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Steelers’ Ryan Clark relieved he’s sitting out
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Ryan Clark sat down in Mike Tomlin’s office and did something a little out of character for the normally verbose Pittsburgh Steelers safety. He listened.
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH
Ryan Clark sat down in Mike Tomlin’s office and did something a little out of character for the normally verbose Pittsburgh Steelers safety. He listened.
And when Tomlin told Clark he couldn’t play in Sunday’s wild card game at Denver because of a sickle-cell trait that becomes aggravated when playing at higher elevations, Clark just shrugged his shoulders and nodded.
“I said ‘OK coach,”’ Clark said Wednesday. “It wasn’t any fight ... does he seem like a man who changes his mind anyway? I knew there wasn’t going to be any changing in that.”
And for that, Clark is grateful. If given the choice, Clark would give it a shot even when faced with potentially dire consequences.
“Y’all have seen me play, I run into people all the time, so clearly I’m not that bright,” Clark told reporters with a laugh.
He’s kidding. Clark knows what’s at stake.
He nearly died the last time he played in Denver, when the then-undiagnosed condition flared up and he ended up having his gall bladder and spleen removed in addition to losing 30 pounds.
Doctors cleared Clark to play this weekend but didn’t make any guarantees. That’s all Tomlin needed to hear.
“They couldn’t tell me 100 percent that ‘Nothing is going to happen to you, you’re going to play and you’re going to be fine’ and I think that 1 percent chance was enough for Coach Tomlin to take it out of my hands,” Clark said.
Tomlin told Clark that if Tomlin’s son Dino was in the same situation, he wouldn’t let him play, the kind of blunt assessment that Clark has grown to appreciate during Tomlin’s five years on the job.
“I think either way is a difficult situation,” Clark said. “Not to play with your teammates is a tough situation but to have to wonder after every play if you’re going to be all right is also a stressful situation.”
Instead Clark will watch in street clothes as Ryan Mundy steps in. Mundy has played well when called upon this season, collecting the first interception of his career in a 13-9 win at Kansas City on Nov. 27 and even catching a pass on a fake punt in a victory over Tennessee.
While not as quick as Clark, the 6-foot-1, 209-pound Mundy makes up for it with his size. He’s been a special teams ace for most of his career, though Tomlin has called Mundy “starter capable.”
So does Clark, just hopefully not until somewhere around 2013 or 2014.
“I tell him all the time I just need two more years to pay off this house in Baton Rouge and he can have the position,” Clark said. “He’s going to be a guy that’s going to play in this league for a very long time.”
Mundy made two spot starts for Troy Polamalu in 2010 but understands the stakes will be significantly higher this time around. At 26, the former West Virginia standout thinks he’s mature enough to handle the pressure.
“It’s the playoffs, and it’s a big deal,” Mundy said. “So, you don’t want to overlook that, but at the same time you don’t want to get your head up in the clouds too much or lose focus of the task at hand.”