June 13, 2023 • 21 mins
Bob Labriola and Tom Opferman discuss the passing of Stan Savran and how much he meant to Pittsburgh’s sports and the city of Pittsburgh in general before they get to this week's questions. Stan Savran RIP
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steeler's Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Unfortunately, a very sad day for everybody in Pittsburgh as
the legend, the icon, and more importantly, the great man
Stan Saveregn passed away yesterday on June twelfth, and Labs,
you and I both knew stand very well. You have
been around him forever, you know, ever since I started
here about five or six years ago. Stan was one
(00:31):
of the first jobs I had, running his board. And
as you can imagine, someone coming out of college would
be intimidated to have to work for Stan Saveregn. He
made it so easy for you, just such a relatable person,
and all the intimidation that I felt was squashed within
minutes of walking into the building.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
A medium Yeah, I mean certainly, you know, as to
again steel Mike Toleman's line, Stan Savergn's resume needs no
endorsement for me. But you know he was He never
big timed anyone, and that's kind of making up that
word he was. He was a colleague. You know. It
(01:13):
was never a situation where no matter who you were,
your level of experience, your age, where you worked anything,
I mean, it was never Hey, I'm a big shot
you know on TV and I do all the major sports,
and you know, you're just some slappy from you know,
some small radio station or you know whatever. I mean.
(01:36):
I remember, you know, the very first year of Steelers
Digest was nineteen eighty eight. Stan savern I actually agreed
to write a call for me. I mean, and again,
I mean I may have known him a little bit
or seen him around, you know, in the previous few years,
based on you know, I worked as a newspaper reporter,
(01:57):
you know, but that wasn't stands or at least, let
me say this writing I didn't think was his wheelhouse.
But I soon learned that he was really good at
it too. Yeah. Yeah, So you know, Stan was was
part of the group all the time, a colleague, as
(02:18):
I said, a good guy. He always had a word
of encouragement for you, or a word of praise for you,
you know, whatever the situation might require. You know, it
is a sad day, as you said, but you know,
Stan was suffering, and I just hope he's at peace.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, no question. You know, you can't speak enough about
how much he loved doing this work. I mean, even
just Up to a couple of weeks ago, he was
still doing his hits with Mark Madden, still doing his
hits with the DV Morning Show, not because he felt
like he had to, but because he genuinely wanted to.
You always knew that that man was never going to retire,
(02:59):
that Stan was going to be doing this until the end.
And he did. And I think that that is what
helped him become the giant that he was in this industry.
Is not only was he so great at it, but
there was just such a burning passion for this work
inside of him that I think is rare these days
to have that kind of passion directed towards one individual thing.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah. I mean, the way I would put it is
that his job was the love of his life. Yes,
And you mentioned, you know how he never wanted to,
you know, back away from the work. He loved the work.
He talked about it often that it was, you know,
how he saw himself, even though he was much more
(03:43):
than you know, just sports speed or you know, just
severeign on sports or you know whatever. The many shows
that he did were actually titled but you know, and
the one thing that Stan did and I always, you know,
I could never imagine myself doing this because I don't
(04:04):
have the patience for that. But those Steeler postgame calling
shows meantwork.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The past three years, I've been on the board side
of that, and I don't know how Stan was able
to go to sleep at night after those shows wrapped
up with some of the people that he had to
deal with, But he did it in such a way
that I still marvel at. He's just was a true
pro no matter what those callers threw at him, And
like you know, they throw a lot at you on
that postgame show, he handled it perfectly.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, you know, he was on that with Charlie Backs,
and there were times, you know, Charlie would be in
the booth after a game where I'd see him, you know,
right after some people were, you know, running down to
the locker room, you know, just a little bit of
you know, fire drill kind of activity going on right
after a game, and I'd bump into Charlie, depending on
(04:57):
how the game went. Even a lot of times after
Steelers win, I'd say to him, enjoy your next two hours.
