HR1: In the Locker Room Live from Training Camp

Rob and Max talk some college ball and prepare you for the first padded practice at this year's camp.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Iheartradios.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Live coverage of about twenty twenty five Steelers training camp
is presented by FedEx where Now Meets Next, and also
brought to you by bud Light, Independence Health System, by
Pennsylvania One Call System, by Live Casino, Caliente Pizza and Drafthouse,
by Tom's Appliances, South Hills Auto, Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau,

(00:32):
we Max Select Realty, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop, and
by us Steel.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and Welcome inside the Locker Room with King and
Starts presented by your neighborhood Fords Tour on the Steelers
Audio Network. More optimism that the weather is going to
be good today, Max. The sun is out. They're looking
at we have somebody walking around kind of checking the
field conditions. It absolutely poured yesterday, I mean poured, and

(01:03):
we got all We're all fired up for the first
day in pads. It wasn't supposed to pour, it wasn't
supposed to rain. But hopefully we have all that stuff
happening today.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, yep, No, you're absolutely right. Yeah, I was truly disappointed.
I mean I went full regalia yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I know you were you were you had the pads
on for the show, but the.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Pads on the jersey tape, the fingers helmet, no mask
because I wanted to make sure that everybody can see
my beautiful face. And yeah, and here here's the funniest
part about that, like the then this this made my
whole day.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
So last night we're at dinner.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
Over at Sharky's and offensive line coach Pat Meyer comes by.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
And Pat comes by.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
He's like, he's like, were you wearing a uniform yesterday
during your show? I was like yeah, He's like, man,
you had me fooled. I was like, I was doing
a number count on the field.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
I thought.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
I thought one of my guys had snuck off and
done an interview instead of doing their pre practice work.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
Because we were.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Sitting there getting ready for snab extays, I'm looking up
top of I'm like, who the heck is that is
that one of my guys?

Speaker 5 (02:11):
He's like doing a number count, Like I can't really
tell that. He was like, I can't.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
I was squitting to see the number. But I told him,
I said, don't worry. I do a mean cosplay for a.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
So I have to tell you I've had two. Are
you good at puzzles? Yeah? So people. You know, my
mother likes to do puzzles, and my sisters like to
do puzzles, so over the holidays, they'll always have a
puzzle going. Now, I I usually try to go around
with and find one puzzle piece early, like an edge piece,
and I put it in there, and then the whole

(02:43):
rest of the time, I'll be like, hey, how's that puzzle.
You're finishing up? My puzzle that I that I did.
You know, I'll do one piece. I'll take credit for
the whole thing, exactly a thousand pieces. Yeah, I'm not
very hit. I did that once.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I used to do that with like my my friends
would build decks their carpenters and and you know, they'd
help each other out and they build a deck and
I'd pound in two nails, one with crooked and I
have to pull it out and the other one and
then I get it in straight. And I always be like, hey,
how's that deck you guys helped me build? That's still
holding up. So so anyway, the puzzle piece. Of the
reason I say that is because I was I was

(03:16):
given all the puzzle pieces the last two days and
and failed to put the puzzle together. Yesterday, you and
I were at the lunch room. By the way, Uh,
lunch with Max Starks is a lunch with the most
popular man in the building. So we had uh, we were,
we were. We had lunch for half an hour. I
saw Max for about forty five seconds, and so Max

(03:40):
tells me he's gonna go back and do the show
in the uniform. I see the I see the shoulder
pads that Missy's having, right, Yeah. And then I'm walking
back from lunch twenty minutes after Max, and I look
up and I see the set and I'm like, what
in the heck, who's in their full uniform on the set? Yeah,
having forgotten that it's twenty minutes earlier that that was you.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah, listen, So coaches were laughing their butts off when
they were coming up, because you know, when.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
Practice got canceled.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
Yeah, they all came up to the same and they're
all looking They're all.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
Laughing like, oh my god, Yeah, I went. I told you,
I went. I went full I went full on.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
You were you were full on, and I and I was, Uh,
I had I had a failure to put together the
puzzle pieces. Samely happened this morning I'm talking to my son,
huge Steelers Fani's up to practice over the weekend, sitting
in the stands watching the practice. Loves to come up here. Uh,
Shaeffer absolutely loves this Steeler's a big, big time fit
of course. So we're talking on the phone and he's like, uh, hey, well,

(04:41):
they's supposed to be hot out there. It's not supposed
to rain. That's good, you know for the Pat McFee shows. Like,
oh yeah, Pat, I forgot the Pat McFee show's going on. Yeah,
that's great. So I hang up the phone there. Ten
minutes later, I pull in and I'm like, man, what's
all this traffic? Why are there so many people here Early?
What's going on? And I actually pulled over. I asked
somebody what's happening. They're like, oh, the Pat McAfee shows.
I had the puzzle pieces right there. Max failed to

(05:03):
come on, failed to put it together again. So there's
there's Early. So you know, you go to the guard
tower here to pull You don't know because you're here
with the guard tower, you pull in. I tried, I
drive back.

Speaker 5 (05:14):
And forth campus right to go grab stuff.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
But normally you roll up, you say hi to the
friendly ladies in there, and you keep on going. Today,
at least.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
You've got the friendly ladies. I've had the guy.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Oh no, no, I've got the friendly ladies. It's like, uh,
you know, maybe twenty five cars in front of me today.
There's usually you just usually it's a rolling stop. So
there's a lot of people out here for the Pat mcat,
A lot of people fired up for the Pat McAfee
show man.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
I mean, listen, listen. He has he has a great
friend plump.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
He's he's a plumb burrough kid, you know, so you
know he's coming here.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
He's a national figure. I mean he has all his
buddies there.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
I mean, he has a really cool live show atmosphere
that he wants fan involvement. So, I mean it took
him two days to build a set. It's crazy for
I heard, yeah for a couple of our show, right.
I mean that's that's pretty crazy stuff. So yeah, so
it'll be fun.

