Anthony Wright: “I remember going into the last preseason game. It was late in the game and Tomczak and Pete Gonzalez were battling it out for a spot. I looked at Coach Gilbride to see if I was going to get a chance to go in and play. He looked back at me and said “You’re not going in. But don’t worry – that’s a good thing.”
So I learned mid-game that I had made the team. I remember how much of a load off of may shoulders that was.”
Jim Miller: “Again, three way battles do not work. You’re young, and you’re getting a one-third of the reps which are limited to begin with in the offseason. You need them all no matter who is starting. Unless you’re like five years in the offense and know it like the back of your hand.”
Byron Leftwich: “The key was doing nothing different than you’d do as a starter. You do it exactly the same. I prepared like I was the starter. I never did anything different. The hard part was on Sundays when you don’t play! Then you have to go back next week and repeat it all again.
I used the scout team reps – I grabbed Antonio Brown, Randle El, Sanders…I used them all on the scout team. Tomlin let me grab those guys and we practiced hard against our own defense. That was the number one defense in the league – but they couldn’t hit me in practice! So that made it better!”
Devlin Hodges: “The coach sets the reps and I just have to make the most of them. We’ll get more reps due to Ben’s schedule. I was told I had to beat Brogan out to make it this far and I did beat him out to get here. Now I will have to do it again and beat out another guy to make the team.”
Pete Gonzalez: “T-Zak, was a great mentor and teammate. He should have been calling plays. Mike knew his stuff! He really wanted Kordell to do well. Heck, I would to! Mike was 37, if Kordell got hurt—Mike would have to play! Not good for a 37 year old…LOL No, seriously, Mike taught us how to be professionals at our trade.
Yeah, that’s when I saw the writing on the wall. Kevin Gilbride really like Anthony Wright, that was his guy. I was a Ray Sherman and Tom Donahoe guy! Anthony was a Bill Cower and Kevin Gilbride guy. Need I say more?
However, Anthony had talent and he was great guy. I’m glad he had a good run and lived out a part of his dream.”
Bubby Brister: “Not as frustrating as it was for Mark Malone. It was tough because it was a team in transition. The organization was getting rid of the guys that won those Super Bowls. And they were trying to get the salary cap down.
They were still trying to field a team with the best players they could find, but it was tough. A lot of young guys trying to play. And the AFC Central had the Bengals who were in the Super Bowl, Cleveland who was one fumble away from one, and Houston who was tough as nails. If we won eight or nine games we were happy. And I was also one quarterback removed from Terry Bradshaw too, so that didn’t help.”
Bruce Gradkowski: “I just had to go in and compete. I mean, with Ben there I knew I wasn’t competing for the starting job! But I still needed to be competitive. Watching Ben was fun too – he’s such an amazing player and I was happy to play my part and be a good teammate and to make sure I was ready if needed.”
Kent Graham: “Kordell -I love him. What happens in the quarterback room – we all know and understand the reality. We’re all competing for one job, and only one can start. That’s the thing that stinks about playing quarterback. Only one plays.
All that being said, we were able to support one another. We were professional enough to support each other and be honest about what was going on. That set the framework and groundwork for the quarterback room. It allowed it to be a place where we could all get better and support each other. We upheld that. Kordell was great to me and I hope I was the same for him.
It’s hard enough to win in the NFL. You have to be together as a group. You have to be tight in the locker room.”
Bob Leahy: “Back then they had the college-NFL All-Star Game. I was the only quarterback in Latrobe and that helped me. Hanratty, Nix, Shiner were all out for the strike and Bradshaw was at the All-Star game. I was the only quarterback for both of the offensive teams in practice. It indoctrinated me right away. I loved it. The relationships were always positive. Bradshaw and I were in awe of Hanratty. He was from Notre Dame. Rooney Sr. loved Notre Dame. He was still paying Rocky Bleier during his few years of rehabbing from his experience in Vietnam.”
Babe Parilli: “Bradshaw was the main guy. Hanratty – I think he could have been a good player for the team – he could have played, but Bradshaw was the number one pick. Bob Leahy knew he was a backup.
Bradshaw needed help reading defenses. He needed help with his ball handling and faking. And how to read defenses on his way back from center. There was no shotgun then – you don’t see guys under center anymore. It’s a lost art today. Now the game is like flag football.
