The Pittsburgh Steelers owe a great deal of gratitude to Janesville Joseph A. Craig High School wrestling coach, Mark Mullen, for the player and athlete that the team selected with the 49th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Keeanu Benton joins a growing contingent of Wisconsin Badgers alumni in Pittsburgh led by 2021 AP Defensive Player of the Year TJ Watt, fellow rookie Nick Herbig, former college roommate Isaiahh Loudermilk and safety Scott Nelson. Benton recently revealed how Mullen changed his life in two amazing ways, the first making him a Badger.
Benton was unranked by all major recruiting sites coming out of high school, though the Associated Press reported he did get an offer from Iowa. According to Mike DeFabo of The Athletic, it was a phone call that Mullen made to a future athletic director at Wisconsin, Chris McIntosh that led to Benton attending the school and changing his life. Mullen told McIntosh that Benton was the best athlete he'd ever coached and that they needed to have him. After convincing McIntosh to have the football team take a look at the tape, Benton got an invitation to a practice for an informal recruiting visit. The night of the visit, Mullen's phone buzzed with a message from his star athlete that read "I got a full ride."
"Do you even know what a full ride is?” Mullen recalled saying. “He [Benton] said, ‘Well, I was just in Coach [Paul] Chryst’s office and I signed some paperwork. They said I’m gonna get my schooling all paid for. All the food that I want to eat. And all my housing and everything.' Thank God it turned out. Because I would look like an idiot if it didn’t, but I knew he could do it.”
While he still has more to prove as he moves onto the next level of the game, Benton has memento from his high school coach pinned to his locker as a reminder of what he has accomplished and what he is still out to do.
Steelers' Benton's 2nd Live Saving Moment From Mullen
In October of 2012, Mullen was running a routine gym class when one of the 15-year-old girls jogging around the court collapsed suddenly. At first he thought nothing of it, but then realized the seriousness of the situation as he got closer. The girl laying on the hardwood floor was Benton's older sister, Tiveona. He thought she was having a seizure, but as her vitals faded, he knew she was going into cardiac arrest from his CPR training. He began chest compressions, 9-1-1 was called and an AED was brought over. The instructions from the operator were not to shock a 15-year-old girl, but in a life or death situation, Mullen made a judgement call.
"If you guys fire me, that’s fine,” Mullen recalled saying to the school's athletic director at the time. “I’m pushing it. I’m taking the risk.”
Tiveona's heart started again after the shock just in time to be whisked into an ambulance to the hospital. She was put into a coma for four days and then had surgery to put in a pacemaker.
For the man that has no doubt shaped his life, Benton offered a simple bit of praise.
"He’s a guy who’s going to tell you the truth no matter what," he said. "He’s a guy who’s going to help you out. He has a big heart, and he wears it on his sleeve.”
While it may be Steelers legend LC Greenwood staring up at him from his locker, it's the words on the page above from a special man in his life that he will continue to hold close.
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