{"id":98451,"date":"2025-06-02T16:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/98451\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T16:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:36:19","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-star-picked-in-nfl-draft-was-subjected-to-brutal-and-insane-death-threats-during-college-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/98451\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers star picked in NFL Draft was subjected to ‘brutal’ and ‘insane’ death threats during college career"},"content":{"rendered":"

A PITTSBURGH Steelers player who was selected in the NFL Draft this year dealt with sick death threats.<\/p>\n

The revelation was made by ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Will Howard was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL DraftCredit: Getty\"Ohio<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

He received death threats while at Ohio StateCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Herbstreit, 55, was speaking about quarterback Will Howard.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was selected in the sixth round<\/a> by the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

He played for the Ohio State Buckeyes <\/a>in 2024 after a transfer from Kansas State.<\/p>\n

Howard led the Buckeyes to the national title<\/a> and was named Offensive MVP of the championship game.<\/p>\n

But during the regular-season, his Buckeyes lost to Big Ten rivals Oregon.<\/p>\n

The Oregon Ducks ran out 32-31 winners in the game on October 12.<\/p>\n

Herbstreit watched plenty of the Ohio State Buckeyes during his role as a commentator and analyst for ESPN.<\/p>\n

He appeared on The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show was filmed in front of an audience of around 300 people where Herbstreit went to high school in Centerville, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill Howard, he took a knee against Oregon,\u201d Herbstreit said. <\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Steelers officially announce major new $17.9 million signing ahead of Aaron Rodgers move<\/p>\n

“He played his a** off at Oregon. <\/p>\n

“He took a knee because he lost the time and he took death threats.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s so insane that these people have a voice to get to you. <\/p>\n

“And you have just got to somehow insulate yourself the best you can because it is brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard <\/a>and the Buckeyes avenged the loss with victory in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a><\/p>\n

Ohio State beat Oregon 41-21 on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy what you guys are dealing with,\u201d Herbstreit said to the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean just sports – I\u2019m talking social stuff. <\/p>\n

“You get to college football, you are playing on national TV, you miss a field goal when the game is on the line, you get death threats.<\/p>\n

“Death threats. That is real.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PITTSBURGH Steelers player who was selected in the NFL Draft this year dealt with sick death threats.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[331,7,6,15,60,57,578],"class_list":{"0":"post-98451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes-football","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-section-sportamerican-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114614749513100738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98451","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=98451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}