One of the most commonly uttered statements about the NFL is that it’s a business. That much is true, especially when it comes time to talk contracts, on both sides. But the NFL being a business is not to the exclusion of the personal, which it very much is. It’s a people business, too, and the people you choose to work with matter (for some organizations more than others).
And the Pittsburgh Steelers know whom they want to work with. It’s rare that they don’t have some type of contact with a player that they draft or learn a lot about them through their own network of contacts. The easiest route is to have his brother on the roster, which was the case for fourth-round pick Nick Herbig, who now for the first time since he was in second grade gets to play with big brother Nate.
You can tell just how much that means to him on his side of the phone conversation he had with the Steelers as they were informing him that he was about to be drafted. He shared a video of it on social media on Sunday night.
As you can probably gather, it’s only the end of the phone conversation, but it seems to capture the moment that he reveals to his gathered friends and family just who it was that he was speaking to. “I can’t wait to be a Steeler! Let’s go!”, he shouts through tears after his obligatory thank yous before rising out of his seat in continued excitement.
It calls to mind the video of former Steelers offensive lineman B.J. Finney, who after growing up a fan of the team all his life got the call after the draft that they wanted to sign him. He, too, shared through tears to his family that he would be moving on to Pittsburgh, a dream come true.
I don’t know precisely what Nick Herbig’s childhood team affiliation may have been, but he told reporters after being drafted that getting a chance to play for the Steelers “is all I’ve ever dreamed about”, via transcript provided by the team’s media department. But I’m guessing being drafted by your big brother’s team played an even bigger role.
He also told reporters that he and Nate talked about the possibility of playing on the same team in the NFL “every day” since they were children. He said that they once played together for the Kauai Bulldogs, he in second grade, Nate in sixth—and playing next to each other on the defensive line. “I was like a little kid running around with them”, he recalled.
Now they’re not going to be playing together in Pittsburgh, Nate an offensive guard and Nick a defensive edge rusher, though they’ll see each other in practice. And Nate did tell reporters during his own introductory press conference in March after signing as a free agent that Nick might be the only player he couldn’t block.
