June 4, 2024 • 12 mins
Aaron Smith sits down with Rob King to talk about his football career and more
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
So growing up football wasn't your first love?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Wasn't no, no, you know, as a kid, I played everything.
Whatever it was in season was my sport. But really
at my first love was basketball. And so I actually,
it's funny, it's just a funny story. I played basketball
all the way up until ninth grade. And in ninth
grade football all my buddies went to play football, and
(00:28):
so I was stuck with nobody to play with. And
and so they all went to camp and they were
like a week in the camp and they're like, I
didn't have anybody play pit basketball with. So they're like, Aaron,
won't you play football. I'm like, guys, I don't really
want to play football. I'm a basketball guy. So then uh,
I decided to go out for football. And I'm pretty
good at football. I'm playing free safety and wide receiver
and tied end at the time, right, And then halfway
(00:50):
through the year they moved me up to varsity and
we're the number one team in the state and varsity
and I'm playing a little bit. And so basketball season starts,
they have trials cause were deep in the playoffs, and
I'm like, I don't wanna play football, num One, So
I went to the coach and actually quit during the playoffs,
and he looked at me like, are you crazy?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Work going to win the state championship? We might get
a ring.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I'm like, I don't care. I wanna go play basketball.
He's like, are you gotta even mind? We don't move
freshman up. So I didn't even play.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I quit. I go play basketball. My sophomore year.
I didn't even play basketball.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Our football they begged me and begged me, and I'm like, no,
I don't wanna play football. So I didn't even play
my sophomore year high school. So really I didn't play
my first two years of high school. My junior going
to my junior, my high school basketball coach who's probably
the closest thing to her father I had, comes to me.
He says, you're prett good at football. You should probably
play both. You could double your options. So I go
out and I want to make up make all state
(01:40):
in both my junior ands and then my senior year,
and then I had to.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Choose which one to do.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And my high school basketball coach he said, you know,
there's twenty two starters in football, there's only five in basketball,
and you know six or five guy in basketball is
pretty common. It's not on it's not common in football.
And that's where it kind of led me to football.
I didn't really be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Fall in love with football time college.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And then when I got to college, and that's all
I really that's when I started the fall.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Move with the sport.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So now you get to Northern Colorado, how do you
go from there to the NFL? What happened? I mean,
that's not obviously big school, no.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So when I got to Northern Colorado, I was a
basketball guy. I never lifted away, I never trained. I
only did football just during football season. Everything else was basketball,
non stop, NonStop. And so I got there. I obviously
had the red shirt because I was two hundred and
five pounds playing defensive ends.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I wasn't playing basketball.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I put thirty five pounds on that first red shirt
year just because I.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Was lifting, coming from a single home where I was
probably eating one meal a day.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And then you could go to my second my red
shirt freshman year after being red shirted, and I wind
up starting four years and we went two back to
back national championships, All American Defensive Player of the Year
in the country like every one year. I think it
was my junior year. All the way, we will national champions.
I have twenty two and a half sacks. Then I
wind up getting inter in the draft and go to
the Stewards. Which is funny because you know, when you
(02:56):
get drafted, you have all these perspective like, oh, this
team's interested, your agents tell you, and I don't remember
the Steelers ever being on that list, you know, And
it's kind of like when they call, it was kind
of like whoa.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
It just there's a surprise.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And when you think out, I was going to Philly,
I was going to Seattle or Arizona, and I wind
up to.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Hear So you were a basketball guy, were you aware
of the Steelers? I mean, did you follow the NFL?
You know what kind of a team you're going on?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, I was still a football fan, and obviously It's
what's funny is the Steelers were one of my favorite
teams even growing up and called out I didn't.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Like the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Me and my one of my brothers loved the Steelers
through and through, and I actually loved the Steelers, like
when Kevin Green was here and Greg Lloyd, Kevin Green
was my favorite player at ninety one. So for my birthday,
one of my best friends gave me a you know,
it was eight by tens you can buy a players.
