PITTSBURGH — As the sun started to descend behind an overcast sky Saturday evening, the Pittsburgh Steelers put a poetic bow on a weeklong celebration of the city’s rich sports landscape.
With the final pick of their 10-man class, the Steelers selected versatile offensive weapon Eli Heidenreich, a Pittsburgh native who attended high school 7 miles from where his name was called in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL draft.
Wearing a new Steelers cap along with his service dress blues, the Navy product emerged from the hallway connecting the green room to the stage. He hugged NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and then twirled a Terrible Towel as he faced the crowd, which greeted him with a loud applause.
“I turned that corner, and you see the city skyline in the background, and then the crowd was 90% black and gold,” said Heidenreich, who was part of a small group of draft hopefuls invited to the green room on Day 3. “It was such a cool moment. Everything just came together.
“… I’m glad that this city got this publicity for the draft. I think people are finally starting to realize this city rocks. More people need to realize what goes down here. I think everything went right. For me to be able to go out there and contribute to that and be a part of this event was really special.”
A record 805,000 fans flooded Pittsburgh’s North Shore for the three-day draft. And while fans of all teams from across the country made the trip to Pittsburgh, the buzz around the city didn’t just come from that one event.
Like the city’s three rivers, a sports equinox converged in Pittsburgh over the last week as a hot Pirates team hosted a homestand — complete with a Paul Skenes bobblehead giveaway — the Penguins returned to the playoffs for the first time in three years and the Steelers prepared to celebrate their history and welcome their future.
In a perfect world, the Pirates would’ve swept the series, the Penguins would’ve continued on their offensive tear against the Flyers, and the Steelers would’ve landed their first-choice pick at No. 21 on Thursday night.
But this isn’t Hollywood. This is Pittsburgh. Still, it was a landmark week in the sports-obsessed city, even if it didn’t all go to plan.
This is the seven-day span through the eyes of those who were there.
The players
For a split second, Bubba Chandler panicked when he looked at the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ schedule.
The Pirates pitcher got the home and away color-coding mixed up and thought the Pirates were slated to host a series at the same time more than half a million people would gather in front of the NFL draft stage just blocks away from PNC Park.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, we have a home series this week. This is going to be terrible. Holy cow. This is going to be bad.’ But we’re away, which is great,'” he said a week ago, adding that he noticed traffic already picking up with the closed roads during draft preparation.
“… My drive’s been a lot longer to this field, which I don’t mind. Make some phone calls I wouldn’t normally make and listen to some more podcasts. There’s a nice buzz around the city, multiple things, but I think the draft’s good. A lot of small businesses are going to make a lot of money during this next week. And that’s really cool for the city and for the people.”
Though it’s great for logistics, Chandler was a little bummed to miss out on having the NFL draft in his backyard. In an alternate universe, the two-sport athlete and one-time four-star Clemson quarterback commit might’ve been traveling to Pittsburgh this week with his own draft hopes.
“In the ideal world, I think I’d be like a fifth-year [quarterback] right now,” he said. “So, in an ideal world, I wouldn’t want to be drafted this year, maybe like two years ago.”
Instead, Chandler was on the bump for the Pirates’ series-opening win against the Tampa Bay Rays on April 17. With the Pirates playing well, the Penguins set to host the Flyers in the first round of the playoffs and just eight days out from the draft, the Pirates players could sense a shift in the energy of PNC Park and around the city.
“It’s really cool,” said Konnor Griffin, the Pirates’ 2024 first-round pick. “When teams are winning, everybody’s happy. That’s the goal: to win as much as possible. And when the Penguins are in the playoffs, it’s a great buzz, got the draft coming here just all around the city. It’s been great.”
The vibes were even higher for the Pirates’ afternoon game on April 18.
Streaming in from lines stretching across the Roberto Clemente bridge, fans filled PNC Park to watch Skenes start and picked up commemorative bobbleheads for his 2025 Cy Young Award.
