FRYBURG, Pa. (EYT) — Growing up in Oil City, Mike Koyack was a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fans, heck Mike is still a big-time fan.
(The Koyack boys from left: Ben, the Jaguars tight end, Mike, the older brother, and dad, Dave)
But while 99.999999 percent of Steelers fans are dreaming of a seventh Super Bowl title, Koyack is hoping for a divisional-round exit.
What — you say? How can he be a diehard fan of the team and want them to lose?
It’s easy.
Family is always first, and Mike’s brother Ben is a tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Steelers opponent at Heinz Field at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday, January 14.
Mike Koyack (right) and his wife, Lindsey, with younger brother, Ben (center), the Jaguars tight end
And Ben, a superstar at Oil City High School at the start of the decade, is a large reason why Jacksonville is in this game having caught the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard pass from Blake Bortles in the third quarter of Jacksonville’s 10-3 win over Buffalo in the Wild Card Round Sunday, January 7. It was just the sixth catch of the season for the 6-foot-5, 258-pound second-year man out of Notre Dame, who has been asked to be more of a blocker for the Jags this year.
“This is the second time this year we’re going to see him at Heinz Field,” Mike Koyack said, referring to Jacksonville’s 30-9 win over the Steelers October 8. “It’s super exciting but also feels super strange knowing it’s Pittsburgh we want him to beat up on.”
Mike Koyack, who now lives in the Fryburg, says Steelers fans have been very kind to him and the rest of the Koyak family this week.
“I’m getting a lot of people coming to me and telling me how awesome this is, a kid from Oil City, playing in this game,” Mike Koyack said. “Everyone I talk to has nothing but good things to say about what he’s done. Our family is beyond proud of him.”
Mike Koyack said he knew Ben was going to be a special athlete from an early age when he was schooling his older brother — Mike is two years older than Ben — in the backyard.
“I knew ever since we were 10 or 11 that he was very talented,” Mike Koyack said. “I’m two years older, and he’d make me look like a fool in our backyard playing basketball.”
Mike Koyack said he and his family couldn’t be prouder of what Ben has done with that talent.
“Our family and friends have so much love for what he’s been able to do with those talents,” Mike Koyak said. “He’s very humble and quiet but loves the opportunity he has been given.”
