This week on Memory Lane I caught up with former Steelers' defensive back Bryant McFadden. From being the top rated corner back in the country in high school, to winning the Super Bowl as a rookie in Pittsburgh, Bryant has a great deal of stories that I think Steeler Nation will enjoy on this episode. Check out the full podcast here:
If you'd rather read than listen, that's no problem at all! Below is a transcript of the interview. Enjoy!
Noah: As I tend to do on this show, I’d like to start with your days in high school. Your senior year you were ranked the top cornerback in the country coming out of McArthur High School in Hollywood, Fla. The state of Florida is known for producing some of the top skill players in the nation each year. What was it like knowing you were getting some notable talent’s best effort every Friday night?
McFadden: It was challenging. It was challenging but if you’re a competitor you welcome that challenge. The thing that I like about football in south Florida, because the weather is always ideal for something outside related, you can play football year-round. It’s not just about participating in football in the summer then having it lead into the fall.
We don’t really have a winter. So you’re always able to be outside compared to some other colder places like Pennsylvania and other cold climate states. Also, because of how good the weather is, you have to be outside doing something and football was a way for everyone to do something together. Football, track, soccer, things like that. Me personally, growing up in south Florida, it was so amazing to see so many talented players all in the same area. I lived in Hollywood, Florida and went to McArthur, but just in my area alone, there were probably six other high schools I could’ve gone to.
Some of the kids I played little league football with, we all didn’t go to the same high school. We became enemies to say the least when we all ended up in different schools. But just that area alone, man, south Florida - Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Broward County, Dade County - the whos of who have come from that area. Then for me to be considered not just in south Florida at my position but in the entire state and the country, I had a bullseye on me. Anytime I played against somebody in high school, they wanted to see if I was legit.
They wanted to see if the rankings were warranted, so I always had to go out and prove myself, every Friday, in camps, in games, because they always wanted to see what McFadden was. I was one of the best players in the country, not just the state, so all the kids knew about me, all the coaches knew about me. But, it was fun. If you ever get an opportunity to watch high school football, go check out high school football in south Florida.
Noah: What led you to choosing Florida State over Florida or Miami?
McFadden: The collegiate atmosphere. It was a college town where the support of Florida State football was the main attraction. The coaching, the way they develop their players and the coach that was going to coach me, Mickey Andrews. He coached the likes of Deion Sanders, Terrell Buckley, Clifton Abraham, Corey Sawyer, Samari Rolle, LeRoy Butler, the list can go on and on.
He was going to be the same guy coaching me. That meant a lot. And then the last thing was the head coach, the stability. I didn’t see Bobby Bowden leaving Florida State while I would be there. I felt like the only way he would leave is if he were to just retire out of nowhere. Miami was neck and neck with Florida State but I felt like at the time, with Butch Davis as the head coach, I felt like he’d probably get a call to the NFL sooner than later and he probably would leave.
He came into my house and told my parents he wouldn’t leave and one year later he left to take the Cleveland Browns job. So those are the main reasons as to why I chose Florida State over the other schools.
Noah: You mentioned the talent that existed in the defensive backfield during your time at Florida State. I did some research and noticed you had five other players, just who were defensive backs, go pro during your time there. Antonio Cromartie, Pat Watkins, Jerome Carter, Rufus Brown and BJ Ward. Am I missing anyone else?
McFadden: You’re missing a young Tony Carter. He played with the Patriots and the Broncos. After that, I think you got it!
Noah: I did my research for this one! So with that being said, you obviously were a part of a very talented defensive backfield. What were those position group practices like? I’m guessing things got pretty competitive.
McFadden: Oh no question. It was always a competition. Being there four years and playing with guys like that, who all had pro talent, everything was a competition. Not just on the field either. In the weight room, who could bench the most? Who could squat the most? Who could jump the highest? Who’s the fastest? Who’s the quickest? Everything was a competition so it just kind of translated on the football field.
