March 16, 2022 • 19 mins
Time Machine: Carnell Lake, March 16, 2022
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome Steeler Nation. I'm stand severeant. Is my great pleasure
to bring in a member of the Steelers Hall of Honor,
Carnel Lake. We probably run out of time if I
listed all of this gentleman's accomplishment Hall of Honors, Pro
Bowl Steelers starter, UH, Steeler assistant coach Carneal. Great to
(00:20):
see you, welcome, Thank you, thanks for having me. It's
our pleasure. A second round draft pick nineteen eighty nine.
But you're a linebacker at U c l A. And
you go to the East West Shrine Game? And is
that where the prose decided you'd be better as a safety?
I think they were still deciding. UM in that game,
(00:43):
the East West Shrine Game. UM, I played the first
half at outside linebacker, in the second half at safety.
So they wanted to see me play both just in case.
I had a feeling though I was probably gonna wind
up being a safety this because I was just too
small for the pros as a linebacker, and UM, that
turned out to be the case. Was it a difficult transition?
(01:04):
You know it was? And UH what helped me get
through the East West Shrine Game the practices that week,
UM I watched Steve Atwater and we were paired up.
I was a strong safety. Steve Atwater obviously a Hall
of Fame, uh safety. Now was the free safety. And
I watched him practice and I kept asking him questions,
(01:25):
and Steve was great and he answered a lot of
my questions, and um, we were friends, and uh, you know,
I just tried to emulate some of his play even
when we entered the pros. A good guy to follow.
Pay for the devid Broncos, by the way, in case
you're getting ready for any draft related issues. When the
Steelers took Carnell in the second round, mel Kiper said
(01:50):
it was a reach. Do you remember him saying that.
I heard that, and uh, I understood what he was saying.
You know, no one knows, uh what I can do
at safety because I had never played defensive back before.
And to go up into the second round to get
a to get a linebacker to hopefully be able to
make the transition the safety, it's kind of a reach.
(02:12):
So I understood that. Okay, well, all right, mel You're forgiven,
at least from from Carnell's perspective. Uh, it's interesting, Uh,
you know, you join a secondary that already had Rock
Woodson in it, uh, Thomas Everett. Uh, it was a
pretty talented group. Uh. And I'm wondering and the fact
that John Fox, who of course later went on to
(02:33):
coach the Broncos and the Bears, he was your secondary coach.
How instrumental was he in addition to instruction from guys
like Rod Woodson to develop you from a linebacker into
a defensive back. Well, and Rod had played safety almost
his entire life before. Because he could run, they moved
him to the corner absolutely. Rod was such an athlete,
(02:54):
I think he could have played just about any position
on the field. But um, you know, coming into the lead,
I had no experience. So I looked around for guys
to get to grab whatever techniques, tips tricks that I could.
And I was very fortunate because we had a bunch
of young guys, very talented individuals, great students of the game,
(03:19):
hard workers and attention to detail. And that was Rod Woodson,
that was guys like Thomas Everett, our free safety, UH,
veterans on the team like Larry Griffin, Dwyane Woodruff, and
so I looked at them to to grasp as much
as I could every day in practice. Oh, that's how
you do this, that's how you do that. And John's
(03:41):
role was to try to detain some very young guys,
alpha male types who were all over the place, and
that room was that room was wild, not wild as
as we were crazy and and and disrespectful, but just
we had our opinions and we were set and and
he had to pull the reins in some times because
we wanted to just go, go, go, And obviously for
(04:03):
a coach, that's what you want. You want self motivated
or something that Chuck no always talked about, you know.
One of his sayings was, if I have to motivate you,
I'm gonna fire you. And so, uh, we were self motivated,
and John Fox was also a young coach at the time,
and so we kind of jailed and took off, and
eventually in the next year or two we became a
(04:24):
number one in past defense. Essentially, you mentioned Chuck Nol.
