{"id":43978,"date":"2025-04-26T01:53:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T01:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=43978"},"modified":"2025-04-26T01:53:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T01:53:41","slug":"breaking-nfl-fans-offer-heartfelt-messages-to-steelers-first-rounder-after-his-mom-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=43978","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: NFL Fans Offer Heartfelt Messages to Steelers First-Rounder After His Mom Dies.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2202354974.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2202354974.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2202354974.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2202354974.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Derrick Harmon\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-dom-ready-time=\"232\" data-img-load-time=\"449\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette&#8217;s Gerry Dulac reported Friday the mother of Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Derrick Harmon passed away.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The NFL Draft can be a roller coaster of emotions for a lot of prospects. That was certainly the case for defensive lineman\u00a0Derrick Harmon\u00a0this week.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0selected Harmon at No. 21 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. Harmon received the opportunity to tell his mother, who was on life support in a hospital, that he had been drafted.<\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\u2019s Gerry Dulac reported that Harmon\u2019s mother, Tiffany Saine, died hours after learning her son was heading to the Steelers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDerrick Harmon\u2019s mom, who was on life support, passed away shortly after he went to the hospital and got to tell her he had been drafted by the Steelers,\u201d tweeted Dulac.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scontent.fhan2-3.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t39.30808-6\/491959334_122208736718091756_4587246097453321925_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=127cfc&amp;_nc_ohc=JnHY552WrvwQ7kNvwH4-dha&amp;_nc_oc=AdkuDcQzWtnjR_XvjBTj0K9cp94-mxdEDOmthpPMQJHiBA-Fln1Q4bkkbt7FutuYfameJu9o9uro3oviYo76cy79&amp;_nc_zt=23&amp;_nc_ht=scontent.fhan2-3.fna&amp;_nc_gid=fQhLMNBGBBw1CgPsqmpiFA&amp;oh=00_AfH05CWijB-7SLUmI94EHI6AD7CJU38NHCoRyNA_Pwb6rA&amp;oe=68122552\" alt=\"Kh\u00f4ng c\u00f3 m\u00f4 t\u1ea3 \u1ea3nh.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<p>Dulac\u2019s tweet received more than one million views and thousands of responses in support for Harmon in less than two hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s so sad RIP,\u201d\u00a0a Pittsburgh sports account tweeted\u00a0with a praying emoji.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy condolences to the Harmon family,\u201d\u00a0tweeted NY Daily News\u2019 Antwan V. Staley, who also included a praying emoji.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t fathom the emotions that young man is going through,\u201d\u00a0wrote\u00a0a San Francisco 49ers artwork account. \u201cPrayers to him and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt least she got to see her son achieve his dream, RIP,\u201d\u00a0tweeted\u00a0the College Football Report, which included a broken heart and praying emoji.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell now I\u2019m a Derrick Harmon fan,\u201d\u00a0wrote another social media user. \u201cI\u2019m hurting for him and the rest of that family and group of her friends. RIP.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Steelers Draft DT Derrick Harmon in First Round<\/h2>\n<p>Going into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft,\u00a0the big question\u00a0on the minds of a lot of pundits was whether the Steelers would draft quarterback Shedeur Sanders if he was available at No. 21 overall.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders was available when the Steelers made their selection. But\u00a0Pittsburgh chose Harmon\u00a0instead of the Colorado signal-caller.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders continued to be a major draft storyline, as the quarterback didn\u2019t get drafted in the first round. But in Pittsburgh, attention quickly turned to Harmon\u2019s draft story and his mother.<\/p>\n<p>Harmon told reporters Thursday night that his mother was on life support in the hospital. The defensive tackle rushed to her after the Steelers selected him at No. 21 overall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a little bittersweet. My mom wasn\u2019t with me,\u201d Harmon said,\u00a0via PennLive.com\u2019s Nick Farabaugh. \u201cShe\u2019s at the hospital right now on life. That was a little bittersweet because she worked just as hard as me to get to this moment\u2026 After I got the phone with you guys, I\u2019m headed straight to the hospital and kind of tell her that her son got drafted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Farabaugh reported Harmon\u2019s mother suffered a stroke and went into the hospital when the defensive tackle was a freshman at Michigan State in 2021. After the stroke, Saine couldn\u2019t walk and was paralyzed on the left side of her body.<\/p>\n<p>After three seasons at Michigan State, Harmon played his senior year at Oregon. With money from his NIL deal in college, the defensive tackle bought his mother a wheelchair.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Social Media Reacts to Passing of Harmon\u2019s Mother<\/h2>\n<p>NFL Network\u2019s Tom Pelissero confirmed\u00a0Dulac\u2019s report on X that Harmon\u2019s mother passed away. With Pelissero covering the league at large, his tweet received responses from fans of teams around the league sending love to the new Steelers defensive tackle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so sorry for Harmon\u2019s loss but his mom must be incredibly proud of him,\u201d\u00a0wrote an NFL writer. \u201cSending all the prayers and best wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust brutal,\u201d\u00a0wrote a social media user\u00a0with a Cincinnati Bengals logo as his X profile picture. \u201cI am glad that he got that brief moment with her before she passed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHarmon is such a high character guy,\u201d\u00a0wrote a Los Angeles sports fan. \u201cSo happy he got drafted last night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow. The best day of his life is also the worst \u2026 man oh man,\u201d\u00a0a Titans fan wrote. \u201cPraying for Harmon and all his family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPuts the whole draft into perspective,\u201d\u00a0tweeted another user. \u201cPrayers to him and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette&#8217;s Gerry Dulac reported Friday the mother of Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Derrick Harmon passed away. The NFL Draft can be a roller coaster&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: NFL Fans Offer Heartfelt Messages to Steelers First-Rounder After His Mom Dies.. - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=43978\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: NFL Fans Offer Heartfelt Messages to Steelers First-Rounder After His Mom Dies.. - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette&#8217;s Gerry Dulac reported Friday the mother of Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Derrick Harmon passed away. 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