Hr1: Hard Knocks Episode I Recap

Uhler and Moats get into all the highlights of Hard Knocks, and Moats shares his personal experience with Mike Tomlin in those settings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Seculer and Moats are on the air.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
This is the Steeler's Blitz on your twenty four to
seven home of the Black and Gold a skin are
Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Less? Get it less? Get it ladies and gentlemen, boys
and girls, children of all ages. You know what time?
It is?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Twelve o'clock Eastern Standard time, and that means you are
tuned into the Stealers Audio Network, which means it is
the Stealers Blitz, which means you got Arthur Mos, you
got Wesley Yuler. One has a decade of NFL experience,
the other an immaculate head of hair. But it'll be
up to you to figure out who is who by

(01:45):
the end of this name. But the beautiful part is
we love for this show to be fully interactive, and
the best way to do that is to hit us
up on the Twitter dot com or what they're calling
x these days. At Dubbody fifth two the body and
at Wesley you look the good hair and my good
hair friend. How are we living?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Today? Is a cold, frigid, beautiful, beautiful day, beautiful day.
How we living?

Speaker 4 (02:15):
Man? I'm Jack feeling man, I'm excited. Can I just
tell you real quick about everything going on.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
My energy is high. I'm gonna tell you why once
you go.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
But once it's Christmas season, holiday season, and that you know,
when you got kids, as you know, puts a little
pep in your step.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, because they get all excited. You know.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Two, we got hard Knocks dropping last night, the Steelers
first place. I mean they had they had probably seventy
five percent of the content on Hard Knocks last night.
Feeling good, feeling great. Got the Browns at home this weekend.
WVU in the middle of a head coaching search, which
is always exciting in its own right. Manchester United and

(02:50):
Arsenal this afternoon to the pump teams in English, full
talk pop on the pitch, and just about a half
an hour ago announced that the Dead are going back
to the sphere baby this spring.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
So, I mean, your boy is on cloud nine right now.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
It's all oh and the Penguins won like their fifth
straight games last night against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Your boys living right now.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
That's what I likes to hear. Town's coming to Morgantown
Friday basketball promise. I was I thought about it. I
was consmplating, we'll talk, we'll talk. I was consplating.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
I was like, yo, if not while season is going on,
most definitely I saw some games in like late January
favor I was gonna discuss him, like, hey, yo, we
need to talk man against Georgetown, I didn't know your energy.
I wasn't sure if your energy man, But for certain
it's some games on this schedule.

Speaker 6 (03:45):
Hey we're gonna talk. Yeah, for certain we'll talk, man.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
But I'm glad that your energy is up, man, because
mine is as well. Then you talked about it. We're
not going to bury the lead. Shout out to Laura
Martina for that one. But Hard Knocks was out night.
Man dropped it about what ten o'clock, ten thirty late
late night.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
I think it is. But it's like immediately available on demand. Yeah,
very true, very true. But what were your thoughts?

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Man?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
We got a chance to peel the curtain back a
little bit, show a little of the guys. The things
that you've heard us former players speak on. Right when
we talk about coach Timlin and the leader of men
and why at times we have taken offense to when
people just say he's a cheerleader or he doesn't know
how to motivate. He doesn't know how to schematically do

(04:33):
certain things, and now you know, you get a chance
to see how he commands the room. And also because
it's not fun or it doesn't give you enough information
if you just see one perspective, you got a chance
to see how all the other head coaches in the
division address their teams, how they conduct meetings, how they

(04:54):
motivate their players. And I thought it was really refreshing
for I guess everybody else who hasn't had a chance.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
And even though this was a small, small to what.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
It's life, no doubt, I just thought it was really
cool though that you know, people like yourself, for example,
could get a chance to see what it is like
to sit in an introduction Wednesday morning meeting with coach Tom.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
So obviously you know I've seen this.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
I've lived this multiple times man with multiple coaches, right,
so to me, I have a different perspective.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
But for you, what was kind of your perspective on it?

Speaker 3 (05:29):
In power Grid megal wise, I want to get your
thoughts on this conversation as well, because, like I said,
this is newer for a lot more of you guys
than it is for me or the alumni people that
I talked to because, like I said, we've set in
these Monday meetings, we've had him on the sideline where
that's motivating us talking about different things. So, like I said,
we've seen it, but power grid. Y'all guys, let me

(05:50):
know as well. What were your thoughts on Hard Knocks
seeing coach Tomlin in this role where you see him
talking to old players, young players, how he conducts a meeting,
how he runs that type of stuff, just his ability
to control the room.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Let us know. Like I said.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
On on the Twitter dot com. But taking it to you, man,
how'd you feel about everything?

