Great read
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21353509/alejandro-villanueva-presenting-pittsburgh-steelers-army-helmet-decals-veterans-day-weekend
Great read
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21353509/alejandro-villanueva-presenting-pittsburgh-steelers-army-helmet-decals-veterans-day-weekend
Last edited by Oviedo; 11-09-2017 at 06:32 PM.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...ns-day-weekend
Nice thanks for sharing
Last edited by fordfixer; 11-09-2017 at 10:43 PM.
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Thanks for fixing the link. Not sure why I couldn't get it to linkOriginally Posted by fordfixer
'It felt like home': Steelers' Al Villanueva returns to army base in Germany
1:00 AM ET
Jeremy Fowler
ESPN Staff Writer
PITTSBURGH -- Alejandro Villanueva knows how to maximize an offseason. He takes business classes at Carnegie Mellon University and spends time fishing in Florida and Canada.
Last month was all about savoring nostalgia from the fields of Kaiserslautern High School in Germany.
As an honorary football coach to military members as part of the USAA's Salute to Service NFL Boot Camp, Villanueva returned to the place where his career as a U.S. Army Ranger began.
"As soon as I landed in Germany, it felt like it was home," said Villanueva, who served in Afghanistan before working his way into the NFL. "Last time here (at Kaiserslautern) was with my dad getting my physical for the U.S. military."
The boot camp -- combining communities from Kaiserslautern military and the Ramstein Air Base -- gives military the chance to train like NFL players. True to Steelers form, they trained in a light coat of April snowfall.
Villanueva wasn't exactly a hard-charging coach, bragging over the phone that he just threw a ball 45 yards. He oversaw the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, three-cone shuttle, receiving gauntlet and quarterback arm challenge.
But this was USAA's first boot-camp session held on an overseas U.S. military base, which made Villanueva proud.
"It's bridging the past and present with what I've experienced," Villanueva said of his trip. "To be received by the military community here is something special."
Villanueva is one of the most recognizable figures in the league's relationship with the armed forces. Every season, Villanueva honors teammates with helmet decals from various Army divisions. He pairs decals with players whose personalities match the spirit of a specific division.
He hoped to teach football in Germany while converting a few Steelers fans along the way. But that was already done for him.
"People follow sports differently, but there's a huge massive Steelers following, which is rally cool," Villanueva said. "I've seen terrible towels around here."
http://www.espn.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/30740/it-felt-like-home-steelers-al-villanueva-returns-to-army-base-in-germany
Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.
The NFL needs more of these kinds of stories and less of the look-at-me-nows.
Absolutely. Refreshing to hear things like this about players who are good guys.
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