You know, you deserve combat pay for this because and
again I'm not trying to characterize all Steelers fans in
a bad way or anything. But there were a lot
of times I would imagine, you know, Stand and Charlie
(05:18):
got phone calls from tailgates or you know, after games
and stuff, and you know, we all know what happens
at tailgates and during you know, NFL games in stadiums,
and some of the people they could barely you know,
get the words out. And he's dealing with these inebriated
(05:38):
people in a kind but firm way, I mean, and
he didn't pull the plug on them, you know, like
a lot of talk shows or talk show callers or
talk show hosts, you get somebody like that, slur in
his words and not make any sense. Well, and they
hit the what do you call that the dumb button?
Since you work the board yet, get the dump button right,
(06:00):
get them out of here. I don't remember, excuse me
even you know, stand doing that to anyone. And I
would always listen to that for as long as I
could tolerate it. Now on my drive home, you know,
from the stadium to my house, and sometimes I'd have to,
you know, go to a different station and then come back,
hoping that one particularly annoying or drunk caller would be
(06:23):
done by then, because I mean, I just again kudos
to stand for, you know, tolerating that weekend and week out.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
No doubt about it. Rest in peace, Stan, savereign. You
are gone, but you will most certainly never be forgotten
when it comes to the Pittsburgh sports scene, when it
comes to just Pittsburgh in general, your legacy is going
to live on forever. There's there's no doubt about that
in my mind. No easy way to transition into questions
this week, so let's just get right to it. Our
(06:55):
first one comes from Mike Foster from Uwa Beach, Hawaii,
and he wants to know do you do you think
the Steelers are a better team now than they were
a year ago at this time?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You know, I believe that the Steelers have the potential
to be a better team in twenty twenty three than
they were in twenty twenty two. And you know, in
kind of keeping with the theme of you know this podcast,
we have to tie it into the quarterback as soon
as possible. One of the main reasons is that they
won't have a rookie starting at quarterback for them this year, right,
(07:26):
you know, I'm not going to say that Kenny Pickett,
you know, is a lock for the Pro Bowl, or
he's a superstar in waiting, or any of that stuff.
But I also believe that Pickett has the approach and
the work ethic to be a successful NFL starting quarterback.
And now, you know, again, to use a Mike tomlinism,
this is his second lap around the track. He you know,
(07:48):
he has an understanding of what it takes, an understanding
of his position, and understanding of what he needs to
know and do and how he needs to prepare. And
so you know, you put those things together on the surface,
and they have the potential to be a better team.
Now you know, we're going to see how that works out.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Mark Cusick from Paradise Valley, Arizona. We have all read
countless exclamations of Omar Khan's aggressive roster building, often expressed
in contrast to Kevin Colbert. I love what Con and
the team have done, But if one is going to
imply an unflattering comparison with Colbert, does not fairness and
accuracy require one to note the extra thirty million or
(08:32):
so in salary cap money Con had available to spend, because,
unlike in Colbert's ears, the team is not paying franchise
quarterback money.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, this is something that I learned or I experienced
really deeply when Chuck Mole retired and Bill Kauer was hired. Now,
you know, naturally, Chuck Mole was there for twenty three years,
was the coach of the Steelers for twenty three years,
(09:02):
and incomes Bill Kauer. So you know, there were a
lot of questions about the differences. There were a lot
of requests, you know, compare them you know, different certainly
not different stages of their career, but what I mean is,
you know, different points of the Broster building process. You know,
the end game, how they handled that, et cetera. And
(09:24):
you know what I tried to guard against. And I'm
not saying I was successful all the time, but when
you're making these kinds of comparisons, there's a tendency to, uh,
compare one against the other in a way that casts
a negative light on the previous guy. You know, And
(09:46):
while you want to say nice things about the new
guy in this case, Bill Kauer, you know, you can't
run down Chuck Mole. I mean, that's just stupid. So
you know, I just think that you know, praising Omar
is fine. You know, I'm all for that, and I
agree with you know a lot of the things pointed
(10:07):
out in the question in terms of, you know, the
aggressive rostery building and things of that nature. But let's
not forget, you know, what Kevin Colbert did paying a
franchise quarterback or not. I mean, you know, there's going
to come a time in the future. I'm telling you,
and you can mark this down. June thirteenth, twenty twenty
(10:31):
three at nine forty five AM on You Know This
this year, asked an answered podcast. I'm gonna predict that
there's going to come a time when Kevin Colbert is
becomes up for discussion by the Pro Football Hall of
Fame boardist electors. Now, I'm not saying that he's gonna
be elected, that he deserves to be elected. I mean,
(10:53):
that's my own opinion, and I'm not on that board,
so my opinion doesn't matter. But Colbert's body of work, Okay,
he built rosters that won two Super Bowls and played
in a third, and those teams only finished with a
losing record once in twenty three years while drafting in
the top ten before trading just once. Okay, think about that.