Obviously you played for both he and Bill Kauer, and
the obvious difference in their personality and coaching styles are
playing for everyone. But I'm wondering when Bill came in
the n did that represent a significant change in the
way that he wanted you to play defense. You know. Actually, no, um,
(04:54):
Chuck no was obviously a great teacher and taught me
personally a lot of things about technique that I used
my whole career. Um at the time when I entered
the league, Chuck Noll had a defensive coordinator by the
name of Rod Rust, and Rod Rust ran a zone
match concept that was eventually was very similar, kind of
(05:16):
like a precursor in some ways to Bill Cowers and
Dom Capers coach lebos Blitz zone zone blitz defense. And
so we were as as young guys transitioning to the
Bill Coward area, we were kind of familiar with some
of the concepts of that defense, and so in the
secondary that helped us a lot. Now, when, uh, when
(05:41):
Bill came over, he inherited a really very young talented group.
Rod Woodson, Hardy Nickerson, became a perennial pro bowler, Greg Lloyd,
you know, just lots of talent, especially on the defensive side.
And so, uh, I think Bill was very smart and saying, Hey,
I'm not gonna rock the boat here, Let's implement our
(06:04):
style of defense. Let's add some more blitzes to it,
which became blitzberg and let's let's I'm gonna let my
uh experienced assistant coaches on the defensive side, Dom Capers
who went on to be a head coach, Dick Lebow,
who's probably should be in the Hall of Fame. He
could be in the Hall of Fame as an assistant
coach as well. I'm gonna let them take over the defense,
(06:25):
and then I'm gonna focus on trying to get these
young players uh two uh focus in. And so when
you see some of the players on the sidelines, some
of the NFL films were uh uh. Coach Um kwar
is talking to us individually. Hey, blit's the quarterback, whether
(06:48):
it's Greg Lloyd or in my case when I made
a transition to cornerback, he gave me words of encouragement
on the sidelines that got me through some tough games.
I want to get to that, and we certainly will.
When I'm wondering, when you're playing that kind of aggressive
defense as a defensive player, does that suit your personality?
(07:08):
Let's get after him, you know, as a as a
as a a secondary player. Uh, the more pressure the better.
And in some instances, because the ball has to come
out quick, you don't have to cover as long. So
we were great with that um and but the difference
is we weren't just isolated to covering. While you know,
the Greg Lloyd's and Kevin Greens and the Chad Browns
(07:31):
and Levon Kirklands got all the attention by just sacking
the quarterback every other play. He actually let Rod and
I and other dbs get in on the blitz uh
And and that was that was awesome, uh because that
fitted what I did in college. I was a blitzing linebacker.
So I said that this is great. I get to
(07:51):
do what I did in college, but I also get
to cover too. So oft been said Carnell in really
any sport, uh, that you have to learn how to win,
and at sometimes that takes losing. Uh Two. Bill Kawar's
first year, you're the top seed in the a f
C and yet Buffalo comes to town and dominate you.
(08:11):
And I'm wondering what the feeling was at that point.
Was it stunning to you that that happened? No, it wasn't.
Actually it was just the opposite. I think a very
young team, especially for a lot of the guys that
were transitioning from Chuck no Heir to the Bill Coward era.
We were hungry for any kind of representation in the playoffs,
(08:33):
and so just the fact that we got into the
playoffs and we were able to compete with a very
talented Buffalo team, we were motivated for the next year.
And then we just kept building year after year on
those experiences, and then we finally broke through in I
believe where we were now the team to be reckoned
(08:53):
with in the a f C. Well, let's mention you
have some playoff experience when you won the an amazing
game in Houston. Of course, then the next couple of
years didn't work out quite as well. Um let's go
to ninety four. When you think about Steeler playoff games
and the history of playoff games, certainly in Pittsburgh, that
(09:14):
lost to San Diego, UM had. That had to be
stunning and shocking. The whole world expected you to win
and you had a thirteen of three lead. It was
very shocking and it showed a little bit of our experience. Still,
um uh. In very tight games, it's requirement for teams
(09:35):
to be very disciplined because one or two plays makes
the game, and in the end of the game, it
came down to one or two plays and we learned
from that. Unfortunately, we were able to keep the team
together at least one more year to get past that
hurdle and to get into the Super Bowl. The name
Alfred Peppunu should never be uttered by any true Steeler fan.
(09:59):
I can still see him running for a touchdown, all right.
So that's a motivating factor losing to the Chargers. But
the season starts off in a horrible manner when Rod
Woodson was injured in the first game against Detroit, and
that leads to the saga of carn l A switching positions.
