On Wednesday during his podcast, Not Just Football with Cam Heyward, the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle shared Christmas stories with his co-host Hayden Walsh. One of the best stories of the episode was the Steelers' defensive unit’s white elephant party.
Photo Credit: Not Just Football
In case a white elephant is new to you, the way it works is the first person chooses and unwraps a gift, and the next person can either choose to open a new gift or steal any of the gifts that came before them. This means the last person in the group to pick is the most advantageous.
Steelers Heyward’s Gift For Larry Ogunjobi Is Top Tier
Heyward says every year the Steelers' defensive line and outside linebackers have done a secret Santa. They decided to switch it up to a white elephant this year. Heyward knew one of his teammates wanted a dog badly so he decided to get the puppy as a white elephant gift.
Unfortunately, the actual puppy did not arrive on time so he wrapped up an empty dog crate. The person who chose that gift initially was Malik Reed. He said Reed was a bit stumped on what to do, his wife is expecting soon and he didn’t think that bringing home a puppy would go over very well. He teased Reed, telling him he was stuck with it now but he knew that Larry Ogunjobi was going to take the puppy.
“He (Larry Ogunjobi) stole it from Malik Reed, it was a really good gift that ended up working out pretty well," Heyward noted.
Walsh expressed immediate concern over the notion of surprising someone with a dog.
“I was about to say you're getting somebody a dog like that, that's a gift that probably you need to talk to their significant other or at least whoever they live with right," Walsh questioned.
“It is a Bernese mountain dog, it was 12 weeks old, but man 12 weeks old for Bernese, those things are humongous," Heyward exclaimed.
He said that Ogunjobi and Heyward had talked previously about the kind of dog he wanted so he knew what to get. Heyward said that at first, he was going to get a red lab puppy for T.J. Watt because that is the kind of dog he wanted. But Watt discussed it with his wife and she said they needed to wait until the off-season at least. Walsh asked Heyward about the other kinds of gifts that were given, the pictures have been plastered all over social media.
“I personally got a huge, fat scooter that looks like a motorcycle almost. It's really freaking cool so it's at the facility right now. I got to figure out a way to get it home, but man it's gonna be a fun little toy for me to play with. I'm looking forward to that," Heyward said.
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle, Cam Heyward (#97) participates in 2022 training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (Twitter: @JSKO_PHOTO)
Heyward said the defensive backs had their white elephant and he said he couldn’t recall who got the gift but someone got a little Bluetooth speaker and an electric toothbrush. For some of the best gifts, he said there were Trager grills, iPads, MacBooks and a poker table with a cocktail machine. Walsh then asked him who the best gift giver he ever played with was, and without hesitating Heyward responded Tyson Alulu.
“Well, last year we didn't do white elephant, we just did Secret Santa so you just had to find a gift. And for me, he got me a turbo man from jingle all the way. Then he was like ‘oh your other gifts downstairs you have to go grab it' and so I go downstairs, this dude got me a freaking golf cart! I was not ready for that," Heyward said.
Heyward declined to name the worst gift-giver on the team but was happy to throw some former players under the golf cart.
“In years past we've had some really bad ones, Dan McCullers and Isaiah Buggs. One year Dan (McCullers) got Tyson (Alulu) like it was a Polaroid camera from Walmart and then it wasn't even wrapped, it was still in like the bag and just like he tried to tie it tight. Then like Buggs a couple of years ago he got this guy shoes but then didn't even meet the minimum of what we were saying everybody had to spend. So we were like it just ruined the secret Santa for some guys. We always had to pick up the slack when it came to that," Heyward said.
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman, Larry Ogunjobi (#65) participates in the 2022 training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. | Photo Credit: Twitter: @JSKO_PHOTO
Scooter or no scooter, it sounds like Ogunjobi got the best gift this year! What gift would you give if you were on the Steelers' defense? Comment below.
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