Speaker 5 (06:07):
He's he's just to our right.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
He's right by the Steelers Pro Shop and Steelers Experience
up top here. He kicked out, he kicked out all
the food trucks to get hit to get everything in there.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
So you know, that.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
That's uh, that's pretty powerful. So the food trucks now
were before you get through security. So I don't know
how that works. I don't know if it's like an
anti or reverse tsa type of thing you can walk
through with your liquid beverages and your foods after or
before you you get there.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
So you know, just just be be.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
On a swivel for that one. But yeah, no, I
mean it's it's gonna be a lot of fun today.
Uh you know, we thought we were gonna get Pad's Day.
We did not get Pad's Day. We get the delayed
Pad's Day. By Okay, I just want to say one
quick thing about Pat McAfee. Yeah, so I missed him
at West Virginia. We did West Virginia game for about
ten years or so on on Root Sports when it

(07:01):
was called Root Sports, and I just missed him.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I just missed he had just he had just moved on.
But I saw him and he went to Plumb High School,
as you mentioned, and they played they were Quad A school,
but they played Franklin Regional. At the time, Franklin Region
was a powerhouse at the Triple A level. Of course,
they've reconfigured everything now that was the second biggest classification,
never power house. Plumb wasn't terribly good, but we were
trying in those early days to get around to all

(07:26):
as many different communities as we could, and Plumb and
Franklin Regional were close and so figured to be a
bit of a rivalry game. It was completely lopsided, but
I remember how poor Plumb got got punished. But I
was down on the field, and you know, i'd been
doing high school games for several years and and just

(07:46):
awed by. Even at the high school level, when you
see Darrell Reeves play or somebody like that, you know, well,
actually there was nobody quite like that, but Aaron Donald
saw him, did a bunch of his games. And when
you see these guys, you're like, holy mackerel, Well, I
have never seen anybody close to Paton McAfee kicking the ball.

(08:07):
We're done, We're down in the pregame warm ups. We Hey,
this kicker is pretty good. Okay, yeah, fantastic, Lets go
check him out. Holy macrel, he was just killing the ball.
I mean, you know, usually, like in high school, it's like, uh,
you know, you're picking the best athlete out there. You
know he's kicking one. You know, the quarterbacks back, they're
punting and it's end over end and it's you know,
twenty five yard pun or whatever. I mean, he was

(08:28):
booming him fifty yards. In high school, it was amazing.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
Listen.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
I had our extra point field goal kicker was our
d tackle really in high school my first two years.
And he had and he had he had like the
three inch like lift, you know, a little little boot heel.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
He and he was straight toe kicker, straight on kickers,
straight on. So I mean, so I get it when
you see somebody that's phenomena. And then oh, in college
I had a guy who had who had the who
had the old clown shoe, the big the big wide
square toe. Oh really yeah, four cleats on the back,

(09:03):
all leather, clown toe on the front. Matt Petrovitch was
was what we call it Petro Petro.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Was he had to be a soccer style kicker in college.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
No, that was his that was his kick. He was
a straight on kicker, square toe boot wow.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
And he was our kickoff guy. And and uh, we
had a different guy for extra point field goal. He
was strictly kickoffs. And he went down and tackled with
that four heeled cleated square toe.

Speaker 5 (09:32):
This was in college University of Florida.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
You had a straight on kicker back straight and he and.

Speaker 5 (09:37):
He had this special and he had the special toe boot.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah I didn't. I was joking. I knew it.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
That's crazy. Yeah, no, it was. It was wild. It
was wild to have that. And then of course Darnell
who was our d tackle darky kicking kicking in high school.
I mean, big three hundred pound d tackle just like
two step two step kick.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah right, He's like he could listen, he.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
Could boot the heck out of it. And it only
went one direct. It just went straight. So if he
hit it to the right, it went straight.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Right. Well, we've seen, you know, on the high school level,
you know, as we've seen soccer growing popularity. Yes, most
schools now, a lot of schools have. Now, some schools,
if you don't have a soccer program, there's teams or
a good soccer probe. There's teams that don't even they
just go they line them and go for two. But
one of the other great things I loved about high

(10:29):
school football, in addition to you know, just seeing the
future stars and seeing the stuff that brings you back,
you know, number seventy two on the field goal team.
He's your kick, you know, he's kicking the field goals. Yeah,
is that? Every once in a while, you'd, you know,
in the smaller schools, especially number sixty eight, would take
his helmet off and he'd be playing the trumpet as

(10:49):
part of the you know, the twelve piece of man
the march command at high school. I love that too. Man,
that's I mean, I don't know where else you can
get that other than high school.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
I just think it's yeah, because it's so great. It's
one of the fun things. And I didn't went to
a really I didn't go to a really big school.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
I mean, you couldn't have if your d line was
kicking for you.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
So so we we our classifications back then went one
through six in UH in Florida, and so Jones High School,
where my kicker was. We were a three A school, okay,
and three A was pretty pretty small, like you know, four,
five and six.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
That was your larger classification public schools.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
UH.

