Mile High Has Been a Brutal Venue for Steelers Over the Years
DENVER — Denver’s Empower Field sits a mile high above sea level at 5,280 feet, hence the nickname of the city Mile High. It’s one of the toughest venues in the NFL, as the high altitude can be a big adjustment for opposing teams, especially early in the season.
Since 1990, the Broncos are 34-7 in the first two weeks at home, which is the best win percentage (83%) in the NFL, according to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football. Denver is only 1-4 in their last five home games in the first two weeks of the season since 2019, however.
The Steelers will have an early season contest against the Broncos on Sunday, and Mile High has not been kind to Pittsburgh over the years. The Broncos are 13-5-1 all-time against the Steelers in Denver. The Steelers are 1-5 at Mile High under Mike Tomlin, with the lone win coming in 2009.
Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward discussed the challenges of playing in the high altitude in Denver earlier this week.
“Denver is one of a kind, the altitude. Shoot, you don’t even have to play football. You go to Denver, you’re gonna feel the altitude,” Heyward said on his Not Just Football podcast. “I get headaches even just walking around there. But that can’t be the reason why we lose the game, it can’t be the reason why we win a game. So, gotta battle the elements and be ready for it.”
Heyward has asthma, too, so there’s an adjustment period to the high altitude.
“I’m taking my inhaler, doing the little things,” Heyward said. “Once you get your second breath you are pretty good. It’s just getting adjusted to it. It’s a different altitude. But every team has got to do it that goes there. I don’t use it as a crutch.”
Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt thinks rest and recovery is crucial for preparing for Denver.
“I think it absolutely will be a challenge,” Watt said on Friday. “I can’t really remember how it was the last time I was there, was ’18 or something like that. But I can’t really change it, so all I’m trying to do now is this whole week try to practice hard, rest, and recover as much as I possibly can so I’m ready to go when, when the game time kicks off.”
The Steelers left for Denver on Saturday morning, which is always the case when the team travels out West. Tomlin thinks the thin air in Denver is not a big concern due to modern advances in training.
“I think those discussions are less relevant today,” Tomlin told Bob Labriola of Steelers.com. “Technology has minimized some of that. These guys train with devices that restrict their oxygen intake in the offseason, for example, and so there’s so many mechanisms at their disposal to prepare them, not only this week, but over the course of the whole 12 month calendar in terms of how they train. Restricted oxygen is just a routine component of training these days, and I think it just prepares them for some of those scenarios that used to be more problematic for us as a collective.”
Tomlin is more worried about the hostile environment in Denver, especially with it being the Broncos’ home opener.
“The first thing that I think about when I think about going to Denver is the environment, particularly at this portion of the season,” Tomlin said. “It is a hostile and challenging environment in a lot of ways — from a crowd noise perspective, from a conditioning perspective. … We need to prepare with those things in mind this week to get ourselves in the very best position to perform.”
Steelers running back Najee Harris has visited Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks for vacation. He also worked out while visiting and wore a high-altitude breathing mask, so he has some prior experience with the thin air in the Rocky Mountains. He’s never played a game in Colorado in college or in the NFL, though. The Steelers have not played in Denver since 2018.
“As of now, as I come here on Thursday, Sept. 12, I don’t have a problem with it,” Harris said of the high altitude. “Now, when I go out there — because I’ve never played out there — it might be a different story. I don’t know.”
Alan Saunders contributed reporting for this story.
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