Selected a captain for perhaps the last time, Steelers DE Cam Heyward wants to prove doubters wrong

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Selected a captain for perhaps the last time, Steelers DE Cam Heyward wants to prove doubters wrong

2024-09-03 03:57 Last Updated At：04:00

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Cam Heyward is running out of time in his playing career. No one is more acutely aware of that than the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle.

There aren't many players who stick around 14 years as Heyward has. Even fewer who have done it while playing one of the most physically demanding jobs on the field. And even fewer still have been selected a captain 10 times, as Heyward was on Monday.

It's an honor Heyward doesn't take for granted. That's simply not his way, especially not following an offseason that has seen the NFL's reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year deal with the kind of uncertainty he's been able to avoid.

The 35-year-old endured an injury-filled 2023 in which he admittedly was far from his best. He's also entering the final season of his contract, and while Heyward says he wants to keep playing, there's a chance that whatever comes next might not happen in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers as a general rule don't negotiate contracts during the season, meaning the deadline for the team to work something out with the six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro is fast approaching ahead of Sunday's opener in Atlanta.

While Heyward avoided any unnecessary drama during training camp by opting to not hold out (or the increasingly popular hold-in for that matter) and has repeatedly stressed he wants to retire in Pittsburgh, in some ways the decision is out of his hands.

If it happens, great. If not, his goals for 2024 will not change in the slightest. The Steelers have yet to reach a Super Bowl with his familiar No. 97 in the lineup, and he's heard the doubters who believe he's washed.

“I’ve had to eat (criticism) and absorb it,” Heyward said. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, but I want to make their opinion wrong, and I think I just look forward to playing good football.”

If Pittsburgh wants to end a playoff victory drought that stretches back to 2016, Heyward needs to resemble the disruptive force he was until he tweaked a groin injury in last year's opener against San Francisco. He underwent surgery and made his way back by midseason, but he wasn't the same.

Heyward finished with just two sacks — his lowest in a season since becoming a starter in 2013 — and struggled to generate the power necessary to fend off the double teams that are a part of the gig when you play along the interior defensive line.

He believes he's in a better place as 2024 begins, and doesn't need to be reminded about the lone hole on his resume.

“I kind of laugh when people say, ‘Oh, this guy deserves to win a Super Bowl or anything,’” he said. “The only way you deserve it is you earn it, and so that’s always been my motto and for the guys in the locker room, we got to earn it week in and week out."

Pittsburgh's best hope of earning it this season is having a defense that includes stars at every level — from Heyward to linebacker T.J. Watt to safety Minkah Fitzpatrick — complement a new-look offense led by Russell Wilson, who like Heyward, Watt and special teams ace Miles Killebrew was selected as a captain for the 2024 season.

Heyward served as one of the chief recruiters who helped lure Wilson to the Steelers after two largely forgettable years in Denver. The two FaceTimed shortly after Pittsburgh's courtship of Wilson began, with Heyward sharing what it means to play for one of the most storied franchises in the league.

“I think he understood the history that was already set before here, and then the challenge that comes along with being a Pittsburgh Steeler because you’re not just playing for the guys in here, you’re playing for the guys who’ve already played before,” Heyward said. “So I think he really aligned with that.”

It's something that Heyward has understood from the moment the Steelers drafted him in the first round in 2011. He was born in Pittsburgh, where his father, former NFL fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, starred in college.

There have been few Steelers since the turn of the millennium that have taken playing in the city to heart more than Heyward, which makes the idea of him playing elsewhere so odd.

Yet it remains a possibility, at least at the moment. Heyward is doing his best to tune out the business side of things. In some ways, that is out of his control. All he can do at the moment is what he's done for a decade-plus: be a leader on the field and in the locker room.

Only three players in franchise history have been selected a captain by their teammates 10 times: Ben Roethlisberger, former guard Sam Davis and Heyward. It's heady company to be sure, something he doesn't take for granted.

“It’s an honor to be selected to represent a group of men, but one, it’s not just me walking around in front of a podium (to talk to the media),” he said. “It’s listening to the guys being an extension (of them) and trying to represent them as much as possible.”

Even if this time might very well be the last time.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Rising floodwaters trigger evacuations in Czech Republic and Poland

2024-09-15 18:37 Last Updated At：18:41

PRAGUE (AP) — Another night of torrential rains pounding Central Europe forced massive evacuations in the hardest hit areas in the Czech Republic, where floods reached extreme levels on Sunday.

Meteorologists have warned the situation still might get worse as waters in most rivers are rising, the flood wave made its way through the country and more heavy rains could return overnight.

Authorities declared the highest flood warnings in almost 90 places across the country and in two northeastern regions that recorded the biggest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.

In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of some 56,000 have been asked to leave their homes for higher ground. Rescuers used boats to transport people to safety in a neighborhood flooded by the raging Opava River.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told the Czech public radio. He said the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century.”

“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told the Czech public television Sunday. His government was to possibly meet Monday to assess the damages.

Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov and Cesky Tesin. The Oder River that flows to Poland was expected to reach extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and later in Bohumin.

Towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, were inundated and isolated by raging waters that turned roads into rivers. The military sent a helicopter to help with evacuations.

Four people who were swept away by waters were missing, police said.

About 260,000 households were without power Sunday morning in the entire country while traffic was halted on many roads, including the major D1 highway.

A firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria Dietmar Fahrafellner told reporters on Sunday.

Authorities declared the entire state of Lower Austria a disaster zone. The situation remains tense, especially at the water reservoir of Ottenstein, which is expected to reach its maximum capacity on Sunday.

In Poland, one person was presumed dead in floods in the southwest, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.

Tusk said the situation was “dramatic” around the town of Klodzko, with some 25,000 residents, located in a valley in the Sudetes mountains near the border with the Czech Republic.

In Glucholazy, rising waters overflowed a river embankment and flooded streets and houses. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said, “we are drowning” and appealed to residents to evacuate to high ground.

Energy supplies and communications were cut off in some flooded areas and regions may resort to using the satellite-based Starlink service, Tusk said.

Several Central European nations have been hit by severe flooding, including Romania, where four people had died, as well as Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, as a result of a low-pressure system from northern Italy dumping heavy rainfall in the wide region.

The weather change arrived following a hot start to September in the region, including in Romania. Scientists have documented Earth’s hottest summer, breaking a record set just a year ago.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-caused climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.

Associated Press writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland and video journalist Philipp-Moritz Jenne in Vienna contributed to this report.

Selected a captain for perhaps the last time, Steelers DE Cam Heyward wants to prove doubters wrong

Sport

Selected a captain for perhaps the last time, Steelers DE Cam Heyward wants to prove doubters wrong

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