The Psychology of the Pittsburgh Steelers

The Psychology of the Pittsburgh Steelers

By Cody Knotts

The Pittsburgh Steelers are well known for their emphasis on character. It has been a hallmark of one of the leagues most stable and storied franchises. So it is not surprising that Kevin Colbert, GM of the
Steelers would state that the family history was one of the most important questions that he looks for at the NFL Scouting combine.

Colbert told The Weekly Recorder on Thursday that one of the various things that he is interested in about the family background is how the player reacted to the situation. A bad home was not a prequiste to a player been discounted by the Steelers. In fact, he emphasied that if a player came from a good home and had problems that would be a red flag.

Red flags are one of the problems that the Steelers are worried about. "Mistakes happen when we overlook a red flag. When we look back when a player fails, it was because we overlooked a red flag." Colbert emphasied that the problems facing a player were already known and that if they overlooked it, they were placing the player too high.

"The fault is not with the player, but instead with us. We have evaluated the player too high." Colbert stated. Colbert told the press that the Steelers 3-4 defense means that players taken on defense will take years to develop instead of being able to be plugged in immediately. The result is all Steeler defensive players are development projects. "The 3-4 takes time to learn the system. Even NT Casey Hampton, as good as he is, took six games to learn it." Most players take 2-4 years to learn the Steelers defensive schemes.

This would seem to indicate one of the reasons the Steelers are more focused on character and background. A Steeler will be around for the long haul. They will have to be amenable to learning over a period of time, rather than instant gratification.

When asked if one of the things that the team psychologist was focusing on was drug addiction, Colbert said instead that they were focusing on personality issues. He would not be specific about whether that included addictive personality.

Regardless the Steelers will be focusing on players that will be long term solutions for the team, rather than a short term answer to an immediate problem.