A significant aspect of the NFL Scouting Combine involves teams assessing prospects' physical capabilities in drills as well as their football intelligence during meetings. However, Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers’ encounter with the Pittsburgh Steelers concentrated more on his personal background rather than the sport of football. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin exhibited a keen interest in Ewers’ academic journey at Texas.

Ewers commented, “It was great, it was great,” told Aditi Kinkhabwala on CBS Sports HQ regarding his combine meeting with the Steelers. “Talked to Coach Tomlin and just get to know him a little bit and him getting to know me. … It was funny, we started talking about my major. It’s like what Cardale Jones said, ‘We didn’t go to college to play school.’ It was good getting to talk to him.”

Jones had famously tweeted, “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL. We ain’t come to play SCHOOL. Classes are POINTLESS.”

Ewers clarified that his major at Texas was physical culture in sports, which piqued Tomlin’s curiosity, leading into related discussions. Ewers also revealed, “He wanted to know what my final GPA was. It was around a 3.3, 3.4ish,” noting that Tomlin noted it down. Ewers accepted the humorous view on grades, stating, “C’s get degrees.” He shared that aside from the Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders, there were no requests for him to diagram plays during other meetings at the combine.