September 10, 2025 • 42 mins
Max and Rob dive into what the first half of the week looks like for players after a victory over the weekend as the Steelers prepare for the second game of the season.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
He is in the locker room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop
dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And thank you very much for joining us inside the
Locker Room with King and Starks, presented by.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Your neighborhood Ford Store. As as the guy just said,
I think Max didn't need to say that. Hi, I'm Max.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Hey he did. He did just say that. Okay, But
you know what, We're all about redundancies because you know
what it just make sure everybody knows what they're what
what what they're in store for today.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh man, that should be our tagline, you know when
he gets done inside the locker room. We're all about redundancy.
That's that's that's the way to sell the show.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Uh So, how are.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
You mac like that? That's good? No, I feel great today.
I'm getting back to my normal self, so excited about
you know, what can be for the Steelers squad. And
I know we talked about kind of the reality check
(01:16):
yesterday and kind of had to had to have some
hard truths, I guess you would say, but heart truths
are easier to take after a victory than this after.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A loss, No doubt about it, No doubt about it.
You know, adversity on the way to success. That you know,
that's the success. You know, whatever, however you want to
phrase that. You know, I've talked to multiple coaches over
the years. You know, sometimes your team needs a coachable moment, right,
(01:48):
Sometimes your team needs something but that can get through
if you're if you're a pro, if you're an athlete
of any sort, that can get through to you whether
you win or.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Whether you lose.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I don't know how they do it in the NFL,
but I know that, you know, in high school and
in small college ball back in the day, like when
the when the film came on on Monday, and you
didn't have a good game, whether you won or lost,
you didn't have a good game. And you're sitting there
in front of your teammates, you know, your peers, and
(02:22):
you know the coach stops it, and rewinds it and
stops it, and rewinds it and says, you know, king,
what were you doing here, that's a teachable moment. I
don't care if you want or lost, it's it's you know,
you want to get better. You have personal pride and
for these guys with much more on the line, you
have professional pride.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You know there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But listen, you know, as the team, you want one
chalked up in that W column. So do they do
do they still do the film sessions like that Max?
Or is it broken down into groups?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Oh? No, they still have the group the group session
in there, and it is it is literally the good,
the bad, and the ugly. You know, it's it's the
tail of the tape, and it's like, hey, we're gonna
we're gonna watch this tail of tape. We're gonna talk
about key moments, good, bad, and ugly, and you're gonna
go through it. Coach Tomlin usually has you know, a
(03:16):
curated mix, so to speak, a literal mixtape of all
these moments in the progression of a game that he
goes through with the entire team, so everybody has that
sense of accountability and you go through it, and then
you go down offense and defense, where each side then
(03:37):
breaks it down further as far as what the team
goals were for that game, Did you hit your goals?
Did you not hit your goals? And then you watch
the full game tape with your unit. That's kind of
how the mondays after go with it. And then, of course,
once you get later in the season and you start
getting those victory donut mondays as we'd like to call them,
(03:59):
but victory for the Steelers, that's when you know you'll
get an even smaller condensed one on Wednesday because you're
getting into the game plan and you've moved on to
the next opponent. So that's kind of how the progression
goes with the post view of a game with Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So you get to there's the possibility, uh, your Max
starks not that this would have ever happened to you,
but you you jab step in the wrong direction, the
guy crosses you over, it gets unabated to Ben Roethlisberger
down he goes. You know, you're standing there looking back
over your shoulder, not saying this is whatever happened to you, Max,
And you get to see that several times throughout the
(04:43):
course of the week. Correct that wonderful and over and
probably and probably probably over and over a few times.
Then like rewound like then like, I'm not sure if
you're thinking here, Max, hang on a second, let's look
at that one more time.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Oh it's like a okay, you know, it's almost like
you know, So there's a guy on Instagram. It's hilarious.
I watched His name is Coach thirty and I watch
it and it feels like his his videos where it's
like the coach is just reaming the guys, like showing
the tape of slow bo and he shows it again
and he's like, has he has his own commentary about
(05:20):
what's going through his head in this moment, Like, oh
my god, this guy's bigger than me. I don't know
what I'm supposed to do. This is a business decision,
and I peece straight down my leg. You know. He's
like he's like he'll go through like all these moments
and uh and so it just reminds me of that
because they'll show you like, all right, then, you know,
we have sixty two protection and we have we have
(05:41):
a duel on the backside, and Max, your guy drops,
Where's Max Goo? Where's Max go? He's looking inside? Why
is he looking inside when all the action is coming
from the outside. There's a reason why that defensive end
didn't drop. Okay, and boom Ben is killed. Go apologize
to his family, is like, because you just got killed.
And so it's like it's like you get those type
(06:03):
of moments and it's like and then you know, so
Mike Tomin will play it. Then you know, Bruce arians
will come in afterwards and be a will play the
same exact play. He'll just look at me, He'll just go,
is that your one? Max? Is that your one? Is
that your one? Safety blitz? You're gonna miss their nickel cornerblitz.
You're you're gonna miss for the year and the yes
coach last one. Okay, we can move on. You know.
(06:26):
It's so and then in the room you watch the film,
all right, and here's the sack by Max. It's like Jesus, okay.
So so yeah, so you definitely you're definitely you know, yeah, yeah, Hey,
you you were wondering about elite left tackles in the NFL.
This is not what you do on these.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Plays, right, So yeah, but you get in there and
it might be this week for Max.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Uh yeah, so yeah, no you don't, yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
So if you ever replaced Max which could happen very soon. Now. Now,
they never said that they knew they were losing their mind,
and they would have made that statement. But but yeah,
there was always there was always that work, So I
always had there was always going to be a nickel
or corner fire rotation in a game. The first time
it ever happens, yeah, yeah, it was. It was about,
(07:17):
it's abound to happen to me. Now when we have
turns to that side. Oh, I'm good. I'm good because
everybody's turning to the left. So all I gotta do
is look, I don't I don't look inside like I
have a blinder on the right side of my face
mask when it comes to turn protection. But in mandual
situations where you're trying to scan and you're trying to
take two of the most dangerous and there's decisions to
(07:38):
be made and there's a lot of different bodies to
move that that's usually there's one. There's one every time.
So yeah, so that's what Monday's looking like. It's not
going to be very pleasant for Broderick Jones. I'm sure
on Monday when when he went through film session. But
today's Wednesday. You've you've passed the period. Now it's about
getting better. It's about the next opponent. It's about breaking
(08:02):
down Seattle and doing everything in my power to be
the best version of myself by Sunday and not make
the same mistakes of week one. That's the biggest things
moving forward in the journey. And it's not looking back
over your shoulder. This game's behind you. No need to
think about it. Now. All focuses on Seattle and the
(08:24):
home opener, and that's all I could do. We got
the win. It looked ugly, but nobody said style points
were involved in the NFL. So job accomplished. But now
I need to be better. I need to figure out
how to keep Aaron Rodgers upright? Yeah, how to make
sure that we get this run game going? How do
we do defensively to make sure that we stop the
(08:46):
run and apply pressure to the opposing quarterback?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Since this is the first week of the regular season
and this is the normal rotation, of course, we have
Thursday games, and we have night game, Monday games and
all kinds of things. But what so the team plays Sunday,
you come back on the charter, you go home, Tell
me what happens Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of a of
(09:13):
a typical game week for the team. Obviously, we see
coach Tom Win speaking yesterday, someone's splicing up and dicing
up some film. What happens on Monday, what if anything
happens on Tuesday, and then we'll get to then I'll
have some questions on Wednesday. But let's just take those
first two days first.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Okay, So Monday was what I explained with the film session.
That's okay.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So that's that's it. Monday treatment maybe that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
If you needed well treatments. Treatments always available. There's mandatory
treatment and then there's voluntary treatment. The guys could come
in on their own. But guys who are injured, nicked up,
anything reported from the game, you have to be there Monday.
So okay, that's a non negot So.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
If you if you are, if there's a game report
on you, you have to be there. Yes, Joey Porter
had to be there, Harrison had to be there, Deshaun
Elliott had to be there.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
You know, Nick Herbig who was on the list from
last week, Derek Harmon all have to be there as well,
all right, and then anything new that came up as
well during the game that wasn't necessarily took you out
of the game or questionable in the game, but you
felt it. You know, ankle got rolled up, you know
you got you got a bruise on your thigh, any
(10:24):
of that stuff that you reported and got ice on,
or you know that the trainers had to look at you.