So yeah, Bradshaw needed help with his reads and progressions. Hanratty was further along as far as being reading defenses. He didn’t have an arm like Bradshaw though. He could throw the ball, don’t get me wrong. But he didn’t have an arm like Bradshaw’s.”
Brian St. Pierre: “When Ben got injured mid-season vs. San Diego, Kevin Colbert called to try and sign me off of Baltimore’s practice squad, but I declined because I wanted to play and Baltimore said they would pull me up to the roster and they did. I wanted to be in a situation where I at least may have a chance to play. I knew that wasn’t going to happen in Pittsburgh. I still had dreams and aspirations. I wasn’t one of those guys just happy to be there. I played with a lot of those guys and it always rubbed me the wrong way, still does.”
Cornelius Benton: “For me, it was just about staying in shape – running and working in the weight room. Rick Strom told me this is what life looks like as a backup. That you just always have to be ready and make your reps meaningful. I got few reps except when I was on the scout team. Ron Earhardt told me he had me as the third string guy and he just had to work through the quarterback controversy.”
Tom Arth: “They were so different – we had to work on structuring our meeting room time around both – to gameplan for both. Coach Tomlin made the decision on who started – that was his job description to choose the starter. Art and I offered our opinions of course.
Coach Tomlin felt like Russ could answer the unknowns more than Justin. He told us Justin was playing as well as he’s ever played and he expected us to help Russ get to that place as well.
My heart went out to Justin – it was a tough dynamic to coach through. But we had a plan for both quarterbacks. Mike was transparent from the start to all of us – he made it as clear as it could be and Justin and Russ never made it about them.”
Tommy Maddox: “Ben I left the facility that Friday they told me they were probably going to draft an offensive linemen. It was tough for me, but I think that it would be hard to say that they didn’t make the right choice. It is always hard to lose your job to an injury, but lets face it, it was only a matter of time. Ben has had a great career and I still root for him and the Steelers every week.. I think the offense took on a different tempo and style under Ben. The timing was just different. I still wanted everything to be on my timing, but it wasn’t. Trying to run plays and throw balls off the timing that I remembered was hard because the timing had changed. It was Ben’s offense and was different from all the memories I had of running the same plays for three years. It just wasn’t the same and it was just as frustrating for me as it was for everyone else. “
Cliff Stoudt: “It wasn’t easy. Terry – he was kind of an extreme competitor. The first four years, once camp was over I never took a snap on our offense. I just took snaps running the other teams’ offense.
It was frustrating having to go through that. The first six years I didn’t get to do much except to run other teams’ offenses.”
Charlie Batch: “I sat next to Ben nine out of ten years in the meeting rooms. We had conversations on the struggles we faced and just in getting to the NFL. Remember, I played at Eastern Michigan and he played at Miami of Ohio – we knew how hard it was just to get to the NFL from that conference – we knew how special it was for both of us to be sitting in the same room together in the NFL”
Kurt Kittner: “I came in late – during mini-camp. I knew Larry Foote – I roomed with him in college – and Antwaan Randle El. It was weird. I went from Vick to Manning to Brady to Roethlisberger and Maddox in one offseason. That was a tough stretch. I didn’t even play in a preseason game – they just wanted a camp arm. I was just hoping to make a good impression with the coaches. You never know – coaches are friends with one another – maybe he’d refer me to another coach. You never know.”
Landry Jones: “It’s not about it being hard or anything like that. It’s just, you put in all of the effort during the week but there’s no reward on Sundays. You want to win and be successful, but when you put in that effort you want that reward – you want to play. It can be frustrating, barely getting the chance to play.”
Tanner Morgan: “You have to max out on the opportunities you get and not press. You do what’s asked of you in the play. You don’t deserve reps – you have to be a good steward of the reps you do get.
Tom Clements: “I give credit to both Tommy and Kordell. The first year we had no issues – Kordell was the guy. The next year he had an injury in preseason and he started off slow. So they turned to Tommy and he did well. Each supported the other though. They both wanted to play and each prepared to do so when the other was starting,”
Terry Hanratty: “It was bizarre. We all prepared like we were going to start. There were times when Terry stunk it up and got booed and I came in. Then I’d stink it up and Terry would go in…
I think if Chuck could do it over he’d have made a decision sooner. I was the studier – things didn’t bother me as much. Terry and I roomed together. We did a lot better than people thought we did. Terry used to come to my house for Thanksgiving – I was in his second wedding with JoJo.
