Chris Conrad, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1988-1989

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First, can you tell readers about your coaching career so far at CMU?

I coached at CMU for three years and this started my college coaching experience. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there with the staff and the student athletes. The experience I had there at the University showed me that I would like to stay coaching at the college level.

What do appreciate/enjoy most about coaching?

I really do like to see the kids succeed. When I started coaching my main goal was to give the student athletes the same chance I had, by teaching them how to play the position. Coaching is just another way I can still be a part of a sport I loved to play.

Continue reading “Chris Conrad, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1988-1989”

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Shaun Nua, Steelers Defensive Lineman, 2005-2007

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First, can you let readers know about your new coaching career – how it’s going so far and where you hope to take it moving forward?

I am currently a Defensive graduate assistant coach on the BYU football team. I love it not only because this is where I played and graduated but also because BYU runs the 3-4 and we use Pittsburgh as a guiding tool. Our head coach Bronco Mendenhall loves the way the Steelers play on defense and also has the utmost respect for coach Dick Lebeau.

I love this profession and I have learned a lot from it. I learned that it requires a lot of time and you will always and forever be a student of this game. I learn something new everyday. I can’t wait for the opportunity to coach in a full-time position at the college level and hopefully one day it will take me back to the NFL and meet its challenges. One of my main goal is to gain as much knowledge and hopefully be in a position to help the kids back home in Samoa come over and enjoy the same journey I had or even make it a better one.

Continue reading “Shaun Nua, Steelers Defensive Lineman, 2005-2007”

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Wayne Gandy, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1999-2002

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First, can you let readers know about your new broadcasting career – how you got started, how it’s going and where you’d like to take it?

The show is called SportsJoc with Wayne Gandy (//www.TheSportsJoc.com) and we’re out of Atlanta. We’re hoping to by syndicated by the end of 2012. That’s the promised land. I’m also talking to Steven Spielberg about a movie in 2014.

Have you spoken to any other former Steelers like Wolfley, Ilkin or Nelson to get advice? If so, how have they helped you?

No, I haven’t spoken to  anybody in the Steelers organization about doing radio broadcasts. I actually didn’t know I had a gift to do this. My mom had me in the choir when I was a teenager and that helped me get rid of my stage fright. Now I’m ready to run my mouth. It’s a great task and very challenging. With my football background and love of sports, it’s a natural fit.

Continue reading “Wayne Gandy, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1999-2002”

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Jay Reisinger, Sports Attorney

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Jay Reisinger, Sports Attorney:

First, can you let readers know how you and your firm got involved in sports law – was this an intended focus for you all along?

Since I was a student at Allegheny College, the field of sports law had interested me.  After my first year in law school, I was fortunate enough to land an internship with Sam Reich (brother of famed sports agent Tom Reich).  Sam handled a number of sports-related matters for Tom and his clients. 

After law school, I joined Sam’s firm full-time, and handled a number of sports-related cases, from high school eligibility matters to MLB salary arbitration.  I eventually moved to my own firm in 2008, where my focus is almost entirely sports-related.

You’ve handled a number of large cases, including working with Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte and their legal issues concerning performance-enhancing drugs and hormones. Which of your case(s) have you been most proud of, and why?

I am proud of all of them, because I feel we served each of them well with respect to their individual matters. However, I am most proud of the work that we did for Andy Pettitte.  We were able to extract him from the circus-like atmosphere that surrounded the Roger Clemens matter and put him on his own path, which certainly inured to his benefit.

How do you deal with the immense media presence around these cases – how do you prevent them from being distractions?

It is our general policy and practice to refrain from making public comment in on-going legal matters.  We have found that, in general, it does not serve a client’s legal interests to speak with the media. 

There is a balance between an athlete’s public persona and his legal interests, and we attempt to strike that balance, however, an athlete’s legal interests always take precedence, and most often, public comment does not serve those legal interests.

How has being in Pittsburgh helped your practice?

Initially, I was mentored by two of the finest sports lawyers in the business, Sam and Tom Reich, who are both Pittsburgh natives. 

Pittsburgh also has a significant number of nationally known sports attorneys, and my interaction with them has played a large role in growing my practice. On a personal note, my entire family lives in Pittsburgh and I enjoy a great deal of family support in my professional endeavors. 

A good deal of your work is as an attorney in salary arbitration – including representing Pirates players. How do you prepare for these hearings- what data do you use and how heated can these hearings get?

Salary arbitration hearings for MLB players take place in February each year.  I usually begin preparing my cases in September, and then continually revise my analysis in the following months.  On behalf of players, we utilize a proprietary statistical program that allows us to compare even the most obscure statistics in an effort to determine a player’s proper place in the salary structure. 

