LATROBE, Pa. -- After leaving their first team meeting of the 2026 training camp Wednesday morning, the Pittsburgh Steelers found new shirts hanging in their lockers at St. Vincent College.
"Tempered" stretched across the black shirt in gold lettering, and the back expanded on the definition of the slogan: "More than talented. More than tough. Tempered."
"[It's about] the parallels between the city of Pittsburgh, the Steel Mill industry, the tempering process of how steel was built -- and still is today -- and the parallels between coming together as a football team," coach Mike McCarthy told ESPN.
McCarthy said as much to his team in their first meeting, that they should be a reflection of the city's gritty heritage. It's why McCarthy chose "tempered" as the defining word of his first training camp as the Steelers' new head coach.
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"We have to be tough, hard, and this is a blue-collar town," Steelers guard Spencer Anderson said, relaying what McCarthy told them. "Button up, bring your lunch pail and let's go, because that's always where we've been since 1933.... Can't fold under the heat. And when the heat comes, you got to make steel -- or I guess do the right things, so to speak."
But tempered in McCarthy's use has dual meanings. Not only can it mean toughened and made resilient, but it can also mean being controlled. To McCarthy, tempered isn't just about raw strength. It's about being controlled in the approach to building that strength. And through a week of training camp, McCarthy's practices have been deliberately, even scientifically, tempered to train the mind as much as the body.
"Everything's calculated," McCarthy said, adding that he relies on GPS data on devices worn by players to help construct his practice plan. "Everything's regulated. There's obviously science behind it. We're in tune with the conditioning of our players. The commitment the players made in the spring was evident.... This is all by design. There's history behind it.... Everybody has a genetic background that you pay attention to. Some guys can rev higher than others. And so this is part of the process."
Through five practices, the differences between McCarthy's approach and former coach Mike Tomlin's are palpable. One isn't necessarily better than the other, players stressed, but the practices are different.