Steelers erect tarp wall at practice field to block 'drones and so forth'

Forget the debate about a wall on the country’s southern border. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ practice facility now has its own.

The southern end of the practice field that’s closest to the team’s headquarters at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side has a new retractable, black tarp wall. It was erected over the summer between the end of organized team activities in June and when the team returned back to the city following its three-week training camp at Saint Vincent.

It stands maybe 100 feet high, blocking views from nearby an office building along nearby East Carson Street. It doesn’t even extend the full width of the football field it is (partially) hiding.

Asked about the new feature to his team’s facility, Mike Tomlin at first played coy.

“I’ll leave that somewhat mystical. I’ll you guys (in the media) get hypothesized about the origins of that and its use. At some point we’ll address it directly. It will be the 2018 little side story.”

Mystical?

“You know how it is. This is an interesting time, drones and so forth, you know? We’ll do what we have to do to prepare and be ready to play. Play on a level of fair competitive playing field.”

The Steelers have practiced at the South Side facility since it was built in 2000. Typically, they practice on one the three outdoor fields they share with Pitt’s football program (the Panthers most often use the far field, the Steelers the closest), though during inclement weather both teams also use an indoor (and largely windowless) artificial turf field on the opposite side of a parking lot.

On the north end of the fields, a blacked-out fence about 10 feet high has long bordered South Water Street, which has a biking/jogging path and the Monongahela River on its other side.

Espionage in the NFL, in some form, is not unheard of. The New England Patriots famously were implicated in what became known as “Spygate” for taping visiting team’s signals.

But that was at the stadium before games. According to NFL.com , Mike Martz was coach of the then-St. Louis Rams when a hotel opened up across the street from his team’s facility. Martz had a 30-foot tarp wall installed.

The Steelers have their own history with accusations toward the Patriots over the past two decades. There’s Spygate, which some players said affected New England’s win at Heinz Field in the AFC championship game after the 2004 season. And 11 years later, Tomlin was agitated that the sideline headsets for Steelers coaches malfunctioned during a game at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium.

In no mood for frivolities after losing that Sept. 10, 2015 game, Tomlin not-so-subtly implied that was standard practice for the Patriots. Thursday, he was in a much more lighthearted mood when asked if he’d ever wondered if anyone ever sat at a high point on the South Side and watched Steelers practices.

“I wonder about a lot of things,” Tomlin said, smiling. “Some of the questions I get (during news conferences), I wonder about.”

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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.