The negotiations leading up to a hearing can often get quite heated as each side gets entrenched in their respective positions.  The hearings themselves can also get quite heated, but are always professional.

How do you avoid these negotiations getting so personal that they permanently taint the player-organization relationship – and how have you found the Pirates to be in these negotiations compared to other teams – I know you had some good battles with Pirates Counsel Larry Silverman in the past.

I have never been involved in negotiations or a hearing where it became so personal that it permanently tainted the player/organization relationship.  As a player representative, you have to check your ego at the door, and act in the best interest of the player, and part of that process is to maintain the player/organization relationship. 

A player’s representative has to be that buffer between the player and the organization, and take the heat for the player, and conversely, apply pressure on the organization from the player’s perspective in such a way that it comes from the representative, not the player. 

I have always found the Pirates to be extremely professional in these situations.  I have always had great battles with Larry Silverman (also a Pittsburgh native), they were always spirited, but professional. In almost every instance, both Larry and I left the bargaining table a little disappointed with the result, which really is the hallmark of a good deal for both sides.

Any thoughts on the issue of concussions with players in the NFL and NHL? There are a couple of lawsuits now against the NFL and the NHL could be prone to the same. What is your take on the whole concussion issue?

The concussion issue has been ignored in professional sports for far too long.  Leagues and the players unions need to do a better job in evaluating the problem and creating solutions, to the extent they can be created.  At the end of the day, there are always going to be concussions in professional sports (especially in the NHL and NFL), it is a risk that players assume.  However, the treatment of concussions falls to the teams and their medical staffs, and that treatment needs to evolve as more research is conducted.

I also have a personal interest in the concussion issue.  I have a son who plays Mite hockey and a daughter who plays travel soccer.  Concussions are increasing at the youth sports level (most likely a result of increased awareness and diagnosis), and as a father, I am paying close attention to concussion issues in youth sports.  I am hopeful that with increased awareness and research, concussions in youth sports can be reduced and the treatment of concussions will continue to progress.

What Pittsburgh athletes have you represented in non-arbitration type cases? Any interesting (and repeatable) stories from these?

I have represented a number of Pittsburgh-based athletes in both civil and criminal matters.  Unfortunately, the attorney/client privilege prevents me from commenting, but needless to say, it’s always been an adventure!

What would surprise readers most about your work?

I think my clients would surprise readers.  Many people have a misconception that professional athletes are, in the main, arrogant and selfish.  I have found it quite the contrary. 

In most of my dealings with professional athletes, I have found them to be considerate and appreciative.  Many of them are different in person than they are on the field. 

You write consistently for the Sports Agent Blog as well (//www.sportsagentblog.com/tag/jay-reisinger/) – what issues do you find yourself discussing most with your peers now and what are the biggest concerns behind those issues?

I often blog about labor issues in sports.  I believe that the leagues, in the main, have taken the upper hand in labor negotiations (especially in the NFL and NBA), and it is detrimental to players and players’ rights. 

For example, the personal conduct policy in the NFL is a sham.  Without the ability to appeal league discipline to a neutral third-party arbitrator, the players are at the mercy of the Commissioner.  It’s these types of issues that concern (and interest) me.  I also have a personal blog in which I discuss sports issues (//www.jayreisinger.blogspot.com/).

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Jim O’Brien: When Duquesne, Pitt and Carnegie Tech Were in Bowl Games

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When Duquesne, Pitt and Carnegie Tech Were in Bowl Games:

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

There was a time when Duquesne, Carnegie Tech and Pitt all played in college football bowl games, and were among the nation’s outstanding teams.  Even then Pittsburgh could lay claim to the title of “City of Champions.”

          This was back in the late ‘30s, before I was on the beat, before I was even born (1942), so I had to look up most of the scant information remaining from those halcyon days.

          Carnegie Tech, now known as Carnegie Mellon University, was so good once upon a time that they defeated Notre Dame 19-0 at Forbes Field,  Notre Dame’s legendary coach Knute Rockne had so little regard for Tech that he wasn’t even on the sideline that day.  He instead was scouting a future opponent, thought to be a much better ballclub than the Tartans.

          That occurred on November 27, 1926 and I knew about that upset because my mother, then a 19-year-old Mary Burns, was at the game and had a program to prove it.  I wish I still had that program.  It would be worth something.  That Tech victory has been rated the fourth greatest upset in college football history by ESPN.

          This column can serve as a history lesson for most Pittsburgh football fans.  Some people dismiss talk of the past, saying it was before their time.  But the Civil War was before my time and I still find it fascinating to read the stories of our country’s deadliest war.

