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Exclusive with NFL Agent/Pittsburgh Native Sammy Spina

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Starting with your book – tell us why you wrote it and what it focuses on?

I wrote The Fight first as a coping mechanism for myself. That’s how it started. My father had cancer and I was in law school at night and working as an agent. I had no outlet for how I felt – I kept it bottled up. So at the hospital I started writing down my thoughts on my phone – in notepad.

The biggest thing I focus on is how I could use what I was going through to help others. How I could start handling the process of transforming what my father was going through to help others deal with issues. A lot of it is focused on perspective – shifting perspective so that it’s not “Why me?” –  instead saying “Why not me? How can I utilize this experience to help someone else.”

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Exclusive with Steelers Camp Tryout, Offensive Lineman Jack Badovinac

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First, I’m sure your head is spinning a bit with this quick turnaround. Tell me how the invite took place?

I fly in to Pittsburgh tomorrow and start rookie mini-camp on Friday. It’s all happening pretty fast. They reached out to my agent today and my agent let me know about the invite 10-to-15 minutes later. He got a call from a Steelers scout with the invite.

Was this your first option? Know anyone on the team or in the draft class?

My first and only option yes so I jumped on it right away. It’s been my lifelong dream to play in the NFL so now is my chance.

I don’t know anyone there no. Kendrick Green – I didn’t play with him but when he’d visited Illinois I met him a couple of times and will text him when I get to Pittsburgh.

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Exclusive with Steelers Quarterback Chris Oladokun

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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.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Quarterback Anthony Wright, 1999

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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.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Running Back Chuck Dukes, 1993

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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.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Tight End John Farquhar, 1996

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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.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Scout Doug Kretz, 2000-2001

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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.

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Remembering Dan Rooney

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Brett Keisel: “I’ll never forget, I was a young player walking to my car after practice when Dan Rooney walked up to me and asked me to be more vocal – to be a leader. I couldn’t believe it – why me? He must have saw something in me I didn’t see in myself then. That was the motivation I needed to stand up and say the things I knew needed to be said. I tried to be accountable and to respect my peers and give it my all.”

Steelers Dr. Joseph Maroon: “It was also with the support of Chuck Noll and Mr. Dan Rooney that ImPACT was not only developed but spread throughout the NFL due to Dan Rooney’s personal intercession with Paul Tagliabue informing him of the system we had developed to evaluate concussions.”

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Safety Paul Cameron, 1954

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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.

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