1/4/23 Hour One: Recapping Tomlin Tuesday

Max is back with Wolf in the locker room, and the duo discusses some of the talking points from Tuesday's Mike Tomlin press conference.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is in the locker Room with Wolf and Starks
on ESPN Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your
neighborhood Forward Store. The F one fifty is the official
truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't know that as
anything that's mystical or or earth shattering in any way.
I just think you have to display a certain amount

(00:29):
of resolve individually and collectively, UM, in an effort to
have the type of focus that that's required to work
every day, to get better every day, to to repeat
the cycle that is preparation, regardless of what's transpired, good
and bad, in an effort to to accrease your chances
to win in with each opportunity, to improve your level

(00:50):
of play with each opportunity, to raise your floor with
every opportunity, UM, individually and collectively. And I not that
that's kind of largely been our focus if you just
look at it from a high level perspective. Obviously there's
a lot of individual things within that, but largely I
just think it's regardless of circumstance, work coming to work

(01:11):
every day, trying to trying to make days individually productive UM,
and and then ultimately taking that spirit and net work
into into stadiums, and what we're doing here is is
just simply what Mike Tom was talking about. Resilience. Resilience,
the ability to keep coming back and doing it over

(01:32):
and over again, getting it right, raising the level every time.
And if there's anybody that's exhibited great resilience this year,
it's gotta be you, Max, because we gotta get an
update on our Where's Max daily daily report. Well, you know,
you have been everywhere, So take us take us from
the very beginning of that five day, five games sort

(01:55):
of thing, and where you've been and what it's been like. Well,
so two out of the five stops were home quote
unquote Phoenix, Right, I did. I did the Guarantee Rate
Bowl Tuesday, UM evening. UM. Wednesday was a normal day
on there. You know, I was doing normal stuff, went

(02:18):
on the show with your brother, and then Thursday happened, UM,
and so I had to host the Fiesta Bowl Media Day,
UM event because I'm on the Fiesta Bowl committee. After that,
went straight to the airport, hopped on a plane to

(02:38):
fly to Miami, then then called the Orange Bowl Friday night,
flew back first thing in the morning to work and
do the Fiesta Bowl all day and handle all the
postgame interviews and everything for serious x M. Then flew

(02:58):
on A on A and I to d C um
to get their Sunday morning to then drive to Baltimore
from the airport in d c which is not close
um and I know, right, And then then we we
had that fantastic Sunday night football game in Baltimore, to

(03:21):
then wake up at four thirty am to catch a
six am flight to Orlando to then call the Citrus
Bowl at one pm. And then Florida had all these
f A A cancelations and flight delays and slows and goes,
so flight gets canceled. So then I come back Tuesday

(03:43):
morning and fly back here to a Z only to
lose my car in one of the parking lots because
I forgot where I parked because I flip. So I'm walking.
I'm walking around like the term know three And if
you ever been out to Phoenix, there's three different terminals. Yeah,

(04:06):
so I flew into one terminal, or I flew out
of one terminal, which is where my car was, but
I came back in on a different terminal, So then
I had to kiss a little skytrain. And then I'm
in this parking garage because I forgot where it is
because everything looks alike at this point, um, because it's
literally the third city in a row where I'm looking
for a car. Um. So I walked around there for

(04:30):
an hour and then when I finally found my car
right where it was parked apparently where I left it,
um apparently. So and then I made it home yesterday
to see Mike because I hadn't seen my kids in
over a week as well. So yeah, so I got
home and I started doing the Honeydew list of taking

(04:53):
down Christmas stuff and then and then yeah, and then
the life returned to some what normal. Um. But yeah,
now it's it's It's been a heck of a trip.
I mean, five games and seven days is there's a
lot of football for one human in five different stadiums.
So I'm happy that I made it through. And I
am here with you, Wolf, I am here. Yes, we

(05:16):
are glad to be back together again. By the way,
if you've ever watched various Bueller's Day Off, maybe you
want to check the spedometer on your rental. You never know, Yeah,
exact exactly, roll it back a little bit, guys, Wolf, Well,
if you well, if you and I were, we were
what's the word we were bemoaning the fact this morning,

(05:36):
right that we can't use licensed music here on the
show anymore, would be a pretty good time to play.
I've been everywhere by Johnny Cash for Max here exactly.
So he's been to Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tampon, He's
been everywhere. Man, He's been everywhere. Man. You know what

