PITTSBURGH — It has been said that Pittsburgh is the only city with a true “entrance”—that is, the famed exit from the Fort Pitt Tunnel, at which point a dark and dreary mountain passageway gives way to a sprawling city skyline.
It is fitting, then, that the 15 first-round picks in attendance at the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday began their professional journey in almost the same exact manner, starting with a solemn journey through a tunnel, and ending with a long-awaited entrance onto a brightly-lit stage, where their lives would be changed forever.
