Pittsburgh Steelers legend Lynn Swann and long snapper Cal Adomitis spent the first day of the NFL Draft visiting patients at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside, bringing the league’s Crucial Catch message from the stage to the bedside. The outreach was tied to the American Cancer Society and NFL initiative focused on cancer screening and awareness.
Swann, a four-time Super Bowl champion, was a first-round Steelers draft pick in 1974, won Super Bowl X MVP honors and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001. Adomitis, who played at Central Catholic and Pitt before signing with the Steelers in December after stops with the Bengals and Eagles, joined him in speaking with patients undergoing treatment and with staff members at UPMC Hillman. Patients also received Crucial Catch blankets from the American Cancer Society, and Swann let patient Ralph Dietz try on his Super Bowl rings.
The visit came during draft week, when Pittsburgh had a steady stream of current and former Steelers appearances across the city, but its purpose was different from the usual photo stop. Since 2012, Crucial Catch has supported more than 840,000 cancer screenings and touched more than 1.9 million lives, a scale that gave the visit its weight even as the setting stayed small and personal.
Swann’s own draft class still shapes Steelers history: the team also selected Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster in 1974 and signed undrafted free agent Donnie Shell that year. That backdrop fit the day’s message. Draft week in Pittsburgh was about football, but at UPMC Hillman the game took a back seat to the people the initiative is meant to reach.