PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers first-round pick Max Iheanachor doesn’t have the experience, but you wouldn’t question the mentality, or his confidence.
“Definitely on the field, just punishing people,” Iheanachor said of what he loves about the game. “That’s just fun, just getting to bully people.”
And if you wonder about his confidence or desire?
“If you have a question about my love for the game, then you've just got to watch harder,” Iheanachor said Friday. “How I do it, and just what I go about and what I'm about as a man.”
Only starting to play football in college, the 6’5”, 321-pound offensive tackle says he’s confident he can do it at this level and while he has played mostly on the right side, he played some on the left in JUCO and has been working on it.
As for getting started in this game.
“Honestly, it was after a summer basketball game,” Iheanachor explained. “We were in the car. (His AAU coach) just brought it up. He kind of already told me a little bit, but he brought it up, and we actually had a real conversation in the car. It was probably a 30-minute conversation, and he was like look, I know high school is over, the basketball stuff. You can probably look into football.”
What Omar Khan & Mike McCarthy said of the 1st round pick
Iheanachor said his AAU coach played football at San Jose State and believed he played a year or two in the NFL. That coach pushed him to try the game and envisioned him where he is today, being an offensive lineman.
“Ever since then, it's just been history,” Iheanachor said.
Starting at a JUCO in Los Angeles he said he embraced the hard times and learned from them. He had to learn a lot, he knew about what he used to call football, soccer, but not American football.
“I just remember I'd keep saying this, what the heck is an A-gap, a B-gap,” Iheanachor said. “It was like, you've got to know all these things. I’m like, bro, you can't just line up and go block? He was like, ‘no, you need to know’.”
“So just being detailed as an offensive lineman, just knowing the little things really matter in this game. It's a game of inches. Being detailed, definitely as an offensive lineman, that's key. That whole piece of it, that was really it.”
Not that it was easy, it was a rough first year dealing with all of the issues he spelled out above. He also had to deal with doubts from his parents.
“I wasn't playing, had to gain weight, and if you guys are used to Nigerian parents, they love doctors and nurses, so my mom was kind of on my ass,” Iheanachor said. “She was like, ‘You're not even playing, you're wasting your time, you should go to a four-year (school).”
“The first year was really rough, but that just showed I stayed through it and just kept fighting every day and just tried to get better.”
As he worked in JUCO, Arizona State offensive line coach Saga Tuitele was recruiting another player at his junior college when stumbled upon Iheanachor. The newest Steelers believes this all happened for a reason. That it was God’s plan. That’s why the kid who grew up playing soccer, then basketball, is now a Pittsburgh Steeler after just a couple of years of football.
“It still feels like it's crazy,” Iheanachor said. “It's crazy still. But it's just really exciting, just being blessed. All we can ask for in this life is opportunity. God, you pray for stuff, and you've just got to do the work, and everything else falls into place.”
“These guys (referring to Steelers GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike McCarthy, who attended his opening news conference), big shout-out to them, forever in debt.
“And I'm ready to get to work.”
LISTEN to what Max Iheanachor said during his first day ever in Pittsburgh
LISTEN to what Max Iheanachor said during his first day ever in Pittsburgh
