The last time I saw Dan Rooney, Super Bowl LI was about to kick off in Houston. ¶ He invited the NFL Network’s Judy Battista and me into his box for a brief visit at NRG Stadium. Rooney had rituals before Steelers games, one of which was to meet an hour or so before kickoff with me, Bob Labriola of Steelers.com and, when she was in town, Battista, who previously covered the NFL for The New York Times.
We would chat about all kinds of things, even the upcoming game once in a while. I never asked why he did this, but Labriola had an easy explanation when I finally wondered aloud the other day: Dan Rooney simply enjoyed being around newspaper people, like his dad did before him, and loved the lead-up to kickoff.