I know you’re coaching now – can you let me know how your coaching career got started?
I got hurt my last year playing and got an opportunity to do a coaching internship in NFL Europe. They had a camp in Tampa in the offseason so I said “Yeah” and did that while I rehabbed.
After I got my start I got excited about coaching – I enjoyed it and was told that if an opening came up as a coach somewhere I’d get recommended. The next year I coached the defensive line for the Frankfurt Galaxy. I went back to Virginia Tech after that to become a graduate assistant and coached for Coach Beamer there.
Who were some of the guys that helped mentor you – did any help you, and how?
Of course! As a coach we are truly copycats. We use the things that work – whatever works we grab hold of and tweak a bit, but we use whatever we’ve been taught.
Coach Beamer taught me more about attitude and approach. How to treat people – that they should be expected to do their job – it wasn’t about notoriety. His big thing was that we should never act special. If we did what we were supposed to do then other people would treat you special.
That was my mindset. Everyone was the same – we all had the same goal and everyone should be treated similarly. That’s how I tried to approach my coaching style.
Looking at those Steelers games – did you approach those games differently? I have spoken to some guys who treated them differently – and others who didn’t change their approach.
I prepared knowing that those games were really tell-tale games. They showed who you were as a player, unit and team. The teams were similar. They were cut from the same mold – we had coaches who coached in Pittsburgh like Marvin Lewis and brought that same philosophy.
We were built the same way – tough-minded, hard-nosed. It was like a college rivalry. We knew what they were doing, we just had to man-up.
Were there certain guys you remember most going up against?
One guy – Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala. I went up against him on special teams a lot. He laid me out once on the sidelines and the players never let me forget it,
When we opened the new stadium, me and Donta’ Jones went at it. We were in the middle of the field going at it, throwing punches. The refs just said “Guys – are you going to fight or play?”
Orpheus Roye – he was an amazing guy to deal with. That’s when it was fashionable to have those big guys running down on special teams hitting people. He – and Lee Flowers – those were guys I remember.
On offense – they ran a power offense with the Dermontti Dawsons of the world. They were physical and ran with power. It was just about being tough with Bettis running the ball downhill.
Ward too – he was a physical wide receiver you had to deal with all game. He had no problem blocking linebackers and getting in the mix.
Any good memories that stand out most from those games?
The big Plaxico Burress catch where he ran 20 yards then spiked the ball! We were the guys that brought Ben to the party when Maddox got hurt. When we saw him play we were like “Oh ok. Great…”
The game where Porter couldn’t play – after he was shot. They came to the bus after the game and were calling us out of the bus! He and Lewis were arguing all day – that’s the type of rivalry it was.
That’s also when James Harrison came to the Ravens for a minute after Pittsburgh cut him. We tried to help him with the playbook. He told us he didn’t get the playbook – we told him it was the same defense we just ran a 4-3 instead of a 3-4. He said he was happier where he was and we ended up releasing him and he went back to Pittsburgh and did all those great things.
We were just a young team then – we drafted three linebackers that year. It was bad timing for him – they just couldn’t find a niche for him.
Any funny memories that stand out?
Oh yeah. My best memory was when we were getting ready to open the new stadium. Scotty O’Brien was yelling at us, telling us that this f’ing game was huge and that this opening kickoff was something our kids’ kids would remember.
Well we go onto the field and Stover kicks the ball, and he kicks it out of bounds! O’Brien was screaming. “This was supposed to be a kickoff your kids’ kids would remember and you fucking kicked it out of bounds!”
I also remember my rookie year we played Pittsburgh on ESPN on a Thursday night game. They beat the dog out of us – they couldn’t stop scoring. Well we got on the bus after the game and Bam Morris was there with his wife. She asked how the game went and we told her it didn’t go well. She said she didn’t see the final score because ESPN stopped showing it after the third quarter!
Lastly, what do you think of the rivalry today?
I think it’s still going strong. It’s a wonderful experience watching both teams play each other. There is so much riding on each game. Both teams are basically built the same way. Hard-nosed defenses. They spread the ball around more on offense but that’s it.
I think some people thought those Burfict- Bengals games were a good rivalry but they were just different. They didn’t mean the same thing – they didn’t mean as much. The Ravens-Steelers games were Michigan-Ohio State; Miami-Florida State; Oklahoma-Texas. That was the mindset of those games. I still get chills watching the games today.
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