Speaker 5 (11:31):
And then my junior senior year, I bumped down to
one A.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
And then let's not even get everybody was iron man football, yeah,
oh yeah, everybody, but I mean our our quarterback played safety.
Our quarterback played safety to go, our running backs played
linebacker yep, and then O line D line. Oh and
we had I mean we had. We had some awesome

(11:55):
you know dbs and wide receivers. But it was twenty
two guys on my whole squad.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
That's that's small, a small squad. We we were New
York was a through D and we were C D.
We would bounce back and forth with classifications because we
were small. But I was quarterback. I played d END.
I got hurt. I tore my card let's playing d END.
But I but I so I played d N. But
our other cour you know, quarterbacks in other years would

(12:19):
usually play defensive back. I was a little bit bigger,
so they so. And I loved playing d N, and
so they played me at d N.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
But the uh play d N with with a with
the with it with the team's.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Number or I was I was nine.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
I was number two.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
Yeah wow, okay, yeah, so uh uh and ninety one
in college by the way, ninety one because I started
the year before as an as an H back receiver,
uh tight end type of guy, and then they switched
me to quarterback.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
And I'm like, hey, coach, what number gonna give me?
Is like, I like ninety one. I'm like, I don't
like ninety one, because no I was. And then and
then what happened that year was the Division three champions
It's a Stag Bowl, right, the Alonzo Stag Bowl, the
famous old coach and their quarterback had done the same thing.
He wore number eighty nine. So for a brief moment,

(13:11):
he had a nice story written about him. You know,
that could have been me if we'd won more than
two games and actually won the Stag Bowl. So but uh,
there was so when I moved to Pittsburgh and in
two thousand, we were doing the high school championship games,
and I remember watching him so upstate New York a
lot of winner, a lot of hoops. And there was

(13:33):
a team behind me, a couple of years behind me
that was our team won sectionals and hoops very frequently.
My class did not. But there was a class behind
me that went to the state champions that they were phenomenal.
And I remember watching a basketball game and thinking, you know,
the highest classification. I think our little school in Cooper's

(13:53):
Down might have been able to beat these guys.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Then I saw Rochester play I can't remember who they
were playing it, and I was like, if these guys
played us, we'd be calling for Mommy's in football.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
They would have.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
They had like four Division one kids. I mean they
were And by the way, you talk about churning up,
you know what was Hinesfield then? And then you talked
about the game the Money Game the other night that
Rochester could have played that game between the hash marks.
They didn't need any more field than that. It was.
They were lined up and they're like, here we come, man,
and you can't stop. Oh my goodness, football is so good.

(14:31):
It is just so good here. And I know in Florida,
I mean Florida, you guys had incredible ball.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
And you're talking about I mean anywhere from down south
central Florida. I mean we had powerhouses throughout the entire state.
Tallahassee Lincoln was like a huge six A powerhouse for
a long time. I mean a lot of guys came
from there to University of Florida. I mean Miami Northwestern,
you know a Miami Jackson that was like a huge
like Soul Bowl game.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
Like the two biggest schools.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Yeah, I mean and the and their marching bands because
you know we're in the South. Oh yeah, oh yeah,
marching bands is a whole thing. So you know, you
didn't really get that many, Like you might have gotten
a backup off the bench that maybe was in the band,
but you had to audition because they were doing band scholarships.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
To the HBCUs.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
So we had full on like my especially Jones High
were they were called the Fighting one hundred.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
We had a hundred members of our band.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
That's incredible.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
Our football team.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Twenty two people in your football team.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Exact march, Yeah, the March they got more scholarships. So
it was like, yeah, you picked either and.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
You had to do either or there was no in between.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Like I played percussion and they were like you're gonna
be banned of football.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
I'm like, going to football? Is there a question?

Speaker 4 (15:47):
But there was guys that actually that were good football players.
Now I'm gonna play in the band, bro. And they
played and they played you know, the quad drums, and
we had the had the big boys. I mean, we
had a couple of guys that played bass drum. Now
I'm like, you could have been d lineman for it
right easily.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
But it was just a.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
Different culture and our team.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
Funny enough, my junior and senior year when I went
to Lake Highland, we actually were like one of the
We were the top rushing team in the state out
of all those schools. This little one A school was churning,
like I mean, our our our full back because we
had we ran the wing tea special uh wing tea
triple option.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh my goodness, making a Keysport high school here. Yeah,
ran that you call those games? Jones got it? No,
Smith's got it. No, Yeah, that's right. Pitch to figure
it out, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
So I mean our our lead guy he averaged two
thousand yards a year, and our wing backs you know
on the edges, they were averaging twelve hundred.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yards, right, so we and the quarterback could keep it.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
So and he could keep it and he he had
about like I want to say, eight to fifty. Yeah,
so five thousand yards rushing on the ground back then.
And we put out for twenty two guys. Now, mind you,
my junior year one two three, that was in my

(17:07):
junior year, and then my senior year, my class we
had another four, so we had seven guys.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
Go d one wow. From that one little small squad.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
How'd you guys do in the in the semi finals
of the state So no, sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Quarterfinals. We were right before going to University of Florida.
Hell yeah, yeah, we were right before we played a
team got to get carried, and so we got down.
We busted all the way down to South Florida to
the school called American Heritage, which was a prep schools
Don Shula's prep school.

Speaker 5 (17:40):
And we lost that game ten to seven.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
We were, I mean, we was so humid, so hot, uncharacteristically,
and we weren't paying attention because we were up seven
to three the whole game and the second half, like
our guys were like getting ivs, like cramping up like crazy.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
They were running.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
They were running the clock during the timeouts. Uh, and
nobody caught it. And then we're like, my coach was
watching the film afterwards, He's like, how did this have
go by so fast? They were showing the clock, like said,
we called a time out here.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
Only in high school only can you get away with that.
But they ended up putting one drive together right at
the end of the game.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Uh, I was going out. I'll never forget I went in.
I was cramping. I split through the defense. I went
to go hit hit the running back and my head
came down and I hit helmet to helmet contact, fifteen
yard penalty.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
They moved up. And then the very next play, the dude.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
I'm about to we're rushing him, he's about and he
just puts up like a lame duck and the dude
just happens to catch it in the end zone.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
And you remember this, I remember this at all, and
three seconds left on the clock.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
And by the way, prep school, which means, oh, we
only have eighty boys kids in They're all boys, right.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
All boys, all places.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
And they all have to sports, right, that's right.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
So yeah, so we lost that game.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
So I was I was so mad. And because we
went undefeated that whole year, you know, uh we my
kids were in the marching band, both of them, And
so you get a greater appreciation as you had in
high school for for how first of all, how many
kids do you think about school like North Alleganya, where
my kids went. There's ninety five kids in the football team,

(19:24):
no cut rule. Great job that art Walker does there, right,
there's four hunder people in the band. For the kids
in the band so people were like, if anyone's complaining
about the marching band, well all those all those kids,
their parents are there, their grandparents are there. I mean,
if you have if you have five thousand people of
the game, two thousand of them are there to see
the marching.