(10:20):
What transpired after Rod got hurt? Was that done immediately
moving you from safety to corner or did that take
a few games? So Rod was injured very first game,
as you say, against Detroit, and that was a big
blow because Rod was not only was he uh one
of the stars on our team, but Rod was a
(10:41):
star in the league at that point, and uh, his
impact on the game and impact on the Steelers games
for us was crucial. And so when he went down, we, uh,
we we had a big void to feel, and we
didn't quite know how to feel that void. For a
number a number of games we went three and four
(11:03):
UM with Rod out, we had some transitioning going on
in the secondary. You know, who can adjust and take
over the position for Rod when he when he was out,
So we had a rotation of corners and we had
a compounding problem again because we had other injuries as well.
(11:24):
And from my understanding, the defensive staff got together along
with Bill Cower, and they said, well, you know, let's
try Carnell out there. And uh. They called me on
a Friday, I believe, or a Monday, I can't remember exactly.
It was either Friday before the next week when I
made a transition or Monday, and they asked me would
(11:45):
you be willing to do it? And I said, you know,
I was a little bit hesitant. I said, well, let's
see how the week goes, you know, a week of
practice and and if that, if you guys like what
you see, let's go with it. And it turned out
that we went with it. And uh, along with other
players like Willie Williams, who had a huge year that
(12:06):
year and he was very new at the cornerback position.
Nobody knew what he could do. UM, we had Chad
Brown coming into his own Levon Kirkland. We had a
lot of young players emerging right at the time we
needed him to, and together we went on eighth straight
win eighth straight win streak that year and got into
the playoffs. Was the transition, And folks probably know that
(12:30):
Carnell not only made the transition, he made the Pro
Bowl that year as a cornerback, which is utterly amazing.
Was the transition easier from safety to corner than it
was from coming out of college from linebacker to safety.
At least you were in the defensive backfield this time. Yeah,
(12:51):
I want to just make one quick uh note, A
little side note. I did make the the Pro Bowl,
but I made the Pro Bowl at safety, even though
I played most of the year at corner. They voted
me in as a safety, and so to me, I
didn't care because I was going to the Pro Bowl.
But I appreciated the voting because, uh, they recognized this
(13:15):
guy's making a switch, and you know what, strong safety
is gonna switch after six years to move the corner
and so, um, that was an amazing event in itself.
But I think to answer your second question, which is
regarding uh, you know what what made it? What was
the difference between switching positions in the pros and switching
(13:37):
positions and from college. UH, because I had switched positions
from linebacker to safety. In my mind, I was thinking, well,
it can't be much harder than that. Because the switch
from linebacker to safety, I I knew I had no experience,
but switching from safety to corner, obviously I had six
(13:59):
years of defensive back experience. And so that that's what
made the transition easier. And that's what made my decision
to go ahead and allow the position switched in the
first place just so much easier. Did they? The coaching
staff spent extra time with you teaching different techniques, not
only different play calls, responsibilities, but also techniques. Yes, Uh,
(14:26):
Dick lebo who was my position UH coach UM when
I with the Bill Kawer error when he when they
switched over, UM, we didn't talk so much about technique
as we did about mindset. And for me, that was
(14:46):
one area that really I thought took me to the
next level in my play. I think UH coach Lebou
was able to draw from his personal experience as a
corner and and give me what the mindset needs to
be to be successful at that position. Because it's feast
(15:07):
or famine out there. Everybody in the stadium is watching
when the ball goes in the air, and who's covering
those receivers dB, and so everybody's waiting with their breadth
hell to see what's gonna happen at the end of
that play. And so you're gonna get beat quite often.
You hope you're not. But if you get beat quite often,
(15:29):
you're probably not gonna be a corner for Law. But
if you start to make some plays, and you make
majority of your plays, you're probably gonna wind up playing
in the league a long time. I wish you did. UM.
Let's let's move on, menede that loss. Now the champion
game once again at three rivers, this time against the
(15:52):
Indianapolis Colts. UH, and you've got to lead twenty to sixteen,
and the famous Hail Mary, which a prayer that was
almost answered. Where were you on that play? UH? Describe
your reactions and were you aware did you actually see
that the ball to Aaron Bailey actually fell incomplete? That's
(16:16):
a very great question, um. The way the play UH unfolded.
I was coming from this one of the outside positions
on the field, converging on the ball, and I didn't
time it well, so I wound up in front of
the whole pile of players and I was trying to
(16:38):
jump high enough where I could get it before they
pile behind me could but I couldn't jump that high.
