WILL GAY KNOWS ...Jim Wexell
Publisher SteelCityInsider.net
May 28, 2015
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.. what it will take to get the Steelers' secondary back on track.PITTSBURGH -- Will Gay's been around, seen some things, so it's not just the sound of his voice that makes him come off as a wise, old man.
No, Will Gay knows. For one he knows rookies and how they must mix the art of survival with the art of making plays in the preseason.
When Gay was a fifth-round draft pick in 2007, he stood out in that year's Hall of Fame game. After which, a reporter asked first-year coach Mike Tomlin about Gay's stellar performance. Tomlin shook his head and scolded the questioner by saying, "William Gay's just trying to survive!"
But, that's exactly what he did.
"That's what it is," Gay said almost eight years later. "I mean, I think I was in the fourth rotation, maybe the fifth. In that game I think only like three groups played and then coach all of the sudden said in the fourth quarter, 'Get out there.' I told myself I gotta do something to make them give me more reps next week. I was blessed enough to get a pick and I forced a fumble, and I got moved up to the third group.
"It's all about trying to prove yourself. (Tomlin) told me later on, 'Man, I was thinking about putting you on the practice squad and developing you but you forced my hand.'"
Of course, Gay did survive and he's become the Pittsburgh Steelers' No. 1 cornerback.
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