Speaker 5 (19:44):
Easily, maybe even more of them.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Was it?

Speaker 5 (19:48):
So?

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Uh? And I love all of that. In high school
and college, everything that's involved in it. Wolf and I
used to go, as you can imagine, we'd go beat
up the concession dance and we were like, oh, no question.
I mean we couldn't wait. And there are certain places
you go to al equipment, Man, we're gonna get the gyros.
And then you go somewhere else and you know you're
gonna get the You go to Hope, well, you're gonna
get the huski. And you know what you really loved

(20:09):
was when you go to the you go to the
food stand and you know, you'd say, hey, I I
see you guys have meatball sandwiches. Are they ready yet?
You know, we're getting ready to go to the game,
And they were like, well, Martha hasn't arrived here. You're like, oh,
I'm coming back. These aren't coming out of the freezer.
Martha's making them at home and bringing them in. You know,
now you're you're holding out.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
It was this isn't manwitch, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
But I remember I remember Pitt playing Grambling, and as
you can imagine, it was a it was a one
side of a fair, uh, and so people were kind
of lingering around in the in the concourses and stuff
like that, and then the Grambling band came out at
halftime and everybody poured back into the stadium to watch
the Grambling marching band.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
That was one of the best things because I did
a couple of HBCU games. I did a SBCU National
Championship game last year in Atlanta, so it's a Mercedes Bensdome,
and it was Jackson's State and North Carolina Central, and man,
nobody moved at halftime like that was. You stayed in

(21:15):
place and you watched the battle of the bands go
at it. And I've had plenty of like Fouri to
A and m games, and I've had the Fune Cookmen.
I've had Grambling games as well, because that actually had
a Grambling latech game, which is funny because Rustin and
Grambling Louisiana is like ten minutes apart from each other.

(21:35):
But these teams hadn't played each other in fifty years. Really,
it's crazy that they had not played. So we get
this kind of resurrection rivalry game. It's I mean, I
drove to the Eddie Robinson like football facilities because LA
Tech was the home team. So I was so I'm like, well,
we're gonna when we went and did our meetings over
over at Grambling, and I was like, y'all are this closing.

(21:58):
Y'all haven't played in fifty years. It was like, but
you're like right, I took a road. I didn't even
get on the freeway. I took a road that like
connected between the two universities.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
But but they had.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
Played, and so they played this game and I just
remember it halftime just I was like, man, this band
and the band was just kicking. They were playing all
the hits and it was you know, Type fourmations.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
And that's the other thing, like the Type four Masons precision.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
I mean, we you know, we think about the the
best the band in the land right Ohio state, and.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
How they dot the I and the guys.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
I mean, but that that's what the Agencus were doing
all over so it was my wife wants a word
with Tennessee by the way, Yeah, Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
But you know, when you think about like college and
we will get back to this.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
There was no practices today. You're not missing any updates.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
But when you think about what places, you know, where
would you like to go? Well, everyone wants to go
to Michigan to go see Michigan Ohio State game, and
so do I. I've never been to one. Yeah, you know,
I would love to go to. There's a bunch of you.
I'd like to go to a Harvard Yale game. I'd
love to go to Lehigh Lafayette. Never been to a
Lehigh Lafayette game. I would like to go to a
Grambling game at in Grambling. Yeah that that that, you know,

(23:15):
I have a short list, you know I want to
go to. I haven't been a Lamboy. I've been to
Cameron Indoor Stadium. But those are three, you know, Michigan
Ohio State, Harvard Yale and uh uh and uh and
any game of Grambling. Those are those are like my
four college games I'd like to get to. You Navy
Army sorry, of course, of course is the one my bad,

(23:38):
My bad. But that's that's that's hard not to put
that at the top of the list. I'm just trying
to do this off the top of my So yes,
of course Army names. I just thought maybe you had
been a no. I went to I did a I
did a pit Army basketball game, and that at West Point.
It was at West Point, and it was you know,

(24:00):
Jamie Dixon's sister was coaching the women's basketball team there
and and tragically passed away at a very young age.
I just very suddenly. And but she was she'd become
a legend there already. She she nobody was going to
the Army basketball game, but I think she might have
got him into the tournament too. Nobody's going to the games.

(24:22):
So she marched into the mess hall, stood up on
a table and reamed the Cadets for not going to
the game. And that could go one of two ways.
The Cadets loved it, and so all of a sudden
that became like everybody started showing up. Maggie Dixon. Unfortunately
she passed, and so I was up there doing the game,
filling in for Bill Hillgrove and just to walk around

(24:43):
that campus it is, and Beino Cook always said third
weekend about October, go up and watch a game an Army,
doesn't matter who they're playing. The backdrop of the Hudson River,
I mean, the piece of real estate is over the
Hudson River. I mean you're up high on a bluff.

(25:04):
I was jogging around. There's like, you know, I went
for a morning jog and there's like certain places you
can't go. Now you're not going here. Okay, all right, sorry,
pardon me, let me let me jog back at it.
But just to see the whole campus above the Hudson
and to see that in October with the leaves changing,
that would be that would be pretty spectacular.

