While reporters and fans were glued to their phones and social media in the hours leading up to the 4 PM/ET trade deadline Tuesday, Pittsburgh Steelers veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts had another thing on his mind: spaghetti.
During the players’ day off Tuesday, Roberts was at the grocery store making sure he had all the ingredients for his wife to make him his favorite meal.
With spaghetti, you need all the right ingredients to make a great meal. It’s similar in team building, too, so GM Omar Khan was cooking up his own meal with some roster improvements.
But while everyone was reacting to the moves from the Steelers to add veteran WR Mike Williams and EDGE Preston Smith via trades, Roberts was only focused on his spaghetti.
He revealed that to reporters Wednesday after practice.
“Nah, I didn’t really hear about it until later in the day. My wife, she was making spaghetti, so I was at the store just making sure I had the ground beef and stuff like that for her because that’s like my favorite meal. So I really wasn’t paying too much attention to it and stuff like that,” Roberts said of the Steelers’ trade-deadline acquisitions, according to video via Steelers.com. “But, you know, obviously every team across the league is trying to do whatever they need to do to set their team up in the best position.
“So I think that’s what they did, and I don’t know what all they did ’cause I was worried about my spaghetti and stuff. It was very good.”
What an all-time quote from Roberts.
While the NFL landscape was reacting to all the moves that took place on Tuesday, including two for the Steelers, Roberts was just focused on making sure he was about to have the best spaghetti dish of his life ahead of a big week. What a guy.
That’s probably how it was for many inside the Steelers’ locker room. Those roster moves are out of their control, so they’re not going to be following along all that closely. It all makes sense as it’s not something to waste time on from a player’s perspective, especially a player who could be staying or going.
In Roberts’ case, he was certainly safe, but even then it made no sense for him to waste time on following all the trade coverage to see if the Steelers made a move. The belief inside the locker room is real, so even if the Steelers had not added before the deadline the mood would have been fine.
It’s great to hear a guy like Roberts making light of a situation. It can be stressful for some players, but for Roberts he was unplugged and focusing on his favorite meal, rather than trying to get a look at what the Steelers did or did not do via trade.
Hopefully that spaghetti was delicious and helps Roberts play well on Sunday in what is shaping up to be a huge game to start the second half for the Black and Gold.