I couldn't jump high enough. I missed. I miss timed it.
The ball went over my head and I said a
couple of key choice words, like you know, man, I
missed that ball, and I turned around. And when I
turned around, I saw a big scramble in the pile,
(17:03):
and I thought that the Colts player came down with
the ball because it was he was turned a little
bit away from me, and it looked like he had
the ball. And I was like, you gotta be kidding me.
And then I looked over at the ref and the
ref was doing miss and I knew. I said, we're
going to the super Bowl. It was a great moment.
Did you see the ball on the ground where you
(17:24):
convinced her? Did you have to be convinced by the
referee signal? When I saw the ref, I just started running.
I didn't care at that point. I just knew that
if the ref is calling no catch, then that's all
I needed, because that's all that counted, and you ran
all the way to Phoenix with the Super Bowl didn't
end up like everybody wanted. UH. Lastly, Cardell, you later
on became a Steeler assistant coach UH, and I wondered,
(17:47):
did you enjoy the coaching aspect? It was great. I
had a great, great experience. UM one, I reunited with
coach lebou. Coach Lebow called me Um after their two
thousand and ten season. They had some coaching opportunities available
(18:08):
and Coach a Bow was like, do you want to do?
You want to coach? And it just happened to be
after Dom Capers had called me about a coaching position
in Green Bay and Um I decided that the Steelers
coaching position was a better fit for me and joined
(18:29):
the Steelers as a coach in two thousand and eleven.
And I was very blessed. I had a great room
of veterans UM. And I talked to Coach Labow and
he gave me my marching orders and told me, you
know how how he thought that this could play out.
And I was because of Troy Polamalu, Ryan Clark, Ike Taylor,
(18:54):
Willie Gay and a bunch of other guys we had
in that room, we were able to, uh, not only
be a good secondary, but a good defensive unit. We
went number one in defense, number one in past defense,
and went to onto the playoffs and unfortunately it didn't
turn out like we wanted to. But I knew I
(19:15):
had a great room of defensive backs. Karnel, congratulations, you
are a most honored member of the Hall of Honor.
It's a truly a blessing and it's a it's a
privilege to be among such Steeler legends.
Welcome Steeler Nation. I'm stand severeant. Is my great pleasure
to bring in a member of the Steelers Hall of Honor,
Carnel Lake. We probably run out of time if I
listed all of this gentleman's accomplishment Hall of Honors, Pro
Bowl Steelers starter, UH, Steeler assistant coach Carneal. Great to
(00:20):
see you, welcome, Thank you, thanks for having me. It's
our pleasure. A second round draft pick nineteen eighty nine.
But you're a linebacker at U c l A. And
you go to the East West Shrine Game? And is
that where the prose decided you'd be better as a safety?
I think they were still deciding. UM in that game,
(00:43):
the East West Shrine Game. UM, I played the first
half at outside linebacker, in the second half at safety.
So they wanted to see me play both just in case.
I had a feeling though I was probably gonna wind
up being a safety this because I was just too
small for the pros as a linebacker, and UM, that
turned out to be the case. Was it a difficult transition?
(01:04):
You know it was? And UH what helped me get
through the East West Shrine Game the practices that week,
UM I watched Steve Atwater and we were paired up.
I was a strong safety. Steve Atwater obviously a Hall
of Fame, uh safety. Now was the free safety. And
I watched him practice and I kept asking him questions,
(01:25):
and Steve was great and he answered a lot of
my questions, and um, we were friends, and uh, you know,
I just tried to emulate some of his play even
when we entered the pros. A good guy to follow.
Pay for the devid Broncos, by the way, in case
you're getting ready for any draft related issues. When the
Steelers took Carnell in the second round, mel Kiper said
(01:50):
it was a reach. Do you remember him saying that.
I heard that, and uh, I understood what he was saying.
You know, no one knows, uh what I can do
at safety because I had never played defensive back before.
And to go up into the second round to get
a to get a linebacker to hopefully be able to
make the transition the safety, it's kind of a reach.
(02:12):
So I understood that. Okay, well, all right, mel You're forgiven,
at least from from Carnell's perspective. Uh, it's interesting, Uh,
you know, you join a secondary that already had Rock
Woodson in it, uh, Thomas Everett. Uh, it was a
pretty talented group. Uh. And I'm wondering and the fact
that John Fox, who of course later went on to
(02:33):
coach the Broncos and the Bears, he was your secondary coach.