(11:15):
So that's a remarkable achievement. So I get the excitement
over what Omar has been doing, and I share a
lot of that. But let's not I don't care what
kind of qualifiers you might want to put on Kevin
Colbert's career. The guy did a hell of a job.
Put a couple of trophies in the in the in
(11:37):
the room, in the library, couple of rings for everybody there,
including me. So I got nothing bad to say about
Kevin Colbert.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And a lot you know how, we say we both
hate those comparisons when a young player comes in the
league to a legendary player of years past. That's kind
of the same thing here, right with Omar and Colbert.
Colbert is a legend in the GM game, and to
automatically compare everything Con does to Colbert, it's incredibly unfair
to Con in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Right, And it's incredibly unfair to try and praise home
or by ripping Kevin too. I think both of those
things are.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
True, no doubt. Craig Kersh from Raleigh, North Carolina asks
during James Harrison's immaculate interception, there was a penalty flag
thrown during the runback. The penalty was on Arizona. But
do you recall what the penalty was?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Okay, the penalty on that play was a face mask
penalty on Arizona guard Elton Brown. Now I cannot speak
to specifically. You know, the flag may have come out
during the return, but the play happened so quickly, you know,
(12:48):
the ball got out of Kurt Warner's hands very quickly.
So I can't say for sure that the face mask
penalty on Elton Brown was during the return or because
of something that happened on the return. But the penalty
was on Arizona guard Elton Brown. And needless to say,
the Steelers declined.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Pretty smart decision, probably the easiest decision Mike Tomlins ever
had to make in his coaching career.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
EASi Yes, the easiest decision in the history of the NFL.
You know, it's like that commercial where what's a guy's
name slash the guitar player. Yeah, he's auditioning, you know
for that garage band, and the girl or the woman
who says, hey, waited, you're in you know, Yeah, it's
(13:35):
that's that's that's that's that's that kind of easy decision.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Ray James from Woodstock, Georgia. I've been a Steelers fan
for fifty years. My all time favorite Steelers player is
Jack Lambert. Who do you think is the Steelers' greatest linebacker?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I mean, please, don't people, please don't come to my
house with torches and the pitchfork. I'm gonna I know, right,
I'm gonna go with Jack Ham. Now, I understand that
my pick is highly subjective, okay, and there's no you know,
(14:15):
bottom line proof, scientific empirical evidence, you know, that makes
one better than the other. You know, it's pretty much
who who you prefer, maybe, But I'm gonna go with
with Jack Ham. And I'm going to acknowledge that Lambert
is a great player, and I don't know that the
Steelers of the seventies are even close to the Steelers
(14:36):
of the seventies without him. Okay, But you know, in
conversations with Bill Nunn, and again, None wasn't ripping Lambert,
he was just praising Ham and the other thing, you know,
what None had to say about it and how it
changed the way defense was played at the time. And
I understand that Lambert also, you know, changed the way
(14:58):
defense was played at the time for his position, you know,
But Ham was in the league three years before, two
years before Lambert was drafted. Then here's the other thing
that the Pro Football of Fame picked its fiftieth anniversary
All Time team at one point. Okay, this is a
(15:19):
pretty you know select group. On this all time team.
There were three linebackers picked. I mean, this isn't like
the Pro Bowl where you picked fifty guys. Okay, this
is I think there were you know, offense defense specialists.
Twenty five people picked total. Okay, so that's one per position.