I got a picture of Kevin Green, you know, and so,
which was funny because you fast forward when Kevin was
(03:50):
helping out a camp. Kevin Green came up show and
we were actually hanging out in the pool between one
practices one time, and I'm like, hey, I don't want
to make this weird and awkward, but like you my
favorite player growing up.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
That's why I kind of chose ninety one. And he's like, oh,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Kevin, you know Kevin, Oh that's cool, you know, But
it just was kind of funny how that worked out.
That was always one of my favorite teams growing.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Up, and you had to play a specific style. You're
asked to absorb blocked. He didn't have the freedom that
we see now in today's Yeah, you had forty four stocks.
You had to double that if you were playing in
a different system, if you're playing a four to three.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I think I'd like to think so.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So like when I was at Northern car Rade of
we played a four man front and I was on
the end and I just you just shot the gaps,
got upfield, made plays right. And so then when I
first got here and they said, listen, I want you
to line up in front of this guy who's four
and she was taller than you, fifty pounds heavy than you,
and then take him on and the other guy and
just hold them so his backer.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I was like, you out of your mind, like that,
think that makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So as you learn the system works, and like I was,
I was, Me and hamp were talking. I would rather
win two super then have forty or twelve sacks a year.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well you got plenty. You made a Pro Bowl. That's
not easy to do as a three to four tackle
or andever you want to call it.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I don't. I'm not complaining.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
But there was times like where I had to play
the B gap so I was inside the tackle.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I had to play the B gap on the run.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
When I realized it was passed, I had to cross
completely across the tackle to get outside to the C
gap for contained, which tells you you're not going to
make You have no chance of getting the sack, you
know what I mean. So you got to kind of
humble yourself and buy into the system. And that's just
and I was lucky because the guys I played with.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Made it easy to buy into the system.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know, you have great players around you, people that
you love and you admire, and you trust them that
they're going to make the play.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You do your job and they'll do their job. Give
me that.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Before I get onto the team stuff, I have to
say this. You made the Sports Illustrated All Decade Team.
And again, when you think about a three four were
defensive tackle, defensive and that has to show you what
kind of respect there was for you as a player
around the league because you didn't have the opportunity to
put up the stame statistics because of the style of defense.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That was quite the honor. When I got named on now,
I was kind of shocked.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I knew what my position required and the stats that
I put up compared to what these other guys are
getting to do.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
For the people the football community.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
To recognize that and see what I was able to do,
it was it was humbling and honoring to be honest
with you.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
To be on that list.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean, I think if you people, most people probably
went back and look at that list.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I'm probably the one red flag. They're like, what who's
this guy? Like? How did he make this?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
But I think you know, if football guys that know
the game, they understand who's doing what. It's kind of
like you if you know baseball, you can watch you
some people get ingnamored with this guy, but you know
who the guy really is that's doing the work and
making things happen.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
What you like win in that first super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
The first one is the most stress I've ever felt
in my life. To explain it in context of people, So,
this isn't something I decided I wanted.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
To do when I graduated college.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It isn't something I decided I wanted to do when
I was a senior in high school.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Like this was probably four.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Or five six I watched my first super Bowl, and
I wanted to win a super Bowl. So if you
take your entire life's work and you put it in
that one opportunity in one moment, and you may never
get back, that kind of gives you a context of
the s the internal pressure you place upon yourself. Right
like I've been I've been doing this for twenty five
(07:31):
thirty years, and this might be the only chance I
ever get to make this happen.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So, yeah, I didn't enjoy the week of the game.
