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Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Connor Heyward (83) celebrates his touchdown run in the first half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in Pittsburgh, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo\/Gene J. Puskar)<\/p>\n
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PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s a legacy that comes when your last name is Heyward, and you play football for a living.<\/p>\n
Especially when you do it in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
Connor Heyward has known this basically his entire life. The Steelers tight end\/fullback grew up hearing the stories about his father, former NFL running back and University of Pittsburgh great Craig \u201cIronhead\u201d Heyward. He watched from afar as older brother Cam evolved from a first-round pick by the Steelers in 2011 into one of the best defensive tackles of his generation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot to live up to. Particularly when what you do on the field is hard to define.<\/p>\n
Connor Heyward doesn\u2019t bulldoze opposing linebackers as his dad did. He doesn\u2019t overwhelm offensive linemen on the way to the quarterback \u2014 and maybe one day the Hall of Fame \u2014 like his brother.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no one more aware of this than the 26-year-old who has spent the past four seasons trying to show that his roster spot isn\u2019t merely the result of the name on the back of his jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always feel like I have something to prove,\u201d Heyward said. \u201cWhether that\u2019s to myself or just my peers, teams we\u2019re competing against, just showing them that I belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even now, after being selected as an alternate to the Pro Bowl as a fullback for the first time, Heyward is hardly ready to exhale and say he\u2019s arrived. While he points out he\u2019s stuck it out longer than most sixth-round picks, all it takes is one search of his name on social media to make sure the chip on his shoulder never leaves.<\/p>\n
There were times, particularly earlier in his career, when the online vitriol directed his way that he was the NFL\u2019s version of a nepo-baby would get to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t hide from that,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see it. It sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u2018true football player\u2019<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the only one who noticed. Asked if he thinks it\u2019s hard for Connor to be his little brother, Cam Heyward nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets a s\u2014 ton,\u201d of criticism, said the older Heyward, a seven-time Pro Bowler and the NFL\u2019s 2023 Walter Payton Man of the Year. \u201cI kind of walked in here with it myself, being my dad\u2019s son. (Connor\u2019s) just got it both ways. He\u2019s got to deal with both (me and my dad). And it\u2019s not always easy, but I think he\u2019s answered it and he\u2019s on his way.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s done it by being himself. At 6-foot and 230 pounds, he is hardly the biggest, the strongest or the fastest player on the field. Yet Heyward has consistently found a way to be impactful whenever \u2014 or wherever \u2014 he lines up.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a fixture on special teams but is just as comfortable taking the snap from center in the Steelers\u2019 version of the \u201ctush push\u201d (dubbed the \u2018Pittsburgh Plunge\u2019 in honor of a ride at a local amusement park), something he does when he\u2019s not running routes at tight end, setting up at fullback and clearing space for Kenny Gainwell and Jaylen Warren.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a true football player,\u201d tight end Pat Freiermuth said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate to see he doesn\u2019t get the respect that he deserves outside the building, but everyone in the building knows what he can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as a result, everyone in the building is fine asking Heyward to do a lot, including the kind of dirty work that rarely makes its way to a highlight package but stands out in the team\u2019s film room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more we put on his plate, the more he executes,\u201d Freiermuth said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which makes the moments when the ball is in Heyward\u2019s hands feel earned, not given. Last week against Cleveland, the Steelers unveiled their latest wrinkle on the \u201cPittsburgh Plunge\u201d by having Heyward take the snap and race to his right for 29 yards to help set up a field goal.<\/p>\n
Heyward has learned there is no pleasing everyone. That no matter what he does, it will never be enough for some. He\u2019d be lying, however, if he said he doesn\u2019t get some small level of satisfaction out of having his mentions go silent, at least for a little while.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like, \u2018Shut up,\u2019 but it\u2019s, like, \u2018I told you so,’\u201d Heyward said. \u201cAnd sometimes it\u2019s just to yourself, like just that reassurance that you sometimes need.\u201d<\/p>\n
A tightening bond<\/p>\n
Heyward will be a free agent this offseason. It seems almost a given he\u2019s done enough for the Steelers \u2014 who have long reserved spots on the roster for players willing to do what Heyward so capably does \u2014 to earn a contract to return.<\/p>\n
If he sticks around, it would give him a chance to spend perhaps one final season alongside Cam, who will be entering the last year of his current contract and turns 37 in May.<\/p>\n
Connor Heyward described Cam as \u201clike a dad to me,\u201d while growing up, thanks in part to their 10-year age gap. That has shifted during their time together in Pittsburgh, where Cam has become the big brother careful not to overstep his bounds and Connor has turned into the self-described \u201ccool uncle\u201d to Cam\u2019s and wife Allie\u2019s three kids.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s telling of how comfortable they are with each other that Connor never asked the team to move his locker, which has been a stall or two over from Cam\u2019s during the entirety of his career.<\/p>\n
Asked why he never bothered to move \u2014 it\u2019s worth noting that former Steeler brothers\/teammates Nick and Nate Herbig and Trey and Terrell Edmunds had lockers on opposite sides of the room \u2014 and Connor points to the demands of their lives away from the facility that make getting together during the season difficult.<\/p>\n
Those quiet moments together have been invaluable, and render all the noise that comes with being considered the \u201cother\u201d Heyward just that: noise.<\/p>\n
Yes, if he were somewhere else, maybe there\u2019d be a little less hate sent his way. But there also wouldn\u2019t be the same sense of family. It\u2019s a trade-off he will happily deal with.<\/p>\n
No, he\u2019s not his dad. No, he\u2019s not his brother. That doesn\u2019t make him less than. It just makes him different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad I\u2019m here in Pittsburgh,\u201d Connor Heyward said. \u201cI\u2019m glad to continue to build off what I\u2019ve started and what Cam has done. I know who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Connor Heyward (83) celebrates his touchdown run in the first half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,3141,6,520,57,2360,426,94286],"class_list":{"0":"post-647574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-local-sports","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-steelers-connor-heyward-proving-hes-more-than-cams-little-brother"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115824416337161554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}