With four and a half hours between the Pirates’ first pitch and puck drop of Pens-Flyers and five days until the official start of the draft, the Pirates’ in-game entertainment was filled with references to the events. The tease for the Pierogi race was set to an NFL jingle, and when the videoboard spotlighted two Flyers fans between innings, Griffin, a Mississippi native, quickly learned how Pittsburghers feel about Philly fans.
“Whole stadium booed, so that showed me right away,” he said. “They hate them.”
Even Skenes, who goes to great lengths to insulate himself and shut out the noise, noticed the buzz.
“That’s Pittsburgh,” Skenes said of the stadium’s response to the Flyers fans. “That’s how Yinzers are. I think [Saturday] was different. Friday was different for sure. We just got to keep it going.”
A contingent of Pirates players, including Skenes, had plans to attend the Pens’ series opener later that night, but a lengthy rain delay and loss in extras spoiled those plans.
“Would have loved to see it, but just didn’t work out,” Skenes said.
The weather, though, didn’t ruin everyone’s Pittsburgh doubleheader. After sitting behind home plate at the baseball game, Steelers defensive tackle Yahya Black took a knee and chugged a beer as he and his teammates announced the start of the Penguins’ game, yelling Mike Lange’s legendary call: “It’s hockey night in Pittsburgh!” on the videoboard at PPG Paints Arena.
“It was pretty dope,” Black said. “Kind of sucks that it got rained out in the fourth inning, but it was fun. There was a lot of energy. I’ve really never been to a professional baseball game before, so that was a first-time experience.”
And as great as the vibe was at PNC Park, Black said the buzz was even more ramped up for the hockey game — at least until the Flyers sucked the energy out of the arena with dominant wins in Games 1 and 2.
“Definitely a crazier environment,” Black said of PPG Paints Arena. “People love their hockey, which is kind of crazy to say from a guy from Minnesota. So yeah, they love their hockey out here, and Pittsburgh is such a sports city that it was definitely different.
” … I feel like people are hyped for the draft here and then hoping that the Pirates and the Penguins do really good this year. It’s all really come together.”
The leaders
Mike McCarthy arrived at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new community football field at Hazelwood Green on Wednesday morning sporting a green Greenfield hat with a gold interlocking GF on the crown.
For the Pittsburgh native and new Steelers head coach, who grew up in the Greenfield neighborhood of the city, having the draft in his hometown was extra special.
“Any time Western Pennsylvania has a chance to show itself off, it’s a great thing,” McCarthy said days before the draft. “… And frankly, it’ll be more important to my family as far as being able to enjoy the draft and so forth. We’re going to be busy. My mother asks me every year if I’m going to the draft and I say, no, I’m going to be in the draft room, again, for Year 33.”
Like McCarthy, Pirates manager Don Kelly is also from Pittsburgh, and it gave him a special appreciation and perspective of the vibe around the city with the Penguins reaching the playoffs and the Pirates playing well.
“I think [Penguins first-year coach Dan Muse] did a great job over there,” Kelly said last week. “Excited for the city of Pittsburgh, the fans and everything that means to the city, and with the Pirates, we’re playing well, going out there, feel the energy in the stadium … just a phenomenal atmosphere.”
A Pittsburgh native and lifelong resident, Mayor Corey O’Connor also relished the atmosphere and energy of the week. On Wednesday morning, he was also part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning, and later after changing into a black Steelers quarter-zip, he helped cut another ceremonial ribbon at the Steelers Country exhibition at the NFL fan experience at Point State Park.
“I think if you were going to pick a perfect time, this is the perfect time,” said O’Connor. “You have all three sports teams clicking. We’re a sports town. We’re going to show it off the rest of this week, not only locally and a lot of people that lived in Pittsburgh that are coming back for the draft, but also nationally.
“To show our Pittsburgh pride is something that’s really important to all of us. And there’s going to be a lot of black and gold all over this city the next couple of days.”