(06:00):
we need to start doing. We gotta have we gotta
have West do Karaoka in and out right to Boston, Charleston, Dat, Texarkana,
been everywhere, man, exactly. Who who needs licensed music when
you have a you have a West a gram that's
got it or wessa Oki? Yeah, yeah, what Weski there

(06:26):
you go? Alright, So Mike Tomlin comes on. He talks
about the resilience of this team, Max two and six,
who who amongst us? You know? And and obviously we're
always the mindset, We've got the players mindset. We never
lose that mindset. You're gonna fight, you're gonna keep going,
and you just but really realistically, you also know the

(06:48):
chances of turning that thing around. It's tough, and you're
not sure by any means. You just know that you
take it one day at a time because it's too
overwhelming to look at six and two when you're at
two and six. But yet this is something special. Things
are happening that you let go. Hmm, you've got something
going on here, Yeah, I mean, it's it's the long

(07:11):
term vision. And that's what makes Mike Tomlin great. Right,
even in the eye of the storm, so to speak,
right of just onslaught of negative news, you're losing, but
you're also literally losing guys um at the beginning of
the season. In fact, at one point you lose your

(07:31):
almost your entire secondary um. But to stay the course,
to navigate in the midst of that, you know, that
flurry of negativity, and to guide these guys and to
be a steady and constant force to allow them to
then get to the bye. We knew it was a

(07:52):
gauntlet at the first half of the season, but for
them to not lose hope, right, not lose sight of
the positives that were happening, right, the growth that was happening,
and continuing to quote unquote nurture and continue to water
the seeds um and I thought that that was something

(08:15):
that when you look back, you could say, absolutely remarkable. Um,
to literally do a flip in your results from the
first half, literally at the first halfway point right, we
had eight an eight game cross section, and in the
nine game, you couldn't have asked for a better time
for by and for it to literally be the transverse

(08:38):
of each other. Two and six to now six and
two with a very potentially important game comes Sunday, um,
and about with the brownies. Um. This is just one
of the things you just I mean you at the Marvel.
Regardless of the outcome, what Mike Tomlin continually displays and

(08:59):
what he continue used to show is tremendous and immense
leadership knowledge, strategy, foresight, and just tremendous capabilities. I mean you,
you can't give him enough praise for what we saw
at the first half to where we are today and
we're actually still talking about making making a potential playoff run.

(09:22):
Isn't that incredible? I mean, seriously, you look at this
and you go flipping that thing around. It's is a
ginormous thing. And here's the thing that a lot of
people don't really understand. If the guy if the big
dog up front. That'd be in might t if he
wavered at all, if he showed any sort of indecision

(09:43):
or any sort of laps in kind of I don't
know leadership. This this never would have happened. I mean,
the one thing you've got to understand when you're the
big dog and you go up there in front of
you know, fifty three alpha males and you you know
you're gonna bark and you're gonna carry carry the torch there.

(10:04):
You've got to be steady as a rock. And that's
got to be a year in, year out thing. That's
what guys respond to. Otherwise you get the fighting saturdays
that win their first game and then tank, you know
what I mean. That's I mean, that's what happens when
you That's one of the qualities that I think people
don't understand in sports about a guy like Mike Tomlin

(10:26):
and what leadership means. When you wear a leadership like
water wears wet, you know, that's something that you can
you can bank on and is a steady state thing.
That is what carries teams through dry spells. Chuck Nol
had it, Bill Kawer had it, you know, and Mike
Tomlin's got it, and that's something I think when you
look around the league there there's a lot of head

(10:48):
coaches lacking that. Well, there are, and I think I think,
but also I think the gift and the curse, right,
is that the curse ass that's the gift the curse
ass spect is because you have individuals like Mike Tomlin
and like Bill Belichick for so long where it looks
easy and everybody thinks they can do it. You know

(11:12):
what I'm saying, Like Jeff Saturday, had he not watched
other great coaches, he wouldn't have thought he could do
it because they made it look easy. But that's where
a professional coach comes in. If this is your craft,
if this is what you've been working on, if this
is what you've continually tooled, reshaped, refocused, rehoned, and you

(11:40):
are a student of this game, it does come easier
because you've put in the work that gets the requisite reward.
But when you don't put in that worker you just
think that you can be you know, nonchalant about it,
you get the other result. A k O judge, Right, Um,

