Steelers News: T.J. Watt learned all he could from Von Miller at the Pro Bowl

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2019 season is officially over. After finishing the year 8-8, the Steelers, and their vast fan base, has another long offseason awaiting them. Just because the games are done doesn’t mean we stop providing you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over throughout the offseason!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take at how T.J. Watt took advantage of being around Von Miller at the Pro Bowl and picking his brain as a pass rusher.

Let’s get to the news:

• Von Miller is one of the best in the business at rushing the passer, and he is a big fan of T.J. Watt. Watt used the time at the Pro Bowl to learn from Miller to help himself get better.

Steelers LB T.J. Watt has a huge fan in the Broncos’ Von Miller

By: Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

T.J. Watt doesn’t have to go very far to get tips on pass rushing. His brother, J.J., is a three-time NFL defensive player of the year and nearing 100 sacks in his career. J.J. lends plenty of advice to his younger sibling.

But J.J. isn’t the only NFL player T.J. goes to when it comes to honing his craft. He’s playing in his second consecutive Pro Bowl this week, and he’s trying to learn as much as he can from the league’s other top edge rushers.

And for a second consecutive year, Watt has been picking the brain of Von Miller, the eight-time Pro Bowler and 2016 Super Bowl MVP for the Denver Broncos. Miller, who has 106 career sacks, is a big fan of Watt’s game.

“He’s great,” Miller said Thursday afternoon at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World, where the AFC and NFC teams are practicing this week. “He has a high motor, and he’s talented. You just can’t coach effort, all the way to the whistle every single time, over and over, every single game. That just has to be you, or it’s not. And that’s definitely T.J.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Is it time we start to question the CTE research?

John Steigerwald: It might be time to show skepticism about CTE research

By: John Steigerwald, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Maybe Merrill Hoge was right.

Hoge, a running back who played eight seasons in the NFL — seven with the Steelers and one with the Bears — retired at 29 because of multiple concussions.

His book, “Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE And The Plot to Destroy Football,” co-authored with Dr. Peter Cummings, an assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine, came out in 2018 to lots of bad reviews.

CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), with lots of help from a movie “Concussion” starring Will Smith, had been just about universally accepted as an injury caused by repeated blows to the head in contact sports, especially football.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Some Steelers have some crazy stories surrounding their Super Bowl rings.

53 SUPER BOWL RINGS, 53 STORIES

By: ESPN Staff Writers

SUPER BOWL IX

1974: PITTSBURGH STEELERS

Joe Greene, DT ”About four years ago, I was at the [Dallas-Fort Worth] airport, and on the driver side of the car, I opened the door and when I put my hand down to get out, the ring fell off. I saw a car coming slowly and it was too close for me to pick up the ring. And a car ran over the ring. It came back, I picked it up, the diamonds and stones were still there, but it changed the shape of my ring. It was an oval shape instead of round because the wheel went over the side of the ring instead of on top of it. I wore it a while but figured I better send it in to [a jeweler] and they repaired it for me. Looks great now.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

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