You're in on Monday, so let me ask let me
ask you that.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Let me ask you about that part, right, Okay, So
there are some that are non negotiable. If it's negotiable,
you show up, you don't show up, well, I could
see a professional.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yeah, if you're a professional, your butt better be in there. Okay,
if you're a professional, like, there's no reason for you
to not be at the facility on Monday, even if
and I think that that's the key thing, because if
you're not doing that, you're stretching, you're working on your flexibility,
(11:06):
you're getting your one of your lifts in during the week.
You can knock that out on a Monday, even when
you sore, and that's actually the best time to get
it because you can at least just move your body
and you can work out that soreness. So that's it.
There's a steam room in there you can go hit
steam whatever just to you know, detoxify yourself however you feel.
(11:26):
You know, there's plenty of modality. Heck, there's even like
a massage like pod thing that's in there that's a
full body massager, you know, like those massage chairs, things
that look like a half moon that you get in.
You could even get in that. Like, there's way too
many modalities and different things to help speed up the
(11:47):
recovery process available to the team.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So between getting treatment and you know, getting a workout
in of the fifty three guys, how many guys show
up on Monday, would you say, Well.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
No, everybody has to show up because you have film
session regardless. Oh, everybody's going to be in the facility.
But it's about coming in early versus the time that
the report time is. That's that's that's what I'm talking
about for this part of it. On a Monday now
Tuesdays the official player's day off. So if you're injured,
you still come in, but if you're not injured, this
(12:21):
is a voluntary day to kind of get a jump
on the week, so you could come there. You can
make sure that all your files are downloaded to your
to your tablets, get all your game film cut ups,
whatever you need. I mean, back back when I played,
you know, we didn't have the tablets available to us,
so you didn't have everything at your fingertips. So I
(12:42):
actually had to go in and back then Mac who
ran our video department with Andy and company, you would
go in and you and I would have to you'd
have to request your cutups. And when I first got
in the league that this is this is how fast
modern technology works. When I first got in the league,
I had to ask for VHS's of every single cutup,
(13:03):
and it was a separate VHS for each cutup, so
you had to ask for the VHS. So I would
come in ask for a stack of VHS's all these
different situations. So first down and ten run blitzes, second
and second and long blitz packages, third and short blitz package,
third medium blitz package, third and long blitz package. I
(13:26):
would ask for sack tape. I would add, you know,
I would break down all these different scenarios and I
would get tape on those and then as sophistication of
modern technology. It is probably about my halfway through my
second or my third year in the league, then it
was all everything was on DVDs. So I'd then ask
for the same things and they would break it down
(13:49):
by down, so you'd have all the first down stuff
on one DVD, then all the second down stuff on
one DVD, and then all the third down stuff on
one DVD. And then now is just getting three c
you know, three three discs instead of the stack of VHS's,
so it got more compressed. And then by the end
of it, I think my last two years in the league,
we had the dv sports software and then I had
(14:12):
to download a program onto my iPad and then from
there I would go in and ask them and they
would they would they would push send everything to my
iPad directly. They connect the cagable dongle and then they
would they would put the files in and then it
would be in my iPad ready, take like an hour
for everything to download and transfer, and then I had
(14:34):
it on my I had it on my d on
my actual iPad. So that's the progression. But now because
of the way the new system works, like everything's downloaded
and everything's into file folders, and then you could separate
and have your own personal folder if there's something specific
that you want further broken down and you could literally
go in type keywords and create your own folder. Now,
(14:57):
so that was Tuesday and Tuesday it was also a
left day. Tuesday was also a training set like like
a uh, just just a session in the training room,
but not necessarily getting treatment per se, like you know,
not everybody goes and gets ice stem and hot laser,
cold laser therapy and everything. You could just do a
contrast bath because that's where it was in the training room,
(15:19):
so hot cold therapy, and we would we would we
would get in there and it would be full on
a Tuesday and everybody's rotating. You know. We got the
timer in there and you go. You go from cold
tub for like two to three minutes, then boom you hoping,
hoping hoping the hot tub and back and forth. You
do like four or five rounds of that. Or you
(15:40):
could be like you know, James Harrison and Ryan Clark,
and you could just go and get the big rubber
maid like bins that they had. They were like you know,
portable tubs, and they would just douse it with nothing
but tons and tons of ice and then it's like
it's almost like they did a little bit of water
and then they would just get in there and they
would just freeze their entire body and do the whole
(16:03):
whim Hoff thing and they would be over there in
that session. But we all, but we all. It was community,
it was brotherhood. It was a chance for us. It
was it was creating other opportunities of bonding, because that
bond makes a difference in a team. A team that
can train together, play together, and you know, almost be
(16:26):
like family. I mean, you spend more time with your
teammates during the season than you do your own family.
And there's a certain payoff that comes with that as well,
with that sacrifice. So it's not like you're just doing
it indiscriminately. You know, you're doing this because you don't
know what next year brings or the following year, and
(16:46):
you don't know who's going to be there. All you
have is today. Heck, you don't even know from week
to week if a guy goes on IR. You know,
you follow into obscurity with the team for all intents
and purposes. When there's something where you can't help out,
you just come in for your true your check ups,
You go see the doctors, and you know that's really it.
Like you don't. You're not allowed out of practice. You're
(17:08):
not allowed. You know, you could come to meetings, but
you can come to meetings, but you can't go to practice.
So it's kind of a weird day. You can, so
you leave early and so it's it's a different world.
But you take advantage of these opportunities. And Tuesday is
one of those days where a lot of guys get
in get you because when you have to get into Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
the last thing you want to do is think about, man,
(17:28):
I still got two lifts left, you know, in three days.
Whereas if you come Monday and Tuesday, you've knocked out
most of your work and then you could show up
for what we we We had them days in the
lot in the weight room, so everybody, you know, you
knew by Friday, everybody was gonna go by Friday because
Friday was West Coast Fridays at one point where we
(17:50):
would literally it was a hilarious day because we come
in it'd be all West Coast music in the in
the in the weight room, and you would go out
to practice and we had dudes that would literally that
would spat their cleats and make them like Chuck Taylor's
It's hilarious. So they would do like a whole black
(18:10):
spat on their cleats and then they run the white
tape along the edge of the footing to make it
look like the white soul of of of a of
a converse Chuck Taylor. And then then and then they
had these little cutout circles and they put the circle
on the inside of the cleat, so I mean it
looked like a Chuck Taylor. And so you know, you'd
have guys out there doing that, and you know, the
(18:33):
music that would be played outside would be all West
Coast stuff, and you know, we had that so it
transferred from the from the from the weight room to
the playing field, and guys really had fun with it.
You know, it's Country Thursdays, so everything was country in
in the weight room, and you know, Wednesday was just
irregularly we I don't think we had a theme for that,
(18:54):
but yeah, we had Country Thursdays and we had West
Coast Fridays, so so everybody was in there for West
Coast Friday. And it was also gun show Day, so
it was all just it was all bies and tries.
That was the workout for the day. It was all
it was all to looked good. It's all to looked
good for Sunday. You know, you want, you want, you want,
you want the pump going. So so you have those moments,
and those are moments where you get to bond as
(19:15):
a team. Now I don't know if they still have those.
I don't think they do. But that's what our team did,
and that's what made it. That made the sucky situations
less sucky because you had something to look forward to.
And once again, it's about a brotherhood. It's a bonding
experience that you can look back on and you knew
(19:37):
you had something special. I mean when we see even
when I see my guys today, you know I still
see I still see by boy Roy because Roy is
actually he works for the fire department out here, and
Roy was Roy was the one that started the West
Coast Fridays and so you would go and you would
you know, and we still have that bond to still
talk about that, laugh about that to this day. And
(19:59):
that's what made special. I mean, I'm not gonna say
that was a recipe for us winning Super Bowls, but
I'll say this, we won a lot more games because
we were closer together because we had that accountability to
each other. You know, you you look your brother and
the eye and that was that. That was you knew
you had to you had you had to.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Tap in real quick before we go to break and
and and I just wanted to ask, did you did
guys find you know, city guys wind up like in
country music, East coast guys wind up like in West
coast music.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Or did you just endure it?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
It was? It was it was an endurance race. It
was an endurance race. But I mean, but you did
find songs. And then once you got through it, and
you've done it a couple of weeks, you know, guys
would come in and and and they would sing the
part of the song that they knew, you know, hey,
part of the song. I was like, man, who sings
that again? Alan Jackson? Who's that all right? Man? Hey? Yeah?