(12:02):
you know what we're seeing what Jeff Saturday heck, I
had Drew Brees on Monday, you know, because he went
became an interim assistant at Purdue. They got the teeth
kicked in seven against L s U. And he was like, yep,
this was good, all right, going back, going back to
my NBC job. You know, you know, it's not as

(12:25):
easy as people want to believe it to be. And
and that's the thing that I think, you know is
always one of the things that you know. And I
have utmost respect for those who pour their heart into
their professions, regarless of whatever it is. And I have
a bunch of friends who are professional coaches, and to
watch the work, the grind, the day to day, you

(12:49):
wear so many hats as a coach, and especially you know,
I think it's even more appropriate to talk about it
this week. You're not just a guy who's doing exs
and os on a white board. Right. You've got you've
got to be a psychologist. You've got to be a therapist.
You've got to be a friend, an adult at times

(13:11):
like a role model or a father figure, or you
have to be that individuals are steadying force, a source
of knowledge, right, And you've got to you've got to
get into the minds of these guys and also understand
how to convey you're you're a teacher, right, I mean,
there's so many different things that you have to manage

(13:32):
when you manage humans that people kind of overlook. You know,
football players are not rockham sock'm robots, right, you know,
they're humans. They have feelings, they have emotions, They got
a life outside of the football field, and you have
to deal with whatever the world is putting on them
and they bring into that building. You've got to figure

(13:54):
out a way of tapping through all of that noise
and getting to the heart of the person. And not
everybody can do that. And that's what makes coaching a
very special thing because it's not a some timey thing.
It's an all or none type of thing. And that's
what you get with coach Tomlin. It's an all the

(14:16):
time type of thing. And you know, it just it
makes me think about obviously with DeMar Hams, like he's
known tomar Hamlets has been twelve years old because guess what,
his sons are right around the same age. They've played
in the league's together and against each other. He's had
these interactions with them, so so that's the That's the
other thing. He's always coaching. He's always mentoring, even if

(14:38):
he's on the field or off the field, or at
his kids playing field. He's always coached tea at all times.
There's never really an off time. Maybe when he closes
his eyes at night, maybe he has some Mike time.
But he's coached t to to everybody, right. And you know,
I laugh, Max, because and this a true story, because

(15:01):
what you say is so pointed in the fact of
he makes it look easy. People think, uh, I could
do that, you know, I mean honestly, And and and
one time I was on a radio show with Build
Fabio years ago. It was Bill's show as a player,
you know, And so we were doing this thing and
it had a caller. Caller called in and he said,

(15:22):
you know, I watch you guys doing pass pro. And
he goes, I don't know, I don't think it's so hard.
He goes, I'm a pretty good athlete, and you know,
I don't see anybody getting around me. It's like, okay, gee,
I said, um, how much do you weigh? He says, well,
they would have picked you up and throw you at
the quarterback, okay, or just throwing him on their back

(15:44):
like a piggyback ride. Like here, let me show you
what's about to happen. Son, did you ever do you
ever see? I love the one adventured thing when when
Hulk grabs a low key and he just pummels him. Bad, bad,
bad band. That's what it would have been, you know, exactly,
I mean, but unique exactly, you know. And and the
fact is it's like you got people that go, oh,

(16:05):
I could do that, you know what I mean. It's
it's not as easy as it looks, you know. And
I frankly I never thought it looked easy. Yeah. Well,
and here's the thing. I mean, there's guys who can't
can barely get off the couch like I could have
done that. I'm like, first of all, but get up, peel,
peel your skin off of the couch of his leather.
You might need to pour some water on there, just

(16:27):
to separate your skin from it um. And then not
only before you even get to that rep, I need
you to go out on the field and run about
eight a half gassers, okay, and they're timed. And then
on top of that, I want to make sure that
you can do that one rep that you're asking about

(16:48):
I need you to do it about fifty times before
I even trust you to put you in a drill
against another human being. You gotta do it on air first, right,
and I need you to replicate exactly what you're going
to do every time, and then throw that out the
window when you get up against the defender because he's
not standing still. The X moves right on the grease

(17:09):
board is static? Is stationary? Now that X is not
gonna be exactly where I just drew it. It's gonna
move around, it's gonna confuse you, it's gonna drop or
hell back when I you know, back when I played
early on, Remember when Baltimore did the schoolyard walk around defense.
Yeah that mud. Yeah, I'm like, pick one, and you