For all those defensive backs that you mentioned, we had just as many guys that we were covering in practice that went pro as well. So those were battles too. The easiest part for us was the game. The hardest part was practice. Especially when we had scouts coming out to watch us practice. When we had scouts at practice I knew I was going to get the best effort from whoever was lined up across from me. I had to get in game mode. When we knew scouts would be out there, we got dressed like it was a game.
People were taping up their wrists tighter than usual, taping up their ankles, spatting. You were going to war. It felt like an actual game. When you’re practicing good on good, come Saturday you’re going to have an easier task because most of the guys you’re playing against didn’t have as many talented players as we had. It was fun. We all had the same aspirations which were to do everything possible to try to get drafted and the majority of us did that.
Noah: Was it ever frustrating or worrisome knowing that it didn’t matter how well you played the week before. That if you messed up there was someone who was also really talented waiting behind you to take your spot on the field?
McFadden: That was just part of the pressure. The only thing about pressure is that it bothers people when they’re not prepared. If you’re prepared you can handle pressure. You know exactly what’s coming in front of you.
You know how to handle it. If you do everything in your power, you study tape like you’re supposed to, you get your body in the best shape possible mentally and physically, and you continue to perfect and work on your craft, you’re okay with pressure. With Mickey Andrews, he was an old-fashioned coach. He came from the Bear Bryant era, so he would cuss you out like a dog and then cuss you out to get back in there and get in the fight.
I remember one time, I think I was a sophomore and I wasn’t a full time starter yet but I was playing about 50 percent of the snaps. I think we were playing Maryland. I was lined up on the side close to our sideline and after coach Andrews called the defensive call, which was man-to-man, he started yelling to the offense, ‘throw it at number eight! Let’s see what number eight has! Let’s see what this high school All-American has.’ In my mind I’m thinking, ‘coach, whose side are you on? You want them to throw over to my side?’
He just wanted to see how I handled the pressure. He’d be yelling ‘throw it to eight, throw it to eight! They’re coming to you eight! What are you going to do? They’re coming at you!’ They came, not that play but a few plays later, they came at me and caught a slant on me. It was a six or seven yard slant and I made the tackle. He cussed me out like a dog. ‘I want you to get in there and get in the fight! Get me a corner that’s going to get in the fight!’ He snatched me right out of the game. Like I said I was the closest to our sideline so I’m hearing everything he said. He gave me an earful. I said ‘coach, he freakin’ caught a slant. It was a seven yard slant, it wasn’t a touchdown.’
He said ‘I don’t care! I want you to challenge every play like it’s your last play! If you’re not going to do that, get to the back of the bench. Or are you ready to get in the fight?’ I told him I was ready for the fight and got back in the game. The thing about Coach Andrews was he understood that you would not be flawless every snap but he wanted you to attack every rep with that mindset. When I got older, I knew that if someone caught a slant on me I wasn’t coming out. But when I was young he groomed me mentally. He built my mental toughness.
You only lose a play because you let them beat you. If you don’t let them beat you, you will win. It’s a mindset. That was one thing he emphasized. He drilled into us. You only get beat because you let them beat you. You did it, nobody else did it. It’s nothing about us not getting pressure. It’s nothing about us having a missed assignment. You let it happen. Don’t let it happen. You can’t do that until you understand that they won’t beat you if you don’t let them.
Noah: You arrive in Pittsburgh as a second-round pick right after the team goes 15-1 and to the AFC Championship. How excited were you to land on a team that was a contender?
McFadden: In all honesty, when I first got drafted to Pittsburgh, Chris Hope kept telling me that they liked me. He would inform me anytime one of the coaches would ask him something about me. Darren Perry was there at the time along with a few other coaches who would talk to me, so I knew Pittsburgh was high on me. Watching that draft, I remember it like it was yesterday, because Hope was saying they really liked me.
