Steelers' Ramon Foster With A Memorable Blast From The Past: Pittsburgh And Buffalo's Overly Physical Combined Practices

The Pittsburgh Steelers just wrapped up what appears to be one of the best drafts in recent memory. The players chosen all seem to be at excellent value for their selection point. One of the things that stands out the most about this new crop of rookies is their physicality. You have first-round offensive tackle, Broderick Jones, saying they are all "dawgs" and defensive tackle, Keeanu Benton, saying Head Coach Mike Tomlin told him he was looking for "goons." Regardless of whether you call them goons or dawgs or anything else, this group looks to be physically tough. 

Former Steelers offensive tackle Ramon Foster thinks so too. On his podcast, The Ramon Foster Show, which airs via the DK Pittsburgh Sports site, Foster and his co-host, Dejan Kovacevic, spoke about the increased physicality this group brings. They also told a story about a very physical Steelers team in the not-to-distant past and about how a practice decision shed some light on the fact that the Steelers just hit differently, literally. 

The Steelers Showed The Bills How It's Done

Both Foster and Kovacevic feel that this new draft class has what it takes. Foster said a lot of it comes down to that physical play, football is just an aggressive sport. 

"Football is the only sport where you have to do what you say you're gonna do and you have to prove it and it comes with physicality."  

Foster asks Kovacevic about his impressions of training camp, as he has spent time around the team for many years. Foster wonders if camp is intimidating for folks who might not expect it to be so violent. Kovacevic responds that training camp might not be exactly what fans expect. 

"I think it could confuse fans. I think whenever they hear reports of a fight or the offensive line all freaked out because one of their guys got pushed down and what does that mean for the future relationship (of the players involved)."

Foster laughs and says those skirmishes are meaningless, just a normal part of operations. But he does recall a time when an outside team, the Buffalo Bills, got to take a peek behind the Steel Curtain at Pittsburgh's training camp and were not too enthused with what they found.  

Kovacevic starts immediately shaking his head and saying, "What a mistake." He added it was only about a decade ago and he is right. The plan was the Steelers would host the first year, 2014, in Latrobe and the Bills would come to join them. Then in 2015, the Bills would host the Steelers. Foster sets up the story for listeners who may not remember. 

"We were rebuilding, that was when the o-line was kind of shaping up a little bit. Mike Wallace was still around, AB [Antonio Brown] was becoming an item. It was good getting to that point where we got to start reshaping who we are and the Buffalo Bills come into town led by Rex Ryan." 

The two agree that Ryan is an elite defensive mind and Foster clarifies that he has nothing but respect for him. He assumed that Ryan would run the same kind of old-school practices that Tomlin does.

"They should know what camp is all about. We live that from the beginning of training camp throughout the season. They came to us and they were like, 'Dawg, what the hell you got going on out here?' I was like, 'What are you talking about? Y'all don't do this?' And it's like, 'No, y'all are tackling to the ground, y'all got backs on backers, every day there's a fight out here.'"  

Kovacevic laughing warns against getting Tomlin in trouble. Foster says that every team does it differently, but this is how the Steelers do it. 

"We have full tackle drills to the ground, some NFL teams don't do that. We have backs on backers where it's overly physical every single day, some teams don't do that. We get into situations with one another almost every single day, to where it's aggressive, there's a breeding ground to knowing how to play football, knowing how to legitimately go about imposing your will. The whole cut off your eyelids mentality, that whole don't blink mentality. That whole 'I want volunteers, not hostages.' It's a breeding ground in Latrobe, with control." 

Ultimately, the Steelers did not go to Buffalo for camp in 2015. No official reason was given by the league or either team. Perhaps it was their extra preseason game, they played in the Hall of Fame Game that year, or perhaps the Bills of yesteryear wanted nothing to do with the way Steel City does camp. 

Do you remember the joint practice? What did you think of it at the time? What do you think about the full-contact practices that the Steelers do? Click to comment below!

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