The gut instinct of a sixth round pick is to listen to his coaches. Disobey and risk getting cut. But one-time Pittsburgh Steelers rookie LB Mike Humpal should’ve listened to James Harrison’s advice instead. It wouldn’t have guaranteed a place in the NFL but would’ve promised Humpal’s career lasting longer than one play.
Flying solo on his Deebo & Joe podcast due to Joe Haden attempting to leave Mexico from cartel violence, Harrison shared the story of the Steelers’ rookie who got it wrong – and got himself severely hurt.
“He goes and tells this man to hit the wedge square,” Harrison said of the special teams coaches teaching point to Humpal. “This is back when we they had the big offensive linemen as the two and three man wedges. They’re locked up, shoulder-to-shoulder, they’re coming down and they’re taking on the four or the five, whoever is taking on the wedge.”
The “four or the five” referring to the middle coverage player on kickoffs, as you can see in this graph.
Humpal played under the old-school kickoff model where there were few rules or restrictions. Return teams would lead with a “wedge” of players reminiscent of football’s early years, two or three players linked together with the returner following behind. The coverage team would deploy a “wedge buster” whose mission was to run full-speed into the blockers and break them up. The violent nature of the play eventually outlawed the wedge and by extension, the wedge buster. But at the time, the play was kosher, if ill advised.
“He tells them, you come in there and you take on the wedge square,” Harrison says of the coach told Humpal. “After he tells him you take the wedge on square, after you hit it, turn your hip.
“I said hey, Hump, if you do that shit, one, you might go to sleep. Two, you’re going to get a hip pointer because they’re going to bang the shit out of you.”
Harrison, a special teamer for years before cracking the defensive lineup, advised Humpal to attack just one man of the wedge instead of running straight down the middle-of-them. He would then bounce off the first man and into the others, making it look like he was attacking them all, but still protecting himself from severe injury. A sixth-round rookie fighting to make the roster, Humpal ignored Harrison’s advice and followed what his coach told him. Presumably, that was then-special teams coordinator Bob Ligashesky, a longtime coach who was still employed through last season before being replaced by the University of Minnesota after 2025.
Humpal paid the price.
“Mike runs down there…Mike hits the wedge square. He goes in and he hits the wedge square like this,” Harrison said, showing the unsettling way Humpal took on the block. “The same way Mike went in, Mike came straight out. From out his head, straight back to his neck, down through his ass, and onto his back. That is the first, last, only play that Mike Humpal played in the NFL. He never played another down.”
Unfortunately, tracking down the clip is difficult to do and we couldn’t find preseason tape from the 2008 opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. But Harrison’s story isn’t an exaggeration. Suffering a severe neck stinger, Humpal was placed on injured reserve after the game and missed his entire rookie season. Pittsburgh cut him the following February. The impact of the injury followed Humpal into his post-playing days and caused him to retire, once admitting that by December of his rookie year, his career was over.
If there’s any silver lining or twist of fate, the injury opened a door to Humpal’s next chapter. Receiving regular chiropractic work to heal the injury, Humpal was inspired become a chiropractor himself. He now owns his own chiropractor business in his home state of Iowa.
“Later on in my playing days, I had these neck issues going on, and I thought, ‘Well, what else can I do and give myself the best chance to heal,’” Humpal told the Iowa City Press-Citizen in 2023 after his business opened. “I revisited chiropractic and realized there’s something to this.”
Harrison’s advice was well-intended and ultimately correct. It would’ve saved Humpal plenty of pain. It’s proof that coaches aren’t always the smartest in the room, especially those who haven’t played at the NFL level before. But it’s also proof there’s good to come out of every situation. Humpal made the most of the hand he was dealt and went on to have a successful career off the field.
Check out the whole clip below.