John Mitchell spent 28 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers before finally retiring at the end of last season. He served for most of that time as the team’s defensive line coach, working with everybody from Joel Steed and Gerald Williams to Stephon Tuitt and Javon Hargrave before taking a step back in 2017 from positional duties.
Hargrave was his last great prospect, drafted in the third round in 2016, the last player to get the full John Mitchell experience. In fact, it was the birth of the sack celebration he became known for throughout his time in Pittsburgh—though nobody was really sure what it was or what it meant.
He explained exactly what it was to his former teammate, Cameron Heyward, on the Not Just Football podcast, appearing as a guest this week leading up to his return to Pittsburgh as the Steelers host his San Francisco 49ers.
Every time I’d do something wrong [Mitchell] used to have a laser [pointer], like, ‘You need to spend some time with it! You need to spend some time with it!’. So, I think my the first sack in the NFL I got, I just got on my knee and started doing the little spin. I was looking at him, I looked at him and did it. That was my little thing. I did it every time.
There are plenty of examples to cite, including one from his rookie season when he was able to record a sack against the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game. That one may not have ended the way the Steelers liked, but it showed the kind of potential Hargrave has at the end of his rookie season.
The Steelers were unable to re-sign the rising star at the end of his rookie contract, Hargrave ending up with the Philadelphia Eagles as a prized free agent. After three seasons there, he signed a huge deal to join the 49ers this offseason. And now he gets to return to his old stomping grounds on Sunday—and may break out his old sack celebration if he gets the chance, even if he had to change it up after leaving in free agency.
“I had to upgrade a little bit because ain’t nobody know what I was doing”, Hargrave said. “People thought I was rolling down the window”, he said. But if he can get another sack against QB Kenny Pickett, as he did last year, calling it a highlight of his career, he could whip out the laser. “That would be funny to do it against y’all because ya’ll would know”.
Mitchell might still be found around the building from time to time even if he no longer holds an official capacity. The 71-year-old has been one of the defining figures in Steelers football for the past three decades in more ways than most might realize.
Hargrave’s affectionately playful tribute to his former position coach is just a small fragment of the influence he’s had on the players he coached, including Heyward, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Aaron Smith, Kimo von Oelhoffen—the list goes on. At some point, they all got circled with the laser pointer and scolded. All of them know and appreciate exactly what that means.