So there were three linebackers picked. The two outside linebackers
(15:43):
were Lawrence Taylor and Jack Camp. So you know, not
a bad pairing first of all. And this is what
was written about him selection, and I'm just gonna read it. Okay,
here we go. Smart, instinctive, great football. Ic Ham was
a sure tackler who could diagnose plays very quickly, and
(16:04):
he was also able to handle the quickest of backs
in coverage. The nineteen seventies was the decade when running
backs really started to get involved in the passing game,
eventually giving rise to the third down back. Ham could
handle them all. It is said that from zero to
ten yards, Ham was faster than any of the other
Steelers defenders, there were those within the organization who felt
(16:27):
that he was the team's best player. Ham certainly belonged
in that conversation with me and Joe Green, as he
also played an integral role on the four Super Bowl
winning teams of the nineteen seventies. Ham's fifty eight career
of takeaways remained the highest figure ever by a non
defensive back. That says it all right there, Well, you
(16:51):
know again, I'm not taking you know we're coming. You
asked me to pick I picked. I'm not ripping Lambert,
I'm not, but you're asking me I pick Ham.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, luckily the Steelers of the seventies didn't have the
pick between the two. They got to run both.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Of them to get exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Joe Asher from Tampa, Florida asks. During Ben Roethlisberger's time
as quarterback for the Steelers, I read several articles about
his desire for a huge tight end.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
You know, these are my favorite questions.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
He'd love this team, in this twenty twenty three team.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
No, but what I mean is an opinion based on
what was read, quote unquote in several articles. Okay again,
and I'm not trying to detegrate Darnel Washington. But you
cannot tell me or convince me that Ben Roethlisberger was
not extremely happy with Heith Miller. Is the starting tight
(17:47):
end for the entirety of his time, is the Steelers
starting quarterback. I mean, Miller was listed at six ' five,
two hundred and fifty six pounds. Darnell Washington's listed height
and weight is six seven two sixty four. Okay, So
for the arithmetically challenged listeners, that's two inches makes Washington
(18:11):
two inches taller and eight pounds heavier. Two inches taller,
you know, two inches, you know, hold your hold your
thumb and index finger apart two inches and imagine and
imagine putting that, you know, into play on a on
a football field. You're gonna tell me that's a that's
a significant difference, you know. And I just, I mean,
(18:32):
I just don't believe that Ben would have ever, ever
complain about Heath Miller. I just don't believe it. So,
you know, again, I'm not I'm hoping for the best
for Darnel Washington, but you know, let's not forget what
Heath Miller contributed to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
And our final question today comes from Stephan Kupprasinski from Cockysville, Maryland,
and he asks, would the maturation of the offensive line
in our free agent and draft acquisitions, do you see
the Steelers as being more of a running team. I
would guess that a fifty to fifty balance with passing
be desirable.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You know, the Pittsburgh Steelers fans, Steelers Nation not only
loves quarterback issues, but boy do they want to go
back to Franco and Rocky in the backfield. And it
ain't happening. That game has changed people, it has changed.
I mean fifty to fifty run pass, you know, I
(19:31):
think that that's pushing it. What I will say is,
if you want to contend in the NFL, you want
to contend for championships, you need to be able to
run the football effectively in situations. But the name of
the game in the NFL now is you got to
score points. You know, the Steelers finished twenty sixth in
(19:52):
the NFL last season in points per game. They only
scored as many as thirty points in a game one time,
one time. That's much more of an issue than being
more of a running team. I mean, I was sitting
in the room when Steelers President Art Rooney. The second
was this was in January after that, shortly after the
twenty twenty two season ended, and he was asked what
(20:15):
he wanted, What one thing do you think you need
to see from the twenty twenty three team, and he said,
score more points. So there you go. Score more points. Sometimes,
you know that will help your red zone offense, when
you're able to run the ball into the end zone,
no question. You know it'll help your team when you're
(20:36):
able to maybe run the ball and burn clock when
you have a lead in the second half or in
the fourth quarter, no question. But it can't be if
you're twenty sixth in the NFL and points scored. I
don't care how well you run the ball. It's not
good enough.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
That I'll do it for this edition of Asked and Answered,
I just want to echo one more time before we
wrap up LABS, and I sending our condolences to the
Sound family and anybody really that stand touched, and that
is a wide group of people in Pittsburgh and really
I'm sure all over us. He was just such a
genuinely great man and someone who will be sorely missed
(21:13):
here in Pittsburgh and Beyond Before Bob Labriola, I'm Tom
Opferman again. Always appreciate you guys giving us a listen
and we will be back again next week with Aston
answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steeler's Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Unfortunately, a very sad day for everybody in Pittsburgh as
the legend, the icon, and more importantly, the great man
Stan Saveregn passed away yesterday on June twelfth, and Labs,
you and I both knew stand very well. You have
been around him forever, you know, ever since I started
here about five or six years ago. Stan was one
(00:31):
of the first jobs I had, running his board. And
as you can imagine, someone coming out of college would
be intimidated to have to work for Stan Saveregn. He
made it so easy for you, just such a relatable person,
and all the intimidation that I felt was squashed within
minutes of walking into the building.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
A medium Yeah, I mean certainly, you know, as to
again steel Mike Toleman's line, Stan Savergn's resume needs no
endorsement for me. But you know he was He never
big timed anyone, and that's kind of making up that
word he was. He was a colleague. You know. It
(01:13):
was never a situation where no matter who you were,
your level of experience, your age, where you worked anything,
I mean, it was never Hey, I'm a big shot
you know on TV and I do all the major sports,
and you know, you're just some slappy from you know,
some small radio station or you know whatever. I mean.