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, it was very cool. I mean, listen, I'm not
gonna lie to you.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
I've been kind of jaded behind I've been jaded about
these behind the scenes sports type shows for a little
while because they have been pretty popular now for about
a decade plus, right, I mean ten to fifteen years ago,
even probably more than that. When Hard Knocks came out,
it was amazing because there was nothing like that. I

(06:35):
remember when the Penguins and the Capitols played in the
Winter Classic in twenty ten, they did a whole build
up series on HBO. I forget what it was called,
Behind the glass maybe something you know, quirky, goofy, like
that God has something cool. You know, there was barely
anything like that at the time. Now you fast forward
and it's the op I mean, coaches are micd up
all the time. They do behind the scenes stuff all

(06:55):
the time. There's NFL Network, NFL Films, a million different
production companies. Right, it's still wrong to say you see
a lot of this stuff now, but you see a
lot of snapshots of it.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
It's more frequently available to you. Yes, teams in their
own content. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Now, we've talked about here in Pittsburgh, we've within the
past five years have dedicated so much more resources and
focused on building the media department.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
I mean even our show.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Think about where we are now, the studio we've upgraded
to the other things that we kind of know behind
the scenes are in the workings we can see.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, absolutely, man.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
And so I've been kind of jaded by these shows,
but I was very excited for last Night one because
it's different. I mean, when it's about your team, obviously
it's different. Two. HBO is the best of the best
at this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Either HBO or it needs to be like they.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Fantastic ye's one together.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
If it's not those like yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not
hitting the same.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
But the third reason is because I had a feeling,
like I think all of us did, that the Steelers
were going to be the stars of this thing, and
more importantly, Mike Tomlin was going to be the central
figure in that. And boy was that the case sixty
minute episode last night. I thought about seventy percent of
it was the Steelers Jays, which was awesome. The Browns
barely got any airtime, and when they did, it was

(08:17):
just Jameis Winston doing hilarious Jameis Winston things. James Man.
Mike Tomlin was the lead actor, all right, He's the Leo,
He's the Denzel, he's the Brad Pitt, he's the George Clooney,
he's the whoever. He's the lead actor.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Ay, go out to the Rock.
Actually seen it with TP as you know.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Two. I I've been fortunate enough, through my job now
to be on the fringe of some of those Mike
Tomlin things, But not in those meetings on a Monday
or on a Wednesday morning. You know, when he is
laying down kind of the law for the next few
days and the expectations of how they're going to attack

(08:57):
and approach the week, and then to be able to
juxtapose that when they, you know, splice it in with
all the other coaches doing the same thing as well too,
which credit to those guys. I think it proves the
AFC North does have four good head coaches.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
I do agree with that as well, because I don't watch.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
The other guys and go, oh wow, they got nothing
on Mike Tomlin. But I do watch the other guys
and go, Mike Tomlin is the clear best at this.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
And look, you said they don't have nothing on coach too,
or you said you don't look like that. My energy
was very different, like whenever it comes to I guess
like the things, I'm super duper passion. And this is
where I feel like we can relate as like fans
of certain things, like your passion for West Virginia, like
how much it means to you. I remember you said

(09:40):
when we were in here on Monday, you said, man,
if somebody would plant a flag on the West Virginia, a.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
Little bit hopping out of our box to lay down
and punch somebody, think about that, right, That's the passion
that you have for it.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
That's how us as players fulltball coach Tomlin at times.
So when we hear people talk about this Ben that
aren't qualified, have never done anything close to what he's
done in this field, let alone in just life in general,
that's the energy that a lot of us actually have,

(10:13):
and we always try to like tote it down, keep
it together. But it's like that passion, that raw emotion
is real because when you listen to how this guy talks,
you look at some of the interactions the way. One
of my favorite ones was him grabbing GP George Pickens
after the play happens where the pick six takes place.
They show a clip of coach pulling him to the

(10:34):
side on marn And and he's letting him know, bro,
this is not going to define you, this is not
going to define his game.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
We gotta have it.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
But then you see him say it again with a
little bit more reassurance, a little bit more and he's
looking like I need the eye contact. Because we talk
about it in football, we're big on communicating.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
We always say like men struggle.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
To communicate, but in football we say we actually communicate
at an elite level because you have to we understand
verbal verlable week put the feelings to this side. We're
getting right to the root of whatever it is. And
when I talk to you is out of love. I
don't have to give you anything. Oh you know what
this is. In that moment, it was signifying all of that.
It's like, man, you got the guy who is handling

(11:15):
adversity GP. Right, he was a part of the negative
play the result in the pick six. You're the intended receiver.
You feel like crap. But now you got the head coach.
You My team just gave up a pick six, questionable call,
all included. But hey, I don't have time for any
of that.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I can't lose this guy right now.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Play. Hey, you come here. We're going right back to you.
I'm coming right back to you. I don't care about
none of this. This doesn't define nothing today.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
We've got fifty seven minutes left in this game. This
isn't going to define the game.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
And then what was GP's response, not man whatever?

Speaker 4 (11:44):
A yo?