I enjoyed the game.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
But I'll tell you what, after that game was done,
there's nothing like it. Like it's like the weight of
the world, cause it's off your shoulders like and then
to hold your children and your wife and to sit
out there and hold that trophy, like to celebrate with
people you care about like you can't, you can't really
can't describe the feeling that it is. But I'll tell
you the The funny thing is, I was that after
that day you enjoy you wake up the next one,
(08:01):
all right, back to work, Time to start climbing the
mountain again.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Did you enjoy the second one more because you've been
through it?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, you learn to appreciate.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I think the fact that you have one, You learn
to appreciate the week and the media and all the
experiences you have.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Leading up to that.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
And then that one's special to me because that's the
year my son got sick and so he got to
come to that game, which he was not we did
not think he was gonna get to go to. And
he got to hold the trophy on the field too,
So that was a special one to me too.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
You know, another measure of respect, And we've talked about
this that because of your career what you were asked
to do, sometimes respect had to come from outside or internally,
or from other sources than just the natural plaudits. But
Mike Tomlin kept you on the roster when you're injured
for the whole season, Yeah, hoping that you'd be able
to come back for this secy. Well, that's kind of
(08:49):
a cool.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It was, it was, it was, it was. It was
an honor and much respect.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
But it was the hardest year for me personally, and
I felt good about it.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
But to be injured and every week.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Come back and answer your guys's questions and everybody's questions,
and then to try.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
To you're working and working and you're just not making the.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Progress fast enough and you know where you're supposed to be,
and it's just it was hard.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It was hard.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And then we were lucky. We were winning. We were
very successful. But yeah, I wish I would have if
I could go back and change one thing that I
wish I would have played in that Super Bowl. That's
the one memory I think like, if I I would
have wrote it until that arm felt off like I
wouldn't even I would have said, all right, let's go.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I don't care catch that's the one thing that you
would have done differently. What's the one or two things
you look back at with the most pride or joy
when you look back at your career, whether it's your
teammates or accomplishments, or winning the Super Bowl, just playing
in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Probably my most proud is my relationship with my teammates.
Just when you see those guys and the way we
talk and care about each other, and just those relationships
that we built through those times. That's probably the most
proud I am living it, the success I think that
we had collectively and individually, and the longevity of it,
because it's easy to be successful for one or two years,
but to do it for a long period time is it's.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Hard, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And then just being the man and creating the family
that I did through that process. Like when I'm retired now,
so I see my kids and they all come home
and my family is happy and healthy and thriving, and
I know that I've done it while I played, which
is not easy.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It gives me a sense of pride.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The Hall of honor.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
What does that mean for you? It's unbelievable. It's humbling.
I mean it's hard to describe. Like I didn't think
I was gonna make it, to be honest with you, like,
I know how good I played, my teammates not but
but for people outside to say that, it doesn't really
get recognized. And I don't really care because I know,
at the end of the day, I lay my head down,
I know I did my job. But for them to
(10:51):
acknowledge that, and then for I mean organization like the Steelers,
when there's so many great players, Like there's so many players,
one of the best players that ever played the game
of football are part of this organization. So to be
put on that wall with those guys and mentioned in
the same name with the guys on that wall is humbling.
(11:12):
I mean it's sometimes I almost think, do I really
belong with these guys. I mean, you got Joe Green,
who might have been arguably the best football player to
ever play football. I'm gonna go bias, but he might
have been the best football player. And I'm standing next
to him, and they're like, what this guy ninety one dude,
compared to this guy? You know, so it's an honor
and honestly, the organization is probably the best sports organization
in the world.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
At the end of the day. In my life, you.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Win Super Bowls, you win national championships, College All Americans,
pro balls. Right, so your life doesn't really change. We
all like to think it does. And but you still
go home, and you still put kids to bed, you
still mowing the yard. You still have to do those things, right,
it doesn't stop. And a friend of mine told me,
and this is probably the coolest thing that summed it
up to me. He goes, you know, long after you're
(11:55):
dead and I'm dead, Aaron, your face will still be
on that wall and grandkids and your great grandkids can
still come to it. Now that that's when it kind
of hit me, like how cool that was, Like I'll
be long guy to my my my generations of my
kids and grandkids will go on and they can.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Still see it.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So that's that really put it in perspective to me,
like this is this is a little different, the legacy
that's being left behind.
