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First, can you let me know how the Steelers were awarded Ireland as an International Home Marketing Area (IHMA)?

That’s an interesting question. A couple of years ago teams were given an opportunity to apply for different markets. Countries like Canada, Mexico and Australia were ones many started with. The Steelers started with Mexico. I remember having a conversation with people here when that was approved. I though the Steelers would choose Ireland first but that didn’t happen, which was disappointing.

Once a year NFL teams get the opportunity to choose a country through the IHMA program. Over the last six months it looked like the Steelers were working on this. They had it approved right after the recent NFL Spring meetings. The NFL wants teams to have two or three countries awarded to them. The Dolphins chose Spain and the UK.  The Jaguars have UK and Ireland. The Chiefs have a strong connection in Germany and Mexico. So it’s exciting now to see it happen that the Steelers have been awarded Ireland.  The fans here are excited.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Michael McQuaid, Owner, Pro Football Ireland”

Wilbert Scott: “ I got my first start when the starting linebacker Mike Henry got hurt. That was against Cleveland and Jim Brown!

How did you do?

I did ok. I had a few of what you call bounce tackles. Where you bounce off of him but you slow him down for other guys to get there!”

Frank Atkinson: “Brady Keys – we played Cleveland and he made the mistake that game of trying to tackle Jim Brown and ended up in the hospital that week”

Frank Varricione: “Brown was the greatest NFL player every to live. He was an unbelievable runner. Powerful. No one person could bring him down, unless maybe they tripped him. He had great speed too. In Cleveland they had a guy who had Olympic speed at  the one-hundred yard dash and he kept up with him!”

Brady Keys: “I used to love playing the Browns and Jim Brown. He and I had a grudge like you would not believe. Lots of people were scared to tackle him – and he hurt me once. But he used to call me the Black Missile.  We fought a lot then but became big friends after we were done playing football.”

Bob Sherman: “I was playing free safety that day and it was just before halftime – I knew that they loved to screen to him in situations like that.  I read it right away and came up quickly and really gave him my best shot – we hit head on, he spun me off in a 180 and rambled on down to the two yard line.  Buddy Parker grabbed me at halftime screaming “can’t you tackle anybody”.

Bill Butler: “The only dominant team then was Cleveland – mostly because they had Jim Brown.”

Charley Scales: “I went to Cleveland playing with Jim Brown and those guys. I played with John Henry, Stautner and Layne. The Cleveland Plains Dealer wrote an article saying I looked like Floyd Patterson and hit like him too, because of my blocking. Jim Brown never liked to block anybody”

First, I wanted to take a different approach on how we look at the draft. Instead of looking at value per pick – did the team actually address its needs successfully? Starting at defensive line – does Benton solve their needs there?

Benton is a unique player. Wisconsin runs some very familiar schemes – the same fronts as the Steelers.

They used him in a lot of zero-tech – I’d like to see more three-tech from him but I think they’ll start him off more at nosetackle first. That makes sense to a degree. The Steelers have three-techs already and they can always rotate him in sub-packages instead of taking him off the field on passing downs.

He has powerful hands – he’s a really good run defender. He’s getting better as a pass rusher and I think he’ll provide more value in that department as his career progresses.

Continue reading “Excusive with Derrick Bell From FanNation’s All Steelers: Steelers Draft Results Analysis”

First, can you let us know how you get invited to camp by the Steelers?

It’s been an interesting path to get here. I thought I was in a good position to get drafted or at least get signed as an undrafted free agent coming out of Delaware, but it just didn’t happen for me.

My agent told me about a number of camp invites I had and we sifted through them. I went to the Eagles camp and that went well. I just got onto the Steelers’ radar recently – I think they watched some film recently and liked what they saw. The Steelers play defense the way I like to play defense. I grew up watching them as a kid – I watched the Steelers-Ravens games and loved the way they played defense.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Steelers Camp Invite, Linebacker Johnny Buchanan”