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Uh huh yeah, sure, yes sir, yes sir, it's a
grown man, right, future multi multi millionaire right, yes, sir.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
He'd be making more money than Mike. Mike Tomlin in
a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
But the response was, what yes, sir, no pride, no ego,
because when it comes to this job, man, we talk
about one of the most competitive things ever.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
It's like, man, we understand.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
How much you know, sacrifice kind of goes into this
and to see how coach Tom win Tom at the time,
at the time finds ways to touch your heart, to
motivate you, and the motivation for you is different than
motivation for Kim. It's different than motivation for TJ's different
than motivation for her big how he talked about him
all week, Right.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
That was my I think my favorite part of the
whole time, Either that or the scene where they make
Keanu Betton get up and give the hype speech.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
You called it the hype speech, not a high I
looked at it as like, Yo, this is like the
final we're talking before.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, but we go to the room.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
That was Saturday night, Yeah yeah, I think that was.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
After the meeting.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, so after the meet and they'll like, we'll break
down to like our individual groups. That's why it's like, Yo,
Dunbar made me do this crawl Dunbar d line coach.
So typically you'll break down from like the big meeting,
you'll go talk with like your regular coach for how
yeah yeah, so like however they do it. So every
coach has their own thing. Like some coaches they don't
want to do a ton with you on Saturday night.
Others they really want to like sit you down unless

(13:09):
do our final for the SAT right. Everybody is different,
you know. So with Dunbar, it looks like he'll have
one of his players at least address the room. I've
had it in times where it's like, you know, only
the coach addresses the room or yeah yeah, But in
this one it looks like they kind of rotate who
they want to speak. And it's dope because it makes

(13:30):
you accountable. You don't get to just sit in the
room and be quiet and just listen. No, eventually you
got to grow up. You don't get to just stay
dormant in this profession.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
You're year too now, all right, pretty soon you're going
to be the veteran and WD coach.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Thomas say at the beginning of the day, we're a
group that has to be continued on the rise. I'm
not going to have you being paranoid about the guys
on the outside that are constantly trying to take your
job every single day. But you better be a person
that is getting better every day because if you're not
getting better, you're getting worse. And if you're getting worse,
you're not helping us win. And if you're not helping
us win.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Why are you surviving?

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Right?

Speaker 4 (14:00):
And you heard him say that, right, If you're just surviving,
you better grow up fast?

Speaker 3 (14:04):
And how many people do we talk about thriving versus surviving?
And that's the part like, as I get passionate about this,
because like this is like what we do, and like
you live this and you breathe this, and to actually
understand the commit to that every day, Like it's certain
parts where you're like, how many people show up to
work right now and they are just surviving their shift?

Speaker 1 (14:23):
I just survived my day. I think we all do
it sometimes. Right, he's telling you you can't do that
in here. No, this is too competitive. What we are
chasing is so small.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
You cannot allow yourself to just show up and just survive.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
If you're a brain surgeon, you can't just show up
and survive that day at work. You got to show up.

Speaker 7 (14:43):
And perform, but we talk about why it is as
big as it is and why people love it because
you have found something that is so to do and
you've cracked the code.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
But now to do it every day and to live
it and sustain it. It takes a time. But we
are so fortunate here man, to have a guy like
Coach Thimon who leads that charge. Man, and this is
every single day you cut that camera, I'm like, yeah,
you can turn the camera off a right, No, just Coachy.
This is what he does that that cameras, some of
them coaches, they started to act a little different.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
When that camera rock.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
You go start to see like, oh man, we didn't
see too many, too much of you. We know you
don't act like this real real, Why are getting when
this cameras acting like that?

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Man?

Speaker 3 (15:23):
That's not coach Tom Man, No, no, no, no, no,
He's far from that. And I think that's I said,
one of the beautiful parts about this date.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Man, And I mean he it was, without a doubt,
the star of the show last night. I mean, the
meeting stuff was awesome, the the as we kind of
touched on there, the stuff with Nick Herbig. For those
who haven't seen it, that they don't know what we're
talking about. At the start of the week, we points out, hey,
you know they got they got zeus, right, they got

(15:51):
Orlando Brown junior left tackle, and uh, you know the
reason that they brought him in and paid him all
this money was because Alex Highsmith was whooping up on
that door.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
Smith isn't here. Now Herbig gets on you. Yeah, and
we gotta have it because we have to have it
the whole week. When are you gonna cut down Zeus?
When are you gonna kill zeus? We gotta kill Zeus.
That's what he was banging into into and then nick
Herbig's head and then Herbig gets the massive strip sack
that leads to the scoop six for Peyton Wilson. And
you know, Mike Tomlin's celebrating on the sideline and he

(16:20):
goes over to her Big and says, this is not
a lightning strike. This is what you do. You're built
for this. I mean that that is the kind of
golden stuff that you and every person that's played for.
Mike Tomlin tries to explain to us and an outline
for us over a microphone, and you do a very
good job of it, but seeing it like that can't

(16:41):
beat the visual component of seeing it all play out.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
The other beautiful thing that I don't want to get
lost Before we go to break, we talked about everybody's celebrating,
everybody's high five and and stuff. Go back though, listen
to what they're Italian Coach Timon specifically, Russell Wilson plays
quarterback right, starting quarterback, does not care about what your
past rusher does or his responsibility is right, He's the

(17:07):
first one going to Coach Thomas said, Herb, you said
it all week. Coach, you said it all week. You
called it Herb. Because that's the other thing with coach Tomin.
He's not gonna do it as a secret. No, no, no,
everybody in that room when we challenge you, everybody in
this building knows you're the guy that's getting challenged. That's
why everybody went crazy. Fans just see oh big play

(17:27):
Scoop score. Guys, we're going crazy because it's like, Yo,
I remember when you came into this room on Monday
and you said, Yo, Herb, it's on you this week.
We know what TJ is going to get defensively, we
know how they're going to try to block Cam Heyward.
We know what these receivers are. Why is it on you?
Because you're the way that we get out of this stadium.
You're the guy that they don't have an answer for.