(20:54):
Wait down under in the Chattahoochee, you know, I mean, hey,
let's let's get it. Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I don't know if you can still find the great
piece that the Nate Hogan and the rest of the
Steelers production staff put together on the origin of Renegade,
but it's it's great. You know Joey Port said, I
thought for years was called oh Mama. Yeah, very funny,
(21:19):
good stuff, fun stuff that happens. Max peeling behind the
curtain for us inside the locker room. We still have
plenty more to come. Of course, it's WEX Wednesday. We're
gonna be looking forward to the key matchups. We begin
to look forward to the key matchups between the Steelers
and the Seahawks, and you know, an update on the
injury news after Mike Tomlin spoke yesterday. Plenty more still
to come. Inside the Locker Room with King and Starks
(21:40):
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop
dot Steelers dot.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Com and welcome back inside the locker room and Max
just kind of finishing up as our first trip to
the locker room, but this is our first time coming
off of Steelers game inside the locker room and getting
ready for the next game. So she talked about the
treatment to film sessions, the bonding that happens in the
early part of the week for the team. Is Wednesday
(22:27):
more about correcting your mistakes getting ready for the opponent?
Is it a combination of the two? Just take us
through like a Wednesday practice. Is it a lighter practice,
you know, as guys are still recovering, you know, does
it get physical? Take everybody through what happens on a Wednesday?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
No? No, absolutely not. Wednesday is the toughest practice of
the week. Okay, Wednesday is that is day one Seattle Seahawks.
So you are installing the entire game plan on Wednesday.
You're going out to practice. You're wrapping a lot of
the situations. This is the this is the quote unquote
(23:07):
throw throw everything at the board and the wall and
see what sticks. You're throwing darts in the dark. You're
throwing everything. Now you're making a calculated decision based on
the film review of your advanced scouting and the breakdown
of tape that's already happened by the by members of
the staff. Usually that's happened by your quality control, your
offensive and defensive assistance. They've already broken down the game tape,
(23:30):
which in this case is usually if there's a significant
game of playing time where you get the most starters,
you're breaking down that in the preseason, plus this one game,
and as you get further into the season, it's a
three game breakdown. So that's already been established.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
What do you mean by a three game breakdown? What
does that mean?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
That means you take the previous three games and you
break those down. Remember while I was telling you about
the film that I was requesting, right, Yes, for self
scouting first out, This for self scouting, but also game
planning purposes. Okay, so you're you're watching the previo. You're
watching the opponent in the previous three games. What they
do on first down, what's their tendencies, what they do
(24:14):
on second down? What's their tendencies. They're watching the opponent's
first three games. Yeah, the opponent. Yeah, sorry, no, no,
you meant your own three games. I beg your pardon, No, no,
because you've already done that on Monday. You've watched the
previous game. You're not going back three games to watch
what you've done because you've already done it. Every single week,
the opponent is its own is its own kind of
(24:35):
kind of a cat cat.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Little I'm a little fuzzy on the slow on the UPTA.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
No, it's all good, it's all good, but uh but
so so you're gonna watch, so you're gonna have those
breakdowns and based off of their tendencies that they have,
you're now going to install said offense or defense for
those tendencies. Because you're trying to figure out what plays
will be you'll have the most success on. You want
to run those right, and so you have that and
(25:05):
you'll go through practice with with your You'll have your
scout team versus your versus that first squad, and you'll
rep through a lot of plays in practice in a
lot of different situations. You'll have your periods kind of
how we had in training camp where you'll have inside run.
You'll you'll still have your seven shots. This is also
the day where you have your competitive period. So it's
(25:26):
ones on ones, competitive seven seven plays and whoever went,
you know, who wins out of that day. You know,
we used to call it steeler on steeler and it
was five plays at the end of practice. They now do,
I believe seven shots at the beginning of practice so
kind of the same format. If you're a Steeler fan,
you've been out to training camp, you've kind of seen
how the format goes. But instead of it being t
(25:49):
J Watt on Troy Fatano in practice, whereas ones on ones,
twos on twos, threes on threes, this is scout team
versus the first team offense team versus the first team defense,
and whatever the situation is going to be, whether it's
inside run, outside run, play action, first down only you
(26:11):
know first the second down run mix, and you're gonna
go through all of that in practice. That's what a
Wednesday is, and that's that's what Wednesday gets you ready for.
It's your first introduction to the Seattle Seahawks up in
the meetings before you get out to practice, you will
have your breakdown on who they are to this point.
(26:31):
You know, this is a team that you know, had
a tough game, just lost to San Francisco, but it
was a tight game. Here's what they did well, here's
the stats, and then that's your introduction from coach Tomlin.
Then offensively, you'll talk you know, Arthur will get up there,
he'll talk about the principles, they points of emphasis for today.
(26:53):
In practice, and then from there you'll get your individual
breakdowns where you'll get their personnel groups, what they like
to do. Here's here are the faces, here's the depth chart.
Here's how the rotation went, snap split, however you want
to look at it. Here's a guy that's more app
to come in on third downs. Here's the personnel grouping
(27:14):
they like to run out of the third downs, or
they eleven personnel team or they twelve personnel team. You
get all of that information before you get on the field,
and then you go and you wrap through all the
plays in practice, and then from there you'll come back
after practice, you'll watch the game film or the practice
film from practice that day, and you'll go through your assignments,
(27:37):
what you missed, key emphasis, footwork. However, however, you take notes,
and that's always a big thing is how do you
process and take notes? You know what, what what are
you keying in on? How what are your habits for
how you do this? And so that's how a Wednesday goes.
And a Wednesday is a very intense day, that is
(27:57):
a very fully loaded day. That's a long day in
the office because you know you're not leaving the office
most times. I'll say this because there's always exceptions to
every rule. You're not leaving that office till about six
six thirty at the earliest, and notoriously. You know, back
in our day, you know, sometimes we stayed to the
(28:18):
wee hours and uh, you know, we had to have
wives and girlfriends bring in food to the facility for us.
You know, it was always a designated one or two,
you know, every week, Hey, who's got the food tonight?
Because because we're gonna be here for a while, because
you know, lunch staff that, you know, the kitchen staff
they leave and everything else. But we used to have
we used to have them bring in food for us,
(28:41):
and we would we would, we would, we would revel
in the bonding experience, so to speak. And it usually
usually was over cards or pool. So yeah, so we
spent a lot of time together. But that was a Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So a couple of things here. First of all, as
an aside, a doff of the cap to the people
putting together all the films and splicing everything up. So
you guys get back presumably Sunday from the trip, You
get in your car, you go home, you try to
get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You get after it. You get up Monday, and you
get back into the facility. When you walk into the facility.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
That tape is already cut, which just reminds me Max
a little bit of you know, Sir Edmund Hillary, you know,
climbing to the top of Everest And this really I
saw the Imax movie ever, so I don't know if
you ever saw it, But the guy gets to the
top and he's jumping up and down and you realize,
you know, and the same thing with Sir Edmund Hillary.
(29:41):
You realize somebody is shooting that right, somebody is you know,
somebody took the picture of Edmund Hillary. And that guy
who took the picture of Edmund Hillary, the first guy
on top of Mount Everest, had seventy five pounds of
gear strap to his back, his stuff and Edmund Hillary's
and to end the camera by the way, you know
what I mean. So there's you know, behind the seages,
(30:01):
everyone's talking about Sir Edmun Hillary, and everybody's talking about
the players. I don't know if this is that good
of an analogy, but somebody's there. Somebody's there making sure
all that stuff is prepared properly. So it's off of
the cap, to the to the to the coaching staff,
who I'm sure starts the process on the plane. But
when everybody lands and goes home, those guys are probably
going to the facility and getting some work done so
(30:22):
that you guys can get your proper work done throughout
the course of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
I mean it is a long day for players.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I know talking to some of the offensive linemen last year,
you know they're talking about getting to the facility at
five point thirty in the morning and not leaving, as
you mentioned, till six o'clock at night. They could whoa man.
That is a long day every day throughout the course
of the season. So a lot of work that goes
in that people probably don't realize from the staff but
also from the players themselves how long some of these
(30:52):
days are. And Wednesday sounds not so much physically grueling
as mentally taxing to me, Max more than anything else.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Uh No, make no mistake about it. The physicality is
there too, okay, Because you have to remember, forty six
guys played. There's fifty three guys on a roster plus
sixteen guys of that practice squad. Guess who didn't play
and guess who still has energy. It doesn't have the
bunks of the bruises, so the scout team that you're
gonna see that day. So no, it is. It is physically.
(31:22):
It is physically taxing. And you know, the one thing
we always said, you know, you never wanted to see
Hoky bro on a Wednesday and Thursday if he if
he didn't get a lot of reps, because that energy
had to get burnt off somehow, right, I believe it.