When I kept seeing Heath Miller fall, and I played against Heath in college, I remember thinking to myself ‘shoot!.’ Heath didn’t do anything combine-related because he had a groin injury or something that prevented him from working out but Heath was a beast. It was documented that Pittsburgh needed a tight end and then maybe some secondary help, but when Heath fell and he was for sure a first round talent, I was like ‘well, shoot.’ So by the time I was when they drafted me in the second round I had mixed emotions. Reason No. 1 was that I thought I could’ve gone late in the first round. No. 2 was I thought I was going to Atlanta.
The week before the draft I had a phone meeting with the GM and the owner I believe, and they told me that if I was available they would select me, which didn’t happen. Number three was the fact that I was going to a place that all I could think about was how cold it was going to be in December. So I was mad about my draft position, I was mad about the actual team that I thought was going to draft me, didn't draft me, and then I was mad about the location of where I was going.
I remember it like it was yesterday, I had a small gathering at my house and my high school coach, Keith Franklin, was there. He came up to me and asked me how I was doing and I said ‘man, this is BS. I freakin’ got drafted late in the second round, I thought I’d be a higher pick and I’m going to Pittsburgh.’ All I could think about was Batman and Gotham City because it was always gloomy and the sun never comes out. It was going to be freakin’ cold. I was only used to, worst case scenario, a 38 degree day in Tallahassee.
He interrupted me and said ‘man forget all of that. You’re going to an established organization that will always contend to be in the playoffs.’ I heard that but at the time I was still in my feelings so at first it didn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t care about any of that. But then when I get to Pittsburgh, I see the guys and I see the culture, I immediately forget all of my thoughts from draft night. If you look back to my rookie year when I started playing when it was cold outside, I didn’t have any sleeves on. I bought into the Pittsburgh way because that’s who we are. When you talk about the ‘Burgh, we welcome Steeler weather. That’s what we used to call it when it’s 15 to 30 degrees.
That’s Steeler weather! That’s when you put on your hard hat and go chop some wood. So I bought into it and hey, we had a lot of success. I played in three Super Bowls, won two, and only missed the playoffs once when I was there which was that 2006 year when we missed it by one game. I was never a part of a losing record. I never was a part of a defense that finished outside of the top 10.
I played in three AFC Championship games. We had a lot of success. I said on a local radio station in Pittsburgh the other day and I said one thing about Steelers fans is that they’re spoiled. They have a reason to be spoiled. If you’re in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s all you know is winning if you’re a fan of the Steelers. I wouldn’t change anything for the world. The only thing I would change about my time in Pittsburgh was that freakin’ Super Bowl we lost to Green Bay.
Noah: That was a hell of a Steelers pep-talk. I’m sure the listeners are ready to run through a wall right now. I’d like to move on now to what I think was your biggest moment of not only your rookie season but your career with the Steelers. In the AFC divisional round, you guys are facing the Colts in Indianapolis. It’s a game that not many people had you guys winning. The game is all but won until Jerome Bettis fumbles at the goal line. The Colts take over at midfield and are driving. Once they get to field goal range, just inside a minute Peyton Manning decides to go after you on back-to-back plays. You’re a rookie covering Reggie Wayne, who will probably end up in the Hall of Fame one day. You end up making the play on both second and third down, forcing them to kick the field goal that Mike Vanderjagt goes on to miss. You mentioned earlier about how in college your coach kept telling you to ‘get in the fight.’ Would you say that lesson you learned in college paid off in that do-or-die situation?
McFadden: The sudden change in that ball game was unbelievable. When I say sudden change I mean for us defensively, something happened on offense that we didn’t expect to happen, being that turnover. We had the ball on the goal line, celebrating, talking trash to their fans because remember earlier that year when we went to Indy on Monday Night Football they beat us bad.
Bill Cowher told us after that loss that we’d be back in that same locker room in January. So going back to that play where Jerome fumbled, we’re thinking we are about to score or worst case scenario we don’t score but the clock runs out. Then we hear the crowd go crazy and there is that sudden change. It was the fumble. We went from ‘it’s a fumble!’ To ‘oh no, will someone tackle him?’ To Ben Roethlisberger getting him down. Then we hear ‘defense you’re up’ and we are just thinking ‘shoot, we have to go back out there now.’ So I already knew because of what happened and how intense the game was at the time that they were going to come after me.