(17:48):
So when you see and you hear that all week, Lord,
and then it finally happens in the game, Oh yeah,
you're like, Yo, this dude, he's the voodoo doctor. Bro,
he got that juice, you know what I mean? Like out,
he just sees it differently. Man, he can identify these
white did we come here? Five star matchups?

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Right?

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Fantastic because for a certain he comes in the same Yeah,
I'm gonna tell you the matchups.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Man, there is no secret and everybody in this room knows.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
He's outlining the challenge of Joe Burrow, the challenge of
Jamar Chase. This guy is the best at what he's
doing right now, he's talking about you.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
There is no secret to it, and why you think
at times we both test, but it's like, Yo, this
team they don't get anybody. They suck And I'm like, oh, yeah,
you you ain't done this wrong. Ain't been in that
room yet. Because you listen to how coach Tomon talks
about and people will get up and saying, oh, why
does he talk about all these guys like they're so great?
Have you seen James Winston play? Right, that's a bad
quarterback to some people have when's the last time outside

(18:41):
of Russell Wilson and Ben Rosson we had a quarterback
through four hundred of us three testous?

Speaker 1 (18:46):
They gay right that just in general.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Bad, good, great, Just when he talks about how we
can't let this Cincinnati running I forget his name. Now
to Chase brown sneakout. Chase Brown had a forty yard
run that is essentially a touchdown. He down at the
half inch line.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Because at this level, every single person is capable, and
that is the hardest concept for people that don't do
it every day to like fully believe.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
It's like yo.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Another great part of to when you when you know,
when you can see the timeline in a show like
Hard Knocks is like the Mike Tomlin earlier in the week. Now,
we're not gonna get distracted by the quarterback and the
two dynamic wide receivers because this running back can hurt us.
Huh bang gets into game time, the running back hurts you.
It's halftime. He's walking off the field with Cam Heyward
and he goes, Cam, I told you, we can't let
this guy hurt us.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
You gotta figure this out.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
You gotta get your group. We gotta get this right.
We gotta get your group right. Like that's the stuff
that's really cool. That's the stuff that's really cool to man.
We could talk about this all day. We're gonna talk
about we can. We got we got a bunch of times.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Listen, we're gonna talk about a little bit more and
we're gonna bump the show a little bit around. We're
gonna get involved with your comments on this topic next segment.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
So don't touch that Dowt. But it's art the most.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
That's what's the Euler And this is the Steelers Blitz
on the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
This is the Steeler's Blitz with Wesley Euler and Arthur
Motz on your twenty four to seven Home of the
Black and Gold SNR.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Arthur Motes, Wesley Euler back second segment of today's show,
Stealers Blitz on the Steelers Audio Network. As we are
reacting to that beautiful episode one of the Pittsburgh Steelers
Hard Knocks featuring or with uh supporting actors the Cincinnati Bingles,

(21:24):
Baltimore Ravens, and Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
We definitely the stars of the show. That's just in
case you didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Wes Okay, kill zeus, just cause you didn't know that,
kill zeus.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yeah, Mike Tom and I tell you what he was,
Uh well, he was born to coach football. I think
it was born for TV. But second thing, could you
imagine how good he would be? Is like the the
the Hollywood like high school coach and the Friday night
Lights type movie.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
Listen, Coach t is musty TV. He's my favorite.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
I'm very I have a lot of coaches that I
love that hohole like special places in my heart.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Coach Tom is at the tip tip top of that list.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Man.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
We need to make that happen one day.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
He's the man. Bro.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
I'm just glad that everybody else is getting a chance
to see what us as players have like had a
chance to experience it like not everybody experienced it as
long and sure, and everybody's gonna have the same overwhelming
feeling that I have about him, because, yeah, everybody's ending
is a little bit different.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Man, everybody's role is a little bit different. Just your
perspective of life, you know, is different.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
But as a whole, you're gonna find way more people
that are feeling how I feel about this guy than
the alternative to that man.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
And I think that's a testament to who he is.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
And you can speak to this way more than I can,
because again, you played for the guy. But I know
you get the same, just like my buddies do. It's
the off season and we're all sitting around on a
Friday or Saturday night or something or one of our
kid's birthday parties or whatever, just hanging out.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
And Jesus birthday, you know, Jesus birthday, your birthday, your
daughter's birthday, it's love Birthday's out here.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
Wife's birthday, husband's birthday. And you know, you're sitting around
your buddies and you're and they're like, hey, you know,
what do you what do you think of Mike Tomlin?
Like I always, at some point in that conversation will
tell them listen, if you have your critiques of Mike Tomlin,
the head coach that stands on the sideline for you know,
three and a half hours on Sundays or Thursdays or

(23:18):
Mondays or Saturdays or Wednesdays whenever you know, the NFL
decides to make the stealers play fine. No coach in
the National Football League is perfect. Belichick used to get
crushed for all the time. Do you remember, Do you
remember when the Patriots lost to the Eagles in the
Super Bowl and Malcolm Butler was on the sideline the
whole game and Bill Belichick, Bill Belichick, who had six

(23:41):
rings at the time, got crushed for two weeks by
his own fan base. Malcolm Butler, the guy who intercepted
Russell Wilson on the goal line to win the Super Bowl,
And you're back in the Super Bowl and you're gonna
leave him on the sideline while Nick friggin Foles is
coving you up?

