Speaker 1: You found the Wolf cast on Steelers Nation Radio and
Speaker 1: Steelers dot Com. Defensive players are smart, yes, big grudgingly,
Speaker 1: I'll admit it, Okay, just speaking in general terms here,
Speaker 1: most of them liked the trash talk. You know, then
Speaker 1: they're gonna come out and they're gonna attack like Genghis
Speaker 1: Khan with his hair on fire.
Speaker 2: And they love it. Believe you me, they love it.
Speaker 1: Whenever one of their nefarious blitz schemes hits home with
Speaker 1: a team meeting at the quarterback and when it does,
Speaker 1: ooh baby, you're not gonna hear the end of it
Speaker 1: for the rest of the game. And if it happened
Speaker 1: to be in a game with a say, a division rival,
Speaker 1: well you'd probably hear about it in a rematch if
Speaker 1: they dropped the sack on your watch, if it was
Speaker 1: in the first go round of the year. The Browns
Speaker 1: had some pretty hot rushers back in the day. You
Speaker 1: know Clay Matthews, Chip Banks, Reggie Camp, the ever sneaky
Speaker 1: Bobby Golick, former Pitt Star basketball player turned football player,
Speaker 1: Sam Clancy, and certainly you can't overlook the great Carl Harriston,
Speaker 1: who had the best spin move this side of Dwight
Speaker 1: Freenie before anyone ever heard of Dwight Freenian. And that's
Speaker 1: mainly because Dwight was only five years older so at
Speaker 1: the time. So anyhow, what really caught me by surprise
Speaker 1: in a game with the Cleveland Browns this time around
Speaker 1: was the patience by which the Browns went about their
Speaker 1: business on this day. Normally, the defense comes after you
Speaker 1: hard and fast. Man, They're gonna fastball you from the
Speaker 1: get go. They're gonna throw their best at you and
Speaker 1: get going right. But no, that's not the way it
Speaker 1: went out this day. Sure, there were some defensive coordinators
Speaker 1: who were more patient, willing to let things play out more,
Speaker 1: and then they'd set you up before trying to drop
Speaker 1: a bomb on you. But for the most part, it
Speaker 1: was usually a Katie bar the door attack mode coming
Speaker 1: out of the locker room. Mean, it was on like
Speaker 1: a furious vintage Mike Tyson first round knockout in his heyday.
Speaker 1: So when the week run up to this game, I
Speaker 1: had been, per usual watching an enormous amount of film
Speaker 1: on the Brownies, you know, getting into the theater of
Speaker 1: the mind. You know, it's a huge part of pro ball.
Speaker 1: You simply can't succeed at this level if you don't
Speaker 1: put the necessary time into film study. Not part of
Speaker 1: that study is to familiarize yourself with the opponent's tendencies
Speaker 1: and peculiarities, what their go to rush is and who's
Speaker 1: involved personnel wise. And then you have basic past you
Speaker 1: have basic pass pro rules to be able to pick
Speaker 1: up the various stunts and blitzes of an opponent. This
Speaker 1: was how it worked. The twist stunts that happened right
Speaker 1: away were handled in a zone concept. Twists that were
Speaker 1: delayed were handled man on man, no passing off a
Speaker 1: rusher like on the quick twists. See, you got to
Speaker 1: have a plan, you got to work the plan, and
Speaker 1: you got to stick with the plan and hopefully that
Speaker 1: plan comes together. Just like one of my favorite television
Speaker 1: shows back in the eighties, you know, the A Team
Speaker 1: starring George Papard as Hannibal and mister t has Ba Barracas.
Speaker 1: I love that the show always had that poignant moment
Speaker 1: where a gritting prepared would look into the camera and say,
Speaker 1: I love when a plan comes together, over and over again.
Speaker 1: I kept studying the opponent's schemes in the alarming rate
Speaker 1: at which the Browns, they'd be running that banging me
Speaker 1: game and get home with it. And if they didn't
Speaker 1: get the sack the fender bender that the guy playing
Speaker 1: my position and the other teams I was watching would
Speaker 1: get destroyed.
Speaker 2: So it shouldn't surprise you when I tell you.
