The morning after the Steelers' 13-9 win over Kansas City, Brett Keisel slept in. It was a Sunday night game, the team's chartered plane had touched down at Pittsburgh International Airport in the wee hours, and the defensive end still felt sore all over in the morning.
But Monday, Nov. 28, was a special day for Keisel -- the opening of Pennsylvania's statewide rifle deer season. A longtime hunter and outdoorsman from the Wyoming wilds, Keisel climbed out of bed and into a Beaver County tree stand, where he scored an eight-point.
"My [deer] was shot . . . in Western Pennsylvania with my Ruger .25-06 . . .," he wrote on his Facebook page. "One-shot kill at about 120 yards. Deer was 100 percent wild, so is hunter."
Weeks later, Keisel's teammates were eating venison sausage snacks in the locker room -- "provided by the fruits of my labor," he said -- while in the hallway at the Steelers' South Side training facility, Keisel talked about hunting.
Now in his 10th season with the team, he said he's learned to find his way in the Western Pennsylvania woods. "I try to hunt every year. The first couple of years [in Pittsburgh] were kind of hard, you know, because I really didn't know where to go," he said. "But I got in with some friends who have some property around here. I got a few deer, but I'm just enjoying getting out in the woods and listening to Mother Earth."
Keisel is an experienced bow hunter -- his football sack celebration is an archer drawing a bow -- but this year his arrows didn't pierce a hide. "I really like archery. It's still nice outside and I'm not too beat up," he said. "Usually when I get into December, my body's sore and I really value my sleep." Skunked this year at archery, Keisel hunted on the opening day of rifle season on a friend's posted property.
"I got into the stand about 3 o'clock. A bunch of does came right out -- I waited, waited, waited," he said. "Then this buck came out. It was a pretty good buck, but I thought, there's going to be a huge one come out just after him, so I waited for a little bit."
It was a savvy hunting decision. In minutes, an eight-point stepped into a clearing, then bolted.
"I'm not sure if he winded me or what," said Keisel. "Something spooked him and he ran about 150 yards and I thought, boy, if I'm going to do it I better do it. One shot, he ran about 10 feet and fell."
The .25-06 that Keisel used fires relatively light loads. The cartridge originated as a .30-06 necked down to .257 caliber, and is manufactured in 75 to 120 grains. Noted for its light recoil, it propels a 117-grain bullet on a flat trajectory at 3,200 feet per second -- a good deer gun on level, open land. It's an unusual choice for deer in hilly, brushy Western Pennsylvania, particularly when held by a 6-foot 5-inch, 285-pound professional athlete.
"A friend in Ohio asked me if I'd send him a jersey and he'd send me a gun from his Whitetails Unlimited [chapter]," said Keisel. "It's like a .243, maybe a little bigger. It's a great shooting gun, a fun little gun. He's got my name and stuff engraved on the stock, so I was happy to get that first kill with it."
A veteran hunter, Keisel proudly credits his father for teaching him everything he knows about the outdoors. Growing up on 1,000 acres of Wyoming hunting land, Keisel said he started early. "My dad has had me in the woods since I could walk," he said. "He's taught me how to track, how to read markings, read the wind, all of that stuff. ... We had a lot of great hunting. We hunted pheasants and ducks and geese -- all of that right on our own place. I was definitely spoiled growing up . . . hunting elk and mule deer and pronghorn. We've hunted moose, a lot of coyotes. I've hunted mountain lion. Just about all the big game American species."
Despite his busy schedule, Keisel said he finds time to initiate his 3-year-old son in the ways of the outdoors. "I'm trying to instill in him now that there's a whole world out there. Go watch how beautiful it is. Go out and see it," he said. "Even just going out to a stream with my son and a fishing pole, trying to teach him how I was taught. Just being outside and doing things outside is so much more valuable to me than sitting around inside and watching the TV."
Professional football is all about personal confidence, and Keisel said he first found his off the practice field.
"When you're out hunting, there's definitely adrenalin there," he said. "Finding ways to harness that, finding ways to control yourself, to fight through the adversity and make that winning shot. It's so therapeutic for me to be able to get out into the woods." His early outdoor survival lessons had a lasting impact, said Keisel. and he hopes today's kids get the same opportunities.
"How to start a fire, where to start a fire, the proper ways to hunt -- there's a whole growing-up scenario there that can unfold if you go out and do it," he said. "Hunting is one of America's great pastimes. It really is one of our great freedoms that we sometimes, I think, take for granted. Find someone who can take you out and show you how great this country is, and what kinds of things are out there in the woods. Even if you're just watching birds and stuff, to me that's beautiful. I could spend all day watching Mother Nature unfold."
Keisel isn't the only Steelers outdoorsman. Ben Roethlisberger hunts. So does guard-center Doug Legursky, safety Ryan Clark and linebacker James Harrison. Safety Troy Polamalu is a dedicated fly fisherman who frequents Central Pennsylvania's limestone streams.
"There are quite a few," said Keisel. "I've hunted with James and with Ben, we get out a little together. I've done a lot of fishing with James. We've gone up to Erie a couple of times for walleyes. We try to enjoy the outdoors together."
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11359/1199077-358-0.stm
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