GM praises Shazier’s attitude

Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert sees Ryan Shazier work to overcome his spine injury every day at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side.

There is one thing he has not seen.

“Never once has he said ‘Why me?’” Colbert said.

“I know that’s an uplifting gesture for us and those who deal with him. He shows us everybody has problems but he’s going to work to overcome his as we should ours.”

Shazier was injured Dec. 4 while making a tackle in Cincinnati. He had spinal stabilization surgery 10 days later. Colbert said he works out daily at the team facility, then attends meetings.

“He’s here on a daily basis,” Colbert said Thursday. “He does some physical workouts in the morning and he either sits in with the coaches or he sits in with us. He’s learning some personnel stuff, just to keep him involved with us, then he goes and does his rehab at a rehab facility.”

Shazier signed the fifthyear option on his contract that guarantees him a salary of $8.5 million this year, whether he plays or not. He has made progress, according to sporadic reports, and stood up in a private box at a Penguins game to acknowledge the crowd.

“Ryan works extremely hard at his rehab, so from a physical standpoint he’s continuing to work to overcome this injury,” Colbert said. “But what we’ve enabled him to do is also be part of the football part of it because we think it’s important for him to still have that in front of him.

“But the great thing about it is, Ryan does as much for us as we do for him, because of the way he works at this and the attitude that he has shown in his rehabilitation is really uplifting.”