PITTSBURGH — I remember the amazing tributes when long-time offensive line coach Joe Moore at Upper St. Clair High School and Pitt, among other places, died in 2003. This was one of his former linemen at Pitt, the late Jim Sweeney: "There are levels of goodness and levels of greatness. Then, there's the level just below God. That's where I put coach Moore."
I saw the devotion the Steelers defensive players had to defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, "Coach Dad," as they knew him. This was Aaron Smith in 2008: "If he tells us to jump off a cliff, I believe we would do it."
Now, I am seeing that same respect and love Steelers former defensive linemen have for their coach, John Mitchell, who retired from the team on Wednesday after 29 years with the team. This was Brett Keisel on Thursday: "He took guys like me and Chris Hoke and Aaron Smith — guys who came to him from nowhere — and turned us into players. Not just players, but good players who ended up hoisting hardware. All of us owe so much to Mitch."
I never thought I would see another assistant coach as revered by his players as Moore and LeBeau.
Clearly, Mitchell is.
"Everything I was as a player and everything I am as a man, a husband, a father and a coach ... let's just say Mitch is a big part of who I am," Smith said on Thursday. "I didn't have a father figure in my life. He was my father figure. You couldn't find a better human being."
Hoke used the same words — "father figure" — to describe Mitchell. He spoke at an informal retirement party, complete with cake and coffee, for Mitchell at the Steelers' South Side headquarters on Wednesday. Everybody in the facility was there. Keisel, Cam Heyward and Tyson Alualu made it a point to come in.
"I just told coach Mitch that I love him and how much I care about him," Hoke said. "He was emotional. I was emotional. It was a nice moment."
Mitchell felt the same love toward his players. Keisel, Smith, Hoke and Casey Hampton spent a decade with him. Mitchell has no children. His players were his children.
"I don't think there was any place he'd rather be than with his guys," Smith said.
"We tried to beat him into the building, but we could never do it," Keisel said. "He loved the work. He loved the job. He loved the grind. He loved trying to find ways to beat the opponent. He loved trying to find ways to motivate his guys."
Mitchell was tough on his players, especially rookies. They had to earn his respect.
"There were times you would wonder why he was so tough on you," Smith said. "It was because he saw something in you that you didn't see in yourself. I remember him telling me, 'I'm going to get it out of you — one way or the other.' He would drag and pull it out of you."
Mitchell's methods worked. His defensive linemen were big parts — literally and figuratively — of one of the best defenses in the NFL. That hardware that Keisel mentioned? The Steelers won two Super Bowls with Mitchell on the sideline and played in two others.
"For me, his career is Hall of Fame-worthy," Keisel said.
But Mitchell's life in football went so much deeper than his work with the Steelers.
"I truly believe they should make a movie about him," Smith said. "It would be such an incredible story."
Mitchell grew up in Mobile, Ala., and attended a segregated high school. He loved Alabama football and wanted to play for Bear Bryant, but the school wasn't recruiting Black players at the time. He spent two years at Eastern Arizona Junior College before joining the Alabama program. A defensive end, he started all 24 games in his two seasons at Alabama and helped the team win SEC championships in 1971 and 1972. He was named a team captain, was a two-time All-SEC selection and was an All-American in his final season.
"Broke down barriers as a player," Keisel said.
Bryant made Mitchell Alabama's first Black coach in 1973 when he hired him as his defensive line coach. Mitchell later became the SEC's first Black defensive coordinator at LSU.
"Broke down barriers as a coach," Keisel said.
Mitchell always has been reluctant to talk about those days — even with his players. They were hard times. Of course they were hard, not just trying to find his way as an Alabama player but doing it in the racially divided South.
If anything, Mitchell used his experiences as a motivating tool with his players.
"Never once did he say anything negative about those days," Keisel said. "He just talked to us about overcoming challenges, about not getting stuck in the mud, about rising up and overcoming and becoming a winner."
It saddens Mitchell that, 50 years after he was a ground-breaker, he still hears talk about "the first Black to do this" and "the first Black to do that."
"You'd never think today we'd still be talking about racial injustice on any area, work, athletics, whatever; you still have those problems," he told Post-Gazette columnist Gene Collier last March. "It's hard to change people's hearts. It's hard to change people's ideas. Some ideas are never going to die. Fifty years from now, we're going to be talking about some of these same things.
"What bothers me more so than anything is, I don't think people want to teach what has gone on in this country in the past. If you don't recognize the past, you're going to make the same mistakes in the future. There was slavery. There was injustice, not just for Black people, for Brown people, for Italians, for Jews. I mean America is a great place, but it's got a few stains. If people don't realize that and try to help move on from that, it's going to be the same problem 50 years from today."
Collier's terrific piece on Mitchell was a part of the paper's coverage of Mitchell being honored by Alabama. A plaque detailing the accomplishments of him and teammate Wilbur Jackson was unveiled at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa during a ceremony before the Alabama spring game. Jackson was the first Black player recruited by Bryant but redshirted his first year, allowing Mitchell to become the first Black player to play at the school.
"We're mad at him because he didn't tell us about that ceremony," Smith said. "All of us would have been there for him."
"100 percent we would have been there," Hoke said. "But that's coach Mitch. He's not about fanfare. He's not about being famous. He was just about doing his job and outworking everyone else."
Mitchell cried during the ceremony.
"From the bottom of my heart, I can't tell you what this moment means to me," he said when he saw the plaque. "Everything professionally that happens to me was because of coach Bryant. The things that I coached were the things I learned right here at Alabama. ...
"I grew up a little Black kid from south Alabama. These are things you never dream about."
Keisel said the players already are planning to gather for another celebration of Mitchell's career. Keisel, Smith and Hoke live in Pittsburgh. Hampton will fly in from Texas.
"We'd do anything for Mitch," Keisel said.
Mike Tomlin doesn't do many interviews during the offseason, but he didn't hesitate to jump on the phone on Thursday to talk about Mitchell.
"Certainly, I'm going to miss him professionally," Tomlin said. "But I'm really going to miss the man. It's the non-football things I'll miss. I have such a great appreciation of John Mitchell the man."
There is a long line of football people who feel that same way about Mitchell.
It is a very long line.
