A phone call made by Mark Mullen helped shape Keeanu Benton's future.
The former wrestling coach at Craig High School in Wisconsin saw a state contender in the heavyweight class go nearly unnoticed in the football scene.
That is, until Chris McIntosh answered Mullen's call.
Mullen convinced the then-Deputy Athletic Director and former All-American tackle at Wisconsin to take the 45-minute trip south from Madison to Janesville, Wis., to see who Mullen considered having "more talent than anyone I've ever seen."
That trip changed the course of history. All it took were a couple pullings-of-the-strings and, perhaps, a name-drop of former Steeler Donnel Thompson, who played football at Wisconsin but was coached by Mullen as a football player at Madison West High School in the 1990s.
"I told him that Keeanu has gotten more athletic than Donnel Thompson, and he was like, 'how do you know Donny?'" Mullen told me this week. "And I'm like, 'I was lucky enough to coach him, too,' and I said they're in my top three of the best athletes (I've coached) all-time, and Keeanu's number one. He's quite a bit more athletic than Donnel. And he's like, 'there's no freaking way, coach.' And I'm like, 'seriously, I want him to go be a Badger. You guys better come get him because someone else is going to pick him up.'"
Benton made his way to a Wisconsin football practice and, later that same night, had an offer to play football at Wisconsin.
Before the 21-year-old had a productive, four-year career at Wisconsin and became a second-round pick of the Steelers, Benton was competing at a state championship level on the wrestling mat. He reached the WIAA Division I state championship match in each of his junior and senior years, but came up short both times. Mullen considered Benton's loss in the championship in his senior year as "probably one of the biggest upsets in a long time" and that Benton would have won that match "98, 99 times out of 100."
Benton achieved a a 127-8 record over his four years as a wrestler at Craig High School, and qualified for the state tournament three times.
As a freshman, Benton was, as Mullen says, a "raw talent" and was getting rolled by a senior teammate in practices. He traveled to a tournament at Christmastime, only for that teammate to break his wrist and prompt a young Benton to be thrown right into the fire.
He continued to wrestle as Craig's heavyweight horse from that point, and a victory scored over a rival in a February tournament gave Mullen all he needed to see.
"When he won that match, I think his confidence skyrocketed," Mullen said. "By his sophomore year, he was kind of like he is now: A team leader, guy like that ... He was the leader. He was a big leader about pushing people and his personality. He helped motivate a lot of the other kids about working hard, and the thing was, for him at practice, he did more of the conditioning and more lifting."
Benton began with the sport in the sixth grade, but became hooked on football in the eighth grade and began to pursue that. But, no matter how much he continued to blossom on the football field, everything went back to wrestling.
"Wrestling was just something I saw myself getting better at," Benton said at last weekend's Steelers rookie minicamp. "Went out for it, me and my best friend talking crap to each other, like, 'I can be a better wrestler.' It's just how it kind of drove our friendship. We both went out -- he didn't last too long -- but I fell in love with it. I stayed, sticking it out, seen myself getting better, and then started going out for football and seeing how football can connect with wrestling."
Benton is far from the first wrestling export to find his way to the NFL, and he is far from being the last.
Former Steeler Carlton Haselrig was a three-time NCAA Division I champion and a three-time NCAA Division II champion at Pitt-Johnstown and former New England offensive lineman Stephen Neal was a world freestyle champion in 1999 before continuing in football, to name a couple from a lengthy list.
"Wrestling helped me more with football, for sure," Benton said. "That's kind of why I wanted to do college football instead of wrestling. I felt like I could wrestle on the football field. I can underhook and throw somebody, I can slam people when I want to, and I also like to hit. I feel like you get the best of both worlds with football."
There are, obviously, the technical aspects like leverage, footwork, and hand placement, but Benton noted flexibility, conditioning, and the importance of learning how to win one-on-ones as important skills that translate between the two sports.
"It's winning your one-on-ones. Same with football," Benton said. "On the wrestling mat I feel like it's more of you can't blame anybody for what you're doing out there. It's your fault. You're going one-on-one. There's going to be a winner, there's going to be a loser, and I don't really like to lose. I think that translates over because you do have one-on-ones, you've got to win your one-on-one matchups in the NFL. I feel like that's a good thing, and then that competitive edge that wrestling gives you with conditioning. Practice is hard. Same with the meets. It makes the meets a little bit easier, but practice is hard. You're running around conditioning. No different from football."
Benton didn't exactly quit wrestling after he went to Wisconsin. He was known to take it upon himself to showcase some of the translatable skills from the wrestling mat that can be taken onto the football field. He had been known to bring wrestling into Badgers football practices and workouts, where he would call upon the outside linebackers and defensive linemen to partake in some wrestling-themed drills.
Nick Herbig, a former teammate of Benton's at Wisconsin and a fellow pick of the Steelers in this draft, was a benefactor of it.
Just don't expect him to lock up with Benton any time soon.
"It was more balance and changing levels and making sure you have good leverage on somebody and rolling your hips through," Herbig said. "That guy's a heck of a wrestler. I'd never mess with him ... I wouldn't want problems with him in wrestling. No way."