Speaker 1 (23:57):
How could you do that?

Speaker 4 (23:58):
That was a pretty decent bosscent wasn't It wasn't great,
but us any did the job. It was you and
I have talked about this right before these Chiefs went
on this crazy five year run they've been on. They
were like seven and four, seven and five in November,
and everyone in Kansas City was calling for Andy Reach's job.
And now they've been to four Super Bowls in five

(24:19):
years and won three of them. Like no coach in
any sport makes the right decision all the time. They
just don't. Not even Nick Saban when he was rolling
at Alabama, like he would still get criticized at times
for the things that he was doing. So I get
that aspect of it. I always say that, but man,
in terms of everything else that embodies a coach right

(24:41):
Monday through Saturday, just not the coach during the game
on the sideline, everything else, which you know, you and
I have talked about a lot of times, when you
get there, the battles already won or lost, right like
you're you're, you're, you're, you're fighting the war throughout the
week in your preparation. There's there's not a guy that
I would rather have. And to be fair, I've only

(25:02):
been around a couple The only another guy that I've
been around even kind of like I've been around Mike
Tomlin was Doug Peterson a couple of years that I
worked with.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
He's one of a Super Bowl but he's in some hot
water right now, Like that's right now.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
Danger could be available in a couple of weeks, particularly
with what just happened to his quarterback, and that guy
probably not coming back.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Any how's your coordinated skill is looking like I was
gonna work for coordinators.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
He was a really good quarterback Kansas City. And I'm
just saying, yeah, like all that other stuff, man, I
I can't imagine somebody being better the CEO aspect of
running a football team, a football organization, controlling the fifty
plus men in that locker room and practice squad, plus

(25:50):
all the coaching staff, and ever.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Being in charge of one hundred people. I mean, I can't.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
I can't imagine somebody doing that aspect of it better
than Mike Tomlin. And I really think again, like I
was telling you, I've seen little snapshots of it, you
know what I mean, more than like the average person,
not a lot.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Part of some stuff. You've seen some stuff.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
I've seen some stuff, you know, practices in training camps
and OTAs and things like that.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Like you're part of the PJ club, so flying on
the PJ with coach Ta you know some stuff.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
You're a little hip. Like i'd seen the trailer to
the movie. Yeah, you know what I mean. Last night
we saw some of the movie.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Everybody finally, But like you, you've been seeing the movie
for years. I had seen the trailers and snippets and
things like that. But like Man, he that leadership aspect
of leader of men. I think if you looked it
up in the dictionary you would see Mike Tomlin's face.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
I mean, it's it's it's truly incredible. Yeah, shout out
to coach t Man.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Like you said, his ability to just lead men, his
ability to find the way to make you feel accountable,
to make you take.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Pride of your work a little bit bore, you.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Know, everyone in that room. That's the most impressive part too,
is you see those shots of the room and from
Russell Wilson and TJ. Watt. They're zoned in, locked in,
hanging on every where. He's say, Zach Frasier, George Picket.
Think of all the different backgrounds and where these guys
are from and how they got there and where they
were drafted and all they are captivated by every word

(27:22):
he says. He walks in the room and it's like
when you were in school and the principal walked in.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
He's different, man, you know, it's different.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Everybody sits up a little bit straighter.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Everybody is locked in.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
No one's checking their phone, no one's passing a note Haha,
silly joke, joke.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
That's the guy that you either want to have your
attention or you don't want him to or you don't
want to be in his if you're in.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Don't do me like that. Please, don't do me like that. Coach.
But that's coach t man.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Other thing that I was going to say, man, that
that was really cool to see was his Thanksgiving situation.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Man, Because you.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Talk about a coach, you talk about a guy that
connects with you, right, that personal element he says to it.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Man, Yeah, open door policity.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Man, If y'all need to way to go for your holidays, man, like,
come here when I tell you this dude is.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Legit, legit. He really mean that, man.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
And I just think of how many places man, whether
you're talking coach and staff, whether you're talking places of employment,
because it still technically is a job, right man, how
many bosses invite you over to Hey, come some of
things giving with us, man, Dad, Man, I know you
just got here. Don't worry about it. Open doors. But
he's that guy that connects. He finds ways to bring
people together versus trying to push you apart or getting

(28:41):
so caught up in the competitive nature that you lose
the human element of it, and I think that that's
one of the refreshing parts man. But I do think
we got some tweets that came in. Man, it turns
some people's thoughts or comments on the episode. Many do
want to keep it well because we're currently talking about it.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Want to make sure the current.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Knoxtion real quick.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
So let's make sure we do our dudes, not do
our due diligence, but make sure that we reward said
participation power grid mega watts.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yeah, Rod Dollad tweets us and he says his favorite
part we had mentioned this yet was when they had
Russell Wilson micd up in the huddle and he gave
the play and then gave a motivational speech, and Roger
Jones started laughing and said, may russ, I love it
when you give us.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
A motivational speech right after the play.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
That part was great too. And I was gonna say,
I think some of this, while Mike Tomlin is the
star of the show, there's still what five more episodes
to go of this, so we've kind of barely scratched
the surface. I think a lot of this is gonna
reflect positively on Russell Wilson, particularly on the backdrop of
how much crap he.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Took across the football world.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
Last year for how things ended in Denver, not only
for his performance on the field, which is you and
I went through many times we didn't think was.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Out.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
It wasn't all pro level, but people were talking the
way that people talked about it. We broke it down
verbatim like this, if Kenny Pickets, mister Bisky or Justin Field,
Noby and Chicad this season that Russell Wilson had last year,
all of those guys are starting quarterbacks at the place
where they were drafted and in line for second contracts.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Okay, but everyone in Denver's crushing them.

