A few hours after what was arguably the best game of his young career as an NFL starting quarterback Sunday night, Kenny Pickett was blissfully asleep on the plane ride home from Las Vegas.
Like many of his teammates and others on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ chartered flight, Pickett was suddenly awoken by a most unlikely – and, potentially, scary – manner.
“The flight attendant woke me up and said, ‘We have a Code Yellow alert,’” Pickett said Wednesday afternoon. “I was out of it. What does that mean? We’re one step away from Code Red, so it’s obviously not good.”
En route from Las Vegas after the Steelers’ 23-18 win against the Raiders on Sunday night, the plane made an emergency landing in Kansas City shortly before 4 a.m.
No one was injured, but the mechanical issue that caused the emergency resulted in a stay in the aircraft for several hours until a new plane was brought in. The team de-boarded the original aircraft, and the ensuing flight did not get the Steelers back in Pittsburgh until after 1 p.m. Monday.
What did the team do with all its down time on the Kansas City International Airport tarmac?
“Not much,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said with a laugh.
Pickett said he got some sleep … on the floor.
“That was awful,” he said. “Watched tape, tried to relax a little and unwind. Crazy, crazy experience. Definitely grateful when we landed and we were safe.”
Pickett said he sat in a “quarterback row” of seats along with Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trubisky.
In the end, everyone got home safely, so it’s just a story to tell now. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some moments as tense as a late two-minute drill with the season on the line.
“Some guys were panicking,” Pickett said. “It was a crazy situation.”
Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.