So growing up football wasn't your first love?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Wasn't no, no, you know, as a kid, I played everything.
Whatever it was in season was my sport. But really
at my first love was basketball. And so I actually,
it's funny, it's just a funny story. I played basketball
all the way up until ninth grade. And in ninth
grade football all my buddies went to play football, and
(00:28):
so I was stuck with nobody to play with. And
and so they all went to camp and they were
like a week in the camp and they're like, I
didn't have anybody play pit basketball with. So they're like, Aaron,
won't you play football. I'm like, guys, I don't really
want to play football. I'm a basketball guy. So then uh,
I decided to go out for football. And I'm pretty
good at football. I'm playing free safety and wide receiver
and tied end at the time, right, And then halfway
(00:50):
through the year they moved me up to varsity and
we're the number one team in the state and varsity
and I'm playing a little bit. And so basketball season starts,
they have trials cause were deep in the playoffs, and
I'm like, I don't wanna play football, num One, So
I went to the coach and actually quit during the playoffs,
and he looked at me like, are you crazy?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Work going to win the state championship? We might get
a ring.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I'm like, I don't care. I wanna go play basketball.
He's like, are you gotta even mind? We don't move
freshman up. So I didn't even play.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I quit. I go play basketball. My sophomore year.
I didn't even play basketball.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Our football they begged me and begged me, and I'm like, no,
I don't wanna play football. So I didn't even play
my sophomore year high school. So really I didn't play
my first two years of high school. My junior going
to my junior, my high school basketball coach who's probably
the closest thing to her father I had, comes to me.
He says, you're prett good at football. You should probably
play both. You could double your options. So I go
out and I want to make up make all state
(01:40):
in both my junior ands and then my senior year,
and then I had to.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Choose which one to do.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And my high school basketball coach he said, you know,
there's twenty two starters in football, there's only five in basketball,
and you know six or five guy in basketball is
pretty common. It's not on it's not common in football.
And that's where it kind of led me to football.
I didn't really be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Fall in love with football time college.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And then when I got to college, and that's all
I really that's when I started the fall.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Move with the sport.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So now you get to Northern Colorado, how do you
go from there to the NFL? What happened? I mean,
that's not obviously big school, no.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So when I got to Northern Colorado, I was a
basketball guy. I never lifted away, I never trained. I
only did football just during football season. Everything else was basketball,
non stop, NonStop. And so I got there. I obviously
had the red shirt because I was two hundred and
five pounds playing defensive ends.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I wasn't playing basketball.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I put thirty five pounds on that first red shirt
year just because I.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Was lifting, coming from a single home where I was
probably eating one meal a day.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And then you could go to my second my red
shirt freshman year after being red shirted, and I wind
up starting four years and we went two back to
back national championships, All American Defensive Player of the Year
in the country like every one year. I think it
was my junior year. All the way, we will national champions.
I have twenty two and a half sacks. Then I
wind up getting inter in the draft and go to
the Stewards. Which is funny because you know, when you
(02:56):
get drafted, you have all these perspective like, oh, this
team's interested, your agents tell you, and I don't remember
the Steelers ever being on that list, you know, And
it's kind of like when they call, it was kind
of like whoa.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
It just there's a surprise.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And when you think out, I was going to Philly,
I was going to Seattle or Arizona, and I wind
up to.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Hear So you were a basketball guy, were you aware
of the Steelers? I mean, did you follow the NFL?
You know what kind of a team you're going on?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, I was still a football fan, and obviously It's
what's funny is the Steelers were one of my favorite
teams even growing up and called out I didn't.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Like the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Me and my one of my brothers loved the Steelers
through and through, and I actually loved the Steelers, like
when Kevin Green was here and Greg Lloyd, Kevin Green
was my favorite player at ninety one. So for my birthday,
one of my best friends gave me a you know,
it was eight by tens you can buy a players.
