Why James Conner to the Steelers is the most perfect NFL draft pick ever

If you pull into the parking lot at the Rooney Sports Complex on Pittsburgh’s South Side, you walk toward a building. Go through the doors on the left, and you’re working for the Steelers. The doors on the right mean you’re with Pitt.

Pitt has produced a handful of all-world players, won national championships, and authored some great moments. But the Steelers own Western Pennsylvania. Pitt does not usually own the hearts and minds of the people who live there, like me.

Conner ingratiated himself to the locals by running for 5.5 yards a carry and eight touchdowns as a freshman in 2013. He became a star with 26 touchdowns the year after that, when he ram-rodded his way to ACC offensive player of the year honors in Pitt’s second season out of the Big East.

There are two football archetypes Pittsburghers love: sack-collecting linebackers and huge running backs. Conner reminds easily of Jerome Bettis, and he even played some defensive end for the Panthers at points. He was Pittsburgh Ultra.

You know what happened later. A doctor’s appointment after a ligament injury in the 2015 season opener led to a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Conner fought for his life, and he won. He returned to lead Pitt onto the field in its opener last season.

This is the image that sticks with me:

That’s inspiring as hell in any setting. It was a big deal in Pittsburgh, where the local ethos is all about phrases like “toughness” and “adversity” and, of course, “power football.”

It’s been that way since the Steelers became a powerhouse in the ‘70s and the steel industry collapsed a few decades ago. Pittsburgh prides itself on sticking out bad times.

I’m not trying to make it sound like other communities wouldn’t have embraced Conner just the same, because they absolutely would’ve. But this is why Conner was such a match for Pittsburgh. A bruising Northwestern Pennsylvania native beating cancer and coming out of it looking like he wants to run more people over? Come on.

Watch him learn his fate on Friday, and you’ll be happy:

Conner had visited with the Steelers before the draft, and they had a need for running backs behind Le’Veon Bell. Plus, Conner was already in the same building. The Steelers had more chances to learn about him than any NFL team had to learn about any other draft prospect in the country.

The Steelers hadn’t drafted a Pitt player since they took cornerback Hank Poteat in the third round in 2000. They’d been close a few times since then, most notably when the Jets took Darrelle Revis one slot ahead of them in 2007.

It’s surprising to me that the Steelers haven’t wound up with more Panthers, given the chances they’ve had to accumulate knowledge about them. Steelers and Pitt players run into each other in the cafeteria often, and Pitt players have stories of Steelers giving them tips on the points of the sport. They have to coordinate their schedules to share Heinz Field during the season.

Conner doesn’t need anyone to validate him. He’s gone through more in two decades on Earth than lots of us will have to bear in a lifetime.

But the Steelers were within spitting distance of Conner for four years. They shared a home with him as he beat a horrible disease, watched him return to the field, and then spent a third-round pick on him. They didn’t do it to make anyone feel good. They did it because they’ve seen who Conner is and decided he had to be theirs.

Conner’s not just the Steelers’, though. He’s Pittsburgh’s, and we’ll claim him long after his career there ends.