Steelers go back to ‘high school’ punishment for mistakes

LATROBE, PA (93.7 The Fan) – It seems so high school for guys in the 20s and some 30s to have to run a lap when making a mistake. It’s something the Steelers have implemented in training camp this year for a specific group.

Currently if an offensive lineman has a false start or a center has a bad snap they are called out by the coaches, loudly, and have to run a lap. They started to do it for defensive lineman for offsides penalties.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin called it ‘a teach tool’ and accelerating the learning process. Rookie center Zach Frazier said it was first suggested by special teams coach Danny Smith and then the players took it to other coaches. They view it as everyone holding everyone accountable.

“Art (OC Arthur Smith) said it was a ‘High School Harry’ kind of thing taking it back old school,” said second-year offensive lineman Spencer Anderson. “I think it’s good because, knocking on wood, I don’t want to take a lap. I want to be locked into the cadence because that’s just an energy drainer for no reason because you are not focused.”

On Troy Fautanu, Mason McCormick, Keeanu Benton, Willington Previlon, Joey Fisher, Anderson Hardy and Ryan McCullum all were punished as their names were shouted for the Steelers fans to hear as teammates jeered them before taking a penalty lap around the main gridiron at Chuck Noll Field Sunday.

“That’s a great motivator because it’s embarrassing when you have to take off and run a lap,” Frazier said. “That’s just because the pre-snap stuff we can’t have. We got to get that cleaned up and that’s one way to stop it is to make guys run a lap.”

“It’s holding us accountable, as high school as you think it is, I don’t want to run laps, so I don’t want to do that again,” Fautanu said. “Things like that are things that we can control. Coach T says it all the time, it’s JV. It’s college, I’m a pro now so I have to make sure I don’t mess up a play for 21 other people.”

“You don’t want to do that in front of the coaches, the players and also the people of Pittsburgh.”

A number were embarrassed on the last practice before pads come on, we’ll see how this impacts the attention to detail going forward.