Speaker 5 (25:20):
That that's one. That's my one game. I'm like, man,
if I get a chance to call that game.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
Army Navy, Army Navy, whether it's in Annapolis or whether
it's at West Point, either one. I've called probably about
five Army games, but Army has always been the away team.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
So I've done the UTSA.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
There's like a huge arms Armed Forces day there when
when those two schools, because San Antonio is known as
Armed Forces USA like city. So I've done a number
of those games. I've done Army and another a bunch
of other places. I've never been there. I've done Air Force.
Oh I'd love that that campus, and you know, of
course West of course Faith Wolfly, Craig Wolfly's wife, she

(26:00):
went to Air Force, and I was like, I was
like such and such, like you see the cathedral and
then and the big chapel. But there they're real estate.
I mean, listen all all the service academies called estate. Wow, yeah, Annapolis,
you know, I mean they're they're butted up against a mountain.
You know, they're butted up against the Rockies in Colorada Springs.
And when you the flyovers pregame, every game, right, every

(26:25):
game has a flyover man, and then every game has
a themed helmet.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
We were sitting up and you're like up high up
in this game, especially that the president came to this
one Trump's first term, so they shut off like all
of the communication, Like so we had no wife.

Speaker 5 (26:43):
And mind you, we're a digital streaming network at this time.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
I'm working for a stadium and we're like, how are
we gonna do this game if we don't have Wi Fi.
I was like, well, you know, you have to get
a protected. You gotta get got a government clips. We
gonna call the DoD to get you a line a singer.
So if we wanted to do this like what doing
right now, like you had to call the Department of
Defense to get one line.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
And it's like better pray.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
That line can do everything that you can't because I
am getting on a computer, West getting on a computer.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
Chance.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
So we're there and the AC one thirty gunship is
the flyover to that day. It buzzed at about five
hundred feet. The entire stadium was absolutely shaking. And you
see this, It's called death from above, right, I mean
that's what this is.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
AC one thirty gunship has.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
Every type of large arsenal shell coming out of and
this thing goes by and it's humongous. And I've been
on I've been on a C one thirty, So the
AC one thirty means it actually has artillery, right.

Speaker 5 (27:47):
Man. It was the most impressive thing.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
And then their helmets had like the AC one thirties
on it, and I was like.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
Man, this is awesome.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
I've done a bunch of Air Force at home games,
but I've not done arm your navy. I'm like, I've
done all and I've never done a Navy game. So
I've done two of the three service academs, but I've
only done it on one academy campus.

Speaker 5 (28:04):
So that's my goal.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
If I can get an Army and Avy it like
kills two birds with one stone. Yeah, to be able
to do that, but yeah, it's a special it's a
special thing.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Annapolis was so my son started out of Washington College.
He was rowing. We got a break, I know, we
got a break just real quick. Yeah, Annapolis Navy was
playing that day. As with my mother and my mother
in law, my wife, my son, and I was thinking, man,
we should maybe get tickets and go to this game.
But there's this big event going on back to campus.
So we toured around Anapolis, which is just incredible. You

(28:32):
have all the guys out and then their whites walking around.
You know, the town is hop and it's beautiful. And
I was like, oh, I'll just come down and visit
my son. Then my son transferred to Pitt so he
tours label rowing, so his growing career editor he transferred
back to Pitt and but I would very very the

(28:55):
stadium's on your way in to Annapolis. I'd very much
like to go to a game there. We are very
very late for a break, so we're gonna come back
and talk. I Talk Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 5 (29:04):
Hey, let's talk to sock Steelers. Let's talk about what
can happen.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
You are in the locker room with King and Starks,
presented by you neighborhood Ford Store. Here on the Steelers
Audio Network.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Iheartradios.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Live coverage of about twenty twenty five Steelers training camp
is presented by Fadex where Now meets Next and also
brought to you by CGR Wholesale Roofing and Siding Supply Center,
by Tom's Appliances, by Always Safe Flagging and Traffic Control,
by Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, by Schneider Downs, by

(29:41):
Has's Steak and Seahouse, by your neighborhood Forward Store, by
Castle Rock, by clear View Federal Credit Union, and by US.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Steel Welcome back to the locker room with King and Starks,
presented by your neighborhood for Store. On this too, there's
audio network. You're talking during the break. Just one last
and I'll tell you something else too after you tell this.
The story of playing in Jacksonville.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
Yeah so yeah. Florida, Georgia, rivalry week. Huh is it's one.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
Of those largest outdoor cocktail party.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
Well, now, let's say cocktail world's largest outdoor party. They
took the cocktail out of it either. I was like,
get out of here.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
We not.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
It is my personal record book exactly, and.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
Back back in my day that we still call the
world's largest outdoor cocktail party. And one of the things
we're talking about is how great that was because of
the neutral site game. It's so fearsome a rivalry. We're
not allowed to play on each other's campuses. Yeah, they
tried it in ninety seven and ninety eight and both
campuses got trashed by the opposing team. So we play
in Jacksonville every year. I called the game last year,

(30:52):
so it was my first time back. But it's just
it's one of the coolest things. It's played at Jacksonville Stadium.
And when you walk in the stadium, it's literally split
right down the middle, like you go goal post a
goal post. On one side it's all red and black
goal post a goal post. The other side is all
orange and blue. Half the stadium cheers when something good

(31:14):
happens on one team. The other half cheers when something
good happens with the other team, and it's just pure
rivalry on the field. Now granted Florida has it one less,
but the pageantry and the.