The reason I knew that was because I knew Dick LeBeau was going to send some pressure. When we’re sending pressure, and people always consider us to be a fire-zone defense, which we were. But fire-zone defenses in the secondary is basically a man-to-man concept unless you get some switch releases. For us corners it’s basically man-to-man. We came out calling Indy fire-zone which was a coverage he implemented for that week and we had a lot of success. If you go back and look at that game, a lot of those sacks came from when we were running Indy fire-zone. I was man-to-man with Reggie and because of the sudden change effect, we weren’t disguising it.
People were just lining up in what we were in and Peyton knew I was on Reggie without any help. I remember the first play that wasn’t Indy they called a dig on me and he caught it. I made the tackle and told myself ‘Mac come on, man. Just stand up, just stand up. Just stand up and get in the fight.’ It’s funny that we talked about that Mickey Andrews story earlier because that’s what was going through my head. ‘Get in there, challenge, and get in the fight. Challenge Reggie Wayne and get in the fight. Don’t let him beat you.
Don’t let him beat you!’ We called Indy fire zone and I was like ‘man, Mac, practice your technique, stay low, good eyes, good hips, play ball.’ People tell you all the time that in certain moments of your life, the sound goes mute. Nobody else exists aside from you and the person you are going against. And at that time when we called Indy, I felt like Reggie was going to run a go route and I was able to zone turn which is something you usually don’t do in a man concept. Usually in a man concept you would man turn to the wide receiver but in this case because I was a step or two inside of Reggie, because I was playing with inside leverage, I wanted to always have my eyes on the ball when I’m open. One thing about Reggie, the way he attacks a football, for not being a bigger wide receiver he was a great 50-50 catcher.
So if I didn’t have my eyes on the football the entire time when I was opening up to run with him on the go ball, he might have had the opportunity to attack the ball when I couldn’t. So when I zone turned I had my peripheral vision on him and I went right back to Peyton and I was able to locate the ball instantly. So I ended up doing a Reggie on Reggie because when I locate the football I was able to attack the football before allowing him to attack it over me. When I did, if you look at the play, he still tried to go get it because that’s who he was as a wide receiver.
Again, to be an undersized wide receiver he was probably one of the best 50-50 catchers of his time. And he still tried to go get it and I swat, and while we are coming down he is still trying to attack the football. I just kept remembering hearing coach Andrews in my head ‘get in there and get in the fight.’ So I swat again as we were coming down and that last final swat, if you look at the play in slow motion, really disrupted him from grabbing the ball at all. The first swat I hit the ball and hit his hands and if I was relaxed with that and thought he wasn’t catching it, he probably would’ve still caught the ball. But as I’m coming down I just kept hearing ‘fight, fight, fight,’ and the whistle did not blow and I knew the game was still in play so I just swatted again and that kind of disrupted that situation. The next play we come back, it's another fire-zone.
I’m thinking ‘freakin’ Coach Lebeau, you’re going to put me man-to-man with Reggie Wayne again!’ I’m the only rookie on the football field so you already know where they’re going. It’s the same call, I have the same keys. What happened was Reggie ran a stop and go. Peyton tried to throw the stop. Man, listen. If I could’ve caught that pass, I would’ve been a real legend in Pittsburgh forever.
I know people are happy about the play I made on that first pass but if I intercepted that ball I would’ve been a made man forever. But then what happened was it was kind of the same concept. I was getting in my three step read on Peyton, I had my peripheral on Reggie and when I saw Reggie come off I saw that he was slow playing it. He just took me deep so I didn’t want to allow him to catch the ball, square up and maybe make me make a difficult tackle. So I was still looking at Peyton. When I saw Peyton’s shoulders turning, I knew the ball was getting ready to come. Reggie gave me that little stop. When he did that I still had Peyton in my peripheral and I just saw Peyton (winding back).
