Steelers’ Hoke ready to embrace retirement
Associated Press
Pittsburgh
Chris Hoke spent 11 seasons carving out a niche as one of the best backup nose tackles in football, winning over coaches with his work ethic and his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates with his affability.
Even better, he did it while staying relatively injury free, remarkable considering his position. Yet when a neck injury sustained early in the 2011 season lingered and doctors told him surgery was required to fix the problem, he figured his time was up.
“I think the man upstairs was trying to talk to me,” Hoke said.
He briefly considered attempting a comeback but thought better of it when warned of the risk of re-injury.
“I could have tried, but to me that wasn’t responsible,” Hoke said. “That was doing my family a disservice.”
The way Hoke looks at it, his wife, Jaimee, and their four kids had already put up with enough, sticking with him early in his career as he struggled to stay on with the Steelers after getting picked up as an undrafted free agent out of BYU in 2001.
Hoke spent three seasons hanging by a thread, convinced defensive line coach John Mitchell hated him. Turns out, Hoke was wrong.
“He breaks you down then he builds you up into what the Steelers want you to be,” Hoke said. “You think this guy doesn’t like me at all [but] he sees the potential in you. He’s building you up.”
Hoke finally caught on in 2004, filling in capably when Casey Hampton went down with a knee injury early in the season, posting a career high with 24 tackles in 14 games while helping Pittsburgh to a league-best 15-1 record.
The Steelers rarely lost when Hoke started, going 17-1 when Hoke’s No. 76 was in the huddle on the first defensive series. Though he knows he could have gone elsewhere to compete for a starting spot, Hoke was content to remain in Pittsburgh as part of a core group that’s made the Steelers one of the league’s best defenses over the last decade.