The average NFL career only lasts a few years, typically. Most players who are drafted never get a chance to reach unrestricted free agency as a result, likely getting cut beforehand. Not many, then, get the chance to actually choose their employer without getting fired first.
And chances are most players grew up rooting for one team or another. How many of them get the chance to play for their favorite team? Well, I don’t know, but I know the Pittsburgh Steelers gave Chris Wormley that chance when they traded for him in 2020.
The sixth-year veteran has now spent about half of his career in Pittsburgh after being drafted by and spending his first three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He recorded a funny anecdote about his rookie season in 2017, the year after the Christmas Day ‘Immaculate Extension’ touchdown by Antonio Brown that gave Pittsburgh a climactic win over his new employers.
“That was the year before I was there. I was watching the game, as a Steelers fan. I was watching the game going crazy”, he recalled, during an interview with Aditi Kinkhabwala on 93.7 The Fan. “I was a student fan in December, then four months later I get drafted”.
By the losing side, of course. And as they enter the next season and prepare to face the Steelers, they revisit that play trying to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again—as well as for motivation. But it’s a little different when you were pulling for the other side.
“They’re talking about it, we’re watching that play over and over again in film the two times we played them my rookie year”, Wormley recalled. “I’m like, I was kind of happy that Antonio Brown scored that touchdown 10 months before, but now I’m like, ‘Grrr’”.
The Steelers acquired Wormley via trade in March 2020 in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick, and they re-signed him to a two-year deal last year. He has spoken on numerous occasions about growing up a Steelers fan, as well as of becoming a Mike Tomlin fan, before getting a chance to play for him.
Wormley’s most important role came last season with Stephon Tuitt missing the entire year, entering the starting lineup as a result. Making 14 starts in 15 games, he recorded 51 tackles, including six for loss, with seven sacks and a forced fumble, all career bests, as well as three batted passes.
With Larry Ogunjobi brought in this offseason, Wormley is back into a rotational role in 2022, but has still logged over 100 snaps through four games. He’s tallied 14 tackles to date, including two for loss, though he’s still looking for his first sack of the year.
