With the Steelers on their bye last week, some players returned to their respective colleges to watch their team notch a big victory, such as Le'Veon Bell, who watched in East Lansing, Mich., as Michigan State upset Penn State.
Others, such as center Maurkice Pouncey, were on hand for the birth of a child.
Defensive end Stephon Tuitt had a different kind of life-changing event planned.
Tuitt, who signed a six-year, $61.5 million contract extension just before the start of the season, returned home to Georgia during the bye to do something he had long been planning.
Tuitt purchased a home for his mother, Tamara.
"That had been a goal of mine since I was a little kid," the 24-year-old Tuitt told me.
"She worked hard to put us in a good neighborhood, to put us in good schools. We had only owned one house. We rented houses in good places so that we would get a good education so that we would be set up in life, like me going to Notre Dame. All that struggle that she had been through, the pain and suffering that she went through, it only felt like it was right to be able to go back home and give her her dream and let her live debt free."
Tamara Tuitt, a single mom, moved her family to Monroe, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, when Stephon was a child to get away from the mean streets of Miami.
It worked out well for Tuitt, who earned a scholarship to Notre Dame, where he majored in anthropology and became a star on the football field.
While her eldest son worked to become a second-round draft pick of the Steelers in 2014, Tamara Tuitt continued to work in the criminal justice field to support herself and his younger brothers.
"We were renting a small townhouse and I promised her that I would work hard to someday give her the home of her dreams," Tuitt said. "She didn’t want to have to work outside but she wanted enough space inside for when we all came home. We got in a good neighborhood and I closed on it while I was there. She’s signing all of the paperwork and she’ll be moved in by the end of this week."
That will conclude a lifelong dream for the Steelers defensive end, who is expected to return to the lineup this week when the team travels to Indianapolis to face the Colts.
"It feels tremendous," he admitted. "As a son, you never want it to be that way. But people don’t grow up all the same. I’m blessed to be able to do something that I get paid a lot of money to do. But you have to be smart. You have to pay attention. I’ve had good people around me and put myself in the right position to do this to be able to take care of my mother and still be able to take care of my family at the same time."
Now, he wants to take care of business on the football field. Tuitt has missed four games and most of another two early this season with arm and back injuries.
He returned to practice Monday and said he's full speed ahead, literally, to play against the Colts.
"It's awesome to be able to be back. I had a great practice. I got up to 18 miles per hour running," the 6-6, 303-pound lineman said. "That's how I know I'm back, when I'm running that way. I'm with my teammates doing what I love, playing football."
