On Monday, the Pittsburgh Steelers took their annual field trip to the local Dave and Busters to take part in a team building exercise. For a backup quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, this was his second such team-building trip as a member of the Steelers and he took time out to talk about the importance of it during an interview with steelers.com
“I think this is awesome what Coach Tomlin does every year,” said Gradkowski. “You’ll be around other places where they have to get all of the OTAs in and coach understands that it’s important to have comradery. And to come out with your buddies and teammates and build a relationship with the younger guys and the veterans that just came in, I just think that it’s super important for a team and it’s cool that Coach Tomlin sees it that way, too.
“We get to come out and enjoy each other and have a little fun while we compete at this and it’s outside of football, so guys get to relax a little bit and have fun with each other.”
While it may have been a day full of fun and games, it didn’t lack competitiveness. Rookie first-round draft pick Ryan Shazier found this out first-hand as the young linebacker had to do 50 pushups as a result of him finishing last in a Mario Kart race against fellow rookies Dri Archer, Stephon Tuitt and Shaquille Richardson.
“Whenever you can interact with your teammates off the field, it’s a plus,” said Archer, who just so happened to win the aforementioned race. “So this is good. Having the guys all in one area just playing games and having fun.”
The Steelers will resume their OTA practices on Tuesday.
