The quarterback position is precious cargo. That’s what’s been decided by the people who pay the players after realizing how much they pay quarterbacks, in particular. And like a little kid who has to learn not to play around with the glass vase, so too do rookies sometimes have to be nudged into the reality that you don’t touch the quarterback during practice.
That’s the lesson T.J. Watt got, as he recalled with the quarterback he inadvertently had a hand in knocking down during one of his first training camp practices back during his rookie season in 2017. Hosted on Ben Roethlisberger’s Footbahlin podcast recently, the two reminisced about the moment.
“Do you remember, I think it was my rookie year at Latrobe, it was our first or second day in pads. Bull rush, foot onto your foot”, Watt recalled. “The tackle stepped on your foot. I’m not gonna name who—Al Villanueva—Stepped on your foot, and you went down, and I was like, ‘Noooooo!’. It was so quiet”.
“It was my rookie year and I’m like, ‘It’s over already’”.
The best information that I could find was the sixth practice of 2017, during which Roethlisberger did not participate in the final team session and then was given a rest day the day after. I do not find any more specific account of the play in question, but Roethlisberger is all too familiar with that particular setup.
“There’s nothing worse than when a lineman’s getting pushed and he’s backing up and he’s trying to stop”, he said. “He’s trying to dig in, dig in, because he’s like, ‘I gotta stop. I have to do something to stop this guy’. They just keep digging their heels in but they’ve got to get their feet up, so that heel just hits right on top of your foot and it just drops you”.
It’s always possible that the memory is a bit hazy. I don’t imagine Watt might misremember which quarterback it was, since, if we’re being honest, there would be a pretty big difference in the reaction if Roethlisberger were stepped on versus Landry Jones or Joshua Dobbs. But I saw no accounts in 2018 or 2019 of such an event taking place, either.
With the Steelers’ next stop being Latrobe, however, and the first full-on practices on the horizon, it’s probably a good reminder for guys like Nick Herbig and Keeanu Benton, who are going to be put in that situation for the first time ever.
As a young player, you have to balance the eagerness to prove yourself and being aggressive against practicing smart. The worst impression you can make is injuring the franchise quarterback, after all. But I don’t think Watt ever had to worry about getting cut.
