Ike Taylor Gives Disturbing Details About The Steelers Defense Mentality

Former Steeler defensive back, Ike Taylor, revealed disturbing details about the mindset of Steeler linebackers on “Lights Out Podcast.”

Everyone knows the saying “defense wins championships”, but according to Ike Taylor, a former defensive back for the Pittsburgh Steelers said in Lights Out Podcast that the Steelers linebackers were “brainwashed.”

“If you play linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, your whole mindset is run through a brick wall and not think twice about it. We loved coming to the sideline and saying, ‘I got a body.’ That was the whole thing in Pittsburgh when I was playing, put a body on the resume.” Taylor said in the podcast. “My linebackers felt knocking someone out was better than catching the interception. I need you to take the soul out of another grown man. That was the motto in the locker room.”

Taylor’s statements about his run with the Steeler’s stance on defense. Recently, Fansided reported the Steeler owner Art Rooney ll was prioritizing a contract extension for T.J Watt of the Steelers.  

Steeler Mindset Doing More Damage Than Good?

While on the surface level, Taylor’s time with the Steelers showed that the team at the time went hard on defense, but going deeper into the NFL’s history with brain damage paints a different picture.

Two well-known members of the Steelers defense during the early 2000s.

Justin Strzelczyk complained of depression and behaving erratically, before dying in a car crash in 2004.

Steeler Terry Long also tragically died, after taking his own life by drinking antifreeze. Both Long’s and Strzelczyk’s brains were submitted for study.

Dr. Bennet Omalu, the doctor who studied Long’s brain, found that retired national football players are likely to have long-term neurodegenerative outcomes due to repeated mild traumatic brain injury. Dr. Omalu published his study shortly after Long’s death.

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