{"id":155,"date":"2014-10-17T04:41:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T04:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=155"},"modified":"2015-01-09T16:54:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:54:31","slug":"iron-mike-webster-and-his-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/10\/17\/iron-mike-webster-and-his-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Iron Mike’ Webster and his routine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dec. <\/a>
Dec. 5, 1983: Webster on the bench during a game at Three Rivers Stadium. <\/div> <\/div>
\"(Mark <\/a>
(Mark Murphy\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

“Practice, practice, practice.” That was the mantra Mike Webster\u2019s son, Colin Webster, heard constantly when he was growing up.<\/p>\n

It was how \u201cIron Mike\u201d of the Pittsburgh Steelers lived his life. He left his house regularly on the off season to go watch game tapes, to scribble in a notebook different plans and ideas to improve his performance. \u201cHe practiced driving a\u00a0sled almost daily it seemed,\u201d Colin remembered. \u201cHe worked the basics, over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ate steaks and drank milk in large quantities. He had a thing for potatoes too, according to Colin, with lots and lots of butter. \u201cHe never gained an appreciable amount\u00a0 of fat, probably because his two and three hour workouts (and occasionally longer) would eat up all those calories, and also because he actively tried to avoid weight gain after he reached 245 or 250.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was a bad singer but a stoic athlete albeit he never acknowledged the latter. \u201cI am not a great athlete,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not quick or coordinated, so my only chance is to tire the other guy out, hit him hard and never let up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another memory of Colin Webster was the maniacal steps routine his father followed. \u201cHe would run the stadium steps pretty much every workout \u2212 that\u2019s usually the first thing you will hear from Wolfley, Ilkin, or the other guys. They said they always just wanted to go shower after practice, and Dad would start running the steps, trying to train his legs to stay fresh and ready for more no matter how much \u201cfootball\u201d activity they had done, so he could always turn it on 100 percent for the whole game.\u201d That\u2019s the image that stayed with his son and the image you see before you captured by the Post-Gazette photographer Mark Murphy.<\/p>\n

For all of these things and the dangerous career in the NFL, Mike Webster paid the highest price. \u201cThe brutal beating encountered in every game adds up over time,\u201d his son wrote. \u201c\u2018Oklahoma\u2019 drills, which left internal scarring around the internal organs and the brain, head slaps, and the like don\u2019t help either.\u201d Mike Webster was the first former NFL player diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He died at age 50. His story will soon be told in the Will Smith movie, which will be filmed in Pittsburgh this year.<\/a><\/p>\n

In the Post-Gazette archives our editors found not only photographs of one of the toughest Hall of Famers but also a story by Jonathan Silver detailing the battles of \u201cIron Mike.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Post-Gazette archives our editors found not only photographs of one of the toughest Hall of Famers but also a story by Jonathan Silver detailing the battles of \u201cIron Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at the pictures‘Iron Mike’ Webster and his routine<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[944],"tags":[975,976,1030,1035,1047,1048],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/tumblr_ndknpdFDLE1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C1033&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2202,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/12\/17\/may-28-1974-steelers-coach-chuck-noll-and-his\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":0},"title":"Steelers coach Chuck Noll and his four quarterbacks","date":"December 17, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"This picture oozes a definite \u201970s vibe.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/tumblr_mf141cqNVZ1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6500,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/02\/10\/steelers-picture-day-at-the-1980-super-bowl\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":1},"title":"Steelers ‘Picture Day’ at the 1980 Super Bowl","date":"February 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Collection of photographs shows legendary players as relaxed and confident.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/digs.80Steelersb023.jpg?fit=1200%2C842&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1865,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/04\/19\/steelers-draft-terry-bradshaw\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":2},"title":"Steelers draft Terry Bradshaw","date":"April 19, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"It is hardly a stretch to say that the Pittsburgh Steelers owe everything to a coin flip.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/tumblr_mlgl23yTgo1rr5swxo2_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C813&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":427,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/07\/25\/franco-harris-autograph-remains-intact\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":3},"title":"Franco Harris\u2019 autograph remains intact","date":"July 25, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The picture was taken 40 years ago. Plenty has changed since Harris propped his brief case up on his knee.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/tumblr_n96nclMkGj1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C791&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1855,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/04\/24\/mean-joe-greene-and-bennie-cunningham\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":4},"title":"Mean Joe Greene and Bennie Cunningham","date":"April 24, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Thankfully, this picture is black and white because that jacket is so dizzying that in full color it might induce a seizure to an unsuspecting epileptic.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.34.00-AM.png?fit=1200%2C704&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5619,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/07\/29\/the-57-steelers-and-their-colorful-chain-smoking-coach\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":5},"title":"The ’57 Steelers and their colorful, chain-smoking coach","date":"July 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The 1957 Steelers entered training camp as a lousy team, but new coach Buddy Parker was determined to make winners out of losers, even if he had to resort to fisticuffs.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Digs.TumblrHTY_buddyparker006.jpg?fit=1080%2C870&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4609,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/4609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}