Longtime Steelers Scout Retires

Longtime Pittsburgh Steelers scout Mark Gorscak has called it a career, according to close friend Neil Stratton. Gorscak spent 28 years with the organization and was part of two Super Bowl title teams.

Stratton, who’s the author of Moving the Chains & ScoutSpeak, revealed in a blog post that Gorscak texted him Thursday, “I’m going to graduate tomorrow from the Steelers.”

Scouts typically don’t get a lot of fanfare, but Gorscak is famously known for conducting the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. He’s been doing that for decades, and definitely for as long as the NFL Network has broadcast the 40. Gorscak was the Steelers’ longtime SEC area scout, and was instrumental in scouting Najee Harris in 2021, along with dozens of other Steelres top picks over the years.

He spent 29 seasons with the Steelers, and the last 26 as an area scout. He previously coached high school football and at Western Maryland, Weber State and Dickinson College, his alma mater. Gorscak was also the general manager of the Pittsburgh Gladiators of the Arena Football League in 1987.

“There are probably hundreds of people who could write a blog like this, telling stories of what Mark has done for them. Those people, like myself, will miss Mark and the impact he has had on the game,” Stratton wrote. “Mark is not unique in being a good scout and a great man, but any time someone like that ‘graduates,’ it creates a vacancy, a void. It’s a noticeable loss.”

Gorscak received the C.O. Brocato Memorial Award for Lifetime Service to NFL Scouting last year at the annual Inside the League Scouting Seminar. Stratton presented Gorscak with the award.

“I remember when he accepted the award a little over a year ago. It was touching to see the whole Steelers scouting department show up, mobbing him shortly before the seminar as they took pictures in the hallway. Even GM Kevin Colbert, in one of his last acts with the team, showed up for Mark,” Stratton wrote. “Once the ceremony was under way and I’d presented Mark with his plaque, his remarks were just perfect. He talked about how scouting, and so much of football, is not about the game itself but about people.

Despite retiring, Stratton wrote that Gorscak has made it clear he’s not done with football. Stratton’s guess is that Gorscak will get a little more time to spend checking out blues and jazz acts around the Pittsburgh area and beyond.  Gorchak states on his Twitter bio, “I love football but music is my passion!”

A Donora, Pa., native, Gorscak was inducted into the Mid Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.