Speaker 4 (30:19):
The ex Broncos legends are saying he's selfish and he's
a cancer in the locker room. Sean Payton clearly never
wanted him. I mean, his name got dragged through the
mud when the Steelers signed him, even though they you know,
essentially picked them up for the pennies on the dollar
to use the old phrase, right, still not gonna work out.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
He's selfish all of this, and that he doesn't know
how to lead a team.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Anymore and critiquing his skills on the field and his
personality off the field. The on the field stuff is
proven itself that you just have to go out and
do like Russ has done.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
And off the field you could also say, when has
he done anything that is counterproductive to your organization? We
confuse cheesy and corny with being counterproductive to winning. You
could be the corniest dude whatever. When does that mean?

(31:11):
You don't watch the take? They might to take. This
guy watches right from a preparation standpoint. Remember when people
was laughing he played for the Seahawks. They came out here,
he's hurt, doesn't get to play, but he's going through
the whole warm up by himself. They showed him like
on video. Oh he's doing the huddle right out here.
This is probably twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen time frame. People's
going like laughing, like, oh man, what is this dude doing.

(31:34):
But it's like, you watch when he's out there, when
does he ever look out of place?

Speaker 1 (31:38):
When does he ever look surprised.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
It's corny, might be cheesy, but it's like, man, this
is a guy that knows how to win. This guy
that knows how to lead. This is a guy that
knows how to do what is required in the note
in terms of the results are also there super Bowl
champion two appearances as well. You don't get that without
having all the intangible things that he presents. Now, I'm

(32:02):
very happy for him as well. I think it's going
to show a really a side of him is And
this is how like in tuned I was.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
But at the same time, like what I think of
just his perception.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I was glad that after the big touchdown pass that
he threw the GP, he goes to the old line
and he's not saying good job since we are in there,
I'm not gonna say it. He's like ht double hockey
sticks of a job like yo, good job, like yo
can And the perception is like he's such a button up,
like he doesn't do it even it's like he's like,
you know, like he wanted the guys still like you

(32:37):
connect to that little.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
Song he's celebrating touchdown. He's no, he's fired.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
He's passionate cause thinking about we saw that was a
whole ordeal with Aaron Rodgers and Robert Salad. Right, Oh,
Salah wants to jump up and down and give him
a hug. Aaron Rodgers so locked into the game, doesn't
want to hug, pushes him off of him to stop it.
Don't touch me right, It's like, nah Russe, let you know, bro, like, yo,
this is a big deal.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I'm with you, all right, your hype. I'm hype two.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
He's running up the GP and Friar Ruth and all
the guys. After they score, he's given his offensive line credit,
and I think Danny Smith on the sideline like, and.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
When I say that stuff matters to it does. Like
for him, it doesn't hit the same because he's already
won a super Bowl, he's already done certain things. But
for the majority of that team, they've never won, they've
never been to that, so you need to celebrate these
little victories with them. This is one of the things
I remember twenty fourteen. Man, I was always like toured

(33:35):
about the filly and then afterwards I guided way more
like as a you know, like the further you get involved.
Twenty fourteen, though, man, we win the division, and I
remember how hype me Vince like Vince Williams, Ryan Shazier,
Terrence Garf and Sean Spence were jumping up and down
like school girl, so hype because like, yeah, we actually
wanted to vishal.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Like none of you guys done it right now, as
every young players in the league.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
I was coming from Buffalo where most games were one
with six games.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Five season would have been great.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
This TG all those in the Buffalo Bills now right.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Vincent TG, Sean Spence.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
They came in in twenty fourteen or twenty thirteen, their
first season eight nightly you know. So for them it
was like, yo, we won, like we were hype, and
I remember Man seven came over. It was like, yo,
see y'll guys in here jumping and racking, like y'all
done something. Man, We ain't done nothing. It's just division bro,
we want the real one, super bo. And I was
like they an kind of like crushes low cute, like yo, man,
we can't to be hype for this. But then I

(34:28):
remember we didn't win the division the next year, and
when we finally came back and one of our third
year is seeing how bid had changed, even his procession
of like hey dude, this ain't guaranteed, man, enjoy it
celebrated a little bit, and I remember how much more
motivated we were though, because now it's like, Yo, we
can't feel good about doing something good. We can't feel
good about Yo, we did win a tough game. We

(34:49):
did win, you know, a division. We are having success
in the postseason. You think about the run we went
on that year too, is the same year we had
the Facebook in the locker room.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
Yeah, and then before that was Miam.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah before that, before that, the year before that we
won against Miami, lost to Denver on the Peyton man
and fake slide got up.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
The year after that was when we went to the
AFC Championship.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
Right, But who who was the win against other than
Kansas City that year in the playoffs?

