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For decades, the Steelers and Giant Eagle have partnered on the kinds of things that have made people enjoy fall football weekends. This year, this partnership extends into a much larger area.
Starting next week, Giant Eagle Pharmacies will team up with the Steelers to use Heinz Field with the idea of getting the COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of as many people as possible.
“The Steelers have had a long relationship, a long partnership, with Giant Eagle that goes back decades now,” said Steelers President Art Rooney II, “and so when Giant Eagle Pharmacy wanted to open a vaccination site at Heinz Field we thought it was a great idea. A great opportunity to really help them serve the community, and so we’re excited to see that happening. “
The vaccination effort at Heinz Field will begin on Tuesday, March 2 and last for the entire week, and Rooney has said there will be additional days for the entire month of March.
“They need a big hall,” Rooney said. “They’re going to try to vaccinate thousands of people over the course of a week, so they need a big room to do that. Obviously, ample parking is available (around Heinz Field) at this time of year, so it’s really a perfect fit for Heinz Field and Giant Eagle at this point. “
Parking will be available in the Gold 1 lot, and the actual vaccinations will be administered at the PNC Champions Club. Vaccinations will be by appointment only, and eligible individuals can make an appointment by visiting GiantEagle.com.
“We’re going through some unusual times, to say the least,” Rooney said, “and so being able to help probably the most important thing we’re doing right now in this community, which is trying to do vaccinating everyone to give everyone that kind of protection, I really can’t think of anything more important that we could do now than partnering with Giant Eagle to do it. “
The vaccine distributed to Heinz Field will be the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and the injections will be administered by Giant Eagle pharmacists. Since the Pfizer vaccine requires two separate injections given 21 days apart, a follow-up appointment will be made to get the second injection.
As to how long Heinz Field is to be used as a vaccination site and how many people could be served there, Rooney said, “It all depends on the (vaccine) supply from Giant Eagle. I think it will go away. That’s what they have in mind here, but all we’ve been told so far is that next week Heinz Field will be scheduled for the whole week, and then we expect it to be. there will be additional weeks, but we don’t have details yet. “
PROGRESS ON BEN’S RETURN FOR 2021
On February 24, Rooney released a statement regarding a meeting he had with Ben Roethlisberger that day in which the player and the squad pledged to do something by contract to get him back for the season 2021.
“We’ve been in communication with Ben throughout the offseason, and we’ve made it clear that we would like him to come back, but we have to do something with the contract,” Rooney said. “We’re getting to that point now where the time is right. We have a better idea of where the salary cap is going to be, which is an important part of the decision. It just felt like it was time to s ‘sit down with Ben and have a good chat, make sure the lines of communication are open. We had a good, productive chat, and I assured him we’d love to see him again, and he assured me he wanted come back to play. And so we both let go of the idea that we had to try to sort something out on the contract. “
The first day of the league’s New Year for NFL teams is Wednesday, March 17, which is the opening of free agency and also when all teams must comply with the 2021 salary cap. That makes the 17th. March is the deadline for the Steelers and Roethlisberger to sort out something.
“Hopefully we’ll find something before that,” Rooney said, “but certainly if you mean there’s a tough deadline, March 17 would be it.
Rooney also explained that the decision and the work to be done on Roethlisberger from the start concerned his contract and its impact on the team’s salary cap. It was not a question of performance.
“We think Ben played at a high level last year,” Rooney said. “We won our division and set a franchise record for most consecutive wins to open a season, so there was a lot of good stuff. Ben was as disappointed as anyone with how it ended. The latter was just as disappointed as anyone. match is just hard to swallow, and I partly think Ben wants to come back and start again on a high note. We’re still convinced he has the ability to do it. His arm, I would say, is as strong or almost as strong. stronger than ever, so I think he’s definitely capable of doing the job. Part of the concern is putting a (competitive) team around him, and we’ve had a good discussion about that. We know that. There are still a lot of pieces in the puzzle that have yet to fall into place. season, and we’re working hard to get there. “
PREPARE THE 2021 PROJECT MISSING A LARGE PART
At first glance, this may seem like a repeat of last year, all of this gearing up for a project that will almost certainly be carried out virtually. But even though the NFL went through a lot last year, this year is different from last year, and not in a good way.
“It’s not like last year in the sense that we had the Combine last year,” Rooney said of 2020. “It’s really a key piece of the puzzle in terms of setting up. reviews and then we had a few pro days. I am a little more concerned about this year than I was last year. Last year everyone was talking about the project itself and doing it virtually , which was a challenge, but the most important part of the project is preparation. This year is going to be a much bigger challenge to get the information you would like to have, to be without Combine, to be with a limited number of Pro Days and not even sure that all schools will have Pro Days, besides dealing with players who chose not to participate in the 2020 (college) season. There are a lot more challenges in preparing for this stupid than last year. “
The Scouting Combine was invented as a way for NFL teams to acquire and share comprehensive medical information from 300 prospects, and although it has grown into a made-for-television event that is a revenue producer for the NFL and the City of Indianapolis, acquiring and sharing this medical information remains the most valuable part of the whole exercise.
“We’re still working on (how we’re going to acquire the medical information),” Rooney said. I’m concerned about what’s going to happen with physical exams and that sort of thing. It remains a bit of a question mark as we sit here today. “
Rooney was a little more optimistic that once the virtual project is over, the NFL may be able to return to something close to normal.
“As we sit here today our plan is to have a training camp in Latrobe. We still have a way to go to get there, but I think there is a very good chance that it could. happen, ”Rooney said. “We’re still hoping that we have some form of an off-season schedule, and it probably won’t start on time, but I think it’s important, especially for younger players, that we go back to an off-season schedule and then to a full schedule, training camp and preseason games. I think we need to have that to help young players continue to develop. “
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