Pittsburgh Steelers: Two Minute Warning
By Harv Aronson
Steelers training camp
The staff at City of Champions Sports has been doing a fine job of keeping fans up to date on what the latest news is with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So just like the last two minutes of a game, a quick catch-up with everything Steelers follows.
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While the NFL season officially comes to a close following the Super Bowl each year in February, the National Football League is an ongoing process with the combines, the draft, and subsequent mini-camps and OTAs. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, they finished their Organized Team Activities (OTA) and mini-camps last week and the players were sent home. Next up for the team and coaches combined is this Summer’s training camp which will convene on July 25.
Five weeks will pass before the Black and Gold get together at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe for the annual primer for the regular season and it marks the second longest stretch of inactivity for the team in club history. Head Coach Mike Tomlin has already issued a warning for this lapse in team activity: “I don’t care how they personally or individually balance it, but they better show up in great shape.”
One player that won’t make it to St. Vincent’s is undrafted rookie Micah Hatchie who was set to try to make the team as an offensive lineman. Hatchie who comes from the University of Washington suffered a torn Achilles tendon in his left foot and ended his season before it could begin. He was released with an injury clause and replaced by Collin Rahrig.
For those of you who hate those bumblebee throwback uni’s of the Steelers, prepare to see them again in 2015. They will be worn on November 1 when the Cincinnati Bengals come to town. The same jerseys were first worn in 1934.
While it was only a mini-camp, if you missed it, Clifton Geathers and Maurkice Pouncey got into it while Tomlin was holding a team drill. Other offensive lineman had to step in to separate the two. Said Pouncey: “We always have to stick up for each other, as a team. As an offense, you compete, and as a defense, you compete. And at the end of the day, you have to compete against others. It’s competition. We don’t go out there to patty-cake. Things happen sometimes, and tempers get flared. “
Pittsburgh Steelers
Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers public relations staff who have been awarded the 2014 “Pete Rozelle Award.” The honor is given to a public relations staff for a team in the National Football League that shows the best effort to exemplify consistent excellence in relationships with the media and how they interact with the same. The Steelers PR staff also won the award in 1991. Currently Burt Lauten is the Director of Communications. Working with Lauten is Dom Rinelli and Ryan Scarpino. In 1991, Joe Gordon held Lauten’s position.
Last weekend, if you were not aware, the Steelers put up for sale, tickets to individual games for the 2015 season. The tix are only available through Ticketmaster and there is a limit of eight per household. If the pre-season interests you there is no limit for those two games. The phone number for Ticketmaster is 800-745-3000.
In other news, the Steelers have signed each of their eight 2015 NFL draft picks including the first round standout Bud Dupree. Now officially a Steeler are Dupree, Sanquez Golson, Sammie Coates, Doran Grant, Jesse James, Leterrius Walton, Anthony Chickillo, and Gerod Holliman.
NFL guru and ESPN analyst John Clayton (who hails from the ‘Burgh) has showcased who he believes the top quarterbacks will be in the league for the next three seasons. Our own Ben Roethlisberger is ranked by Clayton as follows:
2015: 1. Rodgers, 2. Brady, 3. Luck, 4. Roethlisberger, 5. Manning, 6. Brees, 7. Rivers, 8. Wilson.
2016: 1. Rodgers, 2. Luck, 3. Brady, 4. Roethlisberger, 5. Brees, 6. Wilson, 7. Ryan, 8. Flacco.
2017: 1. Rodgers, 2. Luck, 3. Roethlisberger, 4. Brady, 5. Wilson, 6. Ryan, 7. Flacco, 8. Cam Newton.
While Antonio Brown was setting records in 2014 on the football field, he now owns an unofficial record doing something that is quite spectacular. Recently, on the show “Sports Science” that airs on ESPN, Brown was on the receiving end of a football that was dropped from the sky at a level of 360 feet.
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According to John Brenkus the creator of the show, Brown’s achievement sets a new Guinness Book of World Records for that feat…unofficially. It won’t make the record books however because a representative from Guinness was not on hand to witness the catch. Said Brenkus: “We did not contact Guinness, because that process takes a long time and this was pretty spur of the moment. We did our research and found the highest height previously was around 300 feet, so we wanted to go way above that. We did our own due diligence. We found an object caught from a higher height, but not a football.”
Pittsburgh’s stud receiver commented on his new feat that makes him that much more famous: “Man, it moves all over. You really need to just pick a spot and hope it comes there. You have to judge it really well and keep your eye on it. It stung a little. But not too bad” It took Brown three tries to be successful.
In 2014 he attempted the same stunt unsuccessfully. According to Sports Science, the ball had the capability of moving at 80 miles per hour but on Brown’s catch it was not nearly traveling that fast. If you’d like to see Brown’s amazing feat, you can see it on YouTube.
In advance of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ training camp, defensive starter Cam Heyward projected what is to come:
“We’re prepared but it’s too early to say how our season’s going to be and predict what we’re going to do. Training camp is for that, we get the preseason and then you really have to see in the first regular-season game. A lot of that stuff can be misleading. There are teams that go 4-0 in the preseason that don’t do anything in the regular season. You just have to take it for what it’s worth and continue to get better.”
Prepare yourself Steelers Nation, this Summer’s training camp should be very entertaining and competitive. It will be intriguing as there will be many new faces and men who are used to being seen around Latrobe that won’t be there this year. Dick LeBeau after so many years is replaced by Keith Butler.
Troy Polamalu won’t be flying all over the field anymore and Ike Taylor not making so many tackles and defending receivers. There is an exciting new crop of rookies, and DeAngelo joins the team to give the Pittsburgh Steelers what could turn out to be one of the finest 1-2 punches in their backfield in the NFL.
“We’re prepared but it’s too early to say how our season’s going to be and predict what we’re going to do” Cam Heyward
There are currently 90 players on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster. Many know that come the end of training camp, they will be seeking a team to play for as only 53 will make the active roster and another 10 be placed on the practice squad. That means 27 players are going to be released before the regular season begins. There will be some heated battles for roles on this squad come July while other players are already cemented in as starters. In a little over two months, the action begins in New England with an NFL opening game on Thursday, September 10 against the world champion Patriots.
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