It didn’t take long for Brett Keisel to love the late Dan Rooney the way everyone who met him did. But the first time they interacted, Keisel admits he thought Rooney was something closer to intern than owner. Appearing on Good Morning Football earlier this week, Keisel shared a hilarious story of meeting the Steelers’ owner.
“I knew nothing really about Pittsburgh,” Keisel admitted upon first being drafted. “My images of Pittsburgh was what I saw as a kid in books or anything. Looked like a dark steel town, smoke and smog everywhere. I was so shocked when I came through Fort Pitt Bridge there. We have a front door unlike anything else here in Pittsburgh. And they take us down, I go into the South Side facility. You spend the day meeting everybody after your first coming there.
“And [Rooney] was the last guy I met. And I went in this room and there’s a guy with khakis on and he is just hanging out. He’s got a polo shirt on and he’s making copies at the copier. They said, ‘This is so and so.’ And I was like, ‘Hey. It was a long day, nice to meet you.’ And I walked out and I told my guy who was showing me around, ‘Man, that’s awesome, you guys hire senior citizens and stuff around here.'”
Keisel was quickly corrected and informed the man he met wasn’t there to get out of the house. He was the president of the entire franchise.
The story can be told with a laugh today, but it was a self-admitted embarrassing moment for Keisel at the time.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” Keisel told the show with a smile.
At the time, Pittsburgh was a long way from home for Keisel. Born in Wyoming and playing college football at BYU, going to Pittsburgh in 2002 felt like going to a different planet. But the regions shared similar roots. A culture of working hard and being tough.
After several years biding his time as a backup, Keisel cracked the starting lineup in 2006. He went on to start 114 games and help bring two Super Bowls to the Rooney family, playing a key role in the latter during the 2008 season. In the Super Bowl against Arizona, he recorded five tackles and recovered LaMarr Woodley’s forced fumble to win the game. A football Keisel made sure to keep.
After spending time around the Rooney family, Keisel came to realize that seeing the owner in the copier room wasn’t anything out of the ordinary in Pittsburgh, even if it was for other franchises with big-wig billionaire owners.
“That’s how the Rooneys are, man. They’re like a family down here. And they’re at everything. You see them at every meal. You see them at every practice.”
Like Rooney himself, Keisel came from humble beginnings. A JUCO in college. A seventh-round draft pick. By his football career’s end, he became a staple in the Pittsburgh community. Not just for his play on the field but all his involvement off it, including his wildly successful “Shear Da Beard” events that annually raised money for charity. Keisel was one of several former players to make the trip to Dublin and watch the Steelers beat the Vikings. It was an outcome that made Keisel and the Rooney family smile.