          Tech’s teams in 1938 and 1939 were nationally ranked.  Following the 1938 season, the Tartans played in the Sugar Bowl where they lost to the No. 1 rated Texas Christian University or TCU team by the score of 15-7.  Tech was ranked as high as No. 6 in 1938.

          Their star player was quarterback Howard Harpster.  I met him at a Curbstone Coaches Luncheon at the Roosevelt Hotel during my student days at Pitt in the early ‘60s.  I know his son-in-law Dick Swanson, one of Pitt’s most ardent athletic boosters.

          Pitt’s 1936 team went 8-1-1 and defeated Washington, 21-0, in the Rose Bowl.   Pitt’s 1937 team posted a 9-0-1 record, with the third consecutive scoreless tie with Fordham the only blemish on their schedule.   Those were the days of Marshall Goldberg and “The Dream Backfield.”

          This is the 75th anniversary of Duquesne’s appearance in the 1937 Orange Bowl, where they defeated Mississippi State, 13-12. This anniversary was pointed out to me by Marilyn Schiavoni, the managing editor and publisher of The Valley Mirror

Her uncle or whatever played for the Dukes in those days.  (Marilyn: Add whatever else is relevant, like where he came from and what position he played.)

Duquesne won on a last-ditch pass from Boyd Brumbaugh to Ernie Hefferle.  It was a 72-yard touchdown strike and it was reported that the pass was in the air for 69 of those yards.

That same Duquesne team defeated the Rose Bowl-bound Pitt team by 7-0 during that 1936 season.  Clipper Smith was the coach of the Dukes and their center Mike Basrak was the first Duquesne player to be a first-team All-American.  Basrak played for the Steelers in 1937 and 1938.

I know I was introduced to Boyd Brumbaugh at a Curbstone Coaches Football Luncheon where I also met Howard Harpster.  Brumbaugh’s daughter bought a book from me at South Hills Village about ten or twelve years ago and told me some stories of her dad’s sports exploits.

I have a personal history with Hefferle, who caught Brumbaugh’s bomb for the game-winner.  Brumbaugh, by the way, was a halfback on that Dukes’ team.

Hefferle hailed from Herminie, Pa., near Irwin.  He coached the ends when I was at Pitt, and they included some great ones such as Mike Ditka of Aliquippa, Joe Walton of Beaver Falls and Mean John Paluck of Swoyersville who all went on to star in the NFL.

When I went to Miami in 1969 to cover the Miami Dolphins in their final season in the AFL, writing for The Miami News, I was reunited with Hefferle, who was the Dolphins’ offensive line coach.  He was a decent and fair fellow and had attributes I later associated with Chuck Noll when he coached the Steelers.  In short, he was a class act.  Hefferle helped me crack the ice with the coaching staff of the Dolphins, headed by George Wilson.                      

          Notice that Carnegie Tech played in the Sugar Bowl, Pitt in the Rose Bowl and Duquesne in the Orange Bowl.  Those were elite bowls for years and especially in the late ‘30s when there were only five or six bowl games.

          There were 35 bowl games this season.  It seems like there is a bowl game on TV every day.  West Virginia and Penn State have already played in bowl games, and Pitt will be playing in one this coming Saturday.

          The Panthers are matched with Southern Methodist University or SMU in the Compass Bowl.  It’s the second straight year Pitt has played in this post-season bowl game in Birmingham, Alabama.

          Somehow the Compass Bowl doesn’t have the same ring as the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl or the Orange Bowl.

          But it could be worse.  Among the 35 bowl games on this year’s schedule were the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, the TicketCity Bowl, the Go-Daddy.Com Bowl, the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl and Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, and the infamous Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

          Yes, there are too many bowl games these days, with whatever names money can buy, and it permits teams such as Pitt to get in with mediocre 6-6 records.  When I was a senior at Pitt in 1963, the Panthers posted a 9-1 record and did not get into a bowl game.

          Back in the late ‘30s, college football ruled in Pittsburgh.  The sports pages were dominated by Duquesne, Pitt and Carnegie Tech, and the Steelers were dealt with in a few paragraphs.

          The best example of the difference between the status of the collegians and the pros in those days comes in the case of Aldo “Buff” Donelli, a football and soccer star out of Morgan, Pa., in Bridgeville’s backyard.

          In 1941, Donelli was the head coach simultaneously of Duquesne University and the Steelers.  Elmer Layden was the NFL commissioner at the time.  He had been a member of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in his playing days and had coached at Duquesne before moving on to Notre Dame as the coach.

          He told Donelli he had to make a choice.  He could coach at Duquesne or with the Steelers, but he couldn’t do both.  Donelli chose to stay with Duquesne.  Of course, the Steelers were in the midst of a 1-9-1 record in 1941.

