PITTSBURGH — Michael Pittman Jr. was half the world away when he learned he'd be playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers next season.
Pittman and his younger brother, Mycah, were visiting Uganda, a trip that had been penciled onto the calendar way before Pittman could've predicted he'd be switching uniforms.
"It cut my trip short," Pittman said Friday in a press conference at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "I was doing kind of a sight-seeing trip, fishing trip with my brother. We actually ended the trip about six days early, but I thought that it was important to get back. As much fun as we had, I had to get back here. To get back here, I think it was 28 hours. I flew from Uganda to Ethiopia to Azerbaijan to JFK then here."
Pittman documented some of the trip on Instagram, posting photos of the nature and wildlife in the African country.
"I planned it probably a year and a half ago, so I couldn't foresee this," Pittman said.
However, Pittman's wife, Kianna, could.
"I think that I tweeted out, it was probably a month and a half ago now, my wife told me she had a dream that I was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey," Pittman said. "I kinda just brushed it off, like, 'OK, cool.' And then it's just kinda crazy how it happened. When I started to get the feeling that it was gonna be here, I was like, 'That's kinda crazy.' … She just said that she can see into the future, jokingly, of course."
Mike McCarthy and the Steelers acquired Pittman from the Indianapolis Colts for a late-round draft pick swap. Since entering the league as a second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Pittman has more receptions (485), receiving yards (5,254) and touchdown catches (25) than any Colts pass catcher, according to Statmuse.
"The first, initial thing is obviously you're kinda sad about (leaving) the people that you spent six years with," Pittman said. "I'm only 28. That's almost a quarter of my life that I've been with the same team. So there's obviously a little bit of sadness, but then after that, there's some excitement of coming to a new place with a new opportunity. When I got on the phone with Mike and everything that he was saying, it got me just really fired up.
"I really feel like this is the right place."
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Inside Michael Pittman's Long, Wacky Journey to Joining Steelers
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