I got a picture of Kevin Green, you know, and so,
which was funny because you fast forward when Kevin was
(03:50):
helping out a camp. Kevin Green came up show and
we were actually hanging out in the pool between one
practices one time, and I'm like, hey, I don't want
to make this weird and awkward, but like you my
favorite player growing up.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
That's why I kind of chose ninety one. And he's like, oh,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Kevin, you know Kevin, Oh that's cool, you know, But
it just was kind of funny how that worked out.
That was always one of my favorite teams growing.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Up, and you had to play a specific style. You're
asked to absorb blocked. He didn't have the freedom that
we see now in today's Yeah, you had forty four stocks.
You had to double that if you were playing in
a different system, if you're playing a four to three.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I think I'd like to think so.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So like when I was at Northern car Rade of
we played a four man front and I was on
the end and I just you just shot the gaps,
got upfield, made plays right. And so then when I
first got here and they said, listen, I want you
to line up in front of this guy who's four
and she was taller than you, fifty pounds heavy than you,
and then take him on and the other guy and
just hold them so his backer.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I was like, you out of your mind, like that,
think that makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So as you learn the system works, and like I was,
I was, Me and hamp were talking. I would rather
win two super then have forty or twelve sacks a year.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well you got plenty. You made a Pro Bowl. That's
not easy to do as a three to four tackle
or andever you want to call it.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I don't. I'm not complaining.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
But there was times like where I had to play
the B gap so I was inside the tackle.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I had to play the B gap on the run.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
When I realized it was passed, I had to cross
completely across the tackle to get outside to the C
gap for contained, which tells you you're not going to
make You have no chance of getting the sack, you
know what I mean. So you got to kind of
humble yourself and buy into the system. And that's just
and I was lucky because the guys I played with.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Made it easy to buy into the system.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know, you have great players around you, people that
you love and you admire, and you trust them that
they're going to make the play.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You do your job and they'll do their job. Give
me that.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Before I get onto the team stuff, I have to
say this. You made the Sports Illustrated All Decade Team.
And again, when you think about a three four were
defensive tackle, defensive and that has to show you what
kind of respect there was for you as a player
around the league because you didn't have the opportunity to
put up the stame statistics because of the style of defense.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That was quite the honor. When I got named on now,
I was kind of shocked.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I knew what my position required and the stats that
I put up compared to what these other guys are
getting to do.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
For the people the football community.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
To recognize that and see what I was able to do,
it was it was humbling and honoring to be honest
with you.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
To be on that list.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean, I think if you people, most people probably
went back and look at that list.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I'm probably the one red flag. They're like, what who's
this guy? Like? How did he make this?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
But I think you know, if football guys that know
the game, they understand who's doing what. It's kind of
like you if you know baseball, you can watch you
some people get ingnamored with this guy, but you know
who the guy really is that's doing the work and
making things happen.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
What you like win in that first super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
The first one is the most stress I've ever felt
in my life. To explain it in context of people, So,
this isn't something I decided I wanted.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
To do when I graduated college.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It isn't something I decided I wanted to do when
I was a senior in high school.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Like this was probably four.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Or five six I watched my first super Bowl, and
I wanted to win a super Bowl. So if you
take your entire life's work and you put it in
that one opportunity in one moment, and you may never
get back, that kind of gives you a context of
the s the internal pressure you place upon yourself. Right
like I've been I've been doing this for twenty five
(07:31):
thirty years, and this might be the only chance I
ever get to make this happen.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So, yeah, I didn't enjoy the week of the game.
