Last weekend, the Pittsburgh Steelers held their annual Alumni Weekend with former players returning to Acrisure Stadium for a dinner on Saturday and a halftime ceremony on Sunday. It’s a great chance for players to reconnect with old teammates and relive their glory days stepping onto the field. For former center Maurkice Pouncey, now an entrepreneur, the experience was “strange,” as he detailed to Bo Marchionte of College2Pro.com.
“It’s definitely strange,” Pouncey told Marchionte of returning to Acrisure Stadium for the first time since his last game. “I woke up this morning feeling like I had to play a game. I was nervous. I had anxiety. I was like, What the hell am I doing? I supposed to just go get me a coffee and hang out.'”
Returning to a place that Pouncey called home for 11 seasons (and playing in 10, after missing the 2015 season with an injury) and not suiting up and going through his usual pregame routine had to be an unusual feeling. Pouncey has changed a lot since his playing career, dropping 60 pounds, per Marchionte, and now is involved in multiple business ventures.
During his playing days, Pouncey was Pittsburgh’s best center since the retirement of Dermontti Dawson, a Day-One starter after being selected 18th overall in the 2010 NFL Draft, and he was the anchor of some really good offensive lines. Pouncey never won a ring in Pittsburgh, but if he had been healthy for Super Bowl XLV, that might not be the case. But he’s always going to be remembered as a really important piece for the Steelers during a period where their offense was clicking the best that it’s ever had.
A five-time All-Pro and nine-time Pro Bowler, Pouncey may wind up in Canton, Ohio, when all is said and done. Besides having a hand in multiple businesses, he’s also appeared on Ben Roethlisberger’s Footbahlin’ podcast to tell stories about his playing days. Pouncey and Roethlisberger, obviously, were long-time friends and teammates and it seems as if the two remain close.
Pittsburgh has yet to find a viable replacement at center since Pouncey retired following the 2020 season. The Kendrick Green experiment was a colossal failure in 2021, and Mason Cole has been up and down since being signed ahead of the 2022 season. While it’s unlikely the Steelers will ever find another Pouncey, the team does have a rich history of centers like Mike Webster, Dawson and Pouncey.
It’s good to see Pouncey having success in his post-football life, and it was cool to see him and the rest of the alumni take in a Steelers win on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
