Wallace returns home to New Orleans

**fordfixer** · 10-30-2010, 01:33 AM

Re: Wallace returns home to New Orleans

Homecoming weekend for five Steelers players
Saturday, October 30, 2010
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10303/1099279-66.stm"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10303/1099279-66.stm[/url]

This is home to them. Always will be, spiritually, structurally, emotionally.

See, this is more than the town of their upbringing, the location of their families, another abbreviation on an airline luggage tag. This is a way of life. This is a life ravaged by storm and, later, oil spill, turned right-side up and rebuilt anew. It's their life.

That makes New Orleans and a Halloween homecoming all the more special for this handful of Steelers.

"I've never started a game there as an NFL player," said Ryan Clark of nearby Marrero. His church will be featured in an NBC segment during Sunday night's game broadcast. He first played in the Superdome as a 10-year-old quarterback-safety with the Pard Hawks rec-league team, came back as a New York Giants special teamer in 2003 and returns home Sunday as a Steelers safety playing against the Saints, so ingrained in this community, his community. "So I'm excited."

"I'm ready," added cornerback Ike Taylor, a city native.

"I can't wait," continued receiver Mike Wallace, from the Cut Off neighborhood in the same Algiers section from where cornerback Keenan Lewis also hails.

"Superdome is my home," said a grinning Mewelde Moore, halfback from Baton Rouge and Tulane University. He is the only member of the Steelers subset who has started an NFL game in the place, as a Minnesota Vikings rookie back in 2004. "Tulane, that's where all our home games were. Those locker rooms, I pretty much dressed in them all."

Sunday, they dress as visitors in a familiar home.

Mr. Clark just bought a house in his hometown, envisioning a day when his three children leave the nest and he becomes another middle-aged LSU grad tailgating at his alma mater 80 miles west. Second-year players Mr. Wallace and Mr. Lewis return there in the offseason, work out together so often "I'm tired of seeing him," the latter kidded.

Mr. Clark bought 30 tickets for Sunday the same as Mr. Wallace. Mr. Lewis growled about his number of requests, "I got about a million," though he purchased only 20. Mr. Moore? "I need a bunch," said he.

Attending Tulane, Mr. Moore spent every college home game in the building. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Wallace cannot erase from their memories a state 4A high-school championship game under the dome, their O. Perry Walker High falling by 16-14 to John Curtis High as juniors: "We lost the biggest game of our high-school careers there," the former said.

"For a 10-year-old kid to play on what you felt was the biggest stage of his life was amazing," Mr. Clark recalled.

"This is going to be the biggest stage: the past two Super Bowl champions. The only thing bigger would be to play in the Super Bowl there."

Each of these guys followed the team once known as the Aints, infamous for fans with bags over their heads.

NFL football in New Orleans meant no playoffs until the franchise turned 21, meant losing every one of the first four playoff games, meant falling somewhere along the postseason way all seven times the Saints somehow made it between 1967 and 2008. Then came last season.

New Orleans, remember, had been the flooded epicenter of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mr. Clark saw his home and his parents' house torn asunder by Katrina; he moved, but they rebuilt his folks' place. Then, a year before Super Bowl XLIII, a lightning strike ignited a fire that burned down his parents' house. They rebuilt once again.

It's their life, their way.

So when the Steelers subset watched Super Bowl XLIV last February, they couldn't help that it caused their cell phones to buzz, warmed their hearts, encouraged their community. It was almost the next best thing to winning the big game themselves, as Mr. Clark, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Moore had done the previous February.

"To see the excitement they brought to the city," Mr. Clark began of the reigning champions. "My mom was texting me -- and she's clearly a Steelers fan. It's uplifting for a city that's been through so much."

"Perfect timing," Mr. Moore continued. "That's all you hear down there: Saints this, Saints that, Super Bowl this. It definitely lifted up the spirits of the people of Louisiana. It's a good thing."

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**hawaiiansteel** · 10-30-2010, 02:03 PM

Re: Wallace returns home to New Orleans

Burnell?

O.P. Walker's Mike Wallace on fast track with Pittsburgh Steelers

Published: Saturday, October 30, 2010, 6:53 AM

Mike Wallace waited his turn in high school and in college, but he had no plans on being as patient in the pros.

Alan Diaz/The Times-Picayune

Of Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Mike Wallace (17), quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said: ??Mike'??s a great player. He has come a long way from just being a guy who runs down the field really fast.

Blessed with blazing speed and soft hands, Wallace was in a hurry to prove he belonged
After not gaining much attention until his senior year at O.P. Walker, and then not reaching the spotlight at Ole Miss until his junior season, Wallace -- a second-year receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers -- is off and running to NFL stardom.