Speaker 1: That a high level of anxiety started building early in
Speaker 1: the prep week, along with a very conscious notation to
Speaker 1: prepare for this particular stunt. Also to be concerned with,
Speaker 1: over and above the lethal human land minds awaiting me
Speaker 1: was the individual characteristics and preferences of the players that
Speaker 1: I knew I'd be locking horns with. For instance, no
Speaker 1: stackle Bobby Gollick. Now he's shorter in stature than say
Speaker 1: a Carl Harriston or certainly Sam Clancy, but he had
Speaker 1: a wrestling background. This dude had great body balance, with
Speaker 1: a real solid base. He would lock up with you
Speaker 1: and try to off balance you, try to get on
Speaker 1: your edge rather trying than coming down the middle of you.
Speaker 1: And he was a good hand fighter. He was always
Speaker 1: trying to get an inside hand position. At the other
Speaker 1: end of the spectrum was defensive end. Carl Harriston, he
Speaker 1: of the pre fiend. He spin technique. He'd throw an
Speaker 1: uppercut and then try to lift or uproot you and
Speaker 1: try to get his hip alongside yours like a judoka.
Speaker 1: You know, a judo student. You know, they're very good
Speaker 1: at throwing those hip throws like oh goshi, all right,
Speaker 1: So you got to get that hip along there, and
Speaker 1: you uproot them and woom, you throw them.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: After getting you to overplay his uprooting uppercut, he'd spin
Speaker 1: and you'd be left swatting at air, wondering where the
Speaker 1: heck he went. If you didn't, if you didn't punch
Speaker 1: his hip with your free hand, it was sack city,
Speaker 1: to be sure. Harrison had the uproot spin technique down
Speaker 1: pat and he had such a tight spin you were
Speaker 1: in trouble if he got that inside leverage. As we
Speaker 1: used to say back in the day, this dude could
Speaker 1: spin in a three quart bucket. Game day in old
Speaker 1: Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which otherwise was known as the Mistake
Speaker 1: on the Lake and the predecessor to the present day
Speaker 1: Cleveland Brown Stadium, suitably dubbed the Factory of Sadness, was
Speaker 1: a typical unsunny day in Cleveland. I've played in Cleveland
Speaker 1: during my career at least a dozen times, and when
Speaker 1: you add another nearly two dozen trips as a broadcaster,
Speaker 1: I encount on one hand the number of sunny days
Speaker 1: we've ever had on a game day. Schmutze was the
Speaker 1: typical weather forecast that we seemed to play in. Joe DiNardo,
Speaker 1: the old beloved Pittsburgh TV weathermen, would call it Bertley cloudy.
Speaker 1: The sky was alternately dark and gray on this day,
Speaker 1: with periods of rain making the turf nice and muddy.
Speaker 1: You know, just a regular Cleveland type day, if you will. Now,
Speaker 1: while watching a lot of film, the stunt that emerged
Speaker 1: from the Brown scouting report was a delayed twist stunt, what.
Speaker 2: We used to call me game.
Speaker 1: With the defensive end going up the field, he'd plan
Speaker 1: on his outside foot go hard inside a ninety degree
Speaker 1: angle to try to earhole the guard on that side,
Speaker 1: which of course would be me in this case, and
Speaker 1: that was their favorite pass rush, that was their go to.
Speaker 1: The defensive end would try to literally try to t
Speaker 1: bone me, and to do that, it was all about
Speaker 1: the setup, which was in the purview of the defensive
Speaker 1: tackle playing over me. Now, the key to this twist
Speaker 1: stunt was in identifying what the defensive tackle rushing me
Speaker 1: was doing. If he just bull rushed me, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to run down the middle of me, that was
Speaker 1: telling me there's no stunt coming.
Speaker 2: Kad zookes. That's easy, That's like hitting easy button.
