Plenty will be made of the fact brothers Terrell, Trey and Tremaine Edmunds will take the field Sunday in primetime at Heinz Field when the Steelers face the Bills.
Just two brothers sharing the field is rare but not unprecedented. For these Steelers, it happens weekly with Terrell and Trey. But throw in a third like Tremaine, on the other side of the ball, and it becomes historic. It hasn't happened since 1927, when Bill, Cobb and Joe Rooney all suited up for the Duluth Eskimos.
Yes. The Duluth Eskimos. It's been a while.
"To be able to go into history as the second set [of three brothers in the same game] is crazy," Terrell was saying at his locker Wednesday at the Rooney Complex ahead of the matchup.
The storyline itself is fascinating, especially since there's a chance Trey, a running back, and Tremaine, a linebacker for the Bills, will literally go head-to-head. Maybe Tremaine will have to tackle Trey on a carry. Maybe Trey will have to block Tremaine on a blitz.
Either way, Trey will be ready.
"Oh, yeah, I'm definitely going to do that," Trey was saying Wednesday at the Rooney Complex. "That's my job, and I'm sure he's going to try to run through me. That's his job. So when it comes, when that whistle blows, it's all competition at that point. You know, it's love, but it's still competition."
Tremaine knows that, too. But he also acknowledges the sibling rivalry at play.
"I think the easiest way to put it, I guess, is bragging rights," Tremaine recently told the Associated Press. "Every time we step foot and do something, the only goal in our mind is to win. And nothing's going to change on Sunday."
While that history above says the odds of three brothers suiting up on the same field on Sunday are slim, the Edmunds trio fully expected this to happen. There wasn't a question of "if" they'd do it. It was only a matter of when and how.
"Absolutely. Every single day," Trey said. "Going through high school, college and now. Just being able to actually see it happen right now is huge. You think about it and you dream about it, but you don't really ever know if it's actually going to happen. But now we're a couple days away from it, and we're excited."
"We talked about it, that one day we were all going to be in the NFL," Terrell added. "And we’d say we were going to play on the same team. Now that Trey and I have accomplished that, now we’re all going to be on the same field together. It will be crazy. I’ll have my fam down there before the game to take a picture right before the game warming up and then we’ll go out and perform."
There's more here: That Trey was always the biggest, baddest, older brother of the three — until Terrell and Tremaine hit their growth spurts around 10th and 11th grade and started to catch up to big bro.
"Trey would definitely win when we were kids," Terrell confirmed.
That mom and dad, Felicia and Ferrell (himself a 6-foot-6 former NFL tight end) will have to pick a side to cheer for on Sunday ... or play it down the middle.
"It is iconic. It's spectacular. It's amazing. It's a blissful event," Felicia told the Associated Press.
"I'm sure they've been preparing this whole year [for this game] just like we have, so I know they have a couple tricks up their sleeves as far as what they're going to wear, when they're going to cheer for which team," Trey added.
But in the end, you talk about family and you focus on that dynamic ... then you look around this Steelers locker room.
There's T.J. Watt tucked away in a corner, scrolling through his phone, possibly texting or tweeting one of his own brothers — Derek or J.J. You already know their story and their success in the NFL.
"We grew up in the same household our whole lives and we've been supporting each other from day one," Watt was telling me Wednesday. "I think more than anything, we're just really proud of each other and no one wants to see us succeed more than each other. I think that's what makes it so special."
There's Devin Bush with a phone to his ear, chatting, possibly with his dad, Devin, Sr., himself a first-round draft pick out of Florida State who won a Super Bowl with the Rams in the 1999 NFL season.
"I talk to him on a daily basis," Bush was telling me Wednesday. "Honestly, we just talk football and life. He's done it before. He was drafted [in the] first round and he did everything I'm going through right now ... Anything that will come up, I can talk with him about anything."
Directly across the room from Bush is Robert Spillane, grandson of former Steeler and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner.
“It was really special, just walking into the locker room, seeing ‘Spillane, 41,'” Spillane was telling me after being activated to the Steelers' 53-man roster in November. “I could kind of picture my grandfather walking into his locker, seeing ‘Lattner, 41’ with the Steelers; when was that, 1954? So, a long, long time ago. [But] just his presence and knowing that he’s looking down proud of me, proud of my family, proud of how far I’ve come … I’m really happy.”
You've probably heard of Cam Heyward's father too. Or Maurkice Pouncey's brother.
Add it all together, and it starts to take shape. You can pick out family ties all over this Steelers locker room, and you can track that type of bond all the way to the top with Steelers ownership, the Rooney family. It just might be the reason this team, despite starting 1-4, despite losing Ben Roethlisberger, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Conner and more to various injuries throughout the season, currently sits at 8-5 and is in control of its playoff destiny.
They're playing together and for each other.
"We’re all friends off the field as well. It’s just like a brotherhood, man, and I hope I’m here for a long time with these guys," is how Steven Nelson put it after the Steelers' recent victory over the Browns at Heinz Field.
Minkah Fitzpatrick had his own take:
“Yeah, I felt that for sure,” Fitzpatrick was telling me of the team's chemistry and camaraderie back in early November. “I think there’s not a lot of ego in this locker room. There’s a lot of places where you go and there’s a whole lot of ego that kind of interferes with the camaraderie and just the overall well-being and morale of the team. I got here, and there’s no ego. If there’s any ego, they get checked quick and humbled quick. That’s it.”
Prefer visual, in-practice representations?
Check this out.
Wednesday, despite the frigid winds whipping around the practice field at the Rooney Complex, I could hear the commotion — laughter, cheering, yelling. I made my way across the field, where defensive lineman and outside linebackers were working through the drill below.
Here's how it's supposed to look (except you're supposed to land on the pad, Mr. Heyward):
And here was Watt taking his turn moments later, again with sound so you get the full effect:
See what I mean? It's fun and engaging, a group of men bonded through football and through a quest for greatness. They'll compete with one another, of course. On his next rep, Heyward, like Watt, elected to run with the pad instead of tackling it — only he hammed it up even more for dramatic effect. Couldn't let the young man one-up him, of course.
Then there's Mike Tomlin. Silently patrolling the field, observing. Then not-so-silently barking instructions. Or encouragement. Or corrections. He's there on the field and in the locker room, part coach and leader, part friend. He's not like the team's dad so much as he's the stern-but-fun uncle, as players have put it. They'll feel comfortable around him, but they know the score: Show up late and you'll hear about it. Miss an assignment? Get ready for the storm.
Tomlin's presence is felt throughout that locker room as he sits and talks with players post-practice or as he's yelling "Benny Snell Football!" after a Steelers win in an effort to hype up his young, upcoming rookie running back.
You get the feeling Tomlin's connecting with these players on a deeper level, that he's letting them know he's there. Everywhere. For anything they need.
It feels a lot like family.
