DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Whatever becomes of the 2014 Steelers, this 20-16 preseason loss to the Giants on Saturday night at MetLife Stadium shouldn’t be seen as anything more than the opening act of the prenatal stage. That’s it. It barely qualifies as DNA. It’s a series or two for the starters, then a slew of second-half backups and bungles that only the Edmund Nelson in your life could appreciate.

“You got that right!” the big man was telling me before tending to his annual role as KDKA-TV’s preseason commentator. “I love it!”

Takes a special kind.

Which isn’t to suggest, of course, that nothing at all should be culled from the evening.

There was, for example, another BIG PLAY AGAINST THE DEFENSE.

MORE

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — Maybe Markus Wheaton had lost a bet. Or maybe he just wanted to stay dry from the steady rain that soaked Saint Vincent College all Sunday long. Or maybe it was pure symbolism, a statement that he was ready to compete.

Whatever the case, the kid would not take off his helmet.

Chin-strap snapped up and all.

Why?

“Eh, I don’t know. It’s OK. I’m just leaving it on,” Wheaton was telling me nearly an hour after practice and, yes, the helmet stayed on through the whole interview.

It was all quite the sight, and not just Wheaton in isolation. This was one of those Mike Tomlin practices that punished as much as it reinforced. It was physical. It was a mental test, one drill added right after the previous had seemed like the last. It went 33 minutes longer than the two hours allotted and, when the final horn finally sounded, players were dragging, limping off the field. Most didn’t detour a single step in climbing the big hill up to the cafeteria to devour their dinners.

MORE

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — “I wasn’t surprised at all,” Ryan Shazier insisted to reporters Monday when asked about the almost barbaric punishment being doled out in the Steelers’ annual backs-on-backers drill. “We’re a hard-nosed team. We’re in Pittsburgh, Ohio.”

He caught himself immediately and laughed a bit.

“Pittsburgh, P-A. I’m sorry about that. Went to Ohio State. We’re from Pittsburgh, P-A. We play dirty.”

Caught himself again.

“Not dirty, but hard-nosed.”

Nah, that last one was fine, actually. And the other one wasn’t all bad, either. The way Shazier competed Monday — in backs-and-backers and all that followed on the first day in full pads — I’m guessing no one would care which Pittsburgh he’s from, so long as it’s the only one in the world ending with an H.

I’ll say it yet again, Nation: You will love this kid.

MORE

Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers’ coaches talk during drills at Saint Vincent College. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. – Ben Roethlisberger looks and sounds fantastic, but don’t take my word for it.

“This is the most excited I’ve been about any offense I’ve had,” Todd Haley was telling me as he walked down the winding path to Chuck Noll Field for the Steelers’ first formal practice Saturday at Saint Vincent College. “Seriously, I mean any offense.”

Wow. And what, apart from the standard summer optimism, would prompt that sentiment?

“Have you seen Ben?”

MORE