So so yeah, no, no, So it is. It is
a it is a complete taxing of whatever energy you
have mentally and physically. And some of those games, I mean, listen,
(31:46):
you know not all weeks are cut the same. Some
Wednesdays you come out there a little bit more spry
than others. But listen, Wednesday after a Ravens game back
when we played who Yeah, I mean it was it
was you know, you're talking about walking on eggshells. That's
what it felt like. Like you're just you're just trying
to get Like, listen, I'm just trying to get through
the day.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
I was like, let'sten, we gotta we gotta talk this out. Listen,
I get it. You need to get yours. I gotta
get mine. But there's levels to.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
This, you know.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
I mean and your body you don't want to move
and listen. If you're not in the facility on Monday
after a Ravens week, you have done yourself a disservice.
You have literally done yourself a disservice. I don't care
if it was a victory Monday or not. There there
was a loss somewhere. You know, part of your soul
was left on that field, so you have to go
try and try and reclaim it and find and find
(32:34):
fractions of it and try to sew it back together
or use some popsicle sticks as a bubblegup to get
it back together. Because you got the next opponent right
after them, So it was. It was definitely one of
those things where it was a very physical brand of
football we played, and your body paid the toll. So
that's why you have to get there and get to
the we called it the mechanic shop. You gotta go
(32:54):
get to the mechanic shop and get everything adjusted and
refitted and get your all changed.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You know, I love this, and I hope people listening
love this. It's to me, it's fascinating the process you
guys have to go through and what happens kind of
behind the scenes here is Max is filling us in
my one last question.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Before we'll get back to the studs for Seattle.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
We'll just go through this once because this is our
first this is our first game week, right, uh, and
just kind of getting an idea of what happens and
what you're going through. But so let's go back to Monday.
You watch the film and it didn't you know you
had some struggles?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Are you expected to self correct or will there be
I mean once you get to Wednesday and Thursday. You're
a pro, obviously, but we're talking specifically about Wednesday. Once
you get to Wednesday, are you expected to self correct
those things or maybe you get together with your with
your line coach and get things figured out. And are
you straight on to game prep with that thought in
(33:56):
your mind? Hey, I got beat on the inside. I
can't get beat this week by Leonard Williams or whoever
you're going to be facing. Or is there some time
spent you know during those practice Yesinger, or is it
up to you.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
It's up to the player. You're highly compensated for that
very thing you're compensated to make those corrections. This isn't
college anymore. This is a job, and if you can't
do the job, they'll replace you. So whatever you need now,
the coaches are available for you. You can ask questions
(34:29):
at any moment. If you need a little extra time
in the meeting room or you need extra time on
the field, that's up to you. Whatever you deem is necessary.
Nobody's going to hold your hand in this process, and
you've got to make your own corrections because happens once,
that's a mistake, happens twice. It's a habit. So what
are you going to do to prevent those negative habits
(34:51):
and reinforce those good habits? Up to you. If you
need to do extra, extra extra training after practice, you
do that. I mean, listen famously. I know you know
it's a polarizing name to say, but Antonio Brown had
the most dogged work ethic of any teammate I've ever
(35:13):
had my entire life, from high school all the way
through my professional career, nobody worked harder than eighty four.
And for whatever else we want to say about him
off the field, on the field, completely different human being
and the most locked in relentless, self correcting human I've
(35:40):
ever been around in that part. We could argue the
other semantics, but as a professional football player between the
white lines, in my time in Pittsburgh, no human being
worked harder, no human beings spent more time perfecting his
craft than Antonio Brown, and nobody had to tell him
(36:01):
to do it. He watched the older guys and he
mimicked until he figured out what worked best for him.
And if it was one hundred ball, it was one
hundred balls off the jugs machine after practice. It was
one hundred balls off the judge machine after practice. If
it was twenty five punt returns with the jugs machine
shooting the ball at him, it was twenty five balls
(36:24):
shooting at the juge machine after him, after one hundred
shots on the jug machine. It was running sprints. It
was whether it was hundreds or half gassers picked the day,
whether you needed the resistance band belt or not, whatever
it was. Marvel Smith the most unorthodox tackle stance of
(36:45):
all time. He worked that he'd had the rip belt on.
And the rip belt is this belt you put around
your waist and there's a velcrow handle and you have
one person on one end holding the handle and you
snapped to release it to create to create that energy,
to create that force that you need and power to
(37:06):
get into your position, get to your stance quicker than
the man can get out of his stance. Whatever you needed,
you figured it out. I mean we and we had
for a long time. And this is what I used
to do. It was it was called a reaction board
or a light board, and it had it was this
big board and it had these little white dots on
it and they lit up and you had to stare
(37:28):
at the middle and you have to and you have
to hit it. You have to hit that. He had
to hit it with your hands. It was a reaction
drill to work on your reaction timing. And we had
a contest. The entire offensive line used to come in
there and we and we would go through that to
see who had the fastest reactions. That everything is a competition,
right of course. It was always whoo who had more
(37:48):
than the other guy? You know, and you had sixty
seconds to do it. We would go through that. Just
whatever you could take, whatever edge you could create for yourself,
you did it because everything was open to you. It's
not like, oh, we're off the field. Fields closed. Sorry,
Pitt's about to come out here. No, we didn't care
because we had fields one and two, pitthead fields three
(38:10):
and four. We have plenty of space. So whatever you
needed to get done after practice, you did. And that's
that's on you. That's your makeup or whether, like I said,
whether you fake it till you make it. Everybody else
is outside, so I'm outside. Everybody's in the weight room.
I'm in the weight room, right. Everybody's in the cold tub,
in the hot tub. I'm in the cold tub, in
(38:31):
the hot tub. As a young guy, you you're a
duckling in the beginning of this process because you don't
know what you don't know because you don't have any experience,
and you glean from the experience of others, especially veterans. Hell,
that's the reason why they're there. I might as well
follow him. If there's a guy that's been in the
league nine years, I need to do exactly what he's
doing so I can make sure that I last nine
years in the league. Right, you know, this guy's been
(38:54):
here twelve. I need to follow whatever the hell he's doing.
I need to do exactly that. Oh man and then
along the figure out my own, my own process. That's
so awesome, man, Listen, I hope I. I just spent
the entirety of this first thirty five minutes to show
the big grin in my face. I love my I
love this behind the scenes look Max, thanks for taking
(39:15):
us through it. I just think it's it's very very
cool and so much more involved than people probably have
any idea about.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
We have to take a break because we are running
extremely long, but we're gonna get ready. We have a
West Wednesday. We're gonna get you ready for the Steelers
and Seahawks. Plenty more still to come. Inside the Locker
Room with King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford
Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
The F one fifty is the official truck of.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
The Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shot. Get it
direct from the team at the Steelers Pro Shot at
shop dot Steelers dot co on.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
We are as they stay in the business heavy, which
means we've gone too long. The first couple of segments
and then apparently have time to get a couple of
words here, uh, waiting for a WEX wedd WEX Wednesday.
We're gonna get over the hump in the next half
hour and Max talk about the Seattle Seahawks team and
can't wait to get into the specific matchups as the
(40:24):
shooters look to go from one and oh to two
and oh.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yes, we are about to get ready for the Seattle
portion of it. Well, one more review here, and of
course our good friend James Wexel or Jim Wexsell. I
guess I should say I shouldn't use the full government
out there. Jim Lex will be joined us at the
top of the hour. We also have injury news to
bring you guys, as well as far as how the
(40:49):
tail of the tape happened. With that, we've had some
decisions made and some some situation, so we'll discuss that more.
That's what we call I guess what properties right there?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's a properties, that's a properties yep, And we're gonna
get to all that stuff and more. There are some
there are some fascinating matchups in this game, really fascinating,
and we're going to dive into that. Jim wexell is
gonna join us on a wex Wednesday as we get
over with you know, this is the this is the
pre hump to the hump, right, Yeah, So I mean
(41:21):
once we get to twelve o'clock or I beg your pardon,
eleven o'clock, the second hour of the locker Room, we're
on right, We're on the down side, right, We're on
the we're slides.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Through the week, hit the summit. We peaked in this show.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, but but not just metaphorically, right, metaphorically our best
information is still to come.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yes, it is right right, it's sweeter. Hey, listen, nobody's
ever said, man, I hate walking downstairs versus walking up.
