{"id":882047,"date":"2026-06-21T05:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/882047\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T05:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:17:15","slug":"top-ten-freakiest-athletes-in-steelers-history-9-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/882047\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Ten Freakiest Athletes In Steelers History (9-10)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Pittsburgh Steelers series to pass the time this offseason. We\u2019re ranking the top ten \u201cfreak\u201d athletes in history. Choosing just ten is never easy for a franchise full of so much history and success. This list isn\u2019t just about the fastest players, either. We\u2019ve ranked those guys before.<\/a> This focuses on strength, quickness, and speed. An overall athletic profile relative to their size and position of players who simply moved in ways no one could\u2019ve expected.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll take it two at a time and count down. Beginning with No. 9 and 10.<\/p>\n

No. 10 Carlton Haselrig\/OL (1989-1993)<\/p>\n

Haselrig\u2019s time in Pittsburgh wasn\u2019t especially long but the fact he had any sort of NFL career, let alone a successful one, is remarkable. A star NCAA wrestler, Haselrig is one of just a handful of modern era NFL players who didn\u2019t play college football. Drafted by Pittsburgh in the 12th round out of Pitt-Johnstown, Haselrig\u2019s athletic tools \u2013 his strength and speed \u2013 combined with the leverage naturally understood in wrestling made him an ideal lineman and quick study.<\/p>\n

Starting as a nose tackle, Haselrig soon flipped to offensive guard. In 1992, he made the Pro Bowl. Across four years with Pittsburgh, he made 36 starts.<\/p>\n

In a 2018 interview, former NFL wide receiver and cousin Andrew Hawkins<\/a> called Haselrig the best athlete in the family. Rod Woodson joined the conversation and offered plenty of praise himself.<\/p>\n

In college, Haselrig defeated Kurt Angle. In the NFL, he made the Pro Bowl. A remarkable athletic career where Haselrig made everything look easy. Even when it so obviously wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

No. 9 Ben Roethlisberger\/QB (2004-2021)<\/p>\n

At first blush, it might be surprising to include Roethlisberger on this list. He was far from the fastest and his weight and not-so-rigorous training schedule often made him the butt of Internet jokes. But he was an impressive athlete, especially for the first half of his Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n

Few quarterbacks before him had such a size and athlete profile. Roethlisberger was big, strong, and a little more fleet of foot then given credit for. Defenders had a hard time getting him the ground and when they failed, Roethlisberger made plays. A unique type of athleticism most passers can\u2019t even dream of. He had twitch, light feet, and a knack for getting out of jams.<\/p>\n

Go watch a nearly 7-minute reel<\/a> (and it\u2019s not the only one) of him making defenders miss and following up with pinpoint passes.<\/p>\n

Terry Bradshaw was also an excellent scrambler and probably faster, but Roethlisberger was bigger. Pound for pound, his athleticism was more impressive and unexpected. That earns him a place on this list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Pittsburgh Steelers series to pass the time this offseason. We\u2019re ranking the top ten \u201cfreak\u201d athletes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":882048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[87049,358238,1232,1545,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-882047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ben-roethlisberger","tag-carlton-haselrig","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116786406814062860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}