Speaker 7 (31:25):
Fervor like like around your time and then into t
bow and the urban Meyer like Florida was great and
then recently George has been great.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
So it's always Era down there that came right after us,
because I forgot it was David. I can't remember David's
last name. That was a quarterback back then, and every
year it was like, well, on paper, Georgia has the
better squad, more d Linemen. I mean, you know, I
think about you know, I played against Richard Seymour, Marcus

(31:55):
Stroud as the big d tackles there.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
David Pollock was on the edge for him.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
You have yeah, Boss Bailey, Champ Bailey's brother that was
on the team.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
I mean Fred Gibson, who he ended up drafting.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Arnold Harrison was on it, Verron Haynes was on so
we it was like it was a who's who college
like clash of the Titans. And I could say I
went four and oh against him, nice and the cocktail party.
But now, yeah, that record's been way lopsided since then.
But it was just such a great moment.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
And one of the things that makes that great. The
closest I've come to that sort of atmosphere was when
I was working in Saint Louis and Missouri and Illinois
were good basketball programs, and they met in Saint Louis
a little closer to uh to Columbia Uhan. Then Illinois
is in but it's champagne champagne, but it's but it's

(32:44):
still fairly uh centrally located. And the great part about it,
and I'm sure this is one of the great parts
about the cocktail party, I'm sorry. The party game between
Florida and Georgia is that there's always cheering. Right if
you're at a game and the home team's winning, everyone's
loud and cheer. But if the home team's not winning,
the stadium gets quiet, the atmosphere goes down. Well, Missouri

(33:07):
Illinois was like half the crowd was always cheering. A
marching band was always a pep band, I guess was
always getting up to play, and so there was always
a buzz, There was always cheering, there was always groaning,
There was as you know, and I'm sure that's the
same way in Jacksonville. Right, half the stadium's cheering always,
you know, so that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
Always something good happening.

Speaker 7 (33:32):
As a as a college football purist, I mean, that's
my favorite thing in the war in the sports world
is college football. I typically hate the neutral site games
because I'm like, play them on campus, like that's what
this is all about. Except for Florida, Georgia and except
for Army Navy. Yeah, those are like the exceptions to
the rule.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah, because it's like you are going somebody, there's gonna
be thousands and thousands, if not millions of dollars a
day exactly when when we come on campuses against each other.
So yeah, because I mean, if you think about this,
even even backyard brawl, right, I mean remember the burning
of the couches, like for for a very long time,
like couches were getting burned and everything else. So you know,

(34:08):
there is that, and that's what makes college football so good.
And that's why, like I still continue continue to work
in that field because it's just it's different.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
Like as much as I love the NFL and I
love the.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
Games, the physicality, the athleticism, it's just something about the
pure just fandom rivalry, aspect of it.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
I would say the closest thing I've ever.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Gotten to a college rivalry is Baltimore Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
Yeah, like that.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
That's probably your closest college esque environment for a game. Now,
I'm sure some people, oh, well, what about Washington and Philadelphia,
it's not the same. I mean, I've done those games,
and no, it's Baltimore Pittsburgh especially. You put them as
a night game and you and the natives always.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
Had a chance to lather up a little bit in
the day.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
But by the way, there's also you know now that
we started to talk about this and I've named the
games that I want to go to in West Alertly
thank you, put Army Navy, which is probably the top
of my list. There are a bunch of small school
like Amherst and Williams. Now you wouldn't think of that
as two of the great academic institutions in the country.

(35:19):
Their football rivalries as old as any in the country.
I think the campuses are like ten miles apart. No,
that's a lot. Fay at Lee High close campus is
long long tradition. Hamilton and Union in upstate New York,
and I'm sure these things exist all over the country.
So I went on a recruiting visit to Hamilton and
I was lucky enough to be there the day they
played Union. And I don't know how, but I got

(35:41):
invited to the party in which somebody a Union Hamilton.
So it was the game of a Hamilton Unions in Albany.
So it's probably an hour and twenty minutes apart. The
MVP for the opposing team stayed behind the rest of
the team went back to Albany, stayed behind coat and tie,

(36:02):
and went to this rich alumnized guy's house for dinner.
So the two m vps from each team or I
don't know how I wound up. I really don't know
how I wind up. There's a lot of things in
my life form like how was I there? But somehow
I was somehow I was there. But that's kind of
a cool.

Speaker 5 (36:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Then they get the kid home to Albany the next day.
So there's so many great there are so many lot
of traditions. Yeah, you know, I was just one more
I was. You know, there's and and this appeals to
me greatly. In Ireland, there is Gaelic rules football, Gaelic RUPs,
football and hurling are big sports in Ireland. They're both amateur.

(36:40):
You don't get paid for that, and it's a big deal.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
Man.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
They play and they are filling up stadiums and nobody's
getting paid. So if you talk about purity of sports,
I mean, you could get down to that level if
you wanted to. And by the way, I kind.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
Of want him.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
I want to enjoy both, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
I want to.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
I want to enjoy both aspects of that. We watched
Leaf and Mouth. We were in Ireland one year and
we were watching the championships on TV, sitting at the pub,
and I can't remember who won leather Mouth, but it
was the Gaelic Rules football championship. Really controversial call at
the end of the game and the there and it
was like bedlam, right because it was a this is

(37:17):
the championship and they're running off the field and and
a fan ran out of the field and clocked the official.
I was like, oh god, oh my goodness. Wow, this
is like nineteen fifties football, the NFL is, you know,
it's crazy. So anyway, Uh, we all love sports and
and uh but we all love football, right, and we're

(37:37):
on the Steelers radio network and we got steeler stuff
coming up. I do want to talk a little bit
about some of the rules that are coming up. But
it looks like they're, you know, they're walking around the fields,
that some of the players are starting to come out
and walk around. I would guess that all this means
that we will see backs on backers, We will see
all the drills we were anticipating seeing, yes.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
Yeah, yeah, And they're keeping field one, uh, you know,
as as pristine as they can because the rain yesterday.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
I mean it was just it was just on steaming
rain teeming. Yeah, there were puddles all over the place.
End zones were like flooded.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Yeah, and even as good as the irrigation is on
that field, it was like, nah, this is a risk.