          I learned something else about Carnegie Tech that I didn’t know before when I was doing research for this column.

          In 1954, Tech went undefeated except for one tie.  They were invited to play in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas when bowl participation was truly for elite teams.  The players on that Tech team voted to play in the post-season game, but the school administration ruled against it, saying it wanted to uphold its academic reputation.  Playing in a bowl game was beneath the dignity of the Tech hierarchy.

          Tech and Duquesne both gave up big-time football in the ‘40s because they could not afford the financial outlay necessary to compete on a national basis and, again in Tech’s case, they thought it better to maintain its academic reputation.

          How about that, sports fans?

           Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien will be signing his books this weekend as a featured attraction at the Pittsburgh Remodeling Show at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from Friday through Sunday.

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Jack Leftridge, on Father and Former Steelers Fullback Dick Leftridge (1966)

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First, as the first African-American to receive a football scholarship to play for a major college in the South, do you recall any of your father’s stories on how he became that first player? What about him made him the first and did he want to play at WVU?

 My father becoming the first African-American to receive a scholarship to play major college sports in the south seems to be simply a timing thing.  His eventual coach at WVU (Corum) is on record as saying that he tried to recruit African-Americans to WVU even before my father.

Continue reading “Jack Leftridge, on Father and Former Steelers Fullback Dick Leftridge (1966)”

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Marshall Cropper, Steelers Wide Receiver, 1967-1969

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First, can you let readers know about the Hawk Voice Educational Foundation and how you got involved?

The Hawk Voice Educational Foundation was built simply as a means of giving back to young people in the community.  It was established with University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Maryland State alumni.  Colleagues like Art Shell, Mack Alston, Bill Thompson, Irving Williams, and Carl Hairston here at UMES, to name a few, and many more athletes who would subsequently come together about once or twice a year to give back to our university.

We had to make sure that when people donated, they would get the right feel about making their donations and would know that it was all going toward giving back to the young people in the form of scholarships.  That’s it in a nutshell.  Art Shell is our major sponsor.  He has led us to a number of people to talk to who are just like us.  Leslie Donaldson, he wasn’t pro but was always there to work with us.  Pat Alexander and Eleanor Turner was always there to help us as well.

Continue reading “Marshall Cropper, Steelers Wide Receiver, 1967-1969”

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Craig Colquitt, Steelers Punter, 1978-1984

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First, can you let readers know about your life after football what you are doing now and how you got involved in this?

I am a Senior Sales Director in the southern and mid western region of the county offering custodial, maintenance and grounds services to the K-12 school district industry.

You were a third round pick of Chuck Noll’s in ’78 – were you surprised to be drafted that high as a punter?

No I was disappointed because Dallas said they were going to take me in the fifth round. However, until Joe Gordon on draft day asked ‘What I thought about playing with the likes of Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mean Joe Green, etc. After tearing up a bit  I said I had not thought of the team dynamics in that way.

Continue reading “Craig Colquitt, Steelers Punter, 1978-1984”

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Larry Gagner, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1966-1969

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First, can you tell readers about your art and how you got started doing this work?

Mrs. Stokley, my fourth grade teacher, always asked me to render in colored chalk any festive holiday scene, but by High School, my total involvement in athletics shadowed any time for artistic development. Later at the U of F, in a beginning painting class, I became smitten and hooked for life after having received one of the only two A’s in class. I graduated with a degree in Advertising Design in 1967, but pro football allowed me time, in and out of the season, to further develop my love for painting.

Has your playing career inspired your artwork – and was this something you were active in doing as a player too?

I don’t cater to athletic subject matter per se, but art critics have still described my representational painting as kinetic and engaging, paralleling it to the “controlled violence” of pro football. I’ve had one-man art gallery shows and also exhibited in numerously in Florida’s sidewalk art festivals receiving many prizes and awards. I have also continually exhibited in the annual NFLPA’s Smocks and Jocks Art Exhibitions.

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Jerrol Williams, Steelers Linebacker, 1989-1992

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First, can you let readers know what you are up to these days?

I’m living in Las Vegas now taking care of my three kids. I coached a little semi-pro ball and some youth ball, but that’s really the extent of it.

I’m not working now due to injuries I got playing. I hurt my shoulder in San Diego – and a few other injuries along the way too. I was on disability for a while through the NFL and am re-applying. I was approved the first time and am trying now for permanent and total disability. because of all the craziness over the Summer everything was backlogged so I’m getting all my paperwork together now.

Continue reading “Jerrol Williams, Steelers Linebacker, 1989-1992”

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