The fans
Tom Kobzowitz and Todd Martin were sitting in a pair of upper-level yellow seats at Acrisure Stadium when Renegade started playing to announce it was the Steelers’ turn to make a pick Thursday night.
In the minutes before the pick, it looked like Biletnikoff Trophy winner Makai Lemon was going to fall right into the organization’s lap. Steelers fans at Acrisure Stadium were buzzing with the possibility. Soon, though, that excitement gave way to a ripple of confusion as they refreshed their social media feeds and learned Philadelphia netted yet another win in a week of intrastate victories, as the Eagles did a deal with the Dallas Cowboys to jump their cross-state rivals in the draft order and snag the USC wide receiver.
“There were sighs of pain when Lemon got picked right before,” said Kobzowitz, who drove in from Harrisburg for the draft. “So everybody around us knew, ‘Oh, we lost our moment.’ I don’t think we knew how close we came to our moment last night until we got home and checked all the [social media] feeds.”
Hours later, Kobzowitz and Martin learned Steelers general manager Omar Khan was on the phone with Lemon when the Eagles beeped in and spoiled the Steelers’ premature celebratory moment.
Across town, though, Brad Hess silently celebrated the Eagles’ maneuver as he watched the draft with his Pittsburgh-born wife and their 20-month-old daughter, Hannah, who was up way past her bedtime.
For Hess, who’s from Philadelphia, it was the latest win in a week of Eastern Pennsylvania dominance.
“I didn’t want to brag, but Howie’s always kind of swooping in there at the last minute,” Hess said with a grin. “The call was made, and then the second call was made.”
Not only is Hess celebrating the Lemon pick, but the Flyers’ 3-1 series lead over the Penguins also added a little extra juice to his good-natured ribbing of his coworkers and in-laws.
“I’m trying to stay humble,” he said. “Got some bets with coworkers about wearing jerseys. I’m feeling good.”
Though her husband is having a better week, Hess’ wife, Susan Urish, still relishes having the draft in her hometown. Her dad’s public accounting and consulting firm, Urish Popeck, is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and she watched the draft come to life from her office in one of the skyscrapers that overlooks Point State Park.
“My dad’s from the Steel Mills of Pittsburgh, and it was really exciting to see all this energy and excitement come into the city,” Urish said. “And we’re definitely a family that loves to embrace it.”
She smiled and gestured to her husband, adding, “And he’s, I would say, adopted into the love of the ‘Burgh.”
While Urish always planned on walking around the draft area this weekend, fellow Pittsburgh resident Mike Helfer didn’t want to be anywhere near downtown this weekend. He works in nearby Oakland and heard about the impending traffic nightmare and swarms of fans set to descend on the city for weeks leading up to the draft.
But after watching the draft at home Thursday night, Mike’s wife, Tracy, started nudging him to go downtown for the next rounds. The next day the couple took the plunge and ventured to the massive draft footprint. It took them just 12 minutes from their front door to the parking lot.
“You only live once,” Tracy said with a laugh. “YOLO.”
The couple arrived at Point State Park early in the afternoon and took in the display of larger-than-life Super Bowl rings, an art installation of Terrible Towels and a courtyard of local Pittsburgh restaurant outposts. As it filled in with more fans around lunchtime, they wound up sharing a high-top table with Kobzowitz and Martin.
The foursome didn’t know each other before Friday afternoon, but they became fast friends as they talked about the state of the Steelers (and their quarterback conundrum) and the draft experience.
“We were at the Topps stage yesterday, and Jerome Bettis was opening up card packs, and he said, ‘OK, by the way, this is the one weekend we recognize and welcome all 32 teams,'” Kobzowitz said. “So I think that has been going on. Everybody is smiling at each other.”
Mike Helfer then cut in.
“Well, 31,” Helfer said. “The Ravens can stay home.”