(17:32):
better not pick wrong. We got five of whatever that
seven eight guys is. We got five of them. Which
one are you picking? And don't pick the dropper. You
can't pick the man that drops. Yeah, exactly. So, Yeah,
it's it's always amazing to me people that think they

(17:54):
can do. And I thought, as much as I love
Jeff Saturday because Jeff's Trump endus dude, he was on
our executive committee when I when I was a player
rep heard only good things about him, tremendous. But this
just goes to prove that great players don't necessarily make
great coaches, and that you have to spend the time,

(18:15):
and he hadn't spent the requisite time to receive the
requisite reward in that process. So you've got to work
hard in order to play hard or to receive the
reward that you're seeking. It's not something that there's no
there's no fast money, easy money type of way of
doing this. It is it is a consistency and time

(18:36):
that that prevails in this type of situation. Absolutely absolutely,
you know, I again couldn't say anything better. The whole
fact of the matter is you have to have that
firm resolution as a player to work day in, day out,
to better yourself, to be a good teammate, to hold
others accountable around you. And that is what slowly, slowly

(18:58):
starts to turn the ship around. It comes down to
the individual performances. You know. I think about this defense
that struggled so mightily early on, and yet now they've
over the last several games. I mean, what is it
that I think there's six or seven games now on
a row where they have allowed more than seventeen points.
They're doing a great job of digging in their heels

(19:20):
and getting some things done here. Um, you know, I
don't know, I just I love just give a salute
to the guys that show remarkable determination and resilience in
the face of a lot of adversity. And there's a
lot of unsung heroes that have kind of thrown their
hat into the mix and and become particularly strong members

(19:45):
that maybe they were overlooked early on, and we could
talk about Maybe that's what we'll talk about in the
next segment. Some of the guys like the Marvin Leel
I mean, good heavens, you've gotta Mark Robinson that even
though Mike Tomlin said, did you see the press conference
yesterday when somebody said how comfortable you are with and
he didn't even get the whole sentence out, and Mike goes, comfortable,

(20:06):
you might talk comfortable. I wasn't comfortable, you know. I mean,
I thought it was funny, but it was still you know,
they Mark Robinson, they were able to take his specific
skill set and apply it to certain packages and down
in distance, and I thought, you know, this this is
just part of really all hands on deck people doing
what they need to doing and coming around and showing

(20:27):
that ability to come through under a lot of adversity,
because again, this football team sat at two and six. That's, man,
that's a turnaround. Yeah no, I mean that's that's you know,
I hate to put a very you know, awkward visual,
but that's staring down the barrel of the gun, you know.
You know what I'm saying, Like like, um, moments from

(20:52):
the season being over. Yeah, You're like, you're like, we
have we we we only won of our games at
this point. I'll let you do that math. Yeah exactly.
But it's like it's like it's like, man, um, so, so,
who who are the top options for the number one
overall pick? Like like that's the type of question you

(21:12):
start asking yourself and you don't want to be yeah, exactly.
You don't want to be like, hey, so should we
trade the first pick or do we how far back
can we go to still get our guy. You don't
want to have the you don't want to have the
combine draft free agency questions happened, you know, in the

(21:33):
middle of October, and you know that that's one of
the things that we could absolutely say did not happen,
and in fact, guys dug their heels in and said, nope,
this is whatever you're seeing right now that we're that
this is the point where the sausage is being made.

(21:54):
You know, you don't quit, You don't come in the
back of the kitchen midway through prep and start criticizing
the show, right, you wait for the meal to get done.
When he said it's done, the meal is done January eight,
and then we can then we can judge what it is,
right And and Mike Tomlin, you know, ran his ship
tighter than tighter than Gordon Ramsey. It's just stayed tight.

(22:19):
There was a couple of fires back there. I'm sure,
I'm sure some people got cussed out in the British accent.
But at the end of the day, the meal came
out perfect and everything is going as planned right now,
and everything is still within their graphs. So I know
some things have to happen. But it has just been
remarkable to watch the leadership and watch the growth of

(22:41):
all the players. Right. You know, the biggest thing the
players have become even more inspired as opposed to being
down or you know, or looking or looking beat you know,
because you because you can look at the guy's eyes
and you know when a guy's beat, Well, when I
have seen those moments where you stared across and it's