How instrumental was he in addition to instruction from guys
like Rod Woodson to develop you from a linebacker into
a defensive back. Well, and Rod had played safety almost
his entire life before. Because he could run, they moved
him to the corner absolutely. Rod was such an athlete,
(02:54):
I think he could have played just about any position
on the field. But um, you know, coming into the lead,
I had no experience. So I looked around for guys
to get to grab whatever techniques, tips tricks that I could.
And I was very fortunate because we had a bunch
of young guys, very talented individuals, great students of the game,
(03:19):
hard workers and attention to detail. And that was Rod Woodson,
that was guys like Thomas Everett, our free safety, UH,
veterans on the team like Larry Griffin, Dwyane Woodruff, and
so I looked at them to to grasp as much
as I could every day in practice. Oh, that's how
you do this, that's how you do that. And John's
(03:41):
role was to try to detain some very young guys,
alpha male types who were all over the place, and
that room was that room was wild, not wild as
as we were crazy and and and disrespectful, but just
we had our opinions and we were set and and
he had to pull the reins in some times because
we wanted to just go, go, go, And obviously for
(04:03):
a coach, that's what you want. You want self motivated
or something that Chuck no always talked about, you know.
One of his sayings was, if I have to motivate you,
I'm gonna fire you. And so, uh, we were self motivated,
and John Fox was also a young coach at the time,
and so we kind of jailed and took off, and
eventually in the next year or two we became a
(04:24):
number one in past defense. Essentially, you mentioned Chuck Nol.
Obviously you played for both he and Bill Kauer, and
the obvious difference in their personality and coaching styles are
playing for everyone. But I'm wondering when Bill came in
the n did that represent a significant change in the
way that he wanted you to play defense. You know. Actually, no, um,
(04:54):
Chuck no was obviously a great teacher and taught me
personally a lot of things about technique that I used
my whole career. Um at the time when I entered
the league, Chuck Noll had a defensive coordinator by the
name of Rod Rust, and Rod Rust ran a zone
match concept that was eventually was very similar, kind of
(05:16):
like a precursor in some ways to Bill Cowers and
Dom Capers coach lebos Blitz zone zone blitz defense. And
so we were as as young guys transitioning to the
Bill Coward area, we were kind of familiar with some
of the concepts of that defense, and so in the
secondary that helped us a lot. Now, when, uh, when
(05:41):
Bill came over, he inherited a really very young talented group.
Rod Woodson, Hardy Nickerson, became a perennial pro bowler, Greg Lloyd,
you know, just lots of talent, especially on the defensive side.
And so, uh, I think Bill was very smart and saying, Hey,
I'm not gonna rock the boat here, Let's implement our
(06:04):
style of defense. Let's add some more blitzes to it,
which became blitzberg and let's let's I'm gonna let my
uh experienced assistant coaches on the defensive side, Dom Capers
who went on to be a head coach, Dick Lebow,
who's probably should be in the Hall of Fame. He
could be in the Hall of Fame as an assistant
coach as well. I'm gonna let them take over the defense,
(06:25):
and then I'm gonna focus on trying to get these
young players uh two uh focus in. And so when
you see some of the players on the sidelines, some
of the NFL films were uh uh. Coach Um kwar
is talking to us individually. Hey, blit's the quarterback, whether
(06:48):
it's Greg Lloyd or in my case when I made
a transition to cornerback, he gave me words of encouragement
on the sidelines that got me through some tough games.
I want to get to that, and we certainly will.
When I'm wondering, when you're playing that kind of aggressive
defense as a defensive player, does that suit your personality?
(07:08):
Let's get after him, you know, as a as a
as a a secondary player. Uh, the more pressure the better.
And in some instances, because the ball has to come
out quick, you don't have to cover as long. So
we were great with that um and but the difference
is we weren't just isolated to covering. While you know,
the Greg Lloyd's and Kevin Greens and the Chad Browns
(07:31):
and Levon Kirklands got all the attention by just sacking
the quarterback every other play. He actually let Rod and
I and other dbs get in on the blitz uh
And and that was that was awesome, uh because that
fitted what I did in college. I was a blitzing linebacker.