I didn’t want to react too quickly because if he hit me with a pump and that’s a touchdown. I’d rather be a little late than too early because too early can hurt all of us. So I was right on time with it and because I wasn’t too early I wasn’t able to get my hands underneath the ball to have a legit opportunity to catch it but I broke it up. The next play Vanderjagt came out, missed the field goal and we ended up going to the next round and winning the championship.
Noah: Was there any thought that when Vanderjagt walked on the field that he was actually going to miss?
McFadden: You know what? We felt pretty good when he was out there because it wasn’t an easy field goal and he was a bit inconsistent at times. One thing that we felt was because the momentum had changed in their favor but we took it back that we were going to win that ball game. We felt like we were going to win that ball game. That sudden change that happened with them getting the ball back but not scoring or getting closer into field goal range was a plus for us. So when they came out on the football field, we thought even if we went into overtime, we just stole all the momentum from them. We took their best shot and didn’t flinch at all, so we felt pretty good.
Noah: A few weeks later, like you said, you guys go on to win Super Bowl XL. You played a lot in that game, made a few tackles and helped the team win. What’s your best story from either the week before the game, the game itself or the party afterward?
McFadden: The week of the Super Bowl we had a lot of press opportunities and I remember Joey Porter just trying to find something to get us going and he picked out Jerramy Stevens. He was just trying to punk him all week in the media. The one thing about Joey, he looked for an altercation. He looked for an extra reason to be hyped up and fired up.
Jerramy Stevens was the guy. I remember he dropped a few passes in that ball game and man the guys were getting on him. They were cussing him out, talking crazy to him. So that was kind of cool because I was always a fan of the Steeler defense even before I became a Steeler. How they played and how aggressive they were. How they were nasty and disrespectful. The Steeler defense is basically a spitting image of our fans. We’re disrespectful. You know what I mean? If you don’t have on our color, we don’t like you.
Even if we’re wrong we are right. If you don’t rock with us, we don’t rock with you and that’s how we feel in real life. I think defenses should always feel that way. I think if you want to be successful you can’t be nice. Coach Andrews used to tell us at Florida State, ‘You can’t play tough and live soft.’ He said that won’t work. If you want to play like you’re tough on the football field but you’re living soft, it will eventually show itself on the football field.
He wanted people who would live hard and play hard. If you play the game of football you can be a nice guy when you need to be but you’ve got to be able to turn that thing on when you got to and you shouldn’t have to wait for someone to slap you in the face.
Noah: A few years after you win your first Super Bowl a major moment in Steelers history happens with Bill Cowher retiring and Mike Tomlin getting hired. What was that transition like for you?
McFadden: We all really thought that [Bill Cowher] would stick around. We were one year removed from winning a championship. We missed the playoffs by one game the following year and we thought we had the nucleus to continue to make a deep run. When he left we all we're thinking ‘shoot what’s next?’
We thought we’d keep it in house with Ken Whisenhunt or Russ Grimm who were both trying to get the job and that didn’t happen. We go and get Mike Tomlin, and the unique thing about Tomlin was he was my secondary coach in the Senior Bowl because we had Tampa Bay’s staff. So I knew a little bit about him and he knew a little bit about me. He comes along and yeah, that first training camp was ugly.
I think we did 22 straight days of two-a-days. Eventually he told us he was trying to figure out the ball club and who could handle it and who couldn’t. It kind of wore us out, honestly. By the time we got midway through the season and had that playoff game against Jacksonville, we were beat up.
But, you know, after that he understood what he had as a roster and he kind of handled us differently. Then eventually we started to see the fruits of the labor. That decision started to pay out for us.
Noah: That payout was obviously winning Super Bowl XLIII. I wanted to ask you about a few plays from that game. The first one is James Harrison’s interception. Were you on the field for that?
McFadden: No, I wasn’t.
