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Mark Whipple: “My report had him over Rivers. I was the coach at U Mass when we played Rivers. He was a tremendously talented guy. In fact, two of those three quarterbacks taken first in the draft that year should be first ballot Hall of Famers. Rivers just didn’t have the team around him the other guys did.”

Why did you like Ben better?

“I was really impressed with Phil but Ben was a year younger which we valued, and he was a lot more athletic. I didn’t meet Phil’s parents but Ben’s were great people. And playing well in the cold weather was a huge thing. His senior year he played Bowling Green in a snow storm and threw for over 430 yards. That’s huge for a player playing in Pittsburgh. We’re not playing in a dome.

He didn’t even play quarterback until his junior year in high school. He was a wide receiver before then because they were starting someone else there instead.”

Continue reading “Steelers Players, Coaches, Owner and Front Office Staff on Ben Roethlisberger”

First – I know you got into coaching – tell me how you got started?

Coaching was always my dream since high school – that was my goal, to come back and coach at my alma mater. I ended up doing that 25 years later.

In college I learned that in order to coach in Illinois you had to be a certified teacher. Teaching was never my goal – it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I was hoping to go into the FBI or something like that. But I fell in love with sports and coaching in college and they told me I needed the degree in physical education to coach.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Jason Johnson, 1989”

Steelers PR Specialist Ryan Scarpino: “Kevin Colbert was an unbelievable person as well. He had that same mentality – blue collar, and treated everyone with respect. It didn’t matter who you were, his door was always open and you could go in and talk about anything. I used to go in and watch film with him – even as a PR guy he let me go in and would ask me what I saw. I’d tell him I saw guys getting to the second level or something and he’d laugh and tell me I should have been a scout!”

Continue reading “Steelers Players and Staff Comments on Kevin Colbert”

First, can you let readers know what you’ve been doing with yourself since your coaching time in Pittsburgh?

I’m retired now for 10 years or so. I say retired, but I had some unique experiences as a part-time coaching assistant at the University of California and Duquesne. Those were fun times for for me. I hate to make the comment but it’s tough for coaches to leave the game.

I think now that if I knew what coaching was like, maybe I’d have tried to put an end to my coaching career sooner to do other things.

I had a great career. I coached for 45 years and I tell people I never went to work a day in my life. You move a lot and are hired to be fired. It’s a very volatile profession, but to stick it out you have to have it in your blood. That’s the way I was, since back in junior high school

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers WR Coach Dwain Painter, 1988-1991”

First, can you let me know about your post-NFL career and how you got started?

Well, I always tell folks that having a long career in the NFL can be a blessing and a curse. I was blessed with three years in the NFL and one in the CFL. I retired at the age of 25 and lived a dream. Football was something I loved but not what I was put on this Earth to do.

After I retired I worked as a volunteer for the Pitt athletic department then decided to enroll at CMU for their MBA program.  It was the best investment in myself I ever made. I gained insight into the world of finance and met some of the smartest people I had ever met in my life.  It was as big of a learning experience as sitting in the Steelers locker room next to Bettis and Kordell.

Continue reading “Exclusive with former Steelers Wide Receiver Malcolm Johnson, 1999-2000”

First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing since your time in the NFL?

I started my job here at Riverside City College as the Athletic Director in January of 2021. It’s a two-year community college with over 500 student athletes across 19 sports.  My job is to serve our college by providing the best experience possible for the student-athletes, coaches and staff.  

We don’t have athletic scholarships or massive crowds, so we are very proud of our transfer rates to four-year colleges for our student-athletes and our tradition of athletic success.

Currently, we have two former RCC players in the NFL (JC Jackson-New England and Travis Jonsen-Detroit), Jesse Chavez won a World Series this year in Atlanta, and we had a track athlete in the recent Tokyo Olympics.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Defensive Back Payton Williams, 2000-2001”