Steelers cut Super Bowl veteran Warren
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Steelers’ championship years keep fading in the rear-view mirror as they bid adieu to one more of the players left from their Super Bowl XL team.
Greg Warren was “only” a long snapper, but at that he was one of the best in the NFL for a long, long time. That time came to an end Thursday when the Steelers released him after he failed a physical.
Warren was one of only three players on their roster with two Super Bowl rings, from their championships in the 2005 and 2008 seasons. The others are Ben Roethlisberger and James Harrison.
Warren’s fate was tipped off when the Steelers drafted long snapper Colin Holba of Louisville in the sixth round, even though the Steelers had signed Warren to another one-year contract in March and insisted he was not hurt.
General manager Kevin Colbert said three weeks ago after the Steelers drafted Holba that Warren was healthy “right now” and they were merely “going to provide him competition” by drafting Holba.
“I would first like to thank the Steelers organization, coaches and training staff for theirhelp and advice over the last few weeks,” Warren said in a statement released by the team. “I had full intentions of playing this upcoming season, but in light of new information I’ve recently received from my doctors relating to a past injury, it has been determined that trying to compete in the 2017 season may be a risk to my long-term health. After discussing this with the Steelers, we have decided it would be in everyone’s best interest to release me at this point.”
Colbert said in a statement on Thursday: “Greg has been a big part of our past success, and we would like to thank him for his contributions and wish him nothing but the best.”
Warren, a Mount Olive, N.C., native, played for North Carolina before joining the Steelers as an undrafted rookie in 2005. He played in 181 regular season games and 15 in the postseason, all with the Steelers.
He missed just one game over the past seven seasons. He missed half of the 2008 season and all the playoffs and Super Bowl with a torn ACL in the seventh game that season.
Colbert explained the difficult chore of finding suitable long snappers for the pros from the college ranks.
“There are different rules as to how you can defend them or block them after they snap,’’ Colbert explained of NCAA regulations that differ from those in the NFL when it comes to engaging long snappers. “They have a lot more liberties than we do in the NFL. So a lot of the college snappers are these 6-1, 215-220 guys, which really would have a hard time snapping and blocking in our league.”
Holba is 6-foot-3, 248 pounds. Warren is 6-3, 252.