I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
So we're gonna walk down where we are gonna get
you ready for the Steelers and the Seahawks. Jim wexlel
joining us next when we continue inside the locker Room
with King and Starks, presented by your Neighborhood Forward Story
here on the Steelers Audio Network
He is in the locker room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop
dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And thank you very much for joining us inside the
Locker Room with King and Starks, presented by.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Your neighborhood Ford Store. As as the guy just said,
I think Max didn't need to say that. Hi, I'm Max.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Hey he did. He did just say that. Okay, But
you know what, We're all about redundancies because you know
what it just make sure everybody knows what they're what
what what they're in store for today.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh man, that should be our tagline, you know when
he gets done inside the locker room. We're all about redundancy.
That's that's that's the way to sell the show.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Uh So, how are.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
You mac like that? That's good? No, I feel great today.
I'm getting back to my normal self, so excited about
you know, what can be for the Steelers squad. And
I know we talked about kind of the reality check
(01:16):
yesterday and kind of had to had to have some
hard truths, I guess you would say, but heart truths
are easier to take after a victory than this after.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A loss, No doubt about it, No doubt about it.
You know, adversity on the way to success. That you know,
that's the success. You know, whatever, however you want to
phrase that. You know, I've talked to multiple coaches over
the years. You know, sometimes your team needs a coachable moment, right,
(01:48):
Sometimes your team needs something but that can get through
if you're if you're a pro, if you're an athlete
of any sort, that can get through to you whether
you win or.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Whether you lose.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I don't know how they do it in the NFL,
but I know that, you know, in high school and
in small college ball back in the day, like when
the when the film came on on Monday, and you
didn't have a good game, whether you won or lost,
you didn't have a good game. And you're sitting there
in front of your teammates, you know, your peers, and
(02:22):
you know the coach stops it, and rewinds it and
stops it, and rewinds it and says, you know, king,
what were you doing here, that's a teachable moment. I
don't care if you want or lost, it's it's you know,
you want to get better. You have personal pride and
for these guys with much more on the line, you
have professional pride.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You know there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But listen, you know, as the team, you want one
chalked up in that W column. So do they do
do they still do the film sessions like that Max?
Or is it broken down into groups?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Oh? No, they still have the group the group session
in there, and it is it is literally the good,
the bad, and the ugly. You know, it's it's the
tail of the tape, and it's like, hey, we're gonna
we're gonna watch this tail of tape. We're gonna talk
about key moments, good, bad, and ugly, and you're gonna
go through it. Coach Tomlin usually has you know, a
(03:16):
curated mix, so to speak, a literal mixtape of all
these moments in the progression of a game that he
goes through with the entire team, so everybody has that
sense of accountability and you go through it, and then
you go down offense and defense, where each side then
(03:37):
breaks it down further as far as what the team
goals were for that game, Did you hit your goals?
Did you not hit your goals? And then you watch
the full game tape with your unit. That's kind of
how the mondays after go with it. And then, of course,
once you get later in the season and you start
getting those victory donut mondays as we'd like to call them,
(03:59):
but victory for the Steelers, that's when you know you'll
get an even smaller condensed one on Wednesday because you're
getting into the game plan and you've moved on to
the next opponent. So that's kind of how the progression
goes with the post view of a game with Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So you get to there's the possibility, uh, your Max
starks not that this would have ever happened to you,
but you you jab step in the wrong direction, the
guy crosses you over, it gets unabated to Ben Roethlisberger
down he goes. You know, you're standing there looking back
over your shoulder, not saying this is whatever happened to you, Max,
And you get to see that several times throughout the
(04:43):
course of the week. Correct that wonderful and over and
probably and probably probably over and over a few times.
Then like rewound like then like, I'm not sure if
you're thinking here, Max, hang on a second, let's look
at that one more time.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Oh it's like a okay, you know, it's almost like
you know, So there's a guy on Instagram. It's hilarious.
I watched His name is Coach thirty and I watch
it and it feels like his his videos where it's
like the coach is just reaming the guys, like showing
the tape of slow bo and he shows it again
and he's like, has he has his own commentary about
(05:20):
what's going through his head in this moment, Like, oh
my god, this guy's bigger than me. I don't know
what I'm supposed to do. This is a business decision,
and I peece straight down my leg. You know. He's
like he's like he'll go through like all these moments
and uh and so it just reminds me of that
because they'll show you like, all right, then, you know,
we have sixty two protection and we have we have
(05:41):
a duel on the backside, and Max, your guy drops,
Where's Max Goo? Where's Max go? He's looking inside? Why
is he looking inside when all the action is coming
from the outside. There's a reason why that defensive end
didn't drop. Okay, and boom Ben is killed. Go apologize
to his family, is like, because you just got killed.
And so it's like it's like you get those type
(06:03):
of moments and it's like and then you know, so
Mike Tomin will play it. Then you know, Bruce arians
will come in afterwards and be a will play the
same exact play. He'll just look at me, He'll just go,
is that your one? Max? Is that your one? Is
that your one? Safety blitz? You're gonna miss their nickel cornerblitz.
You're you're gonna miss for the year and the yes
coach last one. Okay, we can move on. You know.
(06:26):
It's so and then in the room you watch the film,
all right, and here's the sack by Max. It's like Jesus, okay.
So so yeah, so you definitely you're definitely you know, yeah, yeah, Hey,
you you were wondering about elite left tackles in the NFL.
This is not what you do on these.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Plays, right, So yeah, but you get in there and
it might be this week for Max.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Uh yeah, so yeah, no you don't, yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
So if you ever replaced Max which could happen very soon. Now. Now,
they never said that they knew they were losing their mind,
and they would have made that statement. But but yeah,
there was always there was always that work, So I
always had there was always going to be a nickel
or corner fire rotation in a game. The first time
it ever happens, yeah, yeah, it was. It was about,
(07:17):
it's abound to happen to me. Now when we have
turns to that side. Oh, I'm good. I'm good because
everybody's turning to the left. So all I gotta do
is look, I don't I don't look inside like I
have a blinder on the right side of my face
mask when it comes to turn protection. But in mandual
situations where you're trying to scan and you're trying to
take two of the most dangerous and there's decisions to
(07:38):
be made and there's a lot of different bodies to
move that that's usually there's one. There's one every time.
So yeah, so that's what Monday's looking like. It's not
going to be very pleasant for Broderick Jones. I'm sure
on Monday when when he went through film session. But
today's Wednesday. You've you've passed the period. Now it's about
getting better. It's about the next opponent. It's about breaking
(08:02):
down Seattle and doing everything in my power to be
the best version of myself by Sunday and not make
the same mistakes of week one. That's the biggest things
moving forward in the journey. And it's not looking back
over your shoulder. This game's behind you. No need to
think about it. Now. All focuses on Seattle and the
(08:24):
home opener, and that's all I could do. We got
the win. It looked ugly, but nobody said style points
were involved in the NFL. So job accomplished. But now
I need to be better. I need to figure out
how to keep Aaron Rodgers upright? Yeah, how to make
sure that we get this run game going? How do
we do defensively to make sure that we stop the
(08:46):
run and apply pressure to the opposing quarterback?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Since this is the first week of the regular season
and this is the normal rotation, of course, we have
Thursday games, and we have night game, Monday games and
all kinds of things. But what so the team plays Sunday,
you come back on the charter, you go home, Tell
me what happens Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of a of
(09:13):
a typical game week for the team. Obviously, we see
coach Tom Win speaking yesterday, someone's splicing up and dicing
up some film. What happens on Monday, what if anything
happens on Tuesday, and then we'll get to then I'll
have some questions on Wednesday. But let's just take those
first two days first.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Okay, So Monday was what I explained with the film session.
That's okay.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So that's that's it. Monday treatment maybe that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
If you needed well treatments. Treatments always available. There's mandatory
treatment and then there's voluntary treatment. The guys could come
in on their own. But guys who are injured, nicked up,
anything reported from the game, you have to be there Monday.
So okay, that's a non negot So.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
If you if you are, if there's a game report
on you, you have to be there. Yes, Joey Porter
had to be there, Harrison had to be there, Deshaun
Elliott had to be there.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
You know, Nick Herbig who was on the list from
last week, Derek Harmon all have to be there as well,
all right, and then anything new that came up as
well during the game that wasn't necessarily took you out
of the game or questionable in the game, but you
felt it. You know, ankle got rolled up, you know
you got you got a bruise on your thigh, any
(10:24):
of that stuff that you reported and got ice on,
or you know that the trainers had to look at you.
