Gene Steratore was a special guest of the Steelers at training camp on Wednesday, and it was a homecoming for the Uniontown native.
After working as an NFL official for 16 seasons and a college basketball official for more than three decades, Steratore is now a rules analyst for NFL game broadcasts on CBS. He is an alumnus of Laurel Highlands High School and currently lives in Washington County. His father, Gene Sr., was a college football and college basketball official, so officiating is in his blood, just like western Pennsylvania.
“It’s been 50 years for me,” said Steratore, tracking his time visiting the Saint Vincent College campus. “I have literally been on this campus, in those little gyms, watching my late dad referee Bernie Matthews and Rudy Marisa. I’m still tied into this personally, and I’ve never left it. So, there’s something that’s so special about this environment because I revert back to my entire life and my childhood.”
Steratore has his unique memories about Steelers training camp and Saint Vincent, just like many fans do. But he also believes that experience carries on for the players throughout the season.
“We all have these memories of tractors pulling in and they’re carrying an air conditioner on their back, and they’re going into a college dorm,” he said. “Coach [Tomlin] is setting that, and the Steelers have set that tone forever. That resonates.”
He also shared his thoughts on the Steelers’ new starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. Steratore said he met Rodgers when he was assigned to the Green Bay Packers’ training camp during Rodgers’ rookie season in 2005.
“He’s a pretty fun individual,” said Steratore. “There was a few sentences here and there over the course of a little over a decade that allow you to feel like, ‘I really do know who he is.'”
“One thing I’ll say is: his level of awareness – and I’m sure everybody that’s been here now – how quickly he gets the football out. Those years of experience with an individual that’s a future Hall of Fame player, it’s a special time,” he added.
This upcoming season, Rodgers is expected to lead the Steelers’ offense in the first-ever NFL regular season game played in Ireland. Steratore spent seven years with NFL Europe and has watched how the game has grown throughout the continent.
“The European fanbase has done a great job embracing American football,” he said. “As they start to really fall in love with the game, people start playing that game over there, and maybe beyond my lifetime. But I think that’s the evolution that we all hope for, is that our great sport that does with this does on a day, it touches everybody everywhere they can on every point of the globe. I think it’s a wonderful thing.”
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