The opinions found in Asked and Answered do not reflect the views of the Steelers organization.
Let's get to it:
CRAIG TSCHAPPAT FROM BETHESDA, OH: Is Bill Nunn the only scout enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
ANSWER: This is somewhat a matter of interpretation, because general managers such as Ron Wolf and Bobby Beathard had a background in scouting, but I think both of them would be remembered more for being general managers who put together the championship rosters of the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins, respectively. Besides Bill Nunn, the other Hall of Famer who was elected because of his work in scouting would be Gil Brandt of the Dallas Cowboys, whose first career was as a photographer who specialized in newborn babies. But in 1955 Brandt was hired as a part-time scout for the Los Angeles Rams, and he became the chief scout for the Dallas Cowboys when that franchise was founded in 1960. Brandt is credited with popularizing the use of computers in the talent evaluation process. Nunn of course is remembered for opening doors into the NFL for athletes from the HBCUs, and his work in that area helped transform the Steelers into the franchise that won 4 Super Bowls over 6 seasons of the 1970s and was named the Team of the Decade. I admit to being biased, but since the Steelers defeated the Cowboys in Super Bowl X and Super Bowl XIII in the 1970s to earn the distinction of Team of the Decade, Bill Nunn is the No. 1 scout enshrined in Canton if not the only one.
JASON GODFREY FROM ENOREE, SC: I know it's a new system but just asking hypothetically. What would a typical day on the 90-man roster look like in the early days of a training camp?
ANSWER: The best person to provide that information is Coach Mike McCarthy, and he talked about a hypothetical "day at the office" during a media briefing at Saint Vincent College on July 28. Here it is:
"I like to get up in the morning. I believe in regularity. That's the way my father raised me. You get your heavy lifting done in the morning," said McCarthy. "You get up, you get them going, so our first team meeting will be at 7:30 a.m. I believe in starting early. We want to get in there. We want to have our meetings. The commitment that we've had in the offseason gives us the ability to not meet as long in the mornings (at camp) because the guys did the work in the spring. They paid the price of learning the scheme. So we'll be more – when I talk to the team, we won't install, we'll recall. So we'll have a recall meeting in the morning. We'll have a walk-through over there in the gymnasium, and then we'll get up and go get it. Let's go. Let's go practice. That's the most important part of the day is when we get on that practice field. That's why we practice when we practice.
"If I felt like they were ready to go and I could have everybody, all 90 ready, I'd practice at 7:30 a.m. because it's the priority. That's the most important thing we do is practice, so let's get them in there, let's get them ready, let's get out there on the field and get it. Then you've got to have the rest and recovery component. Plus you'll see more video cameras out there on the field than you've ever seen. So capturing that video is critical to this environment.
"We'll give the players a chance to go to the weight room, eat lunch, coaches will watch the tape, and then that's probably the second most important part of the day is watching that tape.
"These players need to see tape of themselves. I talked about it at the staff meeting before the players reported. The training camp video is still today and it's been like this for 30-plus years, it's the best video of the year. It's the best video of the year. We'll be cutting this video up for training camps, offseason programs for as long as I'm here. There will be plays and schemes and situations that will happen out here in the next 21 days we'll be able to teach off for a long time. That's been my experience.
"Point is, let's practice – that's why I practice at 11 a.m. I want to have plenty of time to watch that tape. Then when we're done, we want to go walk-through it one more time.
"The CBA has been awesome because they only give you 11 hours to do it. So we're going to get that done and then get them off to dinner, and then they've got the night to do their thing."
ISRAEL PICKHOLTZ FROM ASHKELON, ISRAEL: Regarding your answer to Robert Lewis' question about bad trades in the July 28 Asked and Answered. Do you really think Frank Lewis was better than Buddy Dial?
ANSWER: What I really think is that it's important to read and understand the question that was asked before criticizing the answer. Robert Lewis asked: "Sticking with the team's history since Chuck Noll, who is considered the biggest trade bust for the team?" The initial conversations between Dallas and Pittsburgh to send Buddy Dial to the Cowboys for defensive lineman Scott Appleton began in mid-December 1963 and the deal was finalized on Jan. 1, 1964. Chuck Noll was not hired by the Steelers until January 1969. That makes the Buddy Dial trade certainly a bad one, but one that was made 6 years before Noll was hired.