So I said that this is great. I get to
(07:51):
do what I did in college, but I also get
to cover too. So oft been said Carnell in really
any sport, uh, that you have to learn how to win,
and at sometimes that takes losing. Uh Two. Bill Kawar's
first year, you're the top seed in the a f
C and yet Buffalo comes to town and dominate you.
(08:11):
And I'm wondering what the feeling was at that point.
Was it stunning to you that that happened? No, it wasn't.
Actually it was just the opposite. I think a very
young team, especially for a lot of the guys that
were transitioning from Chuck no Heir to the Bill Coward era.
We were hungry for any kind of representation in the playoffs,
(08:33):
and so just the fact that we got into the
playoffs and we were able to compete with a very
talented Buffalo team, we were motivated for the next year.
And then we just kept building year after year on
those experiences, and then we finally broke through in I
believe where we were now the team to be reckoned
(08:53):
with in the a f C. Well, let's mention you
have some playoff experience when you won the an amazing
game in Houston. Of course, then the next couple of
years didn't work out quite as well. Um let's go
to ninety four. When you think about Steeler playoff games
and the history of playoff games, certainly in Pittsburgh, that
(09:14):
lost to San Diego, UM had. That had to be
stunning and shocking. The whole world expected you to win
and you had a thirteen of three lead. It was
very shocking and it showed a little bit of our experience. Still,
um uh. In very tight games, it's requirement for teams
(09:35):
to be very disciplined because one or two plays makes
the game, and in the end of the game, it
came down to one or two plays and we learned
from that. Unfortunately, we were able to keep the team
together at least one more year to get past that
hurdle and to get into the Super Bowl. The name
Alfred Peppunu should never be uttered by any true Steeler fan.
(09:59):
I can still see him running for a touchdown, all right.
So that's a motivating factor losing to the Chargers. But
the season starts off in a horrible manner when Rod
Woodson was injured in the first game against Detroit, and
that leads to the saga of carn l A switching positions.
(10:20):
What transpired after Rod got hurt? Was that done immediately
moving you from safety to corner or did that take
a few games? So Rod was injured very first game,
as you say, against Detroit, and that was a big
blow because Rod was not only was he uh one
of the stars on our team, but Rod was a
(10:41):
star in the league at that point, and uh, his
impact on the game and impact on the Steelers games
for us was crucial. And so when he went down, we, uh,
we we had a big void to feel, and we
didn't quite know how to feel that void. For a
number a number of games we went three and four
(11:03):
UM with Rod out, we had some transitioning going on
in the secondary. You know, who can adjust and take
over the position for Rod when he when he was out,
So we had a rotation of corners and we had
a compounding problem again because we had other injuries as well.
(11:24):
And from my understanding, the defensive staff got together along
with Bill Cower, and they said, well, you know, let's
try Carnell out there. And uh. They called me on
a Friday, I believe, or a Monday, I can't remember exactly.
It was either Friday before the next week when I
made a transition or Monday, and they asked me would
(11:45):
you be willing to do it? And I said, you know,
I was a little bit hesitant. I said, well, let's
see how the week goes, you know, a week of
practice and and if that, if you guys like what
you see, let's go with it. And it turned out
that we went with it. And uh, along with other
players like Willie Williams, who had a huge year that
(12:06):
year and he was very new at the cornerback position.
Nobody knew what he could do. UM, we had Chad
Brown coming into his own Levon Kirkland. We had a
lot of young players emerging right at the time we
needed him to, and together we went on eighth straight
win eighth straight win streak that year and got into
the playoffs. Was the transition, And folks probably know that
(12:30):
Carnell not only made the transition, he made the Pro
Bowl that year as a cornerback, which is utterly amazing.
Was the transition easier from safety to corner than it
was from coming out of college from linebacker to safety.
At least you were in the defensive backfield this time. Yeah,
(12:51):
I want to just make one quick uh note, A
little side note. I did make the the Pro Bowl,
but I made the Pro Bowl at safety, even though
I played most of the year at corner. They voted
me in as a safety, and so to me, I
didn't care because I was going to the Pro Bowl.
But I appreciated the voting because, uh, they recognized this
(13:15):
guy's making a switch, and you know what, strong safety
is gonna switch after six years to move the corner
and so, um, that was an amazing event in itself.
