First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing with yourself since the NFL?
I live in California and work in the surfing industry – I’ve been involved in it for 25 years or so. It’s a family brand called Toes on the Nose- we create surf and lifestyle apparel. We have a couple of stores in California and sell wholesale as well.
I also coach high school football and am entrenched with five kids!
How difficult was the post-NFL adjustment for you?
You know, I didn’t have a plan. Life just directed me by allowing me to be active and outside, where I love to be. I love keeping my feet moving. I can’t sit in front of a computer in a cube banging things out. It’s not me. I tried, but it didn’t work out for me.
I like to keep moving and shaking. I enjoy the great outdoors – that’s where I feel comfortable. I’ve raised my family the same way. I still feel like a kid. That’s where I’m at. I didn’t say where I wanted to be when I stopped playing. If I did I probably could have done some things differently – partnered with different firms. But for me, going into what I did was easy. I was involved with the brand in college and stayed with it.
And coaching high school has been awesome too. I enjoy volunteering and helping young men fulfill their dreams.
Who influenced your coaching style and approach – what coaches helped shape who you are today?
Great question. I had a phenomenal high school tight ends coach in Ed Burke. He was a great coach – a legend in our area. And a great man. He’s still around and I see him on occasion.
If I could live up to anybody, he’d be the guy. He was stern yet had a great sense of team comradery and understood guys. You’d run through a wall for him. He was great at understanding the room and pushed athletes to obtain their goals. He was definitely a role model for me.
Tell me a bit now about how you ended up in Pittsburgh in 2002 after playing for Chicago?
It’s an interesting story. I just finished my fourth year in Chicago. I was recovering from a knee injury – I was hit low by a defensive back and it blew out my knee early that season and I missed the remainder of the season. I went to try rehab and got to the point that I was feeling pretty good. I signed with the Rams but over the offseason I could tell something wasn’t right. I decided to forego the whole season and walked away from it for a bit.
I moved up North and worked with my older brother doing carpentry. I thought my time was done. I loved spending time with my brother and working with my hands. He was 16 years older than me so I never really got to spend time with him growing up. I learned a lot and had a great time there. But I decided I wanted another shot at football so moved back South. I worked with James Strom – the strength coach at USC. He was great and helped me prepare for football again. It was a lot of hours getting after it. Then I got workouts with the Jets and Steelers.
Ken Whisenhunt was the Steelers tight ends coach and liked my workout and they signed me for the year. It was a great experience – especially compared to the Bears. I enjoyed the team and the football operations – it was all first class. I loved the city too – I lived downtown and could walk everywhere I wanted to go. I wish I had the opportunity to play there for more years but it just didn’t work out.
Who did you bond with when you got there -who showed you the ropes of a new team and city?
Mark Bruener – he was the man. I knew him – we worked out together in the offseason in California. He was in Pittsburgh for a long time when I got there – he was well-established. He was a legendary guy – the ultimate team guy. He and his family showed me the ropes – where to go in the city…
You mentioned really liking the Steelers organization compared to Chicago’s. What made it so much more appealing?
When I got there I could just feel the team chemistry. Not that there wasn’t some in Chicago too, but there were more established leaders in Pittsburgh. Jerome, Bruener, guys like that. From how practices were organized to the training room and the food there, it was all first class. They understood how to take care of their players while demanding everything from them.
Cowher and the staff were excellent. Whisenhunt and his approach as a former player then coach was terrific. He understood the rigors of the league and how it affected players.
Any fun stories you can share of your time there?
Ok – so I don’t think Jerome will think this is a shot at him. I just think it’s funny. My first time in the Steelers locker room was right after my workout for the team. I just finished the workout in their indoor facility there and they told me they’d go over things with me but to go and shower first. We’d talk afterwards.
Well, I go into the shower and there was one other dude in there, with his back to me. He was a big guy – I thought he was an offensive guard. He didn’t see me there. So I go about my business then get out, dry off, and am changing my clothes when I turn around and see it was Jerome Bettis!
I told Bruener that story later that night, and he said Jerome would get up to 300 pounds in the offseason, but would get down to 270 pounds by the start of the season!
Any thoughts on the changes to the tight end position, as a former tight end?
A lot of us nowadays wouldn’t have seen much time on the field now as we used to, because of what these tight ends can do today, in terms of speed and athleticism. I help college tight ends now prepare for the draft- I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years or so. I can see their speed and athleticism are off the charts. Do I like it? Yes and no.
A ton of the guys I see now aren’t asked to block at all as attached tight ends. They don’t have good fundamentals and technique. They can play in space and run by people but they don’t know how to block in simple blocking schemes. Hopefully they’ll get on teams with a coach that can push them and teach them, because they will be asked to block 270 and 300 pound linemen and linebackers at some point and they will have to rely on technique to get the job done.
It’s just like with college quarterbacks now that don’t know how to take snaps under center or run a huddle. That’s what the spread offense is doing to some of these guys. They don’t develop the technique.
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
