First off, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?
I’m in North Liberty, Iowa now. I’m married and raising four kids – we’re busy!
I am a chiropractor now – I started four years after football. I went to chiropractor school in Iowa and started my second career. We have two other chiropractors besides me as well as a massage and physical therapist. I started it by myself at first and did all of it on my own, but now we have support staff and other providers. I’m trying to keep people on the field – that’s the goal!
Did your injuries influence your desire to pursue this profession?
I’d say so yes. I visited chiropractors in college and while I was injured in Pittsburgh. It helped me feel better but I didn’t have a great understanding of why the treatments helped and wanted to learn more.
I elected not to undergo neck fusion surgery when I was injured in Pittsburgh. I wanted my body to heal outside of a major intervention. I wanted to understand the injury more and how to heal and recover without a major intervention.
That resulted in me not having future opportunities to play in the NFL though. There were questions on what I could sustain performance-wise. I kept not having clean physicals for teams what had interest in me.
How difficult was the transition for you?
It took a full year for me. It’s nice when you can leave on your own terms, but that wasn’t me. I wanted to play but I couldn’t. I guessed after a while that I had to do something different.
I went into medical device sales first -it was a job, but not my second career. I needed time to figure it out. At the time I wasn’t married and didn’t have kids so I had time to figure things out. As time passed I accepted not playing. I knew I liked healthcare and human performance. It was hard to let playing go but I though becoming a chiropractor would be a great challenge and something I was really interested in.
You were a great athlete in high school outside of football – a wrestling champion and state runner-up in the hurdles and discuss. Why choose football?
The sport just always attracted me. I watched Buffalo and Dallas growing up and had early success in Run, Punt and Pass competitions. I wanted football to be the sport I put my effort into. Even when I played those other sports I tried to tie it back to how it could help me as a football player. It sounds weird, but as a kid I remember saying that I was going to play in the NFL. It wasn’t just as a hope – it felt like my destiny. That was just the plan.
Looking back, were you surprised to be drafted by the Steelers?
I had no sense at all I was going to Pittsburgh. I was blindsided in a positive way. The initial call was a blur. I was drafted in the sixth round. Because of my knee surgeries in college my agent told me I could go anywhere from being drafted in the third round to going undrafted. I was like “Wow – that’s a big range!”
Truthfully it didn’t matter – I just wanted a chance. Back then I had a flip-phone and could barely hear Coach Tomlin and Butler when they spoke to me. They called first to tell me they were drafting me and told me to take a few minutes to celebrate with my family. Then they called me back and at the same time they called there was a barrage of messages coming in to my phone – so I could barely hear them.
It wasn’t a great experience until I was drafted. I didn’t have a draft party but people kept showing up and after every pick I was just more frustrated. It was a relief when I finally got the call.
A funny story – well sort of funny. When I got there for Spring practice I hadn’t done any real homework on the team – I got myself ready and prepared myself but didn’t really study much about the team yet.
Well, I was sitting down eating breakfast when I got a tap on my shoulder. I’m Mr. Naive – I didn’t really know anyone yet. Well I turn around and there’s this elderly gentleman who introduces himself to me. “Hey Mike, I’m Mr. Rooney. Thank you for being a Steeler!” I did know who he was and said “Thank you for the opportunity!”
After that I just thought “Holy crap! That was the owner of the Steelers!” I was just blown away. It was representative of the organization. I had an epiphany then – it was just a great example of why they have been so successful over the years. They focused on the right things – they had the right morals and values.
Were there folks who helped take you under their wing when you go there?
All the rookies were in the same boat – like in college. But it was different too. I had to learn how to handle things from the business-side of it. It’s still football on the field and in the film and meeting rooms, but off the field everyone was independent. They did their own thing.
I learned even in college to watch other players and learn from them. James Farrior was that guy for me in Pittsburgh that I tried to emulate. I watched how he handled his daily routine and learned from that.
What was a big learning curve for you
Today I’ve tried to guide my kids into being strong individuals. I think I lacked self-confidence to a degree. It was good in that it made me continue to work harder. But it also wasn’t good – you’d rather make aggressive versus passive mistakes and sometimes I was too passive. It’s like imposter syndrome – I knew I had the ability but that slight doubt in myself sometimes hurt me.
Any experiences stand out most to you of your time there?
I think some of the good experiences were times like when I made a goal line stop in camp and having James Farrior tell me that I did a good job. That felt good. And picking off a pass in practice and having Mike Tomlin tell you it was a fantastic play. Those were the fun memories for me.
I also remember Casey Hampton showing up in camp not in great shape – I didn’t expect that. I thought “Geez- I can’t do that!” It’s funny – we all came from different directions and different paths. Tomlin did such a great job bringing everyone together and leading the team.
I’ve convinced my son to love the Steelers now – not just because I played for them. I wanted him to follow a great organization with great leadership.
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