But I think to answer your second question, which is
regarding uh, you know what what made it? What was
the difference between switching positions in the pros and switching
(13:37):
positions and from college. UH, because I had switched positions
from linebacker to safety. In my mind, I was thinking, well,
it can't be much harder than that. Because the switch
from linebacker to safety, I I knew I had no experience,
but switching from safety to corner, obviously I had six
(13:59):
years of defensive back experience. And so that that's what
made the transition easier. And that's what made my decision
to go ahead and allow the position switched in the
first place just so much easier. Did they? The coaching
staff spent extra time with you teaching different techniques, not
only different play calls, responsibilities, but also techniques. Yes, Uh,
(14:26):
Dick lebo who was my position UH coach UM when
I with the Bill Kawer error when he when they
switched over, UM, we didn't talk so much about technique
as we did about mindset. And for me, that was
(14:46):
one area that really I thought took me to the
next level in my play. I think UH coach Lebou
was able to draw from his personal experience as a
corner and and give me what the mindset needs to
be to be successful at that position. Because it's feast
(15:07):
or famine out there. Everybody in the stadium is watching
when the ball goes in the air, and who's covering
those receivers dB, and so everybody's waiting with their breadth
hell to see what's gonna happen at the end of
that play. And so you're gonna get beat quite often.
You hope you're not. But if you get beat quite often,
(15:29):
you're probably not gonna be a corner for Law. But
if you start to make some plays, and you make
majority of your plays, you're probably gonna wind up playing
in the league a long time. I wish you did. UM.
Let's let's move on, menede that loss. Now the champion
game once again at three rivers, this time against the
(15:52):
Indianapolis Colts. UH, and you've got to lead twenty to sixteen,
and the famous Hail Mary, which a prayer that was
almost answered. Where were you on that play? UH? Describe
your reactions and were you aware did you actually see
that the ball to Aaron Bailey actually fell incomplete? That's
(16:16):
a very great question, um. The way the play UH unfolded.
I was coming from this one of the outside positions
on the field, converging on the ball, and I didn't
time it well, so I wound up in front of
the whole pile of players and I was trying to
(16:38):
jump high enough where I could get it before they
pile behind me could but I couldn't jump that high.
I couldn't jump high enough. I missed. I miss timed it.
The ball went over my head and I said a
couple of key choice words, like you know, man, I
missed that ball, and I turned around. And when I
turned around, I saw a big scramble in the pile,
(17:03):
and I thought that the Colts player came down with
the ball because it was he was turned a little
bit away from me, and it looked like he had
the ball. And I was like, you gotta be kidding me.
And then I looked over at the ref and the
ref was doing miss and I knew. I said, we're
going to the super Bowl. It was a great moment.
Did you see the ball on the ground where you
(17:24):
convinced her? Did you have to be convinced by the
referee signal? When I saw the ref, I just started running.
I didn't care at that point. I just knew that
if the ref is calling no catch, then that's all
I needed, because that's all that counted, and you ran
all the way to Phoenix with the Super Bowl didn't
end up like everybody wanted. UH. Lastly, Cardell, you later
on became a Steeler assistant coach UH, and I wondered,
(17:47):
did you enjoy the coaching aspect? It was great. I
had a great, great experience. UM one, I reunited with
coach lebou. Coach Lebow called me Um after their two
thousand and ten season. They had some coaching opportunities available
(18:08):
and Coach a Bow was like, do you want to do?
You want to coach? And it just happened to be
after Dom Capers had called me about a coaching position
in Green Bay and Um I decided that the Steelers
coaching position was a better fit for me and joined
(18:29):
the Steelers as a coach in two thousand and eleven.
And I was very blessed. I had a great room
of veterans UM. And I talked to Coach Labow and
he gave me my marching orders and told me, you
know how how he thought that this could play out.
And I was because of Troy Polamalu, Ryan Clark, Ike Taylor,
(18:54):
Willie Gay and a bunch of other guys we had
in that room, we were able to, uh, not only
be a good secondary, but a good defensive unit. We
went number one in defense, number one in past defense,
and went to onto the playoffs and unfortunately it didn't
turn out like we wanted to. But I knew I
(19:15):
had a great room of defensive backs. Karnel, congratulations, you
are a most honored member of the Hall of Honor.
It's a truly a blessing and it's a it's a
privilege to be among such Steeler legends.
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