Let's get to it:
MICHAEL VELLUCCI FROM ATCO, NJ: Could you possibly give an answer as to why the Steelers logo is only on one side of the helmet ? I'm guessing there is some kind of back story.
ANSWER: In 1948, helmet logos became much more visible around the NFL when the Los Angeles Rams allowed running back Fred Gehrke, an art major at the University of Utah, to paint horns on their helmets – mainly because he offered to do it for free. The Steelers of that era featured each player's jersey number on both sides of a gold helmet, but things changed in 1962. Founder Art Rooney Sr. was approached by Republic Steel, headquartered in Cleveland, and offered the Steelmark as a helmet logo. When the first batch arrived, Rooney wasn't certain they looked all that good on a solid gold helmet. Equipment manager Jackie Hart was instructed to put them only on one side of the helmet as a visual test. The 1962 Steelers finished 9-5 to become the winningest team in franchise history and qualified for the Playoff Bowl, which was a postseason exhibition pitting the second-place teams from each of the NFL's two conferences. Wanting to commemorate his franchise's success, Rooney had his team switch to black helmets for the Playoff Bowl. They ended up liking how the logo popped against a dark background. The logos had been put on just the one side of the gold helmet as a test initially, and so when the switch was made to black the logo still was only on one side of the helmet. They liked the look, and it became permanent.
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MIKE REIBMAN FROM MERRICK, NY: Obviously, in the case of lightning, the game is delayed for safety reasons. In the case of the Steelers-Cowboys game on Oct. 6, that was about a 90-minute delay. How does this affect the players? On the TV broadcast, they even showed carts of food being sent to the locker rooms, which I thought was a little odd. Can you shed some light on this whole scenario and how it affects players?
ANSWER: Here is how Coach Mike Tomlin explained it:
"We have no control over the length of time that the delay is. I really focus my energies on how we bring them out of the delay. And so a lot of strategic things have been done with our strength staff and our nutrition staff and our training staff as to determine what's the best means of going about warming them back up, how long that should take, without doing too much in terms of burning useful fuel. The extended periods of time, it's just like an extended halftime of a Super Bowl. It's unique. There are certain processes that you go through in terms of getting them ready for action, and how much time it lasts is less relevant. Guys oftentimes get what they need, communicate regarding schematic strategy, listen to music, etc. It's handled different ways by different people, individually."
As for food: "We always have food in the locker room, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, things of that nature. Fuel-like food. That's just a regular component of our everyday existence in 2024."
GARY HETZEL FROM CALLAHAN, FL: What happened to the "SNR Live" option in the app? How am I going to survive without hearing Craig Wolfley say "trickeration" or "habeus grabus" over and over and over again on Sunday?
ANSWER: Steelers live game day audio includes pregame and postgame programming. User can listen to pregame and postgame programming from anywhere in the world on Steelers.com. NFL geographical restrictions apply to the game broadcast stream for both desktop and mobile web users. This means that the audio game broadcast is restricted to only those in the NFL-defined Pittsburgh Home Marketing Area, which is a 75 mile radius around Downtown Pittsburgh, plus our International Home Marketing Countries of Mexico and Ireland. Hope that helps.
JOHN MARKOSKI FROM PHOENIX, AZ: I seem to have lost the SNR Steelers Nation Radio app on my phone. Are they making changes or what happened? I always use it because they usually don't show the Steelers on TV here, plus I like our announcers better than the ones on TV.
ANSWER: See the above submission.
GISELA COLAIUTA WOODLAND HILLS, CA What type of gum does special teams coach Danny Smith chew, and how many pieces per game?
ANSWER: That would be Dubble Bubble, and I can't count that high.
ANDREW ROWLEY FROM PITTSBURGH, PA: In regard to the crew of officials assigned any given Sunday, how are they determined for each game? Are they expected to travel to multiple locations, or do they get assigned to a singular stadium/team? Also, how are neutral site/international/playoff game crews assigned?
ANSWER: All of that is handled by the NFL. Crews are assigned games each week, but not one at a time, by the league office. The crews travel to the site of each game together, stay in the same hotel, are taken to the stadium together. NFL crews don't work geographical parts of the country. They go wherever the NFL sends them, even when it's overseas for an International Game.
RON TAYLOR FROM WEST POINT, IN: There are 10 players on the reserve/injured list and 1 player on the designated to return list. What are the rules? Is there any chance we see any of the 10 players not designated to return again this year?
ANSWER: OK. You asked for injured reserve list rules, and these would be them, according to The Associated Press:
"Players are put on the reserve/injured list — more commonly referred to as IR — when they have a football-related injury and need to miss at least a few weeks. Players on IR don't count against the active roster, but their salaries count against the cap.
"If a player is placed on this list before the regular season begins, he could miss the entire season unless — per a rules adjustment this year — they are designated to return during the roster cutdown to 53 players after training camp. Teams can designate up to two such players to return.
"Players on IR need to miss a minimum of four games. NFL teams can designate up to eight players to return from IR during the regular season (and up to 10 if they make the postseason) and an individual player can be so designated twice.
"Players designated for return from IR before the season count against a team's eight- or 10-player limit.
"When a player is cleared to practice, a 21-day window begins and the player must be activated to the 53-man roster or be placed on season-ending injured reserve at the conclusion of that three-week period. They could also be released or traded."
TOM McGREEVEY FROM DURHAM, NC: During the NBC telecast of Steelers-Cowboys on Oct. 6, Cris Collinsworth showed the Dallas wide receiver running from right to left just inside the goal line on the winning TD. With the ball spotted on the 4-yard line, his route was within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. Could the Steelers defensive back use his hands to push him back into the field of play?
ANSWER: Coach Mike Tomlin explained the applicable rule: "You get one continuous contact inside of 5 yards. And so if (Jalen Tolbert) was chucked at the line of scrimmage, that constitutes one contact. Whatever contact you get is one continual contact inside of 5 yards. And so certainly he was eligible to be rerouted, disrupted in some way, but that's the strict letter of the language: one continuous chuck inside of 5 yards."
As for the possibility of a defender pushing him all the way across the field, Tomlin said, "If it was continuous. But I don't know that that's a realistic conversation, that you're going to maintain continuous contact with someone going across the football field."