WILL McINTOSH FROM BELLEVIEW, PA: Has there ever been a player drafted and refused to sign with the drafting team?
ANSWER: During an entire era before professional football became a lucrative business, many college players chose to pursue "normal" careers after being drafted into the NFL. As an example, Bill Shakespeare from Notre Dame, the Steelers' No. 1 pick in the inaugural 1936 NFL Draft decided on a career in business instead of a career in professional football. But if you're looking for something more recent, in 1986 Tampa Bay made Bo Jackson the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. But Jackson opted for a career in professional baseball, and then he subsequently was drafted in the fifth round of the 1987 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Raiders.
TOM MIHALIC FROM SUFFOLK, VA: The Steelers have been going to camp in Latrobe for 50 years now. In the past we've heard how great it was for bonding and camaraderie. However lately there have been stories coming out from some veteran players who say they hate training camps at Latrobe. In your opinion, is this the beginning of the end for Latrobe camps?
ANSWER: This summer, just 7 of the NFL's 32 teams will hold what is referred to nowadays as a destination training camp. Buffalo is at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, NY; Dallas is at the Marriott Residence Inn in Oxnard, CA; Indianapolis is at Grand Park Sports Complex in Westfield, IN; Kansas City is at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, MO: the Rams are at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles; and the Steelers are at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. The New York Giants will be at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV, but that's only because their Football Operations Facility is undergoing construction for expansion. Naturally, NFL players will complain about living in a college dorm while going through the difficulties of a training camp, but you know what? Playing in the NFL is difficult and there are unpleasant aspects of it to go along with the perks of such a career. Coach Mike McCarthy doesn't sound like he would advocate for the beginning of the end of training camp at Saint Vincent College.
"The connection is very important … being in a dorm room and having cinder block walls, it's been a win for me personally, so the first night of sleep was good," said McCarthy on his first official day in Latrobe. "So just the whole environment for these guys to be around each other, I think it's important. You see the guys riding their bikes to the first workout or the first meeting over there at the gymnasium area. All those things are part of a camp atmosphere. But it'll always be about the depth and the details. This is why we're here. We're here to come together as a football team, and it's always the depth of the details because it's the little things. It's the little things you can't really work on in the spring. Really the little things you can't even work on until you get to next week (when the pads go on) because the little things turn into big things, and that's on both sides of the fence."
Know something else? I live in a dorm room on campus, too. I have done that for over 40 years. Sure, I complain about the bed and sharing a bathroom with 6-8 others, and it's hot and humid, and the work starts early and runs late. But it's the job, and I want the job. So I deal with it.
MIKE ROBEY FROM TILTONSVILLE, OH: Aaron Rodgers is our QB, so please let me ask: His passes were in flight less than 6 yards on average last season. Despite some additions, unless he holds onto the ball longer our passing game threat downfield will once again be abysmal. Does Coach Mike McCarthy being on board allow for this serious issue to be at least partially resolved?
ANSWER: Don't be fooled into assigning the deficiencies the Steelers offense had in 2025 in the area of not having much of a down-the-field passing attack to Aaron Rodgers not holding onto the football longer.
STEFAN PISOCKI FROM WILMINGTON, DE: I hate to think poorly about decisions made by my favorite team, but it seems like the last really great decision made regarding QBs was when Bill Cowher chose to make a rookie his backup even though Ben Roethlisberger had never taken a professional snap in the NFL.
ANSWER: I am in no way criticizing Bill Cowher for the team's depth chart at quarterback having rookie Ben Roethlisberger as the backup to starter Tommy Maddox at the start of the 2004 season, but the reality is that Cowher was forced into that decision by a knee injury to veteran Charlie Batch early in that training camp. That injury removed Batch from the equation, and I believe if that had not happened it would've been Batch opening the season as Maddox's backup. With Batch out shortly after that training camp began, the only quarterbacks left on the roster at that point were Maddox, Roethlisberger (the team's No. 1 pick in the 2004 NFL Draft) and Brian St. Pierre (the team's No. 5 pick in 2003), who completed 52 percent of his passes and had a rating of 67.2 in his 2 preseasons. Going into the 2004 regular season with Roethlisberger as the No. 2 QB was the only decision that could've been made.