You're in on Monday, so let me ask let me
ask you that.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Let me ask you about that part, right, Okay, So
there are some that are non negotiable. If it's negotiable,
you show up, you don't show up, well, I could
see a professional.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yeah, if you're a professional, your butt better be in there. Okay,
if you're a professional, like, there's no reason for you
to not be at the facility on Monday, even if
and I think that that's the key thing, because if
you're not doing that, you're stretching, you're working on your flexibility,
(11:06):
you're getting your one of your lifts in during the week.
You can knock that out on a Monday, even when
you sore, and that's actually the best time to get
it because you can at least just move your body
and you can work out that soreness. So that's it.
There's a steam room in there you can go hit
steam whatever just to you know, detoxify yourself however you feel.
(11:26):
You know, there's plenty of modality. Heck, there's even like
a massage like pod thing that's in there that's a
full body massager, you know, like those massage chairs, things
that look like a half moon that you get in.
You could even get in that. Like, there's way too
many modalities and different things to help speed up the
(11:47):
recovery process available to the team.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So between getting treatment and you know, getting a workout
in of the fifty three guys, how many guys show
up on Monday, would you say, Well.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
No, everybody has to show up because you have film
session regardless. Oh, everybody's going to be in the facility.
But it's about coming in early versus the time that
the report time is. That's that's that's what I'm talking
about for this part of it. On a Monday now
Tuesdays the official player's day off. So if you're injured,
you still come in, but if you're not injured, this
(12:21):
is a voluntary day to kind of get a jump
on the week, so you could come there. You can
make sure that all your files are downloaded to your
to your tablets, get all your game film cut ups,
whatever you need. I mean, back back when I played,
you know, we didn't have the tablets available to us,
so you didn't have everything at your fingertips. So I
(12:42):
actually had to go in and back then Mac who
ran our video department with Andy and company, you would
go in and you and I would have to you'd
have to request your cutups. And when I first got
in the league that this is this is how fast
modern technology works. When I first got in the league,
I had to ask for VHS's of every single cutup,
(13:03):
and it was a separate VHS for each cutup, so
you had to ask for the VHS. So I would
come in ask for a stack of VHS's all these
different situations. So first down and ten run blitzes, second
and second and long blitz packages, third and short blitz package,
third medium blitz package, third and long blitz package. I
(13:26):
would ask for sack tape. I would add, you know,
I would break down all these different scenarios and I
would get tape on those and then as sophistication of
modern technology. It is probably about my halfway through my
second or my third year in the league, then it
was all everything was on DVDs. So I'd then ask
for the same things and they would break it down
(13:49):
by down, so you'd have all the first down stuff
on one DVD, then all the second down stuff on
one DVD, and then all the third down stuff on
one DVD. And then now is just getting three c
you know, three three discs instead of the stack of VHS's,
so it got more compressed. And then by the end
of it, I think my last two years in the league,
we had the dv sports software and then I had
(14:12):
to download a program onto my iPad and then from
there I would go in and ask them and they
would they would they would push send everything to my
iPad directly. They connect the cagable dongle and then they
would they would put the files in and then it
would be in my iPad ready, take like an hour
for everything to download and transfer, and then I had
(14:34):
it on my I had it on my d on
my actual iPad. So that's the progression. But now because
of the way the new system works, like everything's downloaded
and everything's into file folders, and then you could separate
and have your own personal folder if there's something specific
that you want further broken down and you could literally
go in type keywords and create your own folder. Now,
(14:57):
so that was Tuesday and Tuesday it was also a
left day. Tuesday was also a training set like like
a uh, just just a session in the training room,
but not necessarily getting treatment per se, like you know,
not everybody goes and gets ice stem and hot laser,
cold laser therapy and everything. You could just do a
contrast bath because that's where it was in the training room,
(15:19):
so hot cold therapy, and we would we would we
would get in there and it would be full on
a Tuesday and everybody's rotating. You know. We got the
timer in there and you go. You go from cold
tub for like two to three minutes, then boom you hoping,
hoping hoping the hot tub and back and forth. You
do like four or five rounds of that. Or you
(15:40):
could be like you know, James Harrison and Ryan Clark,
and you could just go and get the big rubber
maid like bins that they had. They were like you know,
portable tubs, and they would just douse it with nothing
but tons and tons of ice and then it's like
it's almost like they did a little bit of water
and then they would just get in there and they
would just freeze their entire body and do the whole
(16:03):
whim Hoff thing and they would be over there in
that session. But we all, but we all. It was community,
it was brotherhood. It was a chance for us. It
was it was creating other opportunities of bonding, because that
bond makes a difference in a team. A team that
can train together, play together, and you know, almost be
(16:26):
like family. I mean, you spend more time with your
teammates during the season than you do your own family.
And there's a certain payoff that comes with that as well,
with that sacrifice. So it's not like you're just doing
it indiscriminately. You know, you're doing this because you don't
know what next year brings or the following year, and
(16:46):
you don't know who's going to be there. All you
have is today. Heck, you don't even know from week
to week if a guy goes on IR. You know,
you follow into obscurity with the team for all intents
and purposes. When there's something where you can't help out,
you just come in for your true your check ups,
You go see the doctors, and you know that's really it.
Like you don't. You're not allowed out of practice. You're
(17:08):
not allowed. You know, you could come to meetings, but
you can come to meetings, but you can't go to practice.
So it's kind of a weird day. You can, so
you leave early and so it's it's a different world.
But you take advantage of these opportunities. And Tuesday is
one of those days where a lot of guys get
in get you because when you have to get into Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
the last thing you want to do is think about, man,
(17:28):
I still got two lifts left, you know, in three days.
Whereas if you come Monday and Tuesday, you've knocked out
most of your work and then you could show up
for what we we We had them days in the
lot in the weight room, so everybody, you know, you
knew by Friday, everybody was gonna go by Friday because
Friday was West Coast Fridays at one point where we
(17:50):
would literally it was a hilarious day because we come
in it'd be all West Coast music in the in
the in the weight room, and you would go out
to practice and we had dudes that would literally that
would spat their cleats and make them like Chuck Taylor's
It's hilarious. So they would do like a whole black
(18:10):
spat on their cleats and then they run the white
tape along the edge of the footing to make it
look like the white soul of of of a of
a converse Chuck Taylor. And then then and then they
had these little cutout circles and they put the circle
on the inside of the cleat, so I mean it
looked like a Chuck Taylor. And so you know, you'd
have guys out there doing that, and you know, the
(18:33):
music that would be played outside would be all West
Coast stuff, and you know, we had that so it
transferred from the from the from the weight room to
the playing field, and guys really had fun with it.
You know, it's Country Thursdays, so everything was country in
in the weight room, and you know, Wednesday was just
irregularly we I don't think we had a theme for that,
(18:54):
but yeah, we had Country Thursdays and we had West
Coast Fridays, so so everybody was in there for West
Coast Friday. And it was also gun show Day, so
it was all just it was all bies and tries.
That was the workout for the day. It was all
it was all to looked good. It's all to looked
good for Sunday. You know, you want, you want, you want,
you want the pump going. So so you have those moments,
and those are moments where you get to bond as
(19:15):
a team. Now I don't know if they still have those.
I don't think they do. But that's what our team did,
and that's what made it. That made the sucky situations
less sucky because you had something to look forward to.
And once again, it's about a brotherhood. It's a bonding
experience that you can look back on and you knew
(19:37):
you had something special. I mean when we see even
when I see my guys today, you know I still
see I still see by boy Roy because Roy is
actually he works for the fire department out here, and
Roy was Roy was the one that started the West
Coast Fridays and so you would go and you would
you know, and we still have that bond to still
talk about that, laugh about that to this day. And
(19:59):
that's what made special. I mean, I'm not gonna say
that was a recipe for us winning Super Bowls, but
I'll say this, we won a lot more games because
we were closer together because we had that accountability to
each other. You know, you you look your brother and
the eye and that was that. That was you knew
you had to you had you had to.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Tap in real quick before we go to break and
and and I just wanted to ask, did you did
guys find you know, city guys wind up like in
country music, East coast guys wind up like in West
coast music.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Or did you just endure it?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
It was? It was it was an endurance race. It
was an endurance race. But I mean, but you did
find songs. And then once you got through it, and
you've done it a couple of weeks, you know, guys
would come in and and and they would sing the
part of the song that they knew, you know, hey,
part of the song. I was like, man, who sings
that again? Alan Jackson? Who's that all right? Man? Hey? Yeah?
