Steelers Wild Locker Room Brawl In 2000 Cleared The Air And Galvanized The Team

The Pittsburgh Steelers stopped playing at Three Rivers Stadium in the 2000. The stadium was home to four World Championship football teams and the Immaculate Reception. Pittsburgh won its last home game on Saturday, December 16, 2000 to send the stadium off properly. It was a solid finish after an extremely shaky start to the 2000 season.

The 2000 Steelers were in disarray. They had posted back-to-back losing seasons and had been mired in a deep funk since the infamous coin toss incident in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day in 1998. The Steelers were stuck in a 6-14 quagmire and Bill Cowher was experimenting with Mike Tomczak and Kent Graham in place of the inconsistent, Kordell Stewart.

The team was in a bad place mentally during the minicamp before the season and it really came to light on June 7, 2000. A wild fight broke out in the Steelers’ locker room. Ed Bouchette, who had covered the Steelers since 1985, described the scene in an article for The Athletic in 2019.

“The moment linebacker Jason Gildon picked up his wooden chair and began swinging it around the locker room,” Bouchette wrote. “I scooted to a safer place. That brawl spread all over the locker room and involved countless Steelers players. Would have otherwise been lost to history if it weren’t for three or four writers who were in there at the time the whole place erupted. There were no cameras, or else they’d still be showing it on YouTube.”

Virtually every moment of interviews in the locker rooms is recorded in 2023. Social media has changed the way sports are covered over the last decade. It is hard to envision a shoving match going unnoticed in the current environment. A locker room brawl in 2023 could result in criminal charges and would dominate the news cycle. The Steelers’ former punte,r Josh Miller, shared his memory of the incident with Bouchette.

“If that was HBO following us, oh my God” Miller said. “Hard Knocks? There’s no doubt, that would be a classic. They would play that all the time.”

Bouchette recalls that the donnybrook began when Earl Holmes and Richard Huntley engaged in a heated fight on the practice field. Practice field incidents happen in football all the time and usually are quickly forgiven by teammates. The Steelers’ long-time beat writer detailed that the incident was far from over.

“Three writers asked Huntley what happened on the field between him and Holmes,” Bouchette shares. “Huntley said it was over and done. Holmes burst through the reporters and screamed at Huntley ‘You want a piece of Big E?’ then picked up a wooden stool. Huntley hollered, ‘Put the chair down and come get some.’ That is when all hell broke loose. Other players joined the fray, some trying to break it up, others to get involved.”

Cowher’s seat was already warm after two losing seasons and if the brawl was captured on video, even the patience of Dan Rooney would likely have been exhausted by the incident. Wayne Gandy, who played tackle for the 2000 team, shared his memories with Bouchette.

“This had been building up for a while,” said Gandy. “It was classic, old-school football. When the line has been drawn too deep in the sand, it’s inevitably going to happen. What made it worse was the others joining in. The linebackers see themselves as the top group of the whole team. If Earl is going to fight, that means Levon Kirkland is going to get in or Joey Porter. Mike Vrabel would have been like a referee.”

The Steelers linebackers have been a volatile group for decades. Holmes and Gildon’s explosive reactions followed in the footsteps of ill-tempered legends like Greg Lloyd and Jack Lambert. The running back group was not quick to leap to the defense of Huntley. The Bill Nunn Jr. award-winning writer spoke to an unfortunate peacemaker who tried to intervene for his fellow running back.

“It was like the WWF,” Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala remembered. “I just wish it was fake like the WWF. I got hit, but I don’t know who hit me.”

No one was seriously injured in the fracas and Cowher elected not to fine anyone over the incident. The Steelers Head Coach read his team correctly and the incident seemed to galvanize them. The Steelers would post a winning record in 2000 for the first time in two seasons.

“It actually brought the team closer,” Miller said. “I know that sounds ridiculous and impossible. People say if you had such great leadership in the room, why would that happen? But it almost had to. You understood it, it happened, and it actually brought us closer together.”

Steelers Cameron Heyward And TJ Watt Involved In Fierce Fighting On Day 2 Of Training Camp

Modern players still engage in the practice field fighting. The Steelers are not immune to it and last season Cameron Heyward and TJ Watt were involved in fights at training camp. In 2000, a massive locker room brawl brought a team together and galvanized a core of stars who would deliver playoff wins and a Super Bowl.

In 2023, the same incident would deliver suspensions, coaching changes and players likely demanding trades. Football culture has significantly shifted and fights between devalued positions like inside linebackers and running backs today might even result in outright release.

Modern players don’t swing chairs. They use snarky comments on social media, publicists and if they think they can get away with it, helmets. When they get caught, they make up baseless accusations to justify bad behavior, just ask the Cleveland Browns.

What do you think Steeler Nation? What would happen in 2023 if a locker room brawl was caught on camera? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.

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