Speaker 5 (38:16):
So they went to the gym yesterday.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
Now they're gonna be they're gonna be doing their walkthrough
on field for the turf field to start the morning,
just to preserve the grass as much as possible.

Speaker 5 (38:25):
But uh, very.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
Intent on getting this padded practice underway, and we can't
wait for it. I mean, this just builds the enthusiasm,
This builds the fervor, and of course you feel a
fever pitch is gonna happen, and about one fifty five
to day when everybody takes the field again and pads
and they get to do battles. So now you've got

(38:48):
a day extra of pent up aggression, yeah, that you
didn't get to use a day ago. So I think
it's actually gonna be even better today. I mean, you know,
Pat McAfee and his show are gonna be delighted ye
as as they're having that in the backdrop, and then
they'll they'll drop down.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
The show will end right.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Before before teams period start, so you know you'll have
rockstar pad on the sidelines watching watching this and just
talking about how great it is, because I mean, this is
one of the things we talk about traditions like this
is becoming Mike Tomlin tradition. You've got to watch backs
on backers. He is orchestrating and curating every part of it.
Every matchup, he keeps a list of ongoing and he's

(39:27):
checking the list to make sure we get everything that
he wants to see and we get to be delighted
by by his quote unquote maestro action minus minus the
little wand to uh to get people excited.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Well, I see I was going Santa Claus there because
it is like it is like Christmas for Steelers fans.
Mike Tomlins, he's making the list and he he might
be checking it twice. Let's see that match up again.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
Yeah, he likes to go back to He likes to
hit the hits, you know what I'm He's like, No,
we're definitely running back.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
There will be Yeah, it's it's it's it's so much fun.
And we'll again for for you know, we'll we'll try
to straddle the line here between people that listened yesterday
and caught the show and some of the key matchups
that we want to see, and not only in backs
on backers, but the stock blocking drill with the wide
receiver receivers in the corners, what tight ends are out there?

(40:18):
And the defense we got a new defensive lineman. How
are they gonna do against this young Steelers offense. On
There's a lot of matchups we want. So we're gonna,
you know, for those who listened yesterday, we want entirely
spend the show on it, but we still want to
touch on it for those that didn't watch the show,
and even if you did, uh, and you're like me,
not putting the puzzle pieces together. We'll relive that a
little bit too as well.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
It'll be like brand new all over again.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, so uh take a break, now back with again
looking forward to this as the players are coming out
here into the field. Uh to a fun day of
practice here at Saint Vincent College. You're listening to the
Locker Room with King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood
Ford Stour on the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Iheartradios.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Live coverage of about twenty twenty five Steelers Training Camp
is presented by FedEx where Now meets Next and also
brought to you by bud Light, Independence Health System, by
Pennsylvania One Call System, by Live Casino, Calciente Pizza and
Drafthouse by Don's Appliances, South Hills Auto, Laurel, Highlands Visitors Bureau, Wemax,

(41:27):
Select Realty, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop and by us steel.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Welcome back to the Locker Room with King and Starch,
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store on the Steelers Audio Network.
Sitting high above the fields, watching the Steelers as they've
walked across the fields to the fields again. Stretch left
to right in front of us. Three of them, and
they walk across the field to our right, stretching the
other way lengthwise is the artificial turf field. That's where

(41:58):
the Steelers are gathering to practice. Right now. They're dropping
some grass and some other things on the fields in
front of us, getting ready for the big day of
collision football for the first time. Hey, a couple of
things to go over quickly, Max, and then we'll talk
much more about what's coming up. But some rule changes
that were implemented by the NFL.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Look, they're still trying to work through lowering concussions. That's
been successful, Reducing the hip drop tackles that was successful,
as far as fewer injuries this year, So those are
good things. But as far as what fans are going
to see a couple of different things, virtual measurements. So
instead of the old school taking the chains out there, right, yeah,

(42:40):
the change gang out there, they are going to have
something that's going to be visible on the video scoreboards,
which is going to be they're going to show the football.
I think the way it's going to work, they'll kind
of zoom it in the football and then they'll drop
the yellow like a yellow line there and tell you Okay,
is the football touching that yellow line, and therefore a
first down is to that? And if it's short, they'll say,

(43:01):
you know, they'll have a little measurement like three inches
or whatever. I think that's you know, I'm gonna miss
the chain gang running out there. But a couple of things.
I think it should be quicker. And I also think
that if anyone's ever watched tennis, like you watch the
US Open and they'll have a review, A player will
call for a review of hey was that ball in

(43:22):
or out? The crowd very quickly learned to kind of
celebrate that moment and they start clapping in unison, and
then they'll show it and there'll be a big roar
or a big ooh, you know whatever, whatever the call
might be, whoever you're rooting for, I think it might
have that kind of an effect. It's gonna be quick,
and everyone's gonna be able to watch it, everyone's gonna

(43:42):
be able to react to it. Do you have any
thoughts about it one way or the other?

Speaker 4 (43:46):
I mean, like you said, I mean you're taking the
human element out of it, yep, and relying more on
technology to give you the more accurate type of deal.
I think it will be more efficient. But you know,
for our you know, let's face it, our line.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Are still be there.