(23:01):
a hollow soul in front of you and it's just
a shell because they're just trying to get to the
off season, or a team that's fighting, clawing and giving
it his all, and he's staring through he's staring through
your soul as much as you're staring through his. That
that's the guy that's feared, and that that's that cornered animal, right,
that's that corner scared, wounded animal, that that's gonna just

(23:24):
just go blind fury on you. And that's where the
Steelers are there at that moment where they're staring you
down and they're like, listen, you're not gonna take this
from me, absolutely alight. Yeah, let's take let's take this
to break. We've had a great soliloquy on this first
opening segment. You are in the locker room with Wolf

(23:46):
and Starts is actually here, but of course Youler is
also here as well. Here on ESPN Radio. This is
in the locker room with Wolf and Starks on ESPN

(24:09):
Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio presented by your neighborhood Forward Store.
The F one is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Man it's a really personal thing for me being a
Pittsburgher and that young man being a Pittsburgh I've known
that guy probably since he was about twelve. UM just
got a lot of perspective love for him as a

(24:31):
human being, his commitment to the pursuit of his goals
and dreams of doing what it is he's doing right now,
which is playing in the NFL, and to watch him
make personal decisions and and make that a realization. UM,
it's just an honor to get to know young people
like that. UM had an opportunity to express that to
him whenever I see him. We've played Buffalo UM each

(24:54):
of the last two seasons, and he and I get
to have a moment because it's just cool too do
to not only appreciate these guys in terms of where
they are now, but to to know them since they
were younger people, and to to watch their maturation, their development,
to watch them, UM, you know, earn what they've been chasing. UM,

(25:15):
it's just really a cool thing. And and that's Mike
Tomond talking about his relationship with Damar Hamlin. And of
course we know what happened with Damar the other day,
and that moment was and in talking about that, that
moment was captured in the picture I saw of Mike
and Damar hugging out after the game at high Mark

(25:37):
Stadium there with the you know, with the Steelers and Bills. UM,
I Max, just give you the four we talked about
an awful lot yesterday. And what we're gonna do is
we're gonna open the phone lines FO three, one six
if you want to chime in and send out good
wishes and prayers to uh Damar Uh. Certainly I want

(25:59):
to give you actually opportunity expressed what your thoughts about this? Well, UM,
thank you, well if I appreciate you giving me the
floor for this. UM. You know, this is something that's unprecedented,
I guess you'd say more so in the modern era.
Obviously there was another situation, UM, you know, and and

(26:26):
the death of Chuck Hughes about fifty years ago for
the Detroit Lions when they were playing the Bears, which
led to you know the amount of planning, UM, personnel
equipment and everything that's now available UM to the NFL

(26:47):
medical personnel on the sidelines when in a when an
unprecedented event happens or a catastrophic event happens. And I
think you could say you could classify this in the
catastrophic event category. Um, A player sustains a hit um
which stops his heart, UM, which leads to a cardiac arrest,

(27:13):
and the tremendous and extraordinary measures that are taken to
resuscitate said player. Um Damar Hamblin. It's a kid from McKees,
rocks Pitt Panther, And you know he's he's a son,
he's a brother, he's a friend, right, he's a loved one,

(27:38):
um to two people. And I think all too often
we tend to and and not saying that that is us,
but media fans, all of us in general, you tend
you did you tend to take players for granted in
a sense that they're at certain points they don't become

(28:01):
human to other people. They are a thing. You know.
I I made the joke earlier, Rockham sockem robot right, Oh,
head pops off, put push it back down, back to back,
ready to go again, right, And it's like, no, we
we are humans, you know, and athletes are humans, and

(28:22):
you know, people tend to forget that. In the advent
of fantasy football and sports betting and everything else, you
look at them as pieces or things, you know, something
that just has a number um and just performs this
this great feat that I pay money for. But at

(28:43):
the end of the day, it's emotions. It's it's real
people out there in the world dealing with real things,
and there's real life that can happen to them. Now. Granted,
all of us when we were in our twenties thought
we were immortal, right, we thought were there was nothing
we couldn't do. Right, wolff, Hey could leap over a
building in one single bound, you know what I'm saying,

(29:06):
Like like, you know, feel like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.
I can throw that ball clear over then their mountains,
you know, just send me back to State two. Um,
you know there. But but this was this was a
moment you know that I looked at it and it
took it took us back to humanity. It took athletes

