I know that around the league when people say "The Steeler Way" of doing things, it either sends a feeling of pride through the veins of a Steeler lover and a shiver of jealousy through the bones of the Steeler haters. But I think we saw 3 examples of "The Steeler Way" today from three players who love their team and what has become their town.
First, there was Willie Colon. I have been listening to Willie, on Sirius NFL radio for the last year, talk about how much he loves the Steelers and that he didn't want to play anywhere else. Some people questioned that loyalty because they knew that Willie would receive free agent offers from other teams that could very well rival what the Steelers could or would offer him. Willie agreed to a 5 year, $29 million contract with the Steelers today. You might say that $29 million buys you a lot of loyalty. But when a player is offered $3 million more dollars by another team (10% more than the Steelers were offering) and he has just come back from a serious injury, I think you can assume that he values "The Steeler Way".
The other two Steeler players that I am referring to are Emmanuel Sanders and Mike Wallace. James Walker, who writes the AFC North blog for ESPN, tweeted "after being told WR Emmanuel Sanders is aiming for 1000 yards, Mike Wallace then said his goal is 2000 yards receiving". This might be the most competitive group of wide receivers we have seen since Lynn Swann and John Stallworth were chewing Terry Bradshaw's ears off for the football. Word was that last year, the competition between Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders was so fierce, that coaches struggled up until gametime to decide who would be activated.
All in all, this team is a fiercely competitive one and failure is NOT an option.
Photo courtesy of Steelers.com
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