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Steelers Daily News & Links: Bill Cowher Roasted; Troy Polamalu Back in Pittsburgh

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Steelers Troy Polamalu at Browns

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🏈 Steelers.com: Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020, was honored and roasted at the Mel Blount Youth Home All-Star Celebrity Roast on Friday night at the Wyndham Grand in downtown Pittsburgh. The event was started by Steelers Hall of Famer Mel Blount in 1998 as a get together to celebrate his 50th birthday and help raise money for his youth home.

With plenty of Cowher’s former players on hand, as well as players who were there before and after Cowher’s tenure, the stories were flowing and the genuine love and appreciation for each other was evident.

“It is special, and it’s special to do it with the people of Pittsburgh that come out to the events to see generation after generation,” Cowher said, who grew up in the Pittsburgh area neighborhood of Crafton and came home to coach the Steelers. “When you think about the journey that I was blessed to have, starting with growing up in Pittsburgh and all the core values you learn from being there and then taking off in my football journey to come back full cycle, to raise a family here and certainly the memories I have with all the players. For me to hear people talk about things, share stories, it’s more of a gratitude from my standpoint and an appreciation of going down memory lane with so many of these memories growing up there, memories of raising a family there and the memories of coaching there. And more importantly, it’s the people. It’s the fan base unlike any other. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up there, I knew what kind of impact the ’70s Steelers had, and that’s why I came back. I never wanted to lose that tradition, what it meant to the city, what it meant to the community and the kind of impact you can have on that platform.

“So much of it is still the same. The core values that we have, the priorities that we have. They all kind of went from one generation to another and they were handed off. You can just see the impact that everyone’s making.

“Not everyone has stayed in Pittsburgh, a lot have, but they’ll never forget where they came from. I’ve always said, you can take the people out of Pittsburgh, but you’ll never take Pittsburgh out of people. I think that’s the one thing that’s a common thread in all of us. It’s the time we spent in this city that was very special from a standpoint of what sports meant, what family meant, and what work ethic meant. That’s what we stood for. That’s what the city stood for. You represented that. You felt an obligation to make sure you did it to the best of your ability.”

🏈 WPXI: Former Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu and his wife, Theodora, were in Pittsburgh to promote an event coming up to help an organization that is close to their hearts.

The Resilience Bowl will be held at Acrisure Stadium on May 21. It’s a football-inspired event to raise money and awareness for the Neighborhood Resilience Project. The Polamalus are members and supporters of the group, which works with Pittsburgh-area communities affected by trauma.

“What we found is that the type of work the Neighborhood Resilience Project is doing is starting to correct a lot of the injustices that have come upon these communities for many generations,” said Theodora Polamalu. “So it’s the long-term understanding that as long as you’re involved and the work is coming from within the community, people can become more resilient and truly be able to accept the parts of life that are difficult but then grow from it and become prosperous.”

The event will feature an on-field obstacle course, a Celebrity and Top Sponsor Flag Football Game and a VIP Pregame Party. Troy Polamalu hopes the football aspect will bring more fans in.

Polamalu said, “Football is definitely a huge part of Pittsburgh and what better way to celebrate it than a game of football in the spring? It’ll be an exciting celebration for the community to bring awareness to what the Neighborhood Resilience Project is about and what the amazing community of the Hill District has done as well so we’re just blessed to be a part of the celebration.”

🏈 Steelers quarterback Justin Fields worked on his ball placement during a recent workout. Fields has been putting in a ton of work this offseason.

🏈 The Steelers and the city of Pittsburgh celebrated 412 Day on Friday with it being April 12th. 412 is the area code for Pittsburgh.

🏈 A bunch of Steelers legends were at Mel Blount’s Celebrity Roast on Friday night.

🎥 On this day in 2017, Steelers chairman Dan Rooney passed away at the age of 84.

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