(29:30):
back to mortality. And granted, there they're they're superhero feats
that can be accomplished by a lot of professional athletes.
That's why their professionals, but at the same time, we
kind of lose the humanism aspect of it. And right
now we have a young man sitting over there, you
see med mad that's a pittsburgher. Let's just put that

(29:52):
out there, right It's a local son in Damar Hamlin.
Don't worry about the jersey color, but the blood, you
know that and the mud that he's from is from
Pittsburgh and he's fighting for his life right now, and
let's just be mindful of that. Let's send our prayers

(30:12):
and thoughts um because I can't tell you how I
would feel if if I was on the field when
that happened. Football is the furthest thing that would be
from my mind at this very moment um. And I'm
sure for a lot of active athletes in the NFL
that we're watching that game, they were sitting down and

(30:33):
probably their basement watching it with the buddy just getting
home from doing you know, for form from meetings at
the facility and runs, sitting down wanting to watch a
really good contest and then you see that happen to appear,
and the amount of time on the field, and you know,

(30:55):
it's a small community with the active players. Guys know
each other on every team. Guys went to school with
guys on the other team. They have relationships with these guys.
They follow each other on social media, they have each
other's phone numbers. There's a lot that's going on mentally
that we don't want to address. And that's the most
important thing is the mental state, the mental health of

(31:18):
you know, everybody involved live in the stadium, on the
field around that area, but also for all the other
thirty other teams and all the other people that consume
that game. There's that mental aspect that we all have
to worry about. Man, if I can say anything, just

(31:39):
make sure that if it's affected, you make sure you talk.
You know, mental health is a real thing. You know.
We push it aside and you try and have some
much cheesemo about you, but everybody hurts. And if you
continue to bottle, just like a Heinz catchup bottle, when
you hit that fifty seven, when it's upside out, it's

(32:00):
gonna pour out, you know, and so be mindful of that.
And you know, I worry about you know, the Steelers guys,
I mean, think about this, guys who've been on this
team for five plus years. You've probably shared you've shared
the same dining facility with Damar Hamlet when he was
at pit, right, you've probably sat next to him at

(32:22):
a table, you've probably had a conversation with you passed
him in the hallway. UM. So I worry about those
guys as well, and how what they're feeling their mental state,
guys that had to go up against him, right, I mean,
this is a very delicate situation. Um. You know, we
hope for the best. I mean the news has been

(32:44):
starting to come out slowly but surely in a positive direction,
but still not clear. If you've been on an event
this long, it's still it's still not good to go. No,
it's still a real fight from this point forward. UM,
So let's just keep our thoughts and prayers with him.
And well, if I really appreciate you allowing me to

(33:04):
the stage to talk about it. Man, it's something that's
that's been on my heart, and you know, it's one
of those sadnesses that you know you can't sometimes you
can't qualify, and us being former players, you know, we
have a unique perspective to shed light on that. And
so you know, I was happy that you gave me
the opportunity to just speak my part. Well, you know what,

(33:26):
it's important. It's like you said, talk to someone, and
you're talking to a lot of people now, Max, and
it's good. It's good words, good advice, good things, because
people need to hear from people who have been out
on the field and and have this is their perspective.
You know, I heard, uh, you know one of the
things I heard coming in was there they're talking about well,

(33:48):
you know, I think it was the Bills offensive. You know,
one of them was was just preparing to go back
out there. But you know the point is, if if
indeed that was so, that's just that's being you know,
that's just the natural re action of the ball players.
You know what I mean that you know, you're standing
there and you just you start to huddle up because
you don't know what to do, and you react as

(34:08):
as as you work have been conditioned. You know. If
that being the case, you're you're thinking, well, you gotta
move on because a lot most for the most part,
there's a lot of guys that don't know what's going
on there. And then you realize again the severity. But
you're operating on a on a level of you're just
kind of going along with what you've been doing all along,
you know. I mean, it's it's a tough thing even

(34:31):
when you have you know, the the issues where someone's
spinal cord injury. You know, you worry about that, somebody's
got joint, they're laying there, they got the board, and
and you're like, it's so hard. I I try to
express the people what it's like to be a player
standing there praying this guy is not paralyzed, is not

(34:51):
having you know, that sort of catastrophic injury. And yet
at the same time, you still got to try to
get your mind wrapped around the fact you're got to
go back to work in a mirror. You know. However,
it takes long, is it, you know, to clear the field.
I mean, that's that's a dichotomy of the two. It
is extremely difficult to try to convey to somebody who

