Tomlin: ‘Intangible’ of Latrobe will be lost
Saint Vincent heat can’t be replicated
House to the car to the gate, gate to the locker room to the field, field to the locker room and out. On the dozen or so times a year coach Mike Tomlin visits Heinz Field for work, his mind is wrapped up in scheming to win a football game, and his routine is one that doesn’t allow for much more than tunnel vision.
But as Tomlin enters his 14th season with the Steelers, he is about to see his team’s home stadium in a new light. Actually, he already has.
“The space is awesome over there — dining facilities, locker-room facilities, from a spacing standpoint,” Tomlin said of the franchise’s game-day home since 2001. “There are elements of the stadium over there that I was unaware of because usually when I’m going to work, I’ve got a one-track mind.”
This offseason, though, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the trajectory of all things, sports included. For Tomlin and the Steelers, that means scrapping plans for one of his favorite pastimes each summer, the annual pilgrimage to Saint Vincent College for training camp.
Yes, it’s hot. Yes, it’s sweaty. Yes, it’s three weeks and change spent cooped up in college dorm rooms. But, for Tomlin and
his players, it’s a rite of passage that takes place every late-July to early August as a necessary evil to mark the start of a new season.
“Obviously, you guys know me. I’m saddened by the fact that we can’t go to Saint Vincent and Latrobe,” Tomlin said on a Zoom conference call Tuesday with local reporters. “Man, I’m a training camp lover. I do think there is some intangible value in going away to camp. But that’s something that’s outside our control here in 2020. We’re not going to waste a lot of time worrying about things that are outside of our control. We’re going to have a hardcore plan, but we’re going to be light on our feet.”
For 54 years, the hardcore plan had been to head east on Route 30 and don’t stop until you get to Latrobe. Then, early this month, the NFL mandated that all 32 teams stay home for training camp this season in an effort to limit health concerns and implement social distancing.
Rather than share the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex with 100-plus Pitt student-athletes, the Steelers opted to hold a makeshift camp on the North Shore, where there are four fullsize locker rooms to house the team’s 90-man offseason roster. But Tomlin noted that doesn’t mean they won’t still have to utilize their South Side facility on occasion, because while there are four locker rooms, there’s only one field — and they usually only hold one special practice, open to fans, at Heinz Field during each camp.
“We’ve got additional space than the 100 yards [at Heinz],” Tomlin said. “There’s perimeter space that we also have to use. From time to time, we work on a one-field structured format [for practice].
“My only concern about the utilization of Heinz Field is not space, it’s about the wear and tear of the field. Our intentions are right now, on a regularly scheduled basis to be determined, that we will get on buses and come over to the South Side and utilize our grass fields here from time to time in an effort to help preserve [Heinz Field].”
In an effort to keep the playing surface in good shape for regular-season games, the Steelers plan to re-sod the field after camp is completed, a source told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Though it’s not a perfect solution — and the Steelers have said they plan to return to holding camp at Saint Vincent in 2021, if possible — Tomlin sees the Heinz Field alternative as one that “checks a lot of boxes” for a team’s most significant portion of preseason preparations.
“As a matter of fact, I have a walk-through or two in the near future over there just to check on its overall readiness,” Tomlin said. “But I’ve been through the process some and I’ve toured the facility and made some logistical plans. I feel really good about Heinz Field being a good venue for us to execute our camp and preseason.”