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Oh, Cincinnati, Cincinnat Perfect Game, the Crazy Game, Oh lord,
that's right, yep, that and then the ice game. I
flipped him Miami is that year it was Miami. Kansas
City lost to the Patriots. We beat Cincinnati in the
Crazy Game, and then lost on the road to Denver
Peyton manning.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Okay, yeah, okay, that's road that makes sense, right, Okay,
So yeah, so Miami because I thought I remember it
was back because weld weather in Pittsburgh's it was weather
and it was freezing here versus Miami.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
The field was frozen. I remember killed a guy.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, And it was funny because earlier that year, remember
they destroyed as Jay. It was a ran for like
two something on this in Miami and yep yep.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
And you look look to his his left about three
yards and in front of him, and you'll see me
over here like, oh, whoa all, are you really all
throwing up?

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Like it's real.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah, But that was his thing that you go back
to the Ravens game, second game of the season and
he's jacking on Thursday night football, all right.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
This was that was his thing.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
He was like, Yo, it's these these shakes I dranked
before the game, Like, bro, stop drinking the shakes, then, bro,
just stop it.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, drink my.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Sha throw up that way, don't look, you'll be throwing up.
And then next one he's trying to talk. It's like, yeah,
hanging off his face.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Man.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
She's like, bro, come on, man, why are you doing that?
Like that's a lot. So yeah, that's real life man,
that's real life man. But as a whole though, man,
I think about how when we had to play them
again though, how much colder it was. Those dudes were freezing,
and that was a big man it was out there
with them long sleep. When we seen him put hoodies on,

(36:46):
we was like, oh, it's over. And that's when Shade
came up with no shirt on. That was when of
his first games coming out no shirt. Ball ahead and
we was like, oh, that's.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
What you want. And then Debo came up. He was like, oh,
I say say less, this is the five today. Okay, Yeah,
it was a great day, man, It's a great day.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
Pre killed the guy.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah, but the predef killed guy man. I've wounessed a
lot of those betweet but.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
That too it when we killed I was gonna kill
the guy.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
Man.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Two ones hilarious because you literally put your hands on.

Speaker 6 (37:12):
Top of your head like I'd be around for some
of these bad ones. Mama, that could have been me.
I'm glad you ain't missed. Thank the Lord, I signed
for the right teams. Like, ah, I know that hurt man.
All right, So we do see more tweets coming in.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
We are going to get to him just after this break,
so don't touch that down. Are the most west Uler
And this is the Steelers Blitz on the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
This is the Steeler's Blitz with Wesley Euler and Arthur
Motes on your twenty four to seven Home of the
Black and Gold SNR.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Arthur Motes Wesley Euler back final segment of the first
hour of the Steelers Blitz. As we were just reacting
to that beautiful episode of Hard Knocks story the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and I guess Baltimore Ravens and Bengals and Browns had
a little cameo. It was our show, though it really
was we take over stadiums, We take of HBO. I

(39:26):
was loving it, but the whole time I was like,
you know what, Like if I was one of these
other fan bases, I'd be like, is this Steelers Hard
Knocks or is this seriously? Could you imagine you stayed
up that long, sweetheart, imagine standing up that long?

Speaker 1 (39:37):
And it was just showing Ravens or and even.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Funny enough too. I thought Cincinnati was the clear cut
number two. I did too, because they were highlighting the
Steelers in the Bengals game, at least.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
They were being victimized. They weren't highlighting the goods. It
was more high in the basta.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
So if you're a Bengals fan, you might be happy
that you definitely got the second most screen time, I thought,
but it was kind of traumatic screen screen time. Yeah,
deal with it.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
It's like that sometimes.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
But we are going to do this though, Big Red,
I know you don't usually get up this early, but
I need you type of dead is let's do it.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Big Red sent me a complaint.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
Oh, he said, tell the Hard Knocks crew on the
next episode to focus more on the food in each
of these cities.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Listen.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
If they don't go and talk about these Pittsburgh Steeler's chefs,
they are doing it a disservice.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
If I don't get some some some crab leg shots,
you know in the Baltimore facility, what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Ooh it is healthy?

Speaker 4 (40:30):
And he tweets us and says leadership is more than
just words. You could feel the hard work, the knowledge,
the respect for the opponents, for the players. You could
feel the genuine passion the coach he has. He works
as hard as he expects his players too. He's genuine.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
No, that's one thousand percent, man.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
I mean it's one of those guys that, especially during
the season, you question does he go home like legitimately, I.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
Mean, I'm not gonna point it out, but it looked
like he was wearing the same outfit and like every day. No,
I don't want to say he's going, but I'm just
an observation.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
If you catch him at the hotel, you can see
that same coffee mug from the time you get there
till we leave it to these' like.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Coach man, how much coffee you drink? Ro did you?
Did you actually sleep?

