Steelers' Ramon Foster On The Quality Of Insider Intel Players Bring When They Switch Teams

The Pittsburgh Steelers, like every other NFL team, are subject to gaining or losing players due to free agency. Free agency, as we know it today, has drastically changed the NFL. Before today's version of free agency, teams used to be able to protect 37 players on their roster. That meant they held on to their best players, keeping their core team together. 

That all began to change in 1992 when players started to complain. Some even sued the NFL, saying that it prohibited them from earning what they deserved and what other teams would be willing to pay. However, this change to our free agency system often means that the best players rarely stay with one team for their whole career. 

One example, the Steelers drafted Ben Roethlisberger in 2004. He spent 18 years in Pittsburgh, and he certainly got paid well, but there were also times that he took "team-friendly" deals to be able to stay with the team. Other quarterbacks that were drafted around the same time as him such as Tom Brady and Philip Rivers played for multiple teams. 

It is never easy when a player leaves your team and it can be a challenge to welcome a new player. This is especially true if the change has anything to do with a rival team. There are Steelers fans out there who still haven't forgiven James Harrison for going to the Cincinnati Bengals, let alone the New England Patriots, or Alejandro Villanueva for going to the Baltimore Ravens. However, one question always comes up, how much "insider information" do the players share with their new teams?

Steelers' Ramon Foster: The Insider Information They Want Isn't What You Think

Recently, former Steelers offensive guard, Ramon Foster, was asked about this on his podcast. The Ramon Foster Show, which he co-hosts with Pittsburgh reporter Dejan Kovacevic, airs on DK Pittsburgh Sports. Foster said the kind of inside information that you want from them may not be what fans think. 

"How much do they bring? You bring in just the small quirks, like what a guy hates."

While fans might have this built up in their minds and assume players are "loyal" to their previous team, it just doesn't work that way. They might love, miss and respect the guys that were on their previous team, but football is a business and the players know this. People don't change teams to be malicious or to tell all the secret information they have gathered. 

Foster says that the notion of telling plays or handing over game plays is just ridiculous. The thing you hope the new guy will share is what a guy likes or hates, his personality information. 

"I would always ask guys personality-wise, what makes them tick. Those are the things I think are probably the most advantageous to people who switch teams within divisions."

Part of football is the mental game. You see it in movies, but it is also true, you want to get in the opponent's head a little bit. Now you have a player on your team that can tell you what the opposing players dislike. They can share what you can do that will get them off their game, even if it is just a little bit. 

Foster says that almost every player has that "thing" that bothers them. Maybe they need to be angry and fired up to play well. Or perhaps anger distracts them and they need to be calm. Whatever it is, you hope to learn the secret and use it to your advantage. 

"If I knew I was going against Geno Atkins, this is me just throwing something against the wall, and Geno won't play hard if you don't tick him off. Like somebody walk in and say something like, 'Hey man, look man, Geno just wanna get the job done and go home. If you don't piss him off, you're gonna have a cool day at the office.'"

Foster said if he knew that someone needed to be angered to play well, then he would walk up, calmly, shake their hands, ask how he's doing, how's his family, and say nice things knowing it wouldn't light a fire in him. It is in that way, that the players can get in each other's heads. 

People always assume that what matters is peeking at the playbook, but Foster says that the players and coaches watch so much film already that they know all their opponent's tendencies, their "tells." He said that those things come easy for guys in the league because they do so much of it. 

"We watch so much film, we can pick up on a guy's foot, a guy's lean, how many times they dropping coverage or the fact that y'all run 50 blitzes this year and you've only run five."

It makes you wonder how much his former teammates avoided making eye contact with Harrison when he went to Cincinnati. It has been known for a long time that's the fastest way to get Harrison fired up, and let's face it, no offense wants that either. 

Do you think that players bring or give away any inside information, or display any "tells" when they switch teams? Or do you agree with Foster that the key is just knowing their personality so you can manipulate it? Click to comment below. 

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