takes more time. So you have to be much more organized to do that. It’s those little things – those nuances that I’ve been concentrating on.
But it’s been a blast. I mean. I’m really having a blast doing it!
Continue reading “Exclusive with Steelers Radio Play-by-Play Announcer Rob King”
First off, can you let us know what projects you’re currently working on?
Well when I was in L.A. last October, I wasn’t sure what I’d be doing. I lived in L.A. for the last 28 years. Finding work in L.A. has been really brutal since Covid.
But in October I got a call from Chris Andrews, who is the director of the South Point sports book and studio in Vegas. years ago – I think around 2011 – he and I shot a pilot for a show in Pittsburgh that had people guess the odds of pop culture stuff – like how long a celebrity marriage would last – stuff like that. But we never met again after that.
Continue reading “Exclusive with Comedian and Game Show Host Frank Nicotero”