Villanueva sought 'fairness' in contract extension

LATROBE, Pa. — Alejandro Villanueva said he was not looking to be paid as much as the top left tackles in the league. He did not care about the term of his next contract, either.

Villanueva, entering his third season as the Steelers' left tackle, wanted what was fair considering his circumstances. That was far from easy to decide, though.

The 28-year-old is inexperienced, having entered the NFL in 2014 as a defensive end after three tours of duty in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger. He was switched to tackle upon signing with the Steelers and has steadily improved.

Villanueva did not think he should receive top money, yet he held off on signing his exclusive rights free agent tender. Finally, he signed a four-year contract with the Steelers on Thursday, allowing him to join the team at Saint Vincent College for the start of training camp.

He did not call it an accomplishment, but it did signal how far Villanueva has come.



"It’s not only finding myself in a unique situation but the team finding itself in a unique situation of, ‘What is fair?’" Villanueva told reporters Friday morning. "It’s very hard to define in this situation. I don’t go to Carnegie Mellon to get the free wi-fi. It’s obviously something that when I was on the practice squad, I didn’t know where I was going to be. I was living in a very small apartment in the South Side with a lot of uncertainty."

Villanueva is a part-time MBA student at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, enrolling there in fall 2015 after signing with the Steelers as a free agent. He sought long-term stability if football did not work out.

But he wanted to see where the sport would take him.

He was born in Meridian, Miss., but also lived in Rhode Island, Belgium and Spain. Villanueva shared a story with reporters Friday about beginning his football career in high school in a park in Belgium and becoming a walk-on at Army, where he was a "last-string d-end."