Tunch Ilkin retired Thursday after 37 years in the NFL -- 36 of which were with the Steelers in some capacity -- in order to spend more time concentrating on his fight against ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease).
He was at the UPMC-Rooney Sports Complex for the Steelers' sixth OTA session, watching as he has often done, from the balcony that sits above the practice field. His partner for so many of those 37 years, Craig Wolfley, was there with him, as was team president Art Rooney II and wife, Karen Ilkin.
It was obviously a private moment for Ilkin, drafted by the Steelers in 1980 and the team's color analyst on their radio broadcasts since 1998. He had played for this franchise for 13 seasons and then spent 23 more broadcasting the team's games.
Even with that, at one point, he came over to the area where the reporters were watching practice and greeted each of us. I took his hand, gave him a hug, and said "congratulations, I've always appreciated everything you've done."
That Tunch would come over to us -- in his moment -- and give a greeting, even to some of the new reporters he didn't really know was just so him. He has always been free with his time, kind words and knowledge.
But after he walked away from me, I realized I had just told a man with a deadly disease that had forced him to retire from what he loved doing, "congratulations." I felt awful.
Then, as I drove home, I thought more about it. Congratulations fit. Tunch has spent more than half of his life doing what he loves. Playing football and then talking about it, all while helping anyone around him. Doing what he loved.
He should be congratulated for that.
As part of that job as a broadcaster, Ilkin would come in and watch film of the upcoming opponent on a regular basis. He also made a point of talking to and getting to know the players who had come after him -- particularly the offensive linemen. They always held a special place in his heart, especially the guys who earned spots on the roster as long shots.
"Tunch is a titan, man," said Steelers center B.J. Finney, one of those long shots. "He came in and worked with all of us when we wanted to work. He’s always talking to us about technique and things he’s learned. He’s just been a great friend and a great mentor to anybody and everybody who has asked him for help. It stinks because I love seeing him around the place. Now, I’m going to have to go visit him at his house on Mt. Washington. He and Wolf, always together. Now, we’re wondering what that’s going to look like ourselves. I love Tunch. I wish him the best in what he’s going to have to fight and go through. I hope he knows we all have his back and will do anything for him every step of the way."
Ilkin himself had been a long shot. His parents had immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey and he had played football at Indiana State, which was better known as the school that produced Larry Bird than it was for its football. Heck, the sixth-round draft pick in 1980 had been released himself at the end of training camp that year, only to be called back later in the season.
His playing time with the Steelers came to an end in 1992. He spent the 1993 season with the Packers before calling it a career and moving on to broadcasting in 1995 for NBC. He could have stuck with that, but didn't like how it took him away from his family.
Much the same way, he could have gotten into coaching. He was offered a number of times by a number of different teams, including the Steelers. But he continued to turn them down to spend time at home with his now late wife, Sharon, and children, Tanner, Natalie, and Clay.
Sharon, his college sweetheart who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated with the aforementioned Bird in 1977, died in 2012 after a lengthy battle with cancer. He would often joke that she was more famous than him. After all, he had never graced the cover of Sports Illustrated.
That's Tunch.
"Off of the field, it’s his faith," Finney said of what he learned from Ilkin away from the field. "His walk that he’s led. He will mentor anybody and everybody about what it means to have faith and the line that he’s had to walk and how he shares it so openly with guys who will listen. That was of immense impact to me because as we all know, Tunch hasn’t had the easiest line to walk, especially now.
"We kind of gravitated to each other because I haven’t had the easiest walk in life, either. We’re kind of kindred spirits, like-minded souls. Just being able to hang out with somebody who has been through very hard times and continues to go through very hard times, he’s a great mentor. You can’t really put it into words and describe it. I’m trying not to get emotional about it, but I love the man dearly."
Everyone who knows him does.
So, while I felt awful for telling him congratulations in the moments after, it was fitting.
• Most people can only wish they had a friend as close as Ilkiin with Wolfley. Heck, most people can only hope they have a sibling with whom they are as close as that duo.
Wolfley was a fifth-round draft pick of the Steelers in 1980. As mentioned, Ilkin was the team's sixth-round selection.
They were roommates that year. And have been together largely since.
Playing team sports together will only bring you even closer, so the bond those two share is beyond special.
If you haven't yet read the piece our Tom Reed wrote about that special bond last summer, I insist you do so now. If you read it before, I encourage you to go back and read it again on this day.
• Finney followed Ilkin more than he knows. In 1993, Ilkin signed a big free agent deal with the Packers -- for a million dollars -- to leave Pittsburgh. It was a deal the Steelers, who had selected Leon Searcy in the first round in 1992, weren't going to and couldn't match.
But he was miserable that one year in Green Bay.
Finney, who signed a two-year, $8 million contract in 2020 to leave the Steelers for the Seahawks, didn't exactly have a stellar past year, either. He said he and his family moved four times in the past year, first home to Kansas, then to Seattle, then to Cincinnati after a mid-season trade, and now back to Pittsburgh after re-signing with the Steelers on a one-year, $1.127 million deal.
"I don’t suggest moving four times across the country, especially with a little one," Finney said. "It’s not fun. Last year wasn’t ideal. But we’re happy to be here with some familiarity with people that we know and love."
Finney said he was unable to work out following signing his deal with the Seahawks at the onset of the pandemic. And because he hadn't yet taken his physical and all of the training facilities around his home in Kansas were shut down, he got out of shape.
That led to him being beaten out for a starting job with the Seahawks, then traded to the Bengals, who released him in March, opening the door for him to re-sign with the Steelers to help ease the loss of Maurkice Pouncey's retirement.
"I wasn’t going to risk losing all of that money by training and getting hurt away from the facility," Finney said. "What goes along with that is that you show up at camp overweight and out of shape. I got beat out. There’s no way around it. I’m not seeking comfort about it.
"When it comes to the midseason trade, they needed a pass rusher and some cap space. Cincinnati wanted an offensive lineman and they traded me. I got to Cincinnati and they got guys back that they liked, they were comfortable with back from injury. They didn’t need me. They just put me on the shelf. At the end of the season, I had a hernia, so I had to have that repaired. The rest is history. They released me in March and here I am."
• Finney and the rest of the line will be tasked with helping the Steelers improve a rushing attack that ranked 32nd in the NFL in 2020.
He wasn't with the Steelers in 2020, but he made 13 starts at both guard and center from 2016 through 2019. The Steelers went 11-2 with Finney in the starting lineup.
He knows the Steelers' history of being able to run the ball and looks forward to helping this team get back to that.
"Honestly, that’s not just the talk in our room or in our building, but across the NFL, ‘What’s the Steelers’ run game going to look like?’" Finney said. "We know we have to come out with an edge, we have to assert that run game and get back to what Pittsburgh is known for, that three yards at a time, that dust cloud, as Jerome Bettis would say. When the dust settles, that ball is moving forward. We’re hungry. We know we have something to prove, and we’ve got a chip on our shoulder, so we want to do it."
• Ilkin, an old offensive lineman himself, should be proud. Nothing seems to upset former Steelers more than seeing the Steelers not perform in Steelers-like fashion.
And finishing dead last in the NFL is not very Steelers-like.
The NFL has changed its focus over the past decade, moving to way more passing than running.
But that doesn't mean offensive linemen still can't deliver the blow rather than receive it.
Tunch is famous for his "punch." It's a technique many teams would fly him in for clinics to teach, a quick jolt to the chest to slow oncoming pass rushers.
Here's hoping he continues to use the "Tunch Punch" in his battle with ALS. It's a battle against a terribly debilitating disease.