Wallace, a third-round pick of the Steelers in 2009, has emerged as one of the NFL's top big-play receivers. He averaged an NFL-best 19.4 yards per catch last season, and heading into Sunday night's Halloween clash with the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome, he is averaging 25.3 yards a catch this season, again tops in the league.
"I knew that if I worked hard, I would be good," Wallace said. "I think I am one of the best in the league, not just on deep balls. I've been working on my route running, and I think you can see how much better I am from last season."

Now that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is back in the lineup after serving a four-game suspension, Wallace is expected to get even better because he has a consistent quarterback capable of getting him the ball. Wallace has caught 14 passes for 354 yards and four touchdowns, two of which came in the past two games.

"Mike's a great player," Roethlisberger said. "He has come a long way from just being a guy who runs down the field really fast. He's running great routes. His role has evolved on this team, and you just see him grow every day.

"When you say, recommitted, I'd look at that and say, 'OK, he was doing something wrong at the beginning.' I think he's just grown. Last year you've got to remember that was his rookie year. A lot of rookies come in, and it's hard for them to contribute right away.

"He used the talent that God gave him, which was to run really fast. And that was his No. 1, as Coach (Mike) Tomlin says, 'trick.' This year he still has that, but I think he's just really -- we're moving him around, he's running different routes and better routes, and he's just learning and growing as a football player."

That could mean trouble for opposing defensive backs. Because Wallace is becoming a more complete receiver, learning to run every route in the passing tree and how to read zone coverages, defenders won't be able to simply play him to run deep routes.

Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune archive

In this photo from Sept. 12, 2003, O. Perry Walker wide receiver Mike Wallace, then known by his first name Burnell, makes a one-handed grab for a 24-yard touchdown reception over Karr cornerback Jeremy Hill.

So far he has flourished in the Steelers' offense. When Pittsburgh decided to trade Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes in the offseason, not many inside the organization worried. The Steelers knew they had Wallace, who caught 39 passes for 756 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie and was chosen NFL Rookie of the Week on three occasions.
"He is a detail guy; he is a hard-working guy. He's a humble guy, and he's got a great deal of talent," Tomlin said. "I think that is a recipe for a young guy getting better and improving, and he's done that.

"He's capable of more, but we like where he is. This guy comes to work every day, I think this guy has a desire to be a great player, and equally important or more important than (that), he does the things on a day-to-day basis to try to make that a reality. Definitely not a finished product, but we like his approach to pursuing it -- and along the way he's of course helping us win."

Former Steelers quarterback and current ESPN analyst Kordell Stewart agreed.

"It is very rare that you get a young player like Mike Wallace to come in and play and have the impact that he is having with the Pittsburgh Steelers organization, where there is pressure to be great right now," Stewart said. "And he has taken that torch and he is running with it. He's a big part of the success they are having in Pittsburgh. He's a deep threat, a guy who can catch the ball and take it to the house. He has really done an admirable job, and I'm more than sure making his family proud."

Those in New Orleans who watched Wallace blossom said they knew he was a special talent.

At talent-rich Walker, where Wallace was known by his first name Burnell, he had to sit and mostly watch until he became as starter as a senior.

Walker had a line of talented receivers before him, three of which signed with LSU -- Junior Joseph, Daryl Johnson and Buster Davis, who plays for the San Diego Chargers.
But once Wallace got his shot, he was every bit the equal to his predecessors. As a senior, he had more than 1,000 receiving yards and caught 15 scoring passes. He also set the school record for most kickoff and punt return touchdowns in a season with eight.
"He waited his turn," said former Walker coach Terry Wilson, who now runs the Gulf Coast Sports Academy. "And when his turn came, he did what he needed to do. ... It was just a matter of him getting on the field with all the other talent that we had out there. I knew he was going to be a big-time player because he had so much natural ability, and he always wanted the ball."

On Sunday night, Wallace likely will get the ball in one of the biggest games he has played in. Although it's just another game among 16 regular-season contests, Wallace will be making his return home and playing in front of dozens of family and friends.

"It's going to be big," Wallace said. "Any time you can go home and play in front of the people you grew up in front of your whole life, and grew up watching you, it's going to be big, great."

[url="http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2010/10/op_walkers_mike_wallace_on_fas.html"]http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/20 ... n_fas.html[/url]

**SanAntonioSteelerFan** · 10-30-2010, 03:08 PM

Re: Wallace returns home to New Orleans

Yes, BURN-ell, as in ... he will burn you running down the field!!

Imagine if he were Antwan Randles' brother, he would be Burnell El.

**D Rock** · 10-30-2010, 05:57 PM

Re: Wallace returns home to New Orleans

perhaps the proper pronunciation is actually BURN-ALL

Wallace returns home to New Orleans

Wallace returns home to New Orleans

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