(01:36):
I remember, you know, the very first year of Steelers
Digest was nineteen eighty eight. Stan savern I actually agreed
to write a call for me. I mean, and again,
I mean I may have known him a little bit
or seen him around, you know, in the previous few years,
based on you know, I worked as a newspaper reporter,
(01:57):
you know, but that wasn't stands or at least, let
me say this writing I didn't think was his wheelhouse.
But I soon learned that he was really good at
it too. Yeah. Yeah, So you know, Stan was was
part of the group all the time, a colleague, as
(02:18):
I said, a good guy. He always had a word
of encouragement for you, or a word of praise for you,
you know, whatever the situation might require. You know, it
is a sad day, as you said, but you know,
Stan was suffering, and I just hope he's at peace.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, no question. You know, you can't speak enough about
how much he loved doing this work. I mean, even
just Up to a couple of weeks ago, he was
still doing his hits with Mark Madden, still doing his
hits with the DV Morning Show, not because he felt
like he had to, but because he genuinely wanted to.
You always knew that that man was never going to retire,
(02:59):
that Stan was going to be doing this until the end.
And he did. And I think that that is what
helped him become the giant that he was in this industry.
Is not only was he so great at it, but
there was just such a burning passion for this work
inside of him that I think is rare these days
to have that kind of passion directed towards one individual thing.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah. I mean, the way I would put it is
that his job was the love of his life. Yes,
And you mentioned, you know how he never wanted to,
you know, back away from the work. He loved the work.
He talked about it often that it was, you know,
how he saw himself, even though he was much more
(03:43):
than you know, just sports speed or you know, just
severeign on sports or you know whatever. The many shows
that he did were actually titled but you know, and
the one thing that Stan did and I always, you know,
I could never imagine myself doing this because I don't
(04:04):
have the patience for that. But those Steeler postgame calling
shows meantwork.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The past three years, I've been on the board side
of that, and I don't know how Stan was able
to go to sleep at night after those shows wrapped
up with some of the people that he had to
deal with, But he did it in such a way
that I still marvel at. He's just was a true
pro no matter what those callers threw at him, And
like you know, they throw a lot at you on
that postgame show, he handled it perfectly.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, you know, he was on that with Charlie Backs,
and there were times, you know, Charlie would be in
the booth after a game where I'd see him, you know,
right after some people were, you know, running down to
the locker room, you know, just a little bit of
you know, fire drill kind of activity going on right
after a game, and I'd bump into Charlie, depending on
(04:57):
how the game went. Even a lot of times after
Steelers win, I'd say to him, enjoy your next two hours.
You know, you deserve combat pay for this because and
again I'm not trying to characterize all Steelers fans in
a bad way or anything. But there were a lot
of times I would imagine, you know, Stand and Charlie
(05:18):
got phone calls from tailgates or you know, after games
and stuff, and you know, we all know what happens
at tailgates and during you know, NFL games in stadiums,
and some of the people they could barely you know,
get the words out. And he's dealing with these inebriated
(05:38):
people in a kind but firm way, I mean, and
he didn't pull the plug on them, you know, like
a lot of talk shows or talk show callers or
talk show hosts, you get somebody like that, slur in
his words and not make any sense. Well, and they
hit the what do you call that the dumb button?
