The Pittsburgh Steelers will report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe for the start of their 2019 training camp a week from today and if you’re like me and hoping that arrival day this year will be very low key, it looks like we might just get our wish answered.
According to a Thursday Instagram post by Steelers linebacker Vince Williams, he’s treating this year’s training camp arrival as “all business.” Last year, Williams arrived at the dorms of Saint Vincent College dressed as WWE icon Steve Austin and even completed the full character effect by playing the same entrance song on his vehicle’s sound system and by carrying a replica wrestling championship belt into the dorm with him.
Along with posting a picture of himself arriving at Steelers training camp last year on Thursday, Williams’ text that accompanied the year-old photo was short and to the point.
“Camp coming soon. This was lit, but this year it’s all business,” Williams posted on his social media account.
While Williams’ arrival to training camp last year as a well-known wrestling character was essentially harmless, it was one of a few player arrivals looking to draw extra attention to the individual. The biggest attention-grabbing arrival last year came courtesy of now former wide receiver Antonio Brown as he was dropped off just outside of the dorms at Saint Vincent College by a privately chartered helicopter.
On Thursday, Williams was asked on Instagram by a fan if there will be any helicopters on training cap arrival day next Thursday and his answer to that question was straight and to the point.
“Nope just work,” Williams responded.
Over the years we have seen several interesting and entertaining player arrivals to Saint Vincent College for the start of training camp. We’ve seen players show up in uber expensive cars, heavy industrial equipment and more. While none of those arrivals were offensive in nature, it would be nice to see a very low-key arrival to training camp this year. After all, the Steelers are coming off a season where they failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2013 season and a lot analysts already seem to think a return to the playoffs for Pittsburgh in 2019 isn’t a guaranteed thing as well.
Williams is now very much a veteran leader for the Steelers and only five other players currently under contract can claim to have been to more training camps at Latrobe than he has. If Williams is already hinting that next Thursday’s team arrival is expected to be the lowest-keyed one we’ve seen in several years, that’s probably what we should expect.
The Steelers players are required to report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe for the start of the team’s 2019 training camp next Thursday by 4 p.m. EST.
