The Pittsburgh Steelers upped their spy-prevention game for this year’s practices by building a giant wall structure to cover one of their three fields. Looks like the paranoia is real in Pittsburgh
Four black pillars about two stories high face an adjacent office building on Pittsburgh’s south side, and for practice sessions the team can raise an attached giant black tarp.
A building was constructed across from the Steelers practices fields a couple years ago. It sits higher than the field and provides a good view of practices. It houses a Propel school and a Center for Victims. Steelers constructed a huge plastic-bag-like structure to block view
— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly) August 23, 2018
Coach Mike Tomlin playfully addressed the sudden quest for privacy during his news conference Thursday.
“I’ll leave that somewhat mystical for you guys to hypothesize about the origins of that and its use, and at some point we’ll address it the right way,” said a smiling Tomlin, whose Steelers play the Tennessee Titans on Saturday in Heinz Field. “I know how it is, man. This is interesting times, drones and so forth. We do what we’ve got to do to prepare and get ready to play to have a level and fair competitive playing field.”
Tomlin isn’t alone. Tight end Jesse James said he once saw a drone over the river during a practice, which he found “kind of sneaky” but had no idea whether other NFL teams were involved.
“You always have dudes out in the parking lot, and you don’t know really where they are from and they send security out,” James said. “It’s not something you really notice while you’re practicing, but if the defense is out on the field going against the scout team, you can see stuff going on.”
To some extent there is spying and cheating going on, but this is just a little over the top, no? I guess in the NFL, the mentality really is, ‘If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying’