Since you work the board yet, get the dump button right,
(06:00):
get them out of here. I don't remember, excuse me
even you know, stand doing that to anyone. And I
would always listen to that for as long as I
could tolerate it. Now on my drive home, you know,
from the stadium to my house, and sometimes I'd have to,
you know, go to a different station and then come back,
hoping that one particularly annoying or drunk caller would be
(06:23):
done by then, because I mean, I just again kudos
to stand for, you know, tolerating that weekend and week out.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
No doubt about it. Rest in peace, Stan, savereign. You
are gone, but you will most certainly never be forgotten
when it comes to the Pittsburgh sports scene, when it
comes to just Pittsburgh in general, your legacy is going
to live on forever. There's there's no doubt about that
in my mind. No easy way to transition into questions
this week, so let's just get right to it. Our
(06:55):
first one comes from Mike Foster from Uwa Beach, Hawaii,
and he wants to know do you do you think
the Steelers are a better team now than they were
a year ago at this time?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You know, I believe that the Steelers have the potential
to be a better team in twenty twenty three than
they were in twenty twenty two. And you know, in
kind of keeping with the theme of you know this podcast,
we have to tie it into the quarterback as soon
as possible. One of the main reasons is that they
won't have a rookie starting at quarterback for them this year, right,
(07:26):
you know, I'm not going to say that Kenny Pickett,
you know, is a lock for the Pro Bowl, or
he's a superstar in waiting, or any of that stuff.
But I also believe that Pickett has the approach and
the work ethic to be a successful NFL starting quarterback.
And now, you know, again, to use a Mike tomlinism,
this is his second lap around the track. He you know,
(07:48):
he has an understanding of what it takes, an understanding
of his position, and understanding of what he needs to
know and do and how he needs to prepare. And
so you know, you put those things together on the surface,
and they have the potential to be a better team.
Now you know, we're going to see how that works out.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Mark Cusick from Paradise Valley, Arizona. We have all read
countless exclamations of Omar Khan's aggressive roster building, often expressed
in contrast to Kevin Colbert. I love what Con and
the team have done, But if one is going to
imply an unflattering comparison with Colbert, does not fairness and
accuracy require one to note the extra thirty million or
(08:32):
so in salary cap money Con had available to spend, because,
unlike in Colbert's ears, the team is not paying franchise
quarterback money.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, this is something that I learned or I experienced
really deeply when Chuck Mole retired and Bill Kauer was hired. Now,
you know, naturally, Chuck Mole was there for twenty three years,
was the coach of the Steelers for twenty three years,
(09:02):
and incomes Bill Kauer. So you know, there were a
lot of questions about the differences. There were a lot
of requests, you know, compare them you know, different certainly
not different stages of their career, but what I mean is,
you know, different points of the Broster building process. You know,
the end game, how they handled that, et cetera. And
(09:24):
you know what I tried to guard against. And I'm
not saying I was successful all the time, but when
you're making these kinds of comparisons, there's a tendency to, uh,
compare one against the other in a way that casts
a negative light on the previous guy. You know, And
(09:46):
while you want to say nice things about the new
guy in this case, Bill Kauer, you know, you can't
run down Chuck Mole. I mean, that's just stupid. So
you know, I just think that you know, praising Omar
is fine. You know, I'm all for that, and I
agree with you know a lot of the things pointed
(10:07):
out in the question in terms of, you know, the
aggressive rostery building and things of that nature. But let's
not forget, you know, what Kevin Colbert did paying a
franchise quarterback or not. I mean, you know, there's going
to come a time in the future. I'm telling you,
and you can mark this down. June thirteenth, twenty twenty
(10:31):
three at nine forty five AM on You Know This
this year, asked an answered podcast. I'm gonna predict that
there's going to come a time when Kevin Colbert is
becomes up for discussion by the Pro Football Hall of
Fame boardist electors. Now, I'm not saying that he's gonna
be elected, that he deserves to be elected. I mean,
(10:53):
that's my own opinion, and I'm not on that board,
so my opinion doesn't matter. But Colbert's body of work, Okay,
he built rosters that won two Super Bowls and played
in a third, and those teams only finished with a
losing record once in twenty three years while drafting in
the top ten before trading just once. Okay, think about that.