Speaker 4 (41:11):
To that coach you aren't? You ain't coach come moment.
He also saw him reaching for the bag of fridos
at one point for the snack.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
But his preparation, man, Like, that's the other part of
why you play so hard for him. If he's just
yelling and trying to motivate you, but there is no substance,
there is no production to go with the words, then
you know you don't really.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Buy into it. It loses its value.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
But when he's telling you this is something that is critical,
When he's telling you this is impactful, we need this,
and it actually plays out and it happens on multiple occasions.
You're just like, man, the way that this guy sees
it and calls it like you just you start to
trust it and believe it's so much more man.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
And I know we do. We will turn this over
completely to the tweets at some point. We still got
over an hour to go here. It's hard knungs bro
first worst episode. One thing that I didn't bring up though,
that I thought you just kind of hit on two.
That is man, It's so valuable in every sport when
you can achieve it. But I think especially football, where
the sample size is the smallest, the margin for air

(42:14):
is the smallest. Every game matters the most. Baseball, the
best team in the world is going to lose sixty
some games a year. You can really tell he's been
doing this for eighteen years. I thought some of that
showed through with Harball as well too. You can really
tell he's been doing it with the same team for
seventeen years.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Radio.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
But you can see what they just There is such
a clear cut understanding of the EBB and flow of
a week. And again, like.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
The receiving information, there is no hoops the exactly.

Speaker 4 (42:49):
It's like the old Sun sue that I referenced earlier.
By the time you get to battle, it's already decided.
It's all in your preparation. It's all in and and
what you know about your opponent and know about yourself
and how prepared you are, and by the time the
battle begins, it's already been won by one of the
one of the two sides. And man, just the ebb
and the flow of how he knows how to go

(43:10):
about a week, the Wednesday, the Thursday, the Friday, the
Saturday at the hotel, the then the ultimate crescendo of
the game day.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
And how you manage those emotions.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Dude, like it's in it. It makes sense because that's
the way everyone. You and I are in our seventh
year of doing a radio show together. We're much better
at this now than we were when we were in
our seventh week of doing a radio show together. Continuing
on the rise and man like that was one of
the other things that stood out to me about Mike Toblin. Two.
You could tell that this guy has been doing this

(43:40):
for a long time, and particularly with the same organization
and the same set of expectations, and you know, not
as many as there used to be, but still a
lot of guys that have been around for a while,
both on his staff and on that roster. There's there's
just such a culture, there's such an understanding, there's such

(44:01):
a standard operating procedure. Mike Tomlin is never shooting from
the hip. I think that's the best way. I always say,
if everything's intentional, there is a rhyme, and there's a
reason that that has been incredibly detailed and incredibly polished
up for dang near two decades. That is as somebody
who aspires to do their craft at that high.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Of a level one day, that is motivating.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
That makes But that's the thing, man, when I tell people,
it's like, yo, I've learned so much from this guy,
and not just football.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
It's like life, like real life.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
How he challenges you, man, and he understands how to
say it. He understands you as an individual, what it
is that might motivate you. But at the same time,
he sees what more you have in yourself, your your
other potential, and he's gonna hold you accountable for it.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
He's not going to make you decide more than once.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Where we got that from, right, I would tell you say,
decide once, bro side once. How many people in life, man,
it's like yo, they I want to be great today.
I don't want to be great no more. I'm gonna
be great down. I ain't doing no more all right,
I'm ready. I'm really going to commit this. I was like, yeah,
just decide once man, lock in and you think about
how this guy's done it. I mean, I mean just
in the sense of his progress, right with the different teams,

(45:22):
the way that we've been able to see these guys improving.
That's it's a big testament to him, and it's it's
cool for him to kind of get this moment too.
And I think that's what hard Knecks is going to
really allow him to do, is kind of receive his
flowers from steal his nation sort of speak.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
And Randy says Randy tweeted us about that. He said,
you know your coach is the truth when you see
other fan bases on Twitter saying I'm not a fan
of the Steelers, but I'm a fan of Mike Tomlin
Proud he's our coach. Seriously, Like, you're right, I mean,
it's it's it's it's impressed. Like I just keep coming
back to impressive, Like it's it's it's very impressive. And

(45:59):
with the backdrop of knowing too that you're still while
this is a great look at it and everything, it's
still only a snapshot of the of the full of
the full picture. It's only a little thumbnail of the
entire portrait. And yeah, I think you, man, you you
contradict that with again, how we see some of these
other organizations. We name them often enough, we don't need

(46:20):
to throw them under the bus again. I mean, it
is fun though, And you you realize why the Steelers
they don't have those bottom out seasons, they don't have
those you know, fruitless decades and anything like that. When
you got the type of leadership that they do. It's
a it's understandable why they're so stable.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
How about that. I think, oh you did that right there. Good.
It was alliteration of the words love it, love it,
love it though. Man. But like I said, that's the
beauty of this name right now.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Man, But we are going to take a break, and
then when we get back, man, we do got to
take a quick peek at this year a FC playoff,
pitching playoff. I mean, because it is it's getting to
that time, December. It is December, all right. We don't
have plenty of time, but we do got some time,
all right, out of time. You're starting runing a little
bit of time, alright, So we gonna ta a little
quick look at that man, but don't touch that Dallas
art the most.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
That's what's Leuler.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
And this is the Steelers Blitz on the Steelers Audio
Network