(20:54):
Wait down under in the Chattahoochee, you know, I mean, hey,
let's let's get it. Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I don't know if you can still find the great
piece that the Nate Hogan and the rest of the
Steelers production staff put together on the origin of Renegade,
but it's it's great. You know Joey Port said, I
thought for years was called oh Mama. Yeah, very funny,
(21:19):
good stuff, fun stuff that happens. Max peeling behind the
curtain for us inside the locker room. We still have
plenty more to come. Of course, it's WEX Wednesday. We're
gonna be looking forward to the key matchups. We begin
to look forward to the key matchups between the Steelers
and the Seahawks, and you know, an update on the
injury news after Mike Tomlin spoke yesterday. Plenty more still
to come. Inside the Locker Room with King and Starks
(21:40):
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop
dot Steelers dot.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Com and welcome back inside the locker room and Max
just kind of finishing up as our first trip to
the locker room, but this is our first time coming
off of Steelers game inside the locker room and getting
ready for the next game. So she talked about the
treatment to film sessions, the bonding that happens in the
early part of the week for the team. Is Wednesday
(22:27):
more about correcting your mistakes getting ready for the opponent?
Is it a combination of the two? Just take us
through like a Wednesday practice. Is it a lighter practice,
you know, as guys are still recovering, you know, does
it get physical? Take everybody through what happens on a Wednesday?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
No? No, absolutely not. Wednesday is the toughest practice of
the week. Okay, Wednesday is that is day one Seattle Seahawks.
So you are installing the entire game plan on Wednesday.
You're going out to practice. You're wrapping a lot of
the situations. This is the this is the quote unquote
(23:07):
throw throw everything at the board and the wall and
see what sticks. You're throwing darts in the dark. You're
throwing everything. Now you're making a calculated decision based on
the film review of your advanced scouting and the breakdown
of tape that's already happened by the by members of
the staff. Usually that's happened by your quality control, your
offensive and defensive assistance. They've already broken down the game tape,
(23:30):
which in this case is usually if there's a significant
game of playing time where you get the most starters,
you're breaking down that in the preseason, plus this one game,
and as you get further into the season, it's a
three game breakdown. So that's already been established.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
What do you mean by a three game breakdown? What
does that mean?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
That means you take the previous three games and you
break those down. Remember while I was telling you about
the film that I was requesting, right, Yes, for self
scouting first out, This for self scouting, but also game
planning purposes. Okay, so you're you're watching the previo. You're
watching the opponent in the previous three games. What they
do on first down, what's their tendencies, what they do
(24:14):
on second down? What's their tendencies. They're watching the opponent's
first three games. Yeah, the opponent. Yeah, sorry, no, no,
you meant your own three games. I beg your pardon, No, no,
because you've already done that on Monday. You've watched the
previous game. You're not going back three games to watch
what you've done because you've already done it. Every single week,
the opponent is its own is its own kind of
(24:35):
kind of a cat cat.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Little I'm a little fuzzy on the slow on the UPTA.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
No, it's all good, it's all good, but uh but
so so you're gonna watch, so you're gonna have those
breakdowns and based off of their tendencies that they have,
you're now going to install said offense or defense for
those tendencies. Because you're trying to figure out what plays
will be you'll have the most success on. You want
to run those right, and so you have that and
(25:05):
you'll go through practice with with your You'll have your
scout team versus your versus that first squad, and you'll
rep through a lot of plays in practice in a
lot of different situations. You'll have your periods kind of
how we had in training camp where you'll have inside run.
You'll you'll still have your seven shots. This is also
the day where you have your competitive period. So it's
(25:26):
ones on ones, competitive seven seven plays and whoever went,
you know, who wins out of that day. You know,
we used to call it steeler on steeler and it
was five plays at the end of practice. They now do,
I believe seven shots at the beginning of practice so
kind of the same format. If you're a Steeler fan,
you've been out to training camp, you've kind of seen
how the format goes. But instead of it being t
(25:49):
J Watt on Troy Fatano in practice, whereas ones on ones,
twos on twos, threes on threes, this is scout team
versus the first team offense team versus the first team defense,
and whatever the situation is going to be, whether it's
inside run, outside run, play action, first down only you
(26:11):
know first the second down run mix, and you're gonna
go through all of that in practice. That's what a
Wednesday is, and that's that's what Wednesday gets you ready for.
It's your first introduction to the Seattle Seahawks up in
the meetings before you get out to practice, you will
have your breakdown on who they are to this point.
(26:31):
You know, this is a team that you know, had
a tough game, just lost to San Francisco, but it
was a tight game. Here's what they did well, here's
the stats, and then that's your introduction from coach Tomlin.
Then offensively, you'll talk you know, Arthur will get up there,
he'll talk about the principles, they points of emphasis for today.
(26:53):
In practice, and then from there you'll get your individual
breakdowns where you'll get their personnel groups, what they like
to do. Here's here are the faces, here's the depth chart.
Here's how the rotation went, snap split, however you want
to look at it. Here's a guy that's more app
to come in on third downs. Here's the personnel grouping
(27:14):
they like to run out of the third downs, or
they eleven personnel team or they twelve personnel team. You
get all of that information before you get on the field,
and then you go and you wrap through all the
plays in practice, and then from there you'll come back
after practice, you'll watch the game film or the practice
film from practice that day, and you'll go through your assignments,
(27:37):
what you missed, key emphasis, footwork. However, however, you take notes,
and that's always a big thing is how do you
process and take notes? You know what, what what are
you keying in on? How what are your habits for
how you do this? And so that's how a Wednesday goes.
And a Wednesday is a very intense day, that is
(27:57):
a very fully loaded day. That's a long day in
the office because you know you're not leaving the office
most times. I'll say this because there's always exceptions to
every rule. You're not leaving that office till about six
six thirty at the earliest, and notoriously. You know, back
in our day, you know, sometimes we stayed to the
(28:18):
wee hours and uh, you know, we had to have
wives and girlfriends bring in food to the facility for us.
You know, it was always a designated one or two,
you know, every week, Hey, who's got the food tonight?
Because because we're gonna be here for a while, because
you know, lunch staff that, you know, the kitchen staff
they leave and everything else. But we used to have
we used to have them bring in food for us,
(28:41):
and we would we would, we would, we would revel
in the bonding experience, so to speak. And it usually
usually was over cards or pool. So yeah, so we
spent a lot of time together. But that was a Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So a couple of things here. First of all, as
an aside, a doff of the cap to the people
putting together all the films and splicing everything up. So
you guys get back presumably Sunday from the trip, You
get in your car, you go home, you try to
get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You get after it. You get up Monday, and you
get back into the facility. When you walk into the facility.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
That tape is already cut, which just reminds me Max
a little bit of you know, Sir Edmund Hillary, you know,
climbing to the top of Everest And this really I
saw the Imax movie ever, so I don't know if
you ever saw it, But the guy gets to the
top and he's jumping up and down and you realize,
you know, and the same thing with Sir Edmund Hillary.
(29:41):
You realize somebody is shooting that right, somebody is you know,
somebody took the picture of Edmund Hillary. And that guy
who took the picture of Edmund Hillary, the first guy
on top of Mount Everest, had seventy five pounds of
gear strap to his back, his stuff and Edmund Hillary's
and to end the camera by the way, you know
what I mean. So there's you know, behind the seages,
(30:01):
everyone's talking about Sir Edmun Hillary, and everybody's talking about
the players. I don't know if this is that good
of an analogy, but somebody's there. Somebody's there making sure
all that stuff is prepared properly. So it's off of
the cap, to the to the to the coaching staff,
who I'm sure starts the process on the plane. But
when everybody lands and goes home, those guys are probably
going to the facility and getting some work done so
(30:22):
that you guys can get your proper work done throughout
the course of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
I mean it is a long day for players.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I know talking to some of the offensive linemen last year,
you know they're talking about getting to the facility at
five point thirty in the morning and not leaving, as
you mentioned, till six o'clock at night. They could whoa man.
That is a long day every day throughout the course
of the season. So a lot of work that goes
in that people probably don't realize from the staff but
also from the players themselves how long some of these
(30:52):
days are. And Wednesday sounds not so much physically grueling
as mentally taxing to me, Max more than anything else.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Uh No, make no mistake about it. The physicality is
there too, okay, Because you have to remember, forty six
guys played. There's fifty three guys on a roster plus
sixteen guys of that practice squad. Guess who didn't play
and guess who still has energy. It doesn't have the
bunks of the bruises, so the scout team that you're
gonna see that day. So no, it is. It is physically.
(31:22):
It is physically taxing. And you know, the one thing
we always said, you know, you never wanted to see
Hoky bro on a Wednesday and Thursday if he if
he didn't get a lot of reps, because that energy
had to get burnt off somehow, right, I believe it.