(11:15):
So that's a remarkable achievement. So I get the excitement
over what Omar has been doing, and I share a
lot of that. But let's not I don't care what
kind of qualifiers you might want to put on Kevin
Colbert's career. The guy did a hell of a job.
Put a couple of trophies in the in the in
(11:37):
the room, in the library, couple of rings for everybody there,
including me. So I got nothing bad to say about
Kevin Colbert.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And a lot you know how, we say we both
hate those comparisons when a young player comes in the
league to a legendary player of years past. That's kind
of the same thing here, right with Omar and Colbert.
Colbert is a legend in the GM game, and to
automatically compare everything Con does to Colbert, it's incredibly unfair
to Con in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Right, And it's incredibly unfair to try and praise home
or by ripping Kevin too. I think both of those
things are.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
True, no doubt. Craig Kersh from Raleigh, North Carolina asks
during James Harrison's immaculate interception, there was a penalty flag
thrown during the runback. The penalty was on Arizona. But
do you recall what the penalty was?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Okay, the penalty on that play was a face mask
penalty on Arizona guard Elton Brown. Now I cannot speak
to specifically. You know, the flag may have come out
during the return, but the play happened so quickly, you know,
(12:48):
the ball got out of Kurt Warner's hands very quickly.
So I can't say for sure that the face mask
penalty on Elton Brown was during the return or because
of something that happened on the return. But the penalty
was on Arizona guard Elton Brown. And needless to say,
the Steelers declined.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Pretty smart decision, probably the easiest decision Mike Tomlins ever
had to make in his coaching career.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
EASi Yes, the easiest decision in the history of the NFL.
You know, it's like that commercial where what's a guy's
name slash the guitar player. Yeah, he's auditioning, you know
for that garage band, and the girl or the woman
who says, hey, waited, you're in you know, Yeah, it's
(13:35):
that's that's that's that's that's that kind of easy decision.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Ray James from Woodstock, Georgia. I've been a Steelers fan
for fifty years. My all time favorite Steelers player is
Jack Lambert. Who do you think is the Steelers' greatest linebacker?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I mean, please, don't people, please don't come to my
house with torches and the pitchfork. I'm gonna I know, right,
I'm gonna go with Jack Ham. Now, I understand that
my pick is highly subjective, okay, and there's no you know,
(14:15):
bottom line proof, scientific empirical evidence, you know, that makes
one better than the other. You know, it's pretty much
who who you prefer, maybe, But I'm gonna go with
with Jack Ham. And I'm going to acknowledge that Lambert
is a great player, and I don't know that the
Steelers of the seventies are even close to the Steelers
(14:36):
of the seventies without him. Okay, But you know, in
conversations with Bill Nunn, and again, None wasn't ripping Lambert,
he was just praising Ham and the other thing, you know,
what None had to say about it and how it
changed the way defense was played at the time. And
I understand that Lambert also, you know, changed the way
(14:58):
defense was played at the time for his position, you know,
But Ham was in the league three years before, two
years before Lambert was drafted. Then here's the other thing
that the Pro Football of Fame picked its fiftieth anniversary
All Time team at one point. Okay, this is a
(15:19):
pretty you know select group. On this all time team.
There were three linebackers picked. I mean, this isn't like
the Pro Bowl where you picked fifty guys. Okay, this
is I think there were you know, offense defense specialists.
Twenty five people picked total. Okay, so that's one per position.