Speaker 5 (44:06):
The change is still gonna still be there as a backup, right,
because you always got to have a redundancy.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
And also and also so it's a visual cueue for players, right, like, Hey,
I got to run to the sticks. Uh, you know
you're running with a football. Hey, where are the sticks?
If the sticks aren't there, you're never gonna know where
to run to. So they're gonna keep so that part
of the game. And let's face it, Uh, most games
don't have measurements, right, most games you go through, most
games don't even have a measurement.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Yeah, this is one of the few where you actually
have a measured distance to progress further. Right, I mean
because basketball is back and forth, right, Soccer back and forth,
or football back and forth.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
Baseball, right, it's three strikes.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
And although they're gonna go to the automatic balls and strikes,
I think pretty soon the same same thing they're gonna
there's gonna be the ability to challenge a call, and
I think they'll be limited if if the challenges don't succeed,
And then again they'll show it up on the screen,
so everybody can again trying to communicate more with the
fans and use the technology that way. Yeah. One other
thing that's gonna be significant is that, uh so there

(45:09):
were more kickoff returns last year. They want to get
the kickoff or turn back of the game, so there
were more kickoff returns. There was better starting field position
last year, but a lot of that was based on
the touchback, like teams would just sort of accept the
touchback or a kicker. The kicking team would say, okay,
we'll give it to you to thirty that's cool. Yeah,

(45:31):
now they've moved it to the thirty five. So now
as you're a kicking team, do you really And by
the way, one of the other things that resulted was
fewer punts, more teams going for it. You know, if
you start with the thirty, you pick up a first down,
maybe you pick up a second one. Now you're maybe
in that position to go for it, you knows, all right,
be more aggressive. So that was I don't think anything
that the NFL had thought would happen, but it was

(45:53):
a byproduct of moving it out to the thirty. Now
they're going to move it out to the thirty five.
I think we're gonna see teams say that's a little
too rich for their blood, and they're going to try
to kick it and make teams for trying to.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
Predition as far as yeah, pointing their kicks. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
I think we're going to see more attempt to force.
So it's got a land between that zero and ten
to force a team to kick it. I think a
lot of teams last year we're just saying, look, man,
thirty works for US boom lets booms and has seventy yards.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
We got plenty of grasses right then.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Yep. So now that thirty five, I think it's going
to make a big difference.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
Max.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
I don't think anyone wants to give a team the
ball at the thirty five. And I think we're going
to see the kickoffs jumped up last year. I think
we're gonna see him mp off more this year. At
the kickoff return.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
Yeah, it's going to be more indicative of who your
return guy is. And I was like, did Rob like
like preface this at the right time.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
Because Danny Smith was walking the link, No, I didn't
time we were talking.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
I didn't see that.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
Finally made it to the turnield I talked with him.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
Another physical change to the kickoff is now, whereas everybody
had to line up on the same line right right,
you know, for the the return kick, now you can
stagger three players right in in that lineup, so you
kind of get some layers to it. And Danny explained

(47:10):
this to me yesterday. So apparently the the ball drop
zone is between the hashes. So if we were trying
to extrapolate here, so one of those players between the
hashes is allowed to stagger back and he can be
off the line a little bit, and then you and
you can allow three and.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
The other two have to be on either side of.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
The hashes one deep. So you can't overload, right, you can't.
I can't pick my three and say I want my
three on the left to back up to create that
wall already to start it, you have to pick it out.
It has to be one to almost make it like
a W almost I guess, or an M, depending on
which way you're looking at it.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
And that's a new material change. You know. Danny was
talking about it because he's he's.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
In there committee, he's in the committee there for special teams,
and they were talking about and actually it overwhelmingly got
approved twenty nine to three. Wow, of the thirty two teams,
and so he was like, San Francisco was one that
didn't agree with it. Thinks that Philly and one other
team He couldn't remember off the top of his head,
but he said, yeah, it passed twenty nine to three.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
And he's like, I don't give it. I don't give
a crud's.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
He's like, I just want to make sure that my
guys can get returns, and how is this going to
change how we block things?

Speaker 5 (48:22):
But it gives them more.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
Options as far as how to deploy the front line
of your kickoff return a little bit different. So I
thought that was an interesting material change that they had made.
Uh to the actual alignment of the kickoff and.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
The kickoff team, they had to be a yard back
of the actual kickoffs. So now they can have their
foot on the line so they get there, they're a
yard closer. I don't think that's gonna be much of
a difference, but no, I do think. You know, last
year at the Winter meetings, they passed this kickoff rule,
the dynamic kickoff rule, and they instantly announced the signing

(48:56):
Cordero Patterson, and we thought, wow, what a brilliant signing.
Is the greatest kickoff returner in NFL history, and it
just never had released him a couple of days. It
just never happens. So that will be another subtext, another
something we're looking at here in camp and in the preseason.
Do the Steelers have that guy that's going to be
able to take advantage of it? Because I think we're

(49:17):
going to see kickoff returns skyrocket this year because of
this new rule.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Well, I mean yeah, like you said, I mean a
five yard difference. I mean talking about giving up an inch.
I mean you're giving up fifteen feet plus of real
estate right that your defense doesn't get to defend before
they even get on the field.

Speaker 5 (49:32):
So how do you do and special teams? What is
the special teams about? Creating field positions dvantages? Yep, that
is the goal.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
So now you're trying to preserve you know, the distance
for the defense and you're also trying to gain control
for the offense going on the field. So the onus
is now going to be on our kickers kickoff specialists. Right,
Boz is now going to have to say, Okay, where
am I going to drop this?

Speaker 5 (49:58):
You know, within the zone because I don't want to
hit in the end zone right because it's automatic out
to thirty five.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
You lost thirty five yards of grass that you can defend.
So now we have to be more strategic and like
you said, drop it in the zone. Coverage units now
have to be more on their onus to make sure
that they're getting down the field, shedding blocks and trying
to trap teams between the twenty and the thirty as
opposed to giving them thirty five.

Speaker 5 (50:20):
So it's gonna be really interesting to see. Can't wait
for that. And that's another thing with Friday night lights.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Yeah, we get those little previews of them going through
that type of process before the preseason game.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah, it's gonna be so much fun. And this practice
is gonna be so much fun. Okay, we're going to
turn our attention fully to this practice and Steelers' news
when we continue listening to the Locker Room and King
and Starks presented by your Neighborhood Forwards Tour here on
the Steelers Audio Network