One of the best in the business, team trainer Norwig retiring

In the more than three decades he spent treating injured players for the Steelers, John Norwig devoted so much time trying to heal them back to health that he often developed a familial relationship with the player.

In all that time, even after countless hours of working with some of their top players — Casey Hampton, Aaron Smith, Ben Roethlisberger, Brett Keisel, Le’Veon Bell — one moment in 32 years encapsulated what it meant for Norwig to be an athletic trainer.

After sustaining a significant knee sprain in the 2008 AFC championship game, receiver Hines Ward was in tears when he told Norwig he had to be ready to play in the Super Bowl against the Arizona Cardinals. The game was in two weeks.

To help Norwig treat him, Steelers orthopedic surgeon Jim Bradley tried a new technique on Ward known as “blood spinning,” which involves platelet-rich plasma injections in the injured area. Ward recovered well enough to play in the game.

“We treated Hines as best we could,” Norwig recalled. “He wasn’t himself, but at the end of the game he was crying and he came up and hugged me and thanked me. I was crying after that. We won, and to have that emotional moment with him, that was huge.”

Norwig has had so many special moments with the Steelers and developed so many special relationships with players he nursed back to health that it is nearly impossible for him to begin listing them all.

But after working for all three of the Steelers’ Super Bowl-winning coaches — Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin — Norwig has decided it’s time to take care of his other family: his own.

Norwig, 65, is retiring on Monday, ending a career that began in 1991 and flourished as one of the leading trainers — if not the best — in the NFL. He will be replaced by Gabe Amponsah, a former Steelers intern and a Duquesne University graduate.

“It’s hard to put in a few words what John’s career has meant to us,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said. “He’s the consummate professional. He’s everything you want in somebody in this position. Our medical staff has been one of the tops in the NFL for a long time, and he’s part of the reason for that.”

The Steelers hired Norwig from Vanderbilt University, where he worked for five years after doing a one-year summer internship with the San Francisco 49ers. Previously, he worked at Penn State, his alma mater, serving as an assistant trainer mostly with football and basketball.

Norwig had an opportunity to join former Penn State assistant coach Dick Anderson at Rutgers in 1986 but decided to stay at Vanderbilt after discussing his options with athletic director Roy Kramer.

“Roy said, ‘If you work here, you’re going to work for the Pittsburgh Steelers or someone like that some day,’” Norwig said, recalling the conversation. “He said I’d do a whole lot better working in the SEC than going to Rutgers.”

How prophetic he was.

Norwig quickly developed a reputation as one of the best in the business. He became president of the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society, was named 2008 Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer by the National Athletic Trainers Association, and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame.

He was always so helpful that he selflessly gave his time to anyone who needed assistance, even during the season when he is working every day for nearly seven months. It was appreciated by everyone — except New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

In a 2005 game at Heinz Field, Norwig ran on to the field to offer help to injured Patriots tackle Matt Light, who was lying on the field with a serious leg injury. Belichick came on the field and ordered Norwig to get away from his player, using a profanity.

“We’re with these players more than with our families — they become our families,” Norwig said. “We laugh and cry together.”

“Just think of all the guys he treated ... you kidding me?” said Bradley, who joined the Steelers medical staff in Norwig’s second season. “They think the doctors do it; no, John organizes it. He’s the head. He’s the best organizer I’ve ever seen.”

Trainers sometime have to walk a tenuous line when dealing with injuries to a star player. In many instances, a head coach wants the player ready as soon as possible and available to play in the next game, especially if it is an important one. But Norwig and the medical staff have always had the final say when a player is ready to return.

That’s because they’ve always had the full support at the top of the organization with the Rooney family.

“It’s a high-pressure situation,” said former team physician Dr. Tony Yates, who worked nearly 30 years with Norwig. “These players get paid a few bucks and they’ve got to be ready week to week to week. John somehow has to put it all together when he meets the coach and tells him — this one can play, this one can’t.”

Norwig’s impact on his profession is felt in other cities across the country, especially the NFL. Two of his former assistants — Rick Burkholder (Kansas City) and Ryan Grove (Miami) — left the Steelers to become head trainers in the league. Ariko Iso, who was the NFL’s first full-time female trainer when she was with the Steelers, became head athletic trainer at Oregon State.

When Norwig was at Vanderbilt, two of the assistants he hired from Penn State — Oakmont native Paul Federici and Tim Bream — went on to become head trainers with the Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears, respectively.

“All the trainers looked up to him,” Yates said. “Everyone looked to him for guidance.”

“I have a lot of respect for his opinion,” Bradley added. “He and I would decide mutually what was best; it was never a one-sided thing. He’s been doing it for so long, I wouldn’t want players to go anywhere else for rehab. I wanted them in Pittsburgh with John.”

Another staple exits

Not many Steelers employees have been with the franchise longer than Lynne Molyneaux, who started when Chuck Noll was coach and outlasted at least a half-dozen public relations directors.

Molyneaux, who was hired by Joe Gordon in 1984, is the latest long-time employee who is retiring this month, joining Norwig and director of video and facilities Bob McCartney. After 39 years, most recently as senior director of alumni relations, her last day is June 9.

Only three people are believed to have worked longer for the organization than Molyneaux: McCartney, who celebrated his 50th anniversary with the Steelers in 2022; former traveling secretary Jim “Buff” Boston; and former team physician Dr. Tony Yates.

“She excelled at whatever she did,” said Gordon, the Steelers’ long-time publicity director who retired in 1998 after 29 years with the franchise. “She did it on merit. She was a real asset to the organization.”

After graduating from Point Park College, Molyneaux, 61, worked one year for Ketchum Advertising before joining the Steelers. She began her career working for Gordon in public relations, then eventually morphed into other roles that includes community relations and, most recently, alumni relations.

In addition, she has organized the Steelers annual Run And Walk that benefits the Chuck Noll Foundation and the Art Rooney Scholarship Fund for 31 years.

“I kind of just kept raising my hand — I can do it,” Molyneaux said.

Working with the Steelers alumni has been the part of the job she enjoyed most. In particular, when the Steelers honored their past Super Bowl teams, Molyneaux said she loved to see the reunions of the former players.

“When guys haven’t seen one another for 40 years, when you see them reunite, I sit back and observe,” she said. “It’s so neat to see them pick up where they left off 40 years ago.

“They’re just wonderful. They paved the way for all of us. They are just a bunch of great guys. To get to serve them and get to call some of them friends is just wonderful.”

Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.