Author: pittsburghsportsdailybulletin

First, were you surprised to be drafted by Pittsburgh? What did they say to you on the phone?

Well, Pittsburgh was one of the teams I visited during the draft process. It felt good being there – I really enjoyed the visit. When they took Kenny in the first round I had no idea what to think after that though. I was on standby, talking to my agent when I got the call from the Steelers.

When Coach Tomlin got on the phone I was speechless. It was a surreal moment. He asked how I was doing and I told him I was just waiting to see what happened next. He told me then he was going to make my day a lot better – that they were about to take me in the seventh round.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Steelers Quarterback Chris Oladokun”

First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since you retired from the NFL?

I’ve been helping out my son’s football team a bit – I was an assistant coach last year. I just did it because they asked me to come in and help. I’m just there to give advice – they have a coach and an offensive coordinator.

Give you the coaching bug at all?

No – I’m happy to be home with my family and wouldn’t want to coach. Coaching takes a lot of time and energy and I just wanted to stay home and focus on my kids and family after football. My career took a lot of time and focus away from my family so I just wanted to make sure to spend time with them now.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Quarterback Anthony Wright, 1999”

First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing with yourself since your time playing football?

I started the Chuck Dukes Football Academy  15-20 years go. I came back and started working with the youth programs here when my two boys got started playing football. Most of those guys were volunteers doing the best they could – I could tell they needed more help. So I started the academy and helped the kids with full contact drills – with pads – and helping them to train. Agility, strength, explosiveness – that kind of thing. That’s how I got started.

I now expanded into high school and college – and not just football – basketball, lacrosse – you can train across any sport really.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Running Back Chuck Dukes, 1993”

First, can you let me know what you’re doing with yourself now?

I moved back to Northern California where I’m originally from. After the NFL I went back to business school and started a career in healthcare. I’m now working as the COO for HeartFlow – we use artificial intelligence to diagnose coronary artery disease.

I worked in a larger organization before I started here – this is more like a startup – a more interesting opportunity.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Tight End John Farquhar, 1996”

First, can you let us know what you’ve been doing since your time in the NFL as a scout?

I’m pretty much retired.  I’m 70 and all that travel stuff is too much now – dealing with that is just too much.

After I scouted for Cleveland, five or six of us worked for ESPN’s Scouts Inc. That was an online service that previewed games for readers – mostly for gamblers and fantasy football league fanatics. It’s ironic because most of us in football didn’t understand the whole fantasy football thing. It was about individual numbers instead of team success.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Scout Doug Kretz, 2000-2001”

First, can you let me know what you got into after football?

I’m not really doing a lot now – I retired over 25 years ago. I got into the motion picture industry – on the business side. It was my Summer job in high school – I was offered it then – it was sponsored by Allied Artists. I enjoyed that – it was pleasant work, with people making something. It was a good way to spend my time..

After my time in the service and football, I went back into the business. I got into the Director’s Guild – I was part of that. It made it easy to go from one studio and picture to another.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Safety Paul Cameron, 1954”

First off, what made you decide to sign with Pittsburgh?

Man – Pittsburgh is an historic franchise. Legends have played there. I want to be part of something special there.

And, I know lots of the guys there personally. Cam and I worked out together with Chuck Smith when I first got started in the league. I saw Cam going through those drills and learned from him – we did some of those drills together.

Devin Bush – when he came out in 2019 we trained together in the offseason and he asked me a lot of questions about the league. Levi Wallace – he and I were in the same draft class and we know each other from training together.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Steelers Linebacker Genard Avery”