Steelers training camp: Jordan Dangerfield 'comes to play today'

Steel City Insider Jim Wexell noted Jordan Dangerfield is now getting respect - a wink at the deceased comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

He even got Dangerfield to paraphrase the comedy icon - "'I tell you, I don't get any respect around here,' he'll say with a laugh."

It's some comedic relief in what has otherwise been a thunderous training camp for a player who may have traveled the farthest just to get to Latrobe. A native of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., Dangerfield ended up at Hofstra, right before their football program was shut down. Upon his transfer to FCS's Towson, he was named all-conference and started three years for the Tigers, earning recognition as the school's top male student-athlete in 2011.

Taking a broken situation and making the most of it must be in his DNA. Having to transfer schools on a whim just to continue playing must create something of an isolated feeling - probably similar to the experience of being undrafted and working to make a roster somewhere. Buffalo already cut him, and he waited from August last year until the Steelers offered him a futures contract in January.

And here he is.

It's the perfect time for him to be making an impact. Projected starter Mike Mitchell has been out with a groin injury since the start of camp, and outside the veteran presence of Will Allen and the youth of Shamarko Thomas, the Steelers' coaches get an opportunity to evaluate the other safeties in camp.

As Wexell wrote, "'This Dangerfield kid,' Joey Porter was telling his old friend Clark Haggans, 'he comes to play the game TODAY.'

With so much experience not being guaranteed a tomorrow, it makes sense he's ready to go right now.