Just try to top these immortal words
Troy Polamalu, Bill Cowher, Alan Faneca and Donnie Shell will give induction speeches next weekend at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. None of those speeches will crack the top three in Pittsburgh sports history. No offense to Troy and the others, it just can’t be done.
No one will ever do better than these three men:
Terry Bradshaw • 1989
Noone is more comfortable on a stageor in front of a camera than Bradshaw.He has made millions in broadcasting, television, movies and musicbecause of his willingness and abilityto play a dumb country bumpkin.Clearly, he is anything but dumb.
Bradshawwas self-deprecating and humorousduring his speech, drawing laughterand roars from the heavily partisanSteelers crowd in Canton thatalso came out to see the induction ofMel Blount.
“Ifailed the ACC test,” Bradshaw said,explaining why he played his collegeball at tiny Louisiana Tech.
“I’mso proud of that thing, ugly as thatsucker is,” he said, pointing to his Hallof Fame bust.
“Mynature was to attack,” he said of hislove of the deep ball. “‘He’s open, whatare you supposed to do with the ball?’‘Throw it deep, Terry.’ ‘If he’s covered,what do you do?’ ‘Throw that sucker,get rid of it.’
“Youknow how he talks.”
Besides the inside jokes Harrisand the GM have about their music preferences (Colbert surely knows Sam Cooke), the Steelers insist a change is going to come in the running game — and Harris seems acutely aware of that, too. He’s scoring his fair share of touchdowns in team drills, going head-to-head with more established Steelers or veterans in blocking sessions, and Saturday he made something out of nothing more than once for the first-team offense in 11on-11periods.
After one botched snap from Kendrick Green to Roethlisberger, then a couple of plays stuffed at or near the line of scrimmage, the Steelers employed multiple presnap shifts to try to confuse the defensive line. Roe th li sb erg er, who was under center, handed off to Harris, who weaved through several defenders to gain a chunk of yardage. There was more where that came from later in practice, when Harris danced througha well-opened hole between left tackle Dan Moore Jr. and left guard Rashaad Coward for a long run, followed by a complimentary shout from coach Mike Tomlin.
“What this sport is, when we’re playing good on good, [starters vs. starters], this is the NFL. Not every run is goingto be blocked perfectly. My job is to make the most out of every run,” Harris explained about one of his against-allodds scampers. “I think it was Pat [Freiermuth], the tight end, he kind of didn’t get his block and I said, ‘Listen, Pat, it’s OK if you don’t get your block. All you’ve got to do is keep playing through the whistle.’Because it’s my job to break the first tackle. If you miss your guy, just think inside, ‘Najee’s going to break the first tackle so just keep working.’”
Harris, who’s listed at 6 feet 2, 230 pounds, confirmed linebacker Marcus Allen’s assessment that he’s actually “allmuscle” 240, and about 6% body fat. With a body like that, plus hands and vision that made him the first running back selected in 2021, Harris said“It’s my job to create.”
Not that the situation has been perfect to this point — “Theline is what it is … it ain’t like we’re playing with scrubs,” he said of the makeshift unit in front of him, which Saturday was missing every starter listed on the depthchart — and neither has he. Harris admitted to “a couple drops” on this day, but quickly added, “Give me the best player. I bet he’s dropped acouple balls, too.”
“There’s a lot of drops every year in football,” Harris said of the Steelers’ struggles with them last season. “That’s partof the sport.”
While Harris was twisting thenight away out of the backfield, the largest crowd of camp thus far was screaming hisname as constantly as they wave yellow towels here on Sunday afternoons. No stranger to the spotlight — and the microscope — Harris called Steeler Nation “a little bit more crazier” than even theCrimson Tide fans.
But how wonderful this training camp experience has beenfor one of the most anticipated Steelers draftees in recent memory. If this were at Saint Vincent College, Harris might find himself in a mosh pit every time he leaves the field. In this COVID-19 environment, players aren’t even permittedto give autographs.
“Right now, it’s hard for me,” Harris said. “I know the fans out here all want me to sign stuff, but I can’t. There’s certain rules I have to follow myself. So, to all the fans out there calling my name, I’m sorry. It’s a part of the protocol.I’m just following it.
“But there will be a time when I can talk to the fans and do all the stuff, a time when I can talk to the community. But right now this is my rookie year, I’m trying to get my feet wet, I’m trying to do what makes Pittsburgh happy, the GM happy, Ben happy, the team happy. That’s what’s most important right now. There’s going to be time for all the other stuff. Right now I’m just trying to accomplishthe mission.”
And that mission, as it always must be in this city, is to get to the Super Bowl, to play fora championship, and bring iton home to Pittsburgh.