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Tommy Streeter doesn't have any complaints about practice or tough offseason workouts these days.

After spending all of last season on injured reserve, the second-year receiver out of Miami is relishing every opportunity he has to get back out on the football field.

"Something about missing a whole year just makes you appreciate every day that you're out here," Streeter said. "I just count every day as a blessing. It's kind of liked a renewed love for the game."

Streeter, a sixth-round draft pick, went on injured reserve with a foot injury he suffered in the final preseason game. The injury put him out of commission for several weeks, and he wasn't even able to start fully running again until the Ravens were in the playoffs.

As part of the IR rules, Streeter couldn't practice or participate in team drills. All he could do was workout, rehab, and participate in meetings. He was part of the team and on the sidelines for each game, but still felt distant.

"It's kind of an in-between feeling," Streeter said. "You're supporting the team, having that ride, everything is going good, but at the same time everybody wants to feel like they're contributing something to the overall success of the team."

Now Streeter is back to work in the heart of the action.

He's been a regular participant throughout the voluntary offseason workouts, and he's in the middle of a competition for an open wide receiver spot. Streeter is focused first on earning a roster spot, and he also has much bigger goals in mind.

"I want to be unstoppable," Streeter said. "I want to be one of the top receivers in the NFL. Period. I feel like God blessed me with all the tools, all the intangibles."

Streeter is a rare blend of size and speed. He's 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds. He's known as a deep threat and jump ball target in the end zone, and he showed off those abilities at times during training camp last season.

Streeter had a breakout season during his junior year of college, where he caught 46 passes for 811 yards and eight touchdowns. He played with confidence that season, and he's trying to get back to bringing that same mentality to the field each day.

"You got to have that swagger," Streeter said. "You have to. You have to feel like you're unstoppable at the end of the day, whether it's true or not. You have to feel that way. Over and over you still have to have that mindset that I'm unstoppable. And you have to have that work ethic at the same time because you can feel that way, but if you aren't working toward it then it's just in vain. You got to have the work ethic and that will slingshot you to where you want to be at the end of the day."

Streeter is in somewhat of an uncertain position as he's trying to stand out amongst of group of unproven receivers. He'll compete with Tandon Doss, Deonte Thompson, David Reed, LaQuan Williams and rookie Aaron Mellette for reps alongside Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones.

Like most young skills players, Streeter will also be expected to bring something to the table on special teams.

"It's hard to say [your expectations] when you really don't know what your role is going to be, but it's just to capitalize on every opportunity," Streeter said. "Every ball that's thrown to me, catch it. Run the routes to the best of my ability. Be physical in the run game. Try to compete each play on special teams."

In his time away from the football field, Streeter said he took time to examine his outlook on the game. He adjusted his mentality, and changed his attitude to become more coachable and opportunistic.

Coaches have pointed to his professional development over the course of last season, and noted that he grew in his understanding of expectations and how to approach the mental side of the game.

Streeter is going through this offseason with a different mindset than when he arrived as a rookie, and he's optimistic about what he can accomplish.

"I feel like I don't take anything for granted. God puts you in certain positions for a reason. I just thank God for this opportunity. I just feel like everything will all work out, and I just got this unshakeable belief," Streeter said.

"I'm excited, man. I'm excited."

Jack Butler, driven from the NFL in his ninth season by a devastating knee injury while playing for the Steelers at Forbes Field, wanted to make one thing unabashedly clear.
"I loved the game," he said last summer before his August induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I loved playing the game, I liked everything that went with it, the friends, everything, all the action. I liked the [fame], I liked it all. I enjoyed it. I would have done it forever if I could have."

Instead, his career was cut short by a knee injury that spawned a staph infection. Today, John Bradshaw Butler, one of the Steelers all-time greats and one of the NFL's best cornerbacks, died at UPMC Shadyside Hospital after battling the same staph infection that cut his career short more than 53 years ago.