(35:13):
hasn't been there and done that. Yeah, the the compartmentalization
that is involved um with seeing that, I mean, yeah,
I hate, I hate to even put us in the
same field, but it it hearkens in the spirit of
military active active duty, right, you see something that's what

(35:41):
most people categorize as traumatic as as scary as you know,
death defying even in some most you hope is depth defying, um,
And you still have to go out there and perform
under that darrest, even knowing that this thing just happened, right,

(36:01):
and you have to act like now this doesn't happen,
you know, I mean, just think about it in practice. Right, Hey,
let's move the drill up ten yards, you know, you know,
keep marching in step, you know, don't look to your
left or you're right, just look straight ahead. Um. That
that that's that, that's what we're conditioned to do. And
like you said, we see a spine board, we're worried,

(36:23):
but we're also looking for that that thumbs up. We're
looking for that little hand wave that gives us the
ability to say, okay, I can exactly. It's like it's
you know, it's like in racing, right they wave that
yellow flag and then they wave the green flag again
to say we're back up because the crash is cleared

(36:43):
like that. That that that that's what it is. And
so we don't necessarily get the opportunity, um right now
to have that, but we're so conditioned that that's what
we're supposed to see got right, guy comes out on
a cart guy. Because I remember, you know when Barrett
Brooks we were in one of the final preseason games.

(37:04):
Um says, oh seven and Barrett got got got got
hit square in the thigh. He severed his quad. It
rolled up into the top of his leg. Goodness, that's
a big leg too. That's a that's a big hamhocket.

(37:24):
If anybody knows b Brooks, he's got He does not
have little legs. He runs, he he runs like he
has little legs. We used to because we used to
call Fred Flintstone on the bowling alley. He'd be like twinkletoes.
But I mean, but Barrett was a big dude. And
to see that, I mean, and that was another one
where boom ambulance comes out. He has to get straight there, right,

(37:46):
because it's time your entire humongous leg muscle. Think about
the front of your leg from from your knee up
to your hip, that's your quad. And that flips up,
you know, like like when you see those cartoon like
the the Little Blind. She said, whoa you know that

(38:07):
flips up into the top. Uh, that's what it did.
And you see that and then you gotta go out
and still play. That's tough to see when you see
something so traumatic and so forceful happened. But but that's
the nature we're in, and this was that moment to
really pause, think about how often the game has been
suspended and not even thought about being resumed. That doesn't happen.

(38:31):
It doesn't happen. So so yeah, so we're in a
very unique situation um dealing with with how we proceed
with with post the Damar injury exactly. So, well, buddy,
we better take a break here. Yeah, let's take another
break because I don't I don't want to shorten us

(38:52):
too much or get us behind for WEX Wednesdays. That's right,
So we're gonna step aside one more time. You're in
the locker room Stars, ESPN, S and R Radio. This
is in the Locker Room with Wolf and Starks on

(39:14):
ESPN Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood
Forward Store. The F one fifty is the official truck
of the Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, I hadn't really paid
a lot of attention to it, to be quite honest
with you, I'm more concerned with how I display, how
I handle it um. A lot of young players don't
have a a mode. They come into work trying to

(39:37):
figure out what the mode is. And so those of
us that are experienced, of those of us that that
that lead, we better focus on displaying what it is
we want from the young people as opposed to just
trying to ascertain where they are. How much thought do
you put into that of how you're gonna promote your
feeling of how do that? Every day? In my professional life,

(39:57):
everything that I do professionally is intentional, and that's true
words spoken from the lead dog at the front of
the building, you know, Max, and you hear words like
that talking about setting the example and knowingly going about
with a thoughtful pattern of presenting, you know, the way

(40:17):
you go about your business to young guys. It's important.
And these are the seeds. These are the building box
that are enable a team to take a two and
six and turn around to six and two. Consistency. That's
what you heard there, right, consistency amidst experience. And that's
what Mike Tomlin was pretty much saying in that moment.

