The days have been long and rather hot at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, but one thing has been glaringly missing – in a good way — throughout Pittsburgh Steelers training camp.
Fights.
Entering the final day of camp, the Steelers have not had a practice fight, which is much more than can be said about a number of teams across the NFL landscape in the dog days of summer.
Just recently, the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had three fights in one practice session, leading to one assistant coach being taken to the hospital. The Detroit Lions and New York Giants have had some scuffles too, as well as the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers.
Cooler heads have prevailed for the Steelers though, which has Mike Tomlin appreciative of the maturity and commitment to development from his charges.
“We appreciate tough guys, but this is not an MMA team that we’re putting together, and so fights don’t help us win football games,” Tomlin told reporters Thursday during his press conference, according to video via the Steelers’ official YouTube. “And so we’ve been talking very black and white in that manner, and I appreciate the guys’ willingness to make that posture or that position real by adhering to it.”
Pittsburgh had a few scrums last year in training camp, including a fight between DL DeMarvin Leal and OL John Leglue. This year, there hasn’t been any fights or dustups in camp, a rarity given how high tensions can run after multiple days in pads and playing in the heat against the same competition.
That’s refreshing for the Steelers as this group is still relatively new and learning each other. Instead of worrying about establishing dominance after reps in some silly skirmish that accomplishes nothing but stopping practice — and potentially leading to injury — the Steelers are focused on building and getting better, taking every advantage of the time on the field to work towards a common goal of winning a Super Bowl.
Cutting out the fights and the silly little skirmishes that get broken up has been huge.
With teams like the Jets, Buccaneers, Lions and Giants in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent days due to the fights, the Steelers have quietly gone about their business in camp. Make no mistake, practices are intense and there are moments of heated verbal exchanges, but a lid has been kept on things overall, and that’s good.
It has Tomlin happy, too. Fights don’t win games. Physicality does though, and the Steelers have that in abundance.