So there were three linebackers picked. The two outside linebackers
(15:43):
were Lawrence Taylor and Jack Camp. So you know, not
a bad pairing first of all. And this is what
was written about him selection, and I'm just gonna read it. Okay,
here we go. Smart, instinctive, great football. Ic Ham was
a sure tackler who could diagnose plays very quickly, and
(16:04):
he was also able to handle the quickest of backs
in coverage. The nineteen seventies was the decade when running
backs really started to get involved in the passing game,
eventually giving rise to the third down back. Ham could
handle them all. It is said that from zero to
ten yards, Ham was faster than any of the other
Steelers defenders, there were those within the organization who felt
(16:27):
that he was the team's best player. Ham certainly belonged
in that conversation with me and Joe Green, as he
also played an integral role on the four Super Bowl
winning teams of the nineteen seventies. Ham's fifty eight career
of takeaways remained the highest figure ever by a non
defensive back. That says it all right there, Well, you
(16:51):
know again, I'm not taking you know we're coming. You
asked me to pick I picked. I'm not ripping Lambert,
I'm not, but you're asking me I pick Ham.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, luckily the Steelers of the seventies didn't have the
pick between the two. They got to run both.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Of them to get exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Joe Asher from Tampa, Florida asks. During Ben Roethlisberger's time
as quarterback for the Steelers, I read several articles about
his desire for a huge tight end.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
You know, these are my favorite questions.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
He'd love this team, in this twenty twenty three team.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
No, but what I mean is an opinion based on
what was read, quote unquote in several articles. Okay again,
and I'm not trying to detegrate Darnel Washington. But you
cannot tell me or convince me that Ben Roethlisberger was
not extremely happy with Heith Miller. Is the starting tight
(17:47):
end for the entirety of his time, is the Steelers
starting quarterback. I mean, Miller was listed at six ' five,
two hundred and fifty six pounds. Darnell Washington's listed height
and weight is six seven two sixty four. Okay, So
for the arithmetically challenged listeners, that's two inches makes Washington
(18:11):
two inches taller and eight pounds heavier. Two inches taller,
you know, two inches, you know, hold your hold your
thumb and index finger apart two inches and imagine and
imagine putting that, you know, into play on a on
a football field. You're gonna tell me that's a that's
a significant difference, you know. And I just, I mean,
(18:32):
I just don't believe that Ben would have ever, ever
complain about Heath Miller. I just don't believe it. So,
you know, again, I'm not I'm hoping for the best
for Darnel Washington, but you know, let's not forget what
Heath Miller contributed to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
And our final question today comes from Stephan Kupprasinski from Cockysville, Maryland,
and he asks, would the maturation of the offensive line
in our free agent and draft acquisitions, do you see
the Steelers as being more of a running team. I
would guess that a fifty to fifty balance with passing
be desirable.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You know, the Pittsburgh Steelers fans, Steelers Nation not only
loves quarterback issues, but boy do they want to go
back to Franco and Rocky in the backfield. And it
ain't happening. That game has changed people, it has changed.
I mean fifty to fifty run pass, you know, I
(19:31):
think that that's pushing it. What I will say is,
if you want to contend in the NFL, you want
to contend for championships, you need to be able to
run the football effectively in situations. But the name of
the game in the NFL now is you got to
score points. You know, the Steelers finished twenty sixth in
(19:52):
the NFL last season in points per game. They only
scored as many as thirty points in a game one time,
one time. That's much more of an issue than being
more of a running team. I mean, I was sitting
in the room when Steelers President Art Rooney. The second
was this was in January after that, shortly after the
twenty twenty two season ended, and he was asked what
(20:15):
he wanted, What one thing do you think you need
to see from the twenty twenty three team, and he said,
score more points. So there you go. Score more points. Sometimes,
you know that will help your red zone offense, when
you're able to run the ball into the end zone,
no question. You know it'll help your team when you're
(20:36):
able to maybe run the ball and burn clock when
you have a lead in the second half or in
the fourth quarter, no question. But it can't be if
you're twenty sixth in the NFL and points scored. I
don't care how well you run the ball. It's not
good enough.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
That I'll do it for this edition of Asked and Answered,
I just want to echo one more time before we
wrap up LABS, and I sending our condolences to the
Sound family and anybody really that stand touched, and that
is a wide group of people in Pittsburgh and really
I'm sure all over us. He was just such a
genuinely great man and someone who will be sorely missed
(21:13):
here in Pittsburgh and Beyond Before Bob Labriola, I'm Tom
Opferman again. Always appreciate you guys giving us a listen
and we will be back again next week with Aston
answered
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