“We got smoked”: Cam Heyward reveals his ‘Welcome to the NFL’ moment
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Cam Heyward
The Pittsburgh Steelers seem to be wanting to go back to the 1970s, 1995, and 2008 in terms of their defense. The team is headed in the direction of bringing back the ‘Blitzburgh Defense’, one of the top defenses the league has ever seen, and well, only God could save your quarterback from being sacked if you are facing the Steelers. In 2011, the team drafted defensive tackle Cam Heyward in the first round of the draft, and today, he has become one of the best defensive linemen in the league
But as is the case with every rookie who comes into the league, they are all boys when they enter and are forced to become men when they realize the kind of competition and talent they are up against. You ask every player across the league, and they all have a ‘Welcome to the NFL’ moment. That moment when they realize they no longer are playing against college players who they could easily throw around but against grown men built like tanks.
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“They laid the law DOWN”: Cam Heyward got schooled by the Baltimore Ravens when the Steelers were still riding high on their Super Bowl victory:
Cam Heyward shares his Welcome to the NFL moment and this came at a time when the Pittsburgh Steelers were still fresh off their Super Bowl victory and were looking to come in and repeat. They opened the season against the Baltimore Ravens and in this game, Heyward had to face the harsh reality that this is no longer his league and he has to work a lot more if he wants to even be able to survive here.
“It happened my rookie year, game one, we were playing the Baltimore Ravens after just coming off of the Super Bowl. We get out there. They smoked us, they laid the law down,” Heyward shares his experience of facing an NFL team for the first time. Cam understood that the NFL brand of football is something he has to learn from scratch.
As the quote goes, the strongest of steel is forged in the hottest of fires, and the defensive lineman dealt with the fact that he needs to put in a lot of work and effort to become great in this league. The same pressure that breaks many players fuelled Heyward and by looking at his resume today, it is fair to state that he knows a thing or two about the NFL brand of football. Five Pro Bowl appearances and four times All-Pro are enough to prove that he has learned a lot of valuable lessons from his rookie year.
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Sumedh Joshi
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