As the Pittsburgh Steelers welcome in the 2023 rookies, two former Steelers spent some time talking about their respective retirements. Ramon Foster had Roosevelt Nix as a guest on the Ramon Foster Steelers Show on Thursday and during their discussion that covered a wealth of football and non-football topics, Nix opened up about how the Steelers helped give him perspective on his retirement.
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Former Steelers OG Ramon Foster, now hosts a podcast on DK Pittsburgh Sports.
Steelers Veterans Get Nostalgic
Foster opened the show with a back-and-forth with Nix about their weight loss following retirement, but the conversation quickly pivoted to their personal experiences on the subject.
On Monday, March 16th, 2020, Ramon Foster announced his retirement with an emotional, heartfelt statement that concluded with words that every player hopes to say when his playing days come to an end:
"I'm glad to say I was a Steeler for life, and there is no other organization I would have rather played for in my career."
In his conversation with Nix, Foster went on to explain how quickly his views on the entire matter shifted at that moment when he realized it was really done. Behind the scenes was a football family that came together to help a great player transition from one side of the football world to the other:
“When I got that call from Mr. Rooney, I mean, we all talked about it – Coach T, Kev [Colbert] – my initial just, understanding of it all when I knew I was done, they knew it, we were here and I sat there for a second, Rosie [Roosevelt Nix] and I was just like, ‘I can finally breathe’. I went 'whew,' like, it was interesting, man, cause I ain’t realized how much stress, how much on you gotta be, to be a professional athlete…”
As it turned out, that was a very different ending than the one Nix went through.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers fullback Roosevelt Nix.
Steelers Prove Grass Is Greener
After Foster gave his story on how retirement came calling, Nix opened up about how different his experience was.
Unlike Foster, Nix had already played for another team prior to his arrival in Pittsburgh. He went undrafted in 2014 but was signed as an UDFA by the Atlanta Falcons soon after. When the Falcons cut him that August, despite Nix changing his position from linebacker to fullback, it seemed as though the NFL wasn't in the cards after all. Never one to let life trip him up for long, Nix became a jack of all trades as he kept his hopes for a football career alive in his mind. He was a teacher's assistant, a bouncer at a nightclub, applied to the police academy and still found time to maintain his football workouts just in case his dream wasn't dead just yet.
In 2015, the Steelers signed him and Nix made the roster as a fullback. What followed was a gritty, hard-hitting kind of career that made Steelers fans everywhere proud to watch him clear space and take on anyone trying to get through the hole. His journey ended in 2020, but in a different way than Foster's had. Foster was a Pittsburgh player from start to finish and anchored more than a few successful lines and while Nix had certainly left his mark, the day the Steelers released him didn't feel like the end for him yet.
THE RAMON FOSTER SHOW
Former Steelers Ramon Foster's show on YouTube
Nix Holds Special Place For Steelers
Nix said as much when he compared the end of his Steelers playing days to Foster's on the show:
“For you, you know, you guys were there, me not so much with the ‘Burgh, you know what I mean? I was more surprised and shocked and, you know, on to the next. We just gotta operate, that’s how I do. It was just like, we gotta figure it out...And I was going through some things personally that just timed up right around getting cut from Pittsburgh, so I had a lot of things going.”
He felt like he had more left in the tank, but after going to the Indianapolis Colts on April 11, 2020, it only took Nix twenty days to realize that there was a difference between fighting for a spot in Pittsburgh and the way he felt in Indianapolis. Not holding back on the stark change that he experienced, Nix explained to Foster how that was for him:
“When I went to Indy it wasn’t the ‘Burgh, you know. It wasn’t what I was used to, not to say that people there weren’t great or anything, but that combined with the personal stuff that I had going on, it was a lot. I tried to do that, and when I was done, you know, when I really realized that Pittsburgh was different and I was done, I was done playing football, yes, then I got that breath, that easement, you know what I’m saying?”
Every fan, player, staff member, in the front office, or person working the grounds knows that there is something special about the Pittsburgh Steelers. For Roosevelt Nix, it was never as real as when he wasn't around it anymore. For some players it is all about the love of the game, in Pittsburgh, it's about so much more.