I remember one of the Pittsburgh papers had a contest – name your starting quarterback. They were having fun with this thing. So I was going to take out an ad – it cost $240. Rooney heard about it and said “Run the ad – I’ll cut the check.”
The ad was my own contest – name your favorite sportswriter – with all the writers from that paper listed. I included a write-in on the ballot – porn-star Linda Lovelace. She won!”
Dennis Dixon: “As a competitor you always want to get on the field and contribute. Early on it was frustrating for me, but Batch showed me the way. To be a professional and to take care of the things I could control. I wanted to be a team player. So I just made sure to take care of the things I could control.”
One way I earned their trust and got more reps was the way I approached practices. During practice I’d stand in the back of the play and act like I was going through the play myself. That would give me those mental reps. I’d point in the direction I thought the play should go and then watch the film later to see if I was correct.”
Kordell Stewart: “Tomczak was around a while – he just went along with things. Miller came to Pittsburgh then too. The guys knew their roles but I didn’t have that understanding. I didn’t care about contracts or how long they were there. I just wanted to compete. I always wanted to be the best at any I position played – receiver, kick returner….I didn’t care who’s feelings got hurt.
It was like a dagger when Maddox came in. I went from team MVP to being benched. I didn’t understand it. It was crazy to me.
I’m not going to discuss too much of what was said – my conversation with Coach Cowher. It was the end for all of us. It just was enough. When Graham came and then he got hurt, I went in and played well, then I was benched again. I just didn’t understand it – few quarterbacks get to the championship game then get benched…
As for Cowher….he just wanted to move on, he said. He thought it would work better with those other guys, But it didn’t. I had a cool relationship with him in general. He had his moments. I guess you could say it ran hot and cold.”
Bryan Randall: “I thought I had an opportunity to make the team. They had Ben and Charlie but then they brought Brian St. Pierre back. He had played in Baltimore and Pittsburgh before then – he was a five-year vet. I thought it may have made more financial sense to keep me.
We had five preseason games that season. I got little reps in practice – ones and twos. I got to play in the fourth quarter of the Hall of Fame game and got two drives in there.
We played Washington the following week and in the third quarter they told me I was going in. Then the defense got a turnover – I ran to get my helmet and they told me they were holding off on putting me in and out Brian in. Then I didn’t play the rest of the game.”
Bart Houston: “The writing was always on the wall. The drafted Josh Dobbs and didn’t keep four guys. I knew my time was short, but I still gave her hell!
They brought me in to the room and Mike Tomlin told me he loved my fire and that if Ben got hurt they’d give me a call and bring me in. Ben goy hurt a lot in the years before but not that year! But good for him!”
Spence Fisher: “The guys were great – it was a collegial group. Jim was really great – they were all talented – they all had strong arms. My arm was slightly above average – I could learn an offense quickly and was good at making quick reads. But those guys just had better arms – that was my hurdle.
It came down to Kordell – if he was a quarterback I was out – if he was a receiver I would have made the team.”
Mike Quinn: “They went to camp with four quarterbacks – Miller, Kordell, Tomczak and me. I think everyone thought I was just going in as the camp arm. I didn’t focus on that and ended up having a really good preseason and made the team as the third quarterback. It was awesome -we had a great season and I learned a lot. Tomczak took me under his wing and showed me how to be a professional.”
Steve Bono: “With that back drop, if my role was communicated to me, it was to not be late for meetings or practice and to run the scout team. I never dressed for home games or traveled to away games.
I can honestly say that I never felt I had an opportunity to be a starter, even after having played well during the strike.”
Brogan Roback: “We all have a little flavor to us. I like to run the show and move the ball and may have to do it with zero or very few reps. To get first downs consistently- to move the chains and be consistent. Those are the keys to making the team. Be consistent and make plays.”
Neil Graff: “After being a back- up QB for six years I realized that I had to soon make the transition to the top level of QBs or my career would propably be over. Although I hated to leave Pittsburgh, I viewed going to the Packers as an opportunity to perhaps move up the ladder.”