polamalubeast
11-24-2018, 07:41 AM
The Steelers are putting the finishing touches on an Alumni Weekend - set for next weekend - that will honor the 2008 Steelers, who won the organization's last championship 10 years ago.
It's always about the winners, right?
But what about the losers?
It's been said that they get lucky sometimes, and the last losing team in Steelers history did get lucky. Their 6-10 2003 season resulted in the drafting of one Ben Roethlisberger in the spring of 2004.
So it was about 15 years ago, perhaps to this night, in 2003 when I sat in a South Side restaurant before the start of a radio show with one of our guests that night, Steelers scout Mark Gorscak. He was off the road at this point and sat down to enjoy a sandwich at my table.
It could've been a Tuesday night, or a Wednesday night, probably not a Friday night but maybe a Thursday night, since those were the nights Miami, Ohio, played at the end of that 2003 season. The Redhawks were on TV yet again because of Roethlisberger, whom experts were calling a potential No. 1 overall draft pick.
"What did they call that? MAC-tion?" Roethlisberger asked as he leaned in to listen to this story the other day.
No, "MAC-tion" is what they call it now. Back then, TV just called it Watch-This-Big-QB-Play-Some-Ball night.
By then, anyone who covered a team that needed a QB had watched Roethlisberger play, but no one imagined at that point he would fall to the Steelers, even after they had lost five in a row and stumbled through November and December alternately winning one and losing one with Tommy Maddox at quarterback.
So, Gorscak didn't mind giving an opinion about the guy playing QB on the screen above us, particularly when I told him that Roethlisberger reminded me of a young Jim Kelly.
"Nope," Gorscak said. "Looks like John Elway to me."
I was a little shocked. Gorscak was a grizzled NFL scout, and those of that particular species never like anyone that much.
But Gorscak did, and he went straight to the gold standard. Gorscak reasoned that Roethlisberger possessed Elway's mobility, arm strength, heart and desire.
read more
https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/Article/Ben-Roethlisbergers-Pittsburgh-Steelers-journey-similar-to-pro-journey-of-hero-John-Elway-125142896/
It's always about the winners, right?
But what about the losers?
It's been said that they get lucky sometimes, and the last losing team in Steelers history did get lucky. Their 6-10 2003 season resulted in the drafting of one Ben Roethlisberger in the spring of 2004.
So it was about 15 years ago, perhaps to this night, in 2003 when I sat in a South Side restaurant before the start of a radio show with one of our guests that night, Steelers scout Mark Gorscak. He was off the road at this point and sat down to enjoy a sandwich at my table.
It could've been a Tuesday night, or a Wednesday night, probably not a Friday night but maybe a Thursday night, since those were the nights Miami, Ohio, played at the end of that 2003 season. The Redhawks were on TV yet again because of Roethlisberger, whom experts were calling a potential No. 1 overall draft pick.
"What did they call that? MAC-tion?" Roethlisberger asked as he leaned in to listen to this story the other day.
No, "MAC-tion" is what they call it now. Back then, TV just called it Watch-This-Big-QB-Play-Some-Ball night.
By then, anyone who covered a team that needed a QB had watched Roethlisberger play, but no one imagined at that point he would fall to the Steelers, even after they had lost five in a row and stumbled through November and December alternately winning one and losing one with Tommy Maddox at quarterback.
So, Gorscak didn't mind giving an opinion about the guy playing QB on the screen above us, particularly when I told him that Roethlisberger reminded me of a young Jim Kelly.
"Nope," Gorscak said. "Looks like John Elway to me."
I was a little shocked. Gorscak was a grizzled NFL scout, and those of that particular species never like anyone that much.
But Gorscak did, and he went straight to the gold standard. Gorscak reasoned that Roethlisberger possessed Elway's mobility, arm strength, heart and desire.
read more
https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/Article/Ben-Roethlisbergers-Pittsburgh-Steelers-journey-similar-to-pro-journey-of-hero-John-Elway-125142896/