I enjoyed the game.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
But I'll tell you what, after that game was done,
there's nothing like it. Like it's like the weight of
the world, cause it's off your shoulders like and then
to hold your children and your wife and to sit
out there and hold that trophy, like to celebrate with
people you care about like you can't, you can't really
can't describe the feeling that it is. But I'll tell
you the The funny thing is, I was that after
that day you enjoy you wake up the next one,
(08:01):
all right, back to work, Time to start climbing the
mountain again.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Did you enjoy the second one more because you've been
through it?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, you learn to appreciate.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I think the fact that you have one, You learn
to appreciate the week and the media and all the
experiences you have.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Leading up to that.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
And then that one's special to me because that's the
year my son got sick and so he got to
come to that game, which he was not we did
not think he was gonna get to go to. And
he got to hold the trophy on the field too,
So that was a special one to me too.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
You know, another measure of respect, And we've talked about
this that because of your career what you were asked
to do, sometimes respect had to come from outside or internally,
or from other sources than just the natural plaudits. But
Mike Tomlin kept you on the roster when you're injured
for the whole season, Yeah, hoping that you'd be able
to come back for this secy. Well, that's kind of
(08:49):
a cool.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It was, it was, it was, it was. It was
an honor and much respect.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
But it was the hardest year for me personally, and
I felt good about it.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
But to be injured and every week.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Come back and answer your guys's questions and everybody's questions,
and then to try.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
To you're working and working and you're just not making the.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Progress fast enough and you know where you're supposed to be,
and it's just it was hard.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It was hard.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And then we were lucky. We were winning. We were
very successful. But yeah, I wish I would have if
I could go back and change one thing that I
wish I would have played in that Super Bowl. That's
the one memory I think like, if I I would
have wrote it until that arm felt off like I
wouldn't even I would have said, all right, let's go.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I don't care catch that's the one thing that you
would have done differently. What's the one or two things
you look back at with the most pride or joy
when you look back at your career, whether it's your
teammates or accomplishments, or winning the Super Bowl, just playing
in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Probably my most proud is my relationship with my teammates.
Just when you see those guys and the way we
talk and care about each other, and just those relationships
that we built through those times. That's probably the most
proud I am living it, the success I think that
we had collectively and individually, and the longevity of it,
because it's easy to be successful for one or two years,
but to do it for a long period time is it's.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Hard, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And then just being the man and creating the family
that I did through that process. Like when I'm retired now,
so I see my kids and they all come home
and my family is happy and healthy and thriving, and
I know that I've done it while I played, which
is not easy.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It gives me a sense of pride.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The Hall of honor.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
What does that mean for you? It's unbelievable. It's humbling.
I mean it's hard to describe. Like I didn't think
I was gonna make it, to be honest with you, like,
I know how good I played, my teammates not but
but for people outside to say that, it doesn't really
get recognized. And I don't really care because I know,
at the end of the day, I lay my head down,
I know I did my job. But for them to
(10:51):
acknowledge that, and then for I mean organization like the Steelers,
when there's so many great players, Like there's so many players,
one of the best players that ever played the game
of football are part of this organization. So to be
put on that wall with those guys and mentioned in
the same name with the guys on that wall is humbling.
(11:12):
I mean it's sometimes I almost think, do I really
belong with these guys. I mean, you got Joe Green,
who might have been arguably the best football player to
ever play football. I'm gonna go bias, but he might
have been the best football player. And I'm standing next
to him, and they're like, what this guy ninety one dude,
compared to this guy? You know, so it's an honor
and honestly, the organization is probably the best sports organization
in the world.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
At the end of the day. In my life, you.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Win Super Bowls, you win national championships, College All Americans,
pro balls. Right, so your life doesn't really change. We
all like to think it does. And but you still
go home, and you still put kids to bed, you
still mowing the yard. You still have to do those things, right,
it doesn't stop. And a friend of mine told me,
and this is probably the coolest thing that summed it
up to me. He goes, you know, long after you're
(11:55):
dead and I'm dead, Aaron, your face will still be
on that wall and grandkids and your great grandkids can
still come to it. Now that that's when it kind
of hit me, like how cool that was, Like I'll
be long guy to my my my generations of my
kids and grandkids will go on and they can.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Still see it.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So that's that really put it in perspective to me,
like this is this is a little different, the legacy
that's being left behind.
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