Consider the offseason officially over.
And I couldn’t be happier. I have a hunch you feel the same way.
It’s training camp week. My favorite time of year. The chance to head out to St. Vincent and hopefully see the makings of a Super Bowl bound Pittsburgh Steelers’ team. That’s the goal anyway. Always will be.
And hopefully you’ve enjoyed how we cover the beginning of each year down in Latrobe. If you haven’t, check out examples of our past post-practice reports. No, not every single thing that happens is the end-all and most of it is going to be forgotten by the start of the regular season and heck, by the time the first preseason game rolls around. We make those reports as in-depth as possible to give you the feel of being at camp. Because not everyone can make it out to practically the middle of nowhere on a Wednesday afternoon. If we’ve done that, gave you the impression you were sitting right on those bleachers next to us, then we’ve done our jobs.
As always, we plan on attending every single practice. All 15 of them this year. Our great photographer Tim Rice plans to be around for the first few and David Orochena will drive in for a handful as well.
I am going to attempt – do want to put the emphasis on attempt – to do something new this year. Not revolutionary so don’t get too excited but I’m going to try and track yardage gained each play too. It’ll help round out the stats. Identify which receivers are making big plays downfield. Which quarterbacks are taking shots or dinking and dunking. What RBs are showing burst (though that one may be more difficult in non-contact situations where the player is never really “down”). But we’re going to give it a shot.
So as we’ve set up in the past, we have our training camp tip jar which you can donate to via GoFundMe at the link here. But want to be really clear of its purpose these days. We don’t need it to attend. And I don’t have any expectation or “ask” of how much will be donated. That’s why it’s set to a goal of $1 (the minimum). We’re headed out no matter what. Of course, donations help and they do go to cover the cost of things like gas, food, and when the McLumina inevitably explodes into a hundred pieces like every action movie of the 80s.
If you do donate, and Dave, myself, and the whole team here are very appreciative and grateful, feel free to fire away a question about camp or the Steelers in general. Would be more than happy to answer when I respond (and I always respond to everyone. If I miss you by chance, let me know).
Like I say yearly with this post, only give if you’re able to. You’re under no obligation to do so. There’s no restricted access here. All our reports are free, accessible, and not behind any type of paywall or tier. I want to make sure you’re paying your bills first, not donating to me.
I’ll again leave the link to donate if you’re so inclined again here and occasionally post it throughout camp season. Thanks again for all the support and hopefully we can bring you some great information these next few weeks.