Noah: Okay, I thought so. I watched that play from every angle possible before the interview and couldn’t find you on the field. Nonetheless, I wanted to hear your version of how that play came to be. It’s been said that Tomlin put a big emphasis on the importance of not just forcing turnovers but returning them for a score earlier that week in practice. Is that story true or is this overblown?
McFadden: Well anytime we got our hands on the football as a defender we wanted to try to get positive yards to put our offense in good field position or try to score. So we did rep that the week of; Mike Tomlin said anytime we caught an interception in practice, score. It doesn’t matter where you were at on the football field.
Score. In that play with James, he wasn’t supposed to be there. James was actually supposed to blitz but because we kind of ran a pick concept with Ike Taylor and Deshea Townsend, if James wasn’t there they probably would have scored. But James just being a great player and improvising on the fly instead of blitzing, because Kurt Warner knew we were in an all-out blitz.
He knew he had an opportunity to hit this wide open pass catcher but James acted like he was about to blitz and fell right back and the ball hit him right in the chest. It’s not just about him making that interception though, the thing about that play is him scoring. It was basically a 14 point swing. We took seven off the scoreboard from them and put seven on the board for us.
That play probably is just as big as the Santonio Holmes play. If you look at things panned out through the course of that ballgame, that James Harrison play was big because we took points away from them and put points on the board for us. One play is bigger than the other but they’re right there neck and neck.
Noah: What was your point of view for Santonio’s catch?
McFadden: That drive I felt really good, especially when we started to move and get some positive yards. All we needed was a field goal to tie it but on the sideline we were all just saying ‘man screw this, we want to score a touchdown,’ because we had the defense on it’s heels.
Santonio got in that rhythm and man… If I'm not mistaken we ran that same play earlier on the opposite side of the field and Ben overthrew it. We came back and reversed it to the opposite side. That might have been one of the most critical passes I’ve seen. If you go back and look at that highlight, there were three guys that had the opportunity to tip the ball or get in the passing lane of the ball.
For Santonio to still be dialed in and that ball to go over three defenders, catch it and then toe tap, it will go down as one of the best plays ever. Not just in Super Bowl history but ever. When you talk about Super Bowl history it’s big. And I always thought that when you look at the Steelers tradition and history that Lynn Swann catch in Super Bowl X against the Cowboys in Miami is probably one of the most iconic catches, but that Santonio Holmes catch is up there.
I’d probably say it was better than Swann’s. Both catches are great but if you want to have barber shop talk and debate which catch was better, I love Lynn Swann and I love that Steeler team, but I think Ben and Santonio’s catch is greater.
Noah: Following that Super Bowl you leave the Steelers for a year and go play for the Cardinals. You return the following season. Were you happy to be back or was it weird?
McFadden: I felt like I never should’ve left, honestly. I didn’t want to leave and things didn’t work out and then I just came back. You’ve got to look at the trend. I felt like I was the rabbit's foot! I leave and they don’t go to the playoffs.
They brought me back and we got to the playoffs and we are right back in the Super Bowl. I felt like they should’ve kept me on the team just because. Realistically speaking, I feel like I shouldn’t have left, I didn’t want to leave.
And then I came back and it’s like dang, I just wasted a year just to come right back. But everything happens for a reason. I got a chance to see how other organizations are run. I got a chance to experience something outside of Pittsburgh, which at that time was all I knew.
Noah: So to wrap things up, you’re now doing what I do for a living! What got you interested in sports media? Was it former teammates going on a similar route or did you just always want to give it a try?
McFadden: I just always liked talking sports, specifically football, which was something we did a lot of in our locker room during our down time. Talking sports, talking history of the game, things like that.
I always wanted to be involved in sports to some degree and I wanted to be around the game to some degree. When I knew my playing days were over I wanted to have a connection with the game and I felt like if I got the opportunity to talk sports I’d run with it. I wanted to approach that part of my life like I did with the gridiron and just devote a lot of time and attention to it.
