Steelers Players, Coaches, Owner and Front Office Staff on Ben Roethlisberger

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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.”

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Jason Johnson, 1989

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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.

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Exclusive with Pittsburgh’s own Brad Lambert, Talent Producer, Agent

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First, let me know some of the stuff you’re working on now?

Well I’m here in L.A.. I like to stay versatile – the work I do is across a lot of projects. I handle content production for major studios and do production and marketing for feature films and TV projects.

I’m actually trying to get more projects filmed in Pittsburgh. It’s a very versatile, really cool filming environment. I love the versatility of the settings and landscape – 15 minutes in any direction and you feel like you’re in a new city, state or country sometimes. It’s a great and under-utilized area for film and TV. So I’m actively working on that and have spoken with the Pittsburgh Film Office to make sure I have all of my ducks in a row.

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Steelers Players and Staff Comments on Kevin Colbert

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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!”

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Exclusive with Former Steelers WR Coach Dwain Painter, 1988-1991

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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

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Exclusive with former Steelers Wide Receiver Malcolm Johnson, 1999-2000

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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.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Defensive Back Payton Williams, 2000-2001

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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.

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Exclusive with Former Browns and Ravens Kicker Matt Stover

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First, tell me about the Players Philanthropy Fund and how you got started in that?

Well, a colleague of mine, Seth McDonnell, and I launched PPF after my experiences as an athlete doing charitable giving. We launched a simple way for athletes to get connected and give back.

We are a foundation that uses our status to help others create their own charitable funds – we act basically as their back office so they don’t have to do that work or risk damage to their own brand. We have 148 accounts now, 65%  of which are athletes. It’s exciting for me as an entrepreneur who has invested and did well through those investments. I was able because of that to give back the right way, and I’m happy to help other people do the same through PPF.

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Exclusive with Former Ravens, Browns Linebacker Paul Kruger

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First, can you let us know what you’ve been up to since you stopped playing football?

Since I’ve been done playing, the majority of my work feeding my family now has been in commercial real estate in Arizona and Utah. We’ve been spending our time between these two areas.

We need to bunker down now though. My kids are four and one – they are getting to be school age. So we need to settle on one area. I’ve also been involved in some start-up companies. Just trying to stay busy and active.

Was the post-NFL adjustment difficult for you?

I think it is a struggle, yes. It is difficult. For me, the challenge came with the fact my identity was as a football player and that association with that world. Being a part of a billion dollar business, doing interviews and having thousands of fans care about what you are doing – you get a sense of importance.

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Exclusive with Former Browns Offensive Lineman Cody Risien

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

I got my degree in building construction from Texas A&M. In the offseason in ’89 Art Modell offered us all a chance to take career counseling which was great – I took advantage of that and it was extremely helpful. My interest in drafting and engineering was supported by that – my dad picked a good major for me – he knew who I was.

1989 was my last season in the NFL. I took a year off and volunteered at an Episcopal church as a youth leader but, while it was a good experience, I never felt that calling. I got an internship later for a Shermur Construction  which turned out to be the same company that did the work on Cleveland Municipal Stadium. I thought that was pretty cool.

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