(40:39):
To sum it up in a very very less loquacious manners,
he says, Rupie is like all over you this morning.
She's gotta be loving this. Yes, uh but I you know,
I think that that was very important and very poignant
of coach Tomlin to say that, because it goes to

(41:01):
show you that that there there is a craft, there's
a technique, there's a skill behind it, and he intimated
that right. He told us every day of my professional life,
I'm worried about how I emote to them and how
I deliver how I want young people to be, to
show them the way by actions, right, because you know,

(41:26):
we have different learners in this world, some who learned
by seeing, some who learn by doing, and those who
learn by reading. Right. You know, there's the visual, there's
r oh, and there's the physical. And you know what
Coach Thomas saying you you have to have a balance
of both of those things. And true leaders understand that,

(41:47):
and they understand how the rest of your your supporting
cast or your subordinates have have to act, have to
come to work. We always talk about guys who mimic
what the older guys do until until they create their
own way. That's no different than what he's talking about

(42:09):
with leading men and being a coach, oh captain my
captain right being being the leader of this ship, you've
got to navigate in the face of adversity and not flinch,
show ultimate resolve and resiliency because eventually, even if you're

(42:30):
faking it till you make it, the young guys don't
know any different. But if they don't see you flinch,
they're not gonna flinch. That's the young guns. That's where
we go. We're going with this. You know, you think
about it, think about the fact that you've got such
young guys as you know, you've got Jalen Warren. You
know what I mean. Jalen Warren is like fresh juice

(42:51):
every time he touches the ball. You know, I mean
these things here that the young people come about, you know,
whether it's Ad Marvin or it's Mark Robinson, you know
there there's all these young guys that are are contributors.
And um again, you've gotta you've gotta you've got to emote,
as you use that term, set the tone. You've got

(43:13):
to show the way and what you've got to show
what it looks like, you know, in a day in,
day out basis. And but that's why these young guys
part and parcel while they're coming along and getting involved
and doing the things that they're doing, you know, the
George Pickens, this kid here. I just think what this
young man is so capable of doing, if he is
able to be focused and do the things that a

(43:37):
pro needs to do. I look forward to what this
young man can do. He and Kenny pick it together.
That's gonna be some beautiful music. No, absolutely, I mean,
and can he pick it another one? Right? Absolutely? I
mean the fact that he's started as much as he has.
We caught it, we got we gotta put that aside.
But he forget he's just a rookie. He's just a rookie.

(43:59):
He is no different. He doesn't have last year or
some other year to draw from and from experience. No,
every time he steps on the field, every staff he takes,
he's he's logging experience because he has nothing to draw
from in the past. College does not count, you know.

(44:19):
And I think that's something that went. Like you said,
it's Marcus Robinson, it's to Marvin Leale, it's George Pickens,
it's um it's it's Kinny Pickett. And even I'll even
lump into this category. Naji pat Friar move right, second

(44:41):
year guys who are still learning the way, they still
have to look to others for advice. Um, you know
and understand it, Damn Moore Jr. Um, You're talking about
guys who are in their freshman and sophomore quote unquote
years in the NFL UM that are still trying to
really figure out what it means to be a pro,

(45:02):
to be a professional. You're not a VET yet. Yes
you got reps on your side, but you're still not
a VET. Categorically, by seasons, you're still considered very young,
very new, very raw in this situation. And I think
it's important that they see that leadership from a Cam Hayward, right,

(45:22):
they see that from a T. J. Watt, They see
a Minka right, they see what Miles Jack is doing,
they see what all of these different people are showing them.
And even for the new guys Mason Cole and James Daniel,
they've got experience. So there's guys who are looking to them,
Um for advice, Chukes, even Deonte Johnson, Right, there's guys

(45:47):
that they're looking to like, hey, hey, how do I
do this? How do I go about this? Because I'm
still trying to figure it out. And I think that's
important that these young guys they don't flinch. They just
get in there. Hey, that's what we're supposed to do,
all right, jumbo package. Alright, I'm in I'm let me
put my hand to the ground. That what you said, Tyson? Alright,
cool man, I'm following you, bro, meet up, meet at

(46:09):
the quarterback. Cool You know, I think that that that's
that's all you have to have. You have to have
that mentality and you could see the buy in. That's
why you take a two and six and you get
to a six and two. It's because you have to
have complicit buy in. Right. You have to follow the orders.
There's no personal feelings involved. Just follow the orders until

(46:31):
you have your own way or you have your own
leadership voice. Follow the voice, and you follow that voice
that that's that's ringing in your ears right now, until
you create your own voice exactly. So alright, my friend,
we got the wexator coming up, and and what is
the next hour? Will forget the hour coming up next

(46:56):
here on the locker in the locker room, not on
the locker room. In the locker room, we have wex Wednesdays.
You're here with Wolf and starks here on ESPN and
S and R radio.