Typically, when the Pittsburgh Steelers say that’s their best offer, they mean it. It happened with RB Le’Veon Bell. It’s happened with others. They don’t lose a negotiation too often. But when it came to Ike Taylor, he got what he was looking for even after the front office told him the Steelers weren’t going to reach his number.
Appearing on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, Taylor had a heartfelt conversation about his relationship with the late Dan Rooney, who was so close to Taylor that he treated him like family. And when Taylor wanted just a little bit more money during one of his contract negotiations, the man Taylor called “Papa Rooney” acquiesced.
“My contract time was coming,” Taylor told Heyward. “He’s telling my agent, ‘This is the number for Ike. We’re not going over this number. This is it.’ You gotta go through the chain of command. Then Omar [Khan] comes to me. ‘Papa Rooney says this number, we’re not going above this number.’ I said, ‘F that.’ I drove from the South Side, I went to go see him in his office. I said ‘Papa, just tell me what I’m not doing right. I understand the business side. Can you just get me 500, 800 thousand more? I ain’t really asking for too much. Just tell me what I’m not doing right.'”
Taylor acknowledged his contract negotiation was a frustrating process and he told Rooney that he didn’t want to be frustrated with him. Rooney apparently didn’t say much but heard Taylor’s concerns before leaving his office to go back home. Soon after, Khan gave Taylor a call.
“Omar called me. He was like, ‘How in the world did you do that?’ I said, ‘I just told him how I felt.’ He was like, ‘Only Ike.'”
And Taylor got his money. It’s not clear if he’s referring to his 2006 or 2011 contract. Perhaps it was the former considering that didn’t get done until Sept. 3, four days until the regular season kicked off. The 2011 deal got done at the start of training camp on July 29. Regardless, that was the type of relationship Taylor had with Rooney. The ability to drive to the facility, go to Mr. Rooney’s office, and have an open and honest meeting about how he felt.
Of course, Taylor’s relationship with Rooney was so much more than simply transactional. Taylor was treated like family. He retold the story of being allowed to sleep in Rooney’s office for three hours after one practice, Rooney making sure Taylor wasn’t disturbed so he could get some rest. And when Rooney died in April 2017, Taylor served as a pallbearer. He was also invited to the family-only portion of Rooney’s viewing, and he sat on the family side of his funeral.
“For the viewing right now, it’s just the family,” Taylor was informed after getting there. “And I just broke down. I fell to my knees and broke down in tears. He really did look at me as part of the family.”
It’s a story between player and owner rarely seen, especially in this day and age of free agency and social media and often a clear bar between players and the front office. This story is one of many of how uniquely Rooney ran the Steelers and why so many who played for Pittsburgh call it the gold standard of a franchise.
Watch the whole episode below.
