Welcome to Steelers Takeaways! – Page 22 – More than 1,000 interviews of Steelers players, coaches, front office staff, media and more with those that played in the 50’s through today’s current roster.

Exclusive with Mark Kirchner, Steelers Offensive Lineman, 1983

First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your time in the NFL?

Well, I retired in April of 2019. My goal was always to retire at 59 1/2. My wife and I were doing a lot of traveling before Covid so we’re hoping to be able to pick that up again.

I was the GM of a Nissan dealership for 25 years before I retired here in Houston. Before that I was in the banking industry for five years or so.

I’ve become an avid mountaineer, strangely being from flat Texas. I started climbing Mount Rainier in Washington state. I made the summit twice and started on a quest to climb the tallest peak on every continent. I’ve now climbed four of the seven highest peaks – Kilimanjaro Africa, Aconcagua South America, Mt Elbrus Europe, and Mount Kosciuszko Australia. Three more to go!

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Defensive Lineman Clarence Washington , 1969-1971

First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing since your time in the NFL? What work/profession you got involved in and how you got started in that?

Due to my injury I received a settlement from the Steelers and temporarily retired from
football. Before leaving Pittsburgh in 1972, I served as Acting Assistant Principal at Rankin High School.

In 1975, when L. C. Greenwood was being courted by the World Football League, he
chose to stay with the Steelers, but encouraged me to join the new league. I made the team and helped lead the Birmingham Americans to the championship of the fledgling, World Football League. I was sidelined by a knee injury near the end of the season though and officially retired from football.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Offensive Lineman Jeff Smith, 2002

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

I’m the regional VP of a security company now – Walden Security. I’ve been here nine years. We’re contracted with different businesses to supply officers and services to companies that need them.

A friend of mine heard about the opportunity – that’s how I got word of the job. Before that I worked for an underground utility company. But I wanted to get out of that when the construction industry wasn’t very good and found this new job. I’ve been here ever since.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Offensive Lineman Jeff Smith, 2002”

Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Shawn Scales, 1998

First, can you let me know what you’ve bene doing since your playing days?

So, currently I’m the Fitness Director for Onelife Fitness I’ve been there since November of 2018. We went to a new 80,000 square foot facility in 2019.

It’s been an eye-opening experience. Before then I was a personal trainer – I didn’t have any management experience and didn’t have to report to anyone. Now I’m running the facility and learning as I go – it is all thrown at you at the same time. I applied for the Assistant Fitness Director position actually – but they pushed me to this position instead. I guess they saw something they liked!

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Shawn Scales, 1998”

Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Reggie Garrett, 1974-1976

First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing since your time in the NFL and how you got started in that line of work?

I got my B.S. in political science and wanted to be a lawyer, but that didn’t work out. So I got a degree and became a guidance counselor. I worked for a couple of places, lastly U.S. Foods and just retired – and am enjoying it!

Being on the Steelers, I didn’t make as much money playing then as guys do now. I did some speaking engagements and worked some in the offseason. Doing that offseason work, I saw how folks in HR did their jobs and thought I’d enjoy working with people as well.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Reggie Garrett, 1974-1976”

Exclusive with Andrew Gardner, GM, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds Ultimate Frisbee Team

First, can you let me know how the Thunderbirds got started?

We became a professional team late 2014 and had our first season in 2015. The University of Pittsburgh won back-to-back national championships – they had some really good players. A lot of them played for us in 2015 through 2017. Pittsburgh was a hotbed for ultimate frisbee – Pitt was a perennial powerhouse.

Because of that it made sense to put a franchise here. I’m originally from Northeast Ohio – it was hard to move out here at first but I did and assimilated well. I know being from an area close to Cleveland we loved to “hate” Pittsburgh, but the people here are so nice and I adapted to the city. Now I’m a Black & Gold fan and got a job working for the Penguins.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Andrew Gardner, GM, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds Ultimate Frisbee Team”

Exclusive with Former Bengals Safety/Kick Returner Tremain Mack

First, can you let me know how you got involved in coaching?

At the end of my career I went to Seattle to rehab my knees. But that took a lot longer than expected – for three years I couldn’t work. So I decided to give back to the community in the meantime – to do something with my time.

In my eagerness to stay busy I applied for a job at a local high school and they ended up hiring me as their baseball coach. Through the job I got involved with kids in the community – many had needs and lacked support so I dove into helping them out. I had a good relationship with the athletic director there. He left a year later to Mt. Ranier High School to coach his son then left. That left a job a opening that I applied for and I got the job. I became the football, baseball and basketball coach there.

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Exclusive with Former Bengals Defensive Back Louis Breeden

First, what have you been up to since your playing days?

I’ve been all over the place. I retired about nine years ago. After I was out of football I did the Bengals pre and post game shows on the radio and was a TV analyst for Louisville’s football games.

At the same time I had an advertising company that I ran for over 10 years.

Other than that I’ve been taking it easy. I was talking to Isaac Curtis – I feel every bone in my body these days – my body aches even just doing the little things!

How was that post-NFL adjustment for you?

I had some challenges over the past few years. I have atrial fibrillation and had two unsuccessful cardial ablations. I had the third a few months ago and I’ve felt the best I have in years – knock on wood. A lot of people have atrial fibrillation – I had mine for the last 30 years – after football. I had an irregular heartbeat but not symptoms until recently when it started to really bother me – that’s when it can be really dangerous.

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Exclusive with Former Steelers Tight End Jeff Markland, 1988

First, can you tell us what you experienced after playing football and how you got involved in the church and with The Good News Community Church?

After football I went through a long period of addiction – I went to prison twice and suffered from a cocaine addiction. I had my recovery meetings at the church I am a pastor at now. The doors opened for me to stay there.

Why become a pastor?

I had been in the ministry beforehand actually. I worked with Sports World – they were the ones who worked with Pete Rozelle to get chaplains for each team. When we weren’t working with players we went to schools and prisons to help people there. That was right after football.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Tight End Jeff Markland, 1988”

Part 2: Exclusive with Steelers Defensive Lineman, Coach Joe Greene, 1969-1981, 1987-1991

PART ONE

Part 2:

I wanted to talk to you about L.C. and some of those other guys. L.C. actually called me to talk about why he felt he should have made the Hall of Fame. Do you think he and others were overlooked?

Oh yeah, sure they were. But there’s a fine line from being a good, very good, great, and Hall of Fame player. What a Hall of Fame player is today gets muddled because of TV, newspapers and the internet. Guys see faces on screens and names that are out there more often and think they are great or Hall of Fame players. Quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends – there’s no comparison to the numbers today versus guys 20-to-30 years ago. Now when people talk about quarterbacks no one says anything about Johnny Unitas, but I dare say no one was better than he was. Griese was an unbeaten quarterback and never threw more than 17 passes.

Continue reading “Part 2: Exclusive with Steelers Defensive Lineman, Coach Joe Greene, 1969-1981, 1987-1991”