Butler, 85, entered the hospital in November when a lingering staph infection that developed from the knee injury that ended his career in 1959 attacked an artificial knee replacement, his son Mike Butler said. The infection persisted and Butler died about 7:45 a.m., his son said.

"His heart just stopped," said Mike Butler, who was hired by the Steelers as a scout on Thursday. "He was completely lucid last night, my sister and brother made him a root beer float and he went to sleep. He never complained, never said anything hurt."

Butler, who lived most of his life in Munhall, retired after nine seasons in 1959 with 52 career interceptions, second-most in the NFL at the time. He made four Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams and the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1950s. He was forced into retirement by a leg injury so severe it nearly killed him when a staph infection set in.

That infection would flare up every five-to-seven years, Mike Butler said, and did so last November, attacking the artificial left knee he had implanted in 1995 to replace the damaged one that left him with a permanent limp. He made it home only a few times since then for a day or two.

"He fought the good fight, always," said Art Rooney Jr., the Steelers former head of player personnel and a close friend of Butler's.

Butler, born in Pittsburgh, did not play football in high school, a prep/seminary in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Art Rooney Sr., a friend of Butler's dad, recommended St. Bonaventure University to him. There, he wandered onto the football team mainly out of curiosity, worked his way into a starting wide receiver as a senior and went undrafted by the NFL.

It was some inauspicious start to a Hall of Fame career.

The Steelers signed him, probably as a favor to Father Silas, the St. Bonaventure athletic director and Art Rooney's brother. They tried him at wide receiver in the single wing, then defensive end, where he somehow made the team as a rookie in 1951 at 6 feet 1 and 200 pounds. In the third game of his rookie season, a defensive back was hurt and Butler was told to replace him.

"That's how I became a defensive back," Butler said last year.

Butler played there the rest of the decade, not missing a game for eight straight years until his final season in '59. In his second game, the first time he touched a ball he returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown. That number would appear again because it was the first of his 52 career interceptions that ranked second all-time until his knee injury forced him prematurely out of the game and still ranks 14th. He intercepted fellow Hall of Famers Sammy Baugh, Johnny Unitas, Otto Graham, Y.A. Title and Norm Van Brocklin.
He made the NFL's team of the decade, four Pro Bowls and a lasting impression on those who saw him play, which weren't many back in the Same Old Steelers days of the 1950s.

"He was the perfect guy for a defensive back in those days," former teammate and NFL coach Ted Marchibroda said. "He did not have the greatest speed, but he had good speed, good, good size, good hands and his instincts were tremendous. Jack worked at his profession in those days; most guys didn't work as hard as he did."

Butler paid the price. He was in pain every day of his life since that gruesome knee injury on Nov. 29, 1959 against the Philadelphia Eagles in Forbes Field. He had many surgeries, both knees replaced, and walked with a limp for more than half a century.

Art Rooney Jr. said last year that "We were having dinner and I said 'Jack, if you had to do it again, with the pain you're in, the things you missed, would you?'"

"He said, 'Playing football was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. If I could go out today and suit up, I would do it.' "

Days after that 1959 injury to his left knee, staph infection set in and doctors once considered amputation. The Buffalo Bills of the new AFC hired Butler as an assistant coach, but he had to quit soon thereafter because of his knee.

Around then, a new scouting combine formed and Jack Butler would become the executive director of BLESTO for the next 45 years. The combine offices were in Pittsburgh so he never had to move out of his Munhall home, where he and his wife Bernadette raised nine children. Appropriately, son Mike Butler's new job with the Steelers is as their BLESTO scout.

Butler is survived by his wife, Bernadette, and their nine children: Maureen Maier, John, Michael, Bernadette Hobart, Kathy Butler Ruffalo, Kevin Butler, Tim and Mariann Butler. He also has 15 grandchildren.

His brother Tom is a priest in Tuscon, Arizona, and his sister Catherine Mooney lives in West Mifflin.