Welcome to Steelers Takeaways!

First, let me know what you’re up to now?

Right now, I moved back to Texas. I have a ranch here. So that’s where I am. We were all let go by the Chargers and I had the opportunity to coach elsewhere but wanted to stay here in Texas. My son is an all-state tight end here playing at TCU. I missed so many of his games the last two years. He was a ballboy with me in San Diego – I missed him and my daughter. It gives me a chance to see her run track. I got to see her at homecoming – seeing things like that is important to me.

I did have the opportunity to coach for Mike T.  But I didn’t know Mike well then and I was close to Ken Wisenhunt. Our wives are good friends and we had guys like Haggans, Porter and Faneca there in Arizona. But I did sit with those guys at the Hall of Fame ceremony – with Farrior, Mike Miller…of course I sat in the Steelers section!

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Offensive Lineman John Lott, 1987”

First, let me know about your new role with the NFL and how that began?

Basically, I was working with officials to help coach them. My official title is Coaching Coordinator of Officials.  The job was started by Walt Anderson. After I retired from coaching I reached out and they offered me the position. My job is to coach officials on basic football knowledge from the coach’s perspective. They know the rules but I work with them to better understand the ins and outs of the game – formations, that sort of thing. This helps them anticipate and understand better what they see on the field and to understand what the coaches are doing from their perspective.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Special Teams Coach George Stewart, 1989-1991”

First, let me know what you’ve been up to since football?

I started pre-football. I own an insurance brokerage, mortgage brokerage, and have owner interests in a number of other businesses as well.

My dad was a retired military guy. He worked at Merrill Lynch after retiring and talked to me about getting into the insurance business. I was in high school – he said if I wanted to spend money I had to make money and told me I need to get my insurance license. I was an alpha male kind of kid and he was a retired Air Force General, so we butted heads a lot. I finally agreed though.

One day he called me when I was in college and told me I needed to meet with a couple of guys for an hour for an insurance sale. I took the check and sent it to my dad after I was done. A week or so later I got a check from him for $3,000. I asked him what it was for and he told me it was my commission and asked if I could do that a couple times a month. I said “Yeah!”

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Safety Andy Roosna, 1996”

First, can you let us know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?

You know, to be honest, I took one year off after football. I sat back and relaxed for a year then started my own company – an AC company that was successful for 11 years. Then I got out of the business. I noticed I was losing my train of thought – I couldn’t remember things. Everything started changing.

What was behind that?

I started listening to the conversations people were having about concussions. It all started to make sense. I got a counselor and worked through things. I had some dark moments. I won’t say what some of the things other players did was stupid with what they were going through. I’ll just say I didn’t want to go that same route some of those others had that struggled. I gave up my business – I just couldn’t manage it anymore.

Continue reading “Exclusive: Former Steelers Defensive Lineman Aaron Jones, 1988-1992”

First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your time playing football?

Well, I got married in ’88 – I met my wife at Robert Morris University. We moved to Florida and had three kids – one son and two daughters – all went to college on sports scholarships. I run a construction business here – mostly painting. My dad was a painter in Pittsburgh so I figured I would pick up after him.

I coached my son’s baseball team and daughters’ basketball teams – some high school football as well. Other than that, I go to the beach and hang out, and have two grandkids.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Running Back Eric Sams, 1982, 1987”

First, can you let me what you got involved with after football?

Well, I did a little wrestling – I just tried that out to see how that was. My folks had a bar so after that I went into the bar business with them for a bit and then ran my own liquor store.

How did you get involved in wrestling?

My wife went to the University of Maryland and knew some folks around there. She got some signatures together to get fans to come see me wrestle in DC. We got 100 or so people to watch. It wasn’t much but it was fun to try it.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers Offensive Lineman Mike Sandusky, 1957-1965”

First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?

Well what I’m proud of is that we were able to get Linwood Sexton into the Missouri Valley Conference Athletics Hall of Fame. Linwood was a terrific Black player in the 40’s – led the Missouri Valley in rushing for three years even though he wasn’t allowed to play in Tulsa and Kenyon due to racism. But we finally got him into the Hall of Fame six years or so ago.

How did that happen?

A bunch of us met at a Wichita State reunion and one of the guys did research on Linwood.  We all decided then we needed to get him in.

Continue reading “Exclusive with Former Steelers offensive Lineman Jay Hull, 1983”