Speaker 1: That was why he did all those squats with manhole
Speaker 1: covered sized weights. Stack down a bar bell in the
Speaker 1: off season. Get your squat monster on, take on that
Speaker 1: bull rush, and use all that hamhock strength you're built
Speaker 1: up in the off season to shut down the rusher,
Speaker 1: you know stuff, I'm dead in his tracks. But if
Speaker 1: he started to shake, rattle and roll or docy doe,
Speaker 1: which meaning he's throwing head fakes, he's throwing shoulder fakes,
Speaker 1: he's trying to dead leg you, you know, throwing a
Speaker 1: hesitation step type brush just prior to contact, I knew
Speaker 1: he was just setting me up for a kills shot.
Speaker 1: Him trying to occupy me without coming into contact was
Speaker 1: the trigger that told me that the dastardly delayed banging
Speaker 1: freaking me game was imminent. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: say that twice, And if it hit home, I was
Speaker 1: in danger of being at the point of attack at
Speaker 1: the very least or depending on the offensive tackle playing
Speaker 1: next to me, about to be separated from some brain
Speaker 1: cells for a period of time because the defensive ends
Speaker 1: screaming and towards my blindside was humming, hostile, and full
Speaker 1: of bad vibes and intentions, And so it was. On
Speaker 1: every obvious pass rush situation in the first half, I
Speaker 1: was on a def Con five alert status, you betcha.
Speaker 1: I was determined not to end up like a hood
Speaker 1: ornament or be featured on the nineteen eighty five Cleveland
Speaker 1: Browns pass rush Real look, getting caught blindsided by someone
Speaker 1: at a full gallop that was anywhere from two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy five to three hundred pounds, I believe you me,
Speaker 1: that was gonna hurt a lot. But even more so,
Speaker 1: giving up a sack to the Cleveland Nights and having
Speaker 1: to face Chuck Nole chin to chin in a post
Speaker 1: sack sideline soiree was even a more daunting thought than
Speaker 1: getting concussed. After all, a concussion is nothing more than
Speaker 1: a party in your head for a little while. And
Speaker 1: don't hit me with being insensitive about concussions. They're my concussions.
Speaker 1: You're free to describe your own in your own way.
Speaker 1: And so it was all through the first half, pass
Speaker 1: rush by pass rush, I kept waiting for the banging
Speaker 1: me game to come at me. With every rush that
Speaker 1: it didn't come, I knew it had to be the
Speaker 1: next rush that they throw it at me. Then, Yet,
Speaker 1: series by series, play by play, quarter by quarter, no go.
Speaker 1: It was driving me crazy, frustrating really, because the stunt
Speaker 1: was so potentially injurious that the built up anxiety and
Speaker 1: expectations that I had gone to the game with was
Speaker 1: kind of gurglating within me. So halftime came and went.
Speaker 1: We trooped down the tunnel from Cleveland's visiting locker room,
Speaker 1: which was nothing more than an oversized closet, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: And actually it was designed for a baseball team, as
Speaker 1: a Cleveland Stadium was a dual purpose football baseball stadium
Speaker 1: back in the day. As I was standing in that
Speaker 1: tunnel waiting to climbing a couple of steps out of
Speaker 1: the dugout, I remember an unpleasant spell wafted it up
Speaker 1: to my nostrils. Apparently, when the baseball players were in
Speaker 1: need of relieving themselves, they didn't bother walking all the
Speaker 1: way to the locker room. It seems the tunnel we
Speaker 1: were standing and sufficed. Now after hitting the field, I
Speaker 1: made my way across the visiting team sidelines the bench
Speaker 1: area to get the blood flowing for the second half.
Speaker 1: I was acutely aware that the Browns hadn't come out
Speaker 1: me with their version of the infamous banging me game.
Speaker 2: Now I smelled a rat.
Speaker 1: To be sure, I kept reminding myself of the top
Speaker 1: trigger keys to the Browns blitz game. Sure enough, right
Speaker 1: out of the gate, on the first obvious third down
Speaker 1: passing situation that we ran into in the first drive
Speaker 1: of the second half, Oh here it comes, the defensive
Speaker 1: tackle over me. Unlike the first half pass rushes started
Speaker 1: giving me the oul hypnotic eye. He came at me
Speaker 1: using a head fake, a body fake, a non rhythmic
Speaker 1: pass rush that resembled a cobra giving its probably a
Speaker 1: hypnotic ster before striking. Oh yeah, lookout, because the bomb
Speaker 1: was about to drop on yours truly. Now, the whole
Speaker 1: week of preparation came together in a nano instant. All
Speaker 1: the film, watching all the mental gymnastics I'd done, having
Speaker 1: my head stuck in the playbook all week long, made
Speaker 1: what happened next possible.
