These days, sports reporters who work for networks have to be told not to spoil the picks for their programs. So intent they are on getting “the scoop” that they want to tell the world 10 seconds before they’ll find out anyway.
It wasn’t like that “back in the day”. Back in Mark Bruener’s day, when he answered the phone for the Pittsburgh Steelers and spent two minutes trying to figure out who was calling. He recounted his own draft day story to Paul Schneiderman for Sports Untold recently. It’s kind of amusing the consider how much has changed in the past three decades.
“That’s when the draft was different. It was only two days, they didn’t do the big red carpet event where guys were in suits and they changed colors and all that stuff”, he joked. He noted that he got a phone call while watching the draft at his parents’ house, just as the Steelers were on the clock.
“‘Hey, is this Mark?’. ‘Yeah, this is Mark’. ‘How are you doing? Hold on’”, he recounted of that phone call. “I’m like, ‘Okay, first of all, who is this? And what’s going on here? I’m trying to watch the draft and see if I’m gonna get picked here!’”.
It wouldn’t be the first time a draft-day phone call got screwed up in the AFC North. The Cleveland Browns once tried to call first-round DE Cameron Jordan after drafting TE Jordan Cameron in 2011. Former Cincinnati Bengals WR Mohamed Sanu was pranked into thinking they drafted him in the first round. The Bengals did draft him two rounds later.
But it wasn’t until Bruener actually watched his name get announced as a member of the Steelers that they got back on the phone, starting with head coach Bill Cowher. “That two minutes felt like two hours”, he said of waiting on the phone not knowing who was calling. If it was even an NFL team.
“They don’t tell me who they are. It could’ve been the neighbor down the street or some yutz, I don’t know”, Bruener added. “I don’t want to be holding up the line if someone else is trying to call”. Imagine hanging up on the Steelers because you think the Steelers might be calling you. Not that they wouldn’t have called back.
Nor that they would have regretted doing so. He was a great tight end of the old-school model for whom blocking came first. He still caught 137 passes for 1,197 yards and 16 touchdowns during his nine-year Steelers career. Bruener went on to play for five more seasons with the Houston Texans.
But he has been back in the Steelers organization as a scout for a number of years. He’s no doubt had a hand in drafting guys like Pat Freiermuth, but he doesn’t just look at tight ends. The Steelers generally scout by region, so he’ll have played a part in any number of evaluations. Chidi Iwuoma is another former Steeler on the scouting staff. Merril Hoge worked with the team last year. Ike Taylor did as well, and perhaps still does, though there is no official confirmation on that, since he is not listed on the team’s website.