So so yeah, no, no, So it is. It is
a it is a complete taxing of whatever energy you
have mentally and physically. And some of those games, I mean, listen,
(31:46):
you know not all weeks are cut the same. Some
Wednesdays you come out there a little bit more spry
than others. But listen, Wednesday after a Ravens game back
when we played who Yeah, I mean it was it
was you know, you're talking about walking on eggshells. That's
what it felt like. Like you're just you're just trying
to get Like, listen, I'm just trying to get through
the day.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
I was like, let'sten, we gotta we gotta talk this out. Listen,
I get it. You need to get yours. I gotta
get mine. But there's levels to.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
This, you know.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
I mean and your body you don't want to move
and listen. If you're not in the facility on Monday
after a Ravens week, you have done yourself a disservice.
You have literally done yourself a disservice. I don't care
if it was a victory Monday or not. There there
was a loss somewhere. You know, part of your soul
was left on that field, so you have to go
try and try and reclaim it and find and find
(32:34):
fractions of it and try to sew it back together
or use some popsicle sticks as a bubblegup to get
it back together. Because you got the next opponent right
after them, So it was. It was definitely one of
those things where it was a very physical brand of
football we played, and your body paid the toll. So
that's why you have to get there and get to
the we called it the mechanic shop. You gotta go
(32:54):
get to the mechanic shop and get everything adjusted and
refitted and get your all changed.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You know, I love this, and I hope people listening
love this. It's to me, it's fascinating the process you
guys have to go through and what happens kind of
behind the scenes here is Max is filling us in
my one last question.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Before we'll get back to the studs for Seattle.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
We'll just go through this once because this is our
first this is our first game week, right, uh, and
just kind of getting an idea of what happens and
what you're going through. But so let's go back to Monday.
You watch the film and it didn't you know you
had some struggles?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Are you expected to self correct or will there be
I mean once you get to Wednesday and Thursday. You're
a pro, obviously, but we're talking specifically about Wednesday. Once
you get to Wednesday, are you expected to self correct
those things or maybe you get together with your with
your line coach and get things figured out. And are
you straight on to game prep with that thought in
(33:56):
your mind? Hey, I got beat on the inside. I
can't get beat this week by Leonard Williams or whoever
you're going to be facing. Or is there some time
spent you know during those practice Yesinger, or is it
up to you.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
It's up to the player. You're highly compensated for that
very thing you're compensated to make those corrections. This isn't
college anymore. This is a job, and if you can't
do the job, they'll replace you. So whatever you need now,
the coaches are available for you. You can ask questions
(34:29):
at any moment. If you need a little extra time
in the meeting room or you need extra time on
the field, that's up to you. Whatever you deem is necessary.
Nobody's going to hold your hand in this process, and
you've got to make your own corrections because happens once,
that's a mistake, happens twice. It's a habit. So what
are you going to do to prevent those negative habits
(34:51):
and reinforce those good habits? Up to you. If you
need to do extra, extra extra training after practice, you
do that. I mean, listen famously. I know you know
it's a polarizing name to say, but Antonio Brown had
the most dogged work ethic of any teammate I've ever
(35:13):
had my entire life, from high school all the way
through my professional career, nobody worked harder than eighty four.
And for whatever else we want to say about him
off the field, on the field, completely different human being
and the most locked in relentless, self correcting human I've
(35:40):
ever been around in that part. We could argue the
other semantics, but as a professional football player between the
white lines, in my time in Pittsburgh, no human being
worked harder, no human beings spent more time perfecting his
craft than Antonio Brown, and nobody had to tell him
(36:01):
to do it. He watched the older guys and he
mimicked until he figured out what worked best for him.
And if it was one hundred ball, it was one
hundred balls off the jugs machine after practice. It was
one hundred balls off the judge machine after practice. If
it was twenty five punt returns with the jugs machine
shooting the ball at him, it was twenty five balls
(36:24):
shooting at the juge machine after him, after one hundred
shots on the jug machine. It was running sprints. It
was whether it was hundreds or half gassers picked the day,
whether you needed the resistance band belt or not, whatever
it was. Marvel Smith the most unorthodox tackle stance of
(36:45):
all time. He worked that he'd had the rip belt on.
And the rip belt is this belt you put around
your waist and there's a velcrow handle and you have
one person on one end holding the handle and you
snapped to release it to create to create that energy,
to create that force that you need and power to
(37:06):
get into your position, get to your stance quicker than
the man can get out of his stance. Whatever you needed,
you figured it out. I mean we and we had
for a long time. And this is what I used
to do. It was it was called a reaction board
or a light board, and it had it was this
big board and it had these little white dots on
it and they lit up and you had to stare
(37:28):
at the middle and you have to and you have
to hit it. You have to hit that. He had
to hit it with your hands. It was a reaction
drill to work on your reaction timing. And we had
a contest. The entire offensive line used to come in
there and we and we would go through that to
see who had the fastest reactions. That everything is a competition,
right of course. It was always whoo who had more
(37:48):
than the other guy? You know, and you had sixty
seconds to do it. We would go through that. Just
whatever you could take, whatever edge you could create for yourself,
you did it because everything was open to you. It's
not like, oh, we're off the field. Fields closed. Sorry,
Pitt's about to come out here. No, we didn't care
because we had fields one and two, pitthead fields three
(38:10):
and four. We have plenty of space. So whatever you
needed to get done after practice, you did. And that's
that's on you. That's your makeup or whether, like I said,
whether you fake it till you make it. Everybody else
is outside, so I'm outside. Everybody's in the weight room.
I'm in the weight room, right. Everybody's in the cold tub,
in the hot tub. I'm in the cold tub, in
(38:31):
the hot tub. As a young guy, you you're a
duckling in the beginning of this process because you don't
know what you don't know because you don't have any experience,
and you glean from the experience of others, especially veterans. Hell,
that's the reason why they're there. I might as well
follow him. If there's a guy that's been in the
league nine years, I need to do exactly what he's
doing so I can make sure that I last nine
years in the league. Right, you know, this guy's been
(38:54):
here twelve. I need to follow whatever the hell he's doing.
I need to do exactly that. Oh man and then
along the figure out my own, my own process. That's
so awesome, man, Listen, I hope I. I just spent
the entirety of this first thirty five minutes to show
the big grin in my face. I love my I
love this behind the scenes look Max, thanks for taking
(39:15):
us through it. I just think it's it's very very
cool and so much more involved than people probably have
any idea about.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
We have to take a break because we are running
extremely long, but we're gonna get ready. We have a
West Wednesday. We're gonna get you ready for the Steelers
and Seahawks. Plenty more still to come. Inside the Locker
Room with King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford
Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
The F one fifty is the official truck of.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
The Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shot. Get it
direct from the team at the Steelers Pro Shot at
shop dot Steelers dot co on.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
We are as they stay in the business heavy, which
means we've gone too long. The first couple of segments
and then apparently have time to get a couple of
words here, uh, waiting for a WEX wedd WEX Wednesday.
We're gonna get over the hump in the next half
hour and Max talk about the Seattle Seahawks team and
can't wait to get into the specific matchups as the
(40:24):
shooters look to go from one and oh to two
and oh.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yes, we are about to get ready for the Seattle
portion of it. Well, one more review here, and of
course our good friend James Wexel or Jim Wexsell. I
guess I should say I shouldn't use the full government
out there. Jim Lex will be joined us at the
top of the hour. We also have injury news to
bring you guys, as well as far as how the
(40:49):
tail of the tape happened. With that, we've had some
decisions made and some some situation, so we'll discuss that more.
That's what we call I guess what properties right there?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's a properties, that's a properties yep, And we're gonna
get to all that stuff and more. There are some
there are some fascinating matchups in this game, really fascinating,
and we're going to dive into that. Jim wexell is
gonna join us on a wex Wednesday as we get
over with you know, this is the this is the
pre hump to the hump, right, Yeah, So I mean
(41:21):
once we get to twelve o'clock or I beg your pardon,
eleven o'clock, the second hour of the locker Room, we're
on right, We're on the down side, right, We're on
the we're slides.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Through the week, hit the summit. We peaked in this show.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, but but not just metaphorically, right, metaphorically our best
information is still to come.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yes, it is right right, it's sweeter. Hey, listen, nobody's
ever said, man, I hate walking downstairs versus walking up.
I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
So we're gonna walk down where we are gonna get
you ready for the Steelers and the Seahawks. Jim wexlel
joining us next when we continue inside the locker Room
with King and Starks, presented by your Neighborhood Forward Story
here on the Steelers Audio Network
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!