In 2012, Baltimore Ravens linebacker and then-reigning Defensive Player of the Year Terrell Suggs sustained a partially torn Achilles tendon playing in a basketball tournament in the offseason. With what was labeled a “non-football injury,” Suggs was at risk of losing financial compensation from the Ravens — at the team’s discretion — in addition to missing time on the football field. The linebacker didn’t lose pay but he didn’t appear in a game for Baltimore until Week 7.
Suggs is the poster child for the worst-case scenario for when football players take the hardwood.
The fear of a football player suffering a basketball injury broods in the back of Tom O’Malley’s mind. O’Malley runs the Steelers Footballers basketball team, which was founded in the late 1950s by Baldy Regan, a classmate of Steelers vice president Art Rooney Jr. at North Catholic High School. In 1970, Regan asked then-13-year-old O’Malley, whose father was a friend of Regan, to help with the team and O’Malley has done so ever since.
The Footballers travel across Western Pennsylvania and sometimes into Ohio to play exhibition games that raise money for charity and local organizations. O’Malley estimates that the Footballers have raised between $200,000 and $250,000 annually, which has been donated to organizations such as the American Cancer Society Relay For Life.
“I guess it adds up a little bit,” he said. Over the past six decades, some of the biggest names in the Steelers’ organization have played for the Footballers.
“They’ve all played,” O’Malley said. “Back in the [day], Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mike Wagner and [Terry] Bradshaw and Franco [Harris] all the way through Ben [Roethlisberger] and [Brett] Keisel and James Harrison.”
And that raises the underlying question: What is the risk involved for the organization in having its players, especially those considered cornerstones of the franchise, participate in offseason exhibition basketball games in which the potential personnel losses due to injury must be compared with the monetary gains for charity through community outreach?
Every player is one bad step away from a twisted ankle, or something worse, as Suggs and other football players have discovered.
“I worry about it all the time,” O’Malley said. “It’s always something that’s always on my mind.”
The players say they don’t worry about the risk of injury. Players are — or at least think they are — invincible, O’Malley said.
Example A: wide receiver Sammie Coates, who has played for the Footballers.
“Nah, you can’t live life like that,” he said, when asked if he’s ever concerned about the risk of injury. “You can twist your ankle walking outside. You can’t live life scared that you’re going to get hurt.”
The track record of the Steelers Footballers’ collective health supports the lack of concern among players. In the 47 years that O’Malley has been affiliated with the team, only one player has sustained a serious injury on the basketball court. In the early ’90s, offensive lineman Lonnie Palelei tore his ACL in a Footballers uniform and it was a freak, non-contact injury.
“We’ve been very, very, very fortunate,” O’Malley said, noting that other former Steelers players suffered offseason injuries playing basketball but not as members of the Footballers.
Not only have the Steelers Footballers been fortunate in their good health, but the basketball team also has the full support from the Steelers’ front office.
“I run the team with the OK from [Steelers’ president and co-owner] Art Rooney [II] and his dad [and Steelers’ chairman] Dan,” O’Malley said. “If Art called me tomorrow and said ‘We got to shut it down,’ I’d shut it down in a second.”
Even though the basketball team is not directly affiliated with the organization, the Steelers president and co-owner has gone out of his way to keep the team alive, even during the 2011 NFL lockout.
The Rooney family did not respond to an interview request for this story.
Ultimately, the Steelers Footballers exist for the fans. Without fans who pay to attend the offseason basketball exhibitions, which raise money for charities and area organizations, there’s no team.
“That’s the most important thing,” O’Malley said, referencing the team’s fan support.
And that’s why even though Coates said he doesn’t consider himself a basketball player, he has still enjoyed lacing up his basketball shoes once the NFL season is over.
“We just go out there and have fun,” he said. “It’s just for the fans and all the people we do it for, so it’s always a good time. We don’t go out there trying to win a championship.”
Offensive guard Ramon Foster acknowledged that the competitive edge of NFL players will come out on the basketball courts, but he said the Footballers are ”usually chill,” before adding ”the risk of getting hurt out there is not worth it.”
“It’s not like super competitive as far as how hard we’re going,” safety Ross Ventrone said. “The referees always talk to the other team, we talk to the other team. So I know me, man, I just stand out there and shoot threes all day.”
Defensive end and 2015 team captain Cameron Heyward said the risk of injury playing basketball is not a concern for him. Instead, the fundraising circuit is a chance for “great cardio” and he always knows where his priorities lie.
“I tape [and] make sure I take care of myself,” Heyward said. “I’m not doing anything stupid but you’re very cognizant and you understand that football comes first.”
“There’s no confusion as to what the most important thing is here,” O’Malley added. “Basketball is fun, it’s a great fundraiser but football is what drives the car.”
Andy Wittry: awittry@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndyWittry.
First Published: June 17, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
