Steelers News: Preparing Heinz Field to host Steelers training camp

It has been a one-of-a-kind offseason for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020. With the scheduled start of training camp just days away, it looks like we’ll have to wait until opening weekend to see the Steelers take the field. Just because the NFL has cancelled the preseason 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 a look at how the Steelers prepared Heinz field to host training camp in order to make everything COVID-19 compliant.

Let’s get to the news:

• Safety is job one for Heinz Field over the next several weeks

Preparing Heinz Field for Training Camp

By: Teresa Varley, Steelers.com

The view is one you can’t miss as you drive out of the Fort Pitt Tunnel and embark on the beauty that is Pittsburgh. All you have to do is glance slightly to your left and you see the sun reflecting off the golden seats inside Heinz Field to feel the energy.

That shine on Heinz Field is brighter than ever right now, as every bit of it has been cleaned up and down, time and time again, for training camp. That’s right – training camp.

As the Steelers hit the practice field for the start of the 2020 edition of training camp, they’re embarking on a whole new world.

And it won’t just be that they are holding training camp at Heinz Field for the first time. They will be holding training camp during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 has changed a lot of things,” said John Norwig, the Steelers head athletic trainer. “It’s not normal. But we’re going to make it work.”

In an effort to “make it work,” the Steelers have enlisted many different departments within the organization in an all-encompassing effort to make Heinz Field as convenient and safe as possible as it hosts training camp this summer. After the NFL mandated all teams hold their training camps at their own facilities this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Steelers chose Heinz Field over the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• St Vincent College in Latrobe is missing the Steelers as training camp begins

Steelers training camp kicks off, but without any fans, amid COVID-19 pandemic

By: Nick Matoney, WTAE

Steelers training camp begins Tuesday at Heinz Field with a much different atmosphere compared to training camps in years past.

Fans typically show up for the excitement at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. But this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, that won’t happen.

George Muentzer is one of those fans. He shows up every year for the first day at Saint Vincent; this would have been the 49th year in a row.

“You look forward to meeting your friends, being with them. That’s the importance to me,” Muentzer said.

He still got dressed up in his Steelers socks, hat, shorts and a T-shirt that he designed. But this year, Muentzer has to sit out the big day.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• More highlights from rookie Alex Highsmith’s interview on Monday

High hopes and a low-maintenance approach

By: Mike Prisuta, Steelers.com

He’s put in enough time in the gym back home in North Carolina, both in Wilmington and Charlotte, to be in “some of the best shape of my life.” He’s Zoomed with the coaches enough to acquire a virtual if not practical knowledge of the Steelers’ schemes on defense and special teams. And he’s shared a field informally with veterans such as Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, Tyson Alualu and Dan McCullers and gotten a feel for how to work as a professional.

After all of that, third-round pick Alex Highsmith is understandably eager to take the next step.

“I’m itching for it,” Highsmith declared today during a Zoom media session. “Since the moment I got drafted I’ve been wanting to get up here. Now that I’m finally here, it’s awesome.

“I can’t wait to get out there and put on pads. I’m so excited to get back on the field. It’s been a long time coming. I definitely got the football itch to get back out there on the field.”

Highsmith, an outside linebacker from North Carolina-Charlotte, will have to wait a while longer to make the pads pop.

The first padded practice of Training Camp 2020 won’t occur until Aug. 17.

But today was the official opening of the improvised preseason agreed upon by the NFL and the NFLPA.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

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