Speaker 2: As soon as.
Speaker 1: I identified the rush, I quickly gave ground to assess
Speaker 1: what the tackle next to me was doing. Pete Roustoski,
Speaker 1: a converted defensive lineman who made the jumped offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: was lock and mortal combat with the heat seeking coming
Speaker 1: at my blind side human missile wearing Browns colors. Now
Speaker 1: I had a choice give even more ground and come
Speaker 1: behind Pete and pick up the defensive tackle over me.
Speaker 1: Who would be the trailer on a twist stunt, or
Speaker 1: we would exchange roles and I would take Pete's man
Speaker 1: and he would take mine. Now, according to pass pro rules,
Speaker 1: because it was a delayed stunt, it should have been
Speaker 1: staying manned to man. But because I was so jacked
Speaker 1: and so tuned into the bang and me game coming
Speaker 1: at me, I broke the rules. So pent up with
Speaker 1: aggression from a week's worth of watching film and fending
Speaker 1: off teammates trying to emulate the blind side shots that
Speaker 1: the Browns were trying to hit me with, I didn't wait, baby,
Speaker 1: I turned, I exploded, and like a heat seeking missile
Speaker 1: my own self, I speared that defensive end as he
Speaker 1: tried to crash my blind side. I kid you not.
Speaker 1: I drilled the dude headfirst to the midsection or more
Speaker 1: likely the groin area. But I will tell you this,
Speaker 1: it was a wicked shot. We went down into a
Speaker 1: huge pile of humanity with arms and legs all tangled
Speaker 1: up and bodies stacking up like a bunch of cars
Speaker 1: would after a fe under bender and the fok pit tunnels.
Speaker 2: I was ecstatic, man.
Speaker 1: I jumped to my feet, with testosterone and adrenaline pumping
Speaker 1: through my veins mixing together, creating a potent mixture of
Speaker 1: ferocity and intensity that surprised even me. I stood triumphantly
Speaker 1: over the pile that contained the guy that wanted to
Speaker 1: t bone me. He lay at my feet, clutching his
Speaker 1: recently spirit abdominal groin area, obviously in pain. I was
Speaker 1: half out of my mind, and when I pointed him,
Speaker 1: I screamed, I've been waiting for you all game long.
Speaker 1: My pony had just groaned and rolled over, wait for
Speaker 1: the traders come out and attend to him.
Speaker 2: I continued to platherway.
Speaker 1: At the noile, not feeling too well defensive end who
Speaker 1: just moments before was ready to play rock them sock
Speaker 1: them robots with my head.
Speaker 2: Now, it's not often you get to turn the tables
Speaker 2: down a ponent like that.
Speaker 1: And apparently I was in the midst of having an
Speaker 1: out of body experience, and I couldn't seem to zip
Speaker 1: my big yapper and go back to the huddle. So
Speaker 1: Pete Rosowsky's walking by me on his way back to
Speaker 1: the huddle, he quizzically looked at me as if I
Speaker 1: had three heads.
Speaker 2: I wasn't one to trash talk.
Speaker 1: Everybody knew that, and I think Pete was concerned I'd
Speaker 1: lost my marbles. Mike Webster was laughing. Tounch Ilkin, normally
Speaker 1: the trash talker of the offensive line, started laughing as
Speaker 1: I continued to shoot my bazoo off. Yeah, the whole
Speaker 1: week of watching film, taking notes, studying the scouting report,
Speaker 1: and getting extra reps on the practice field while doing
Speaker 1: the necessary mental gymnastics at night made the whole week worthwhile.
Speaker 1: At this moment, I love when a plan comes together. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm Craig Wofully and this is the Wolf Cast. And
Speaker 1: remember I never let facts stand the way of a
Speaker 1: good story.