Catching Up With Steelers Great LaMarr Woodley

Warner dropped back, scrambled and was about to heave a pass to the end zone — where the great Larry Fitzgerald was lurking — when Woodley swatted Warner’s forearm, forcing a fumble that defensive end Brett Keisel recovered with five seconds left to seal a 27-23 Steelers win.

“That was a movie moment,” said the 40-year-old Woodley. “Coach [Mike] Tomlin is on the sideline saying, ‘We need a big play!’ I’m like, ‘I got you, Coach!’ The music is playing in my head, I took off and made the play ... those are moments you only see in the movies.”

If a documentary was made of that Super Bowl, Woodley is the rare ex-NFL star who could produce, write, edit and direct it while guiding the gaffer and camera operators.

Woodley had radio and TV shows during his playing career, and as he transitioned to retirement after 2015 he was a host on the NFL Network’s “Tackle My Ride” and had a role on “Ballers,” the Max series starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

“While I was on set, I always paid attention to what was going on behind the scenes,” said Woodley, who lives in Detroit. “That was always very interesting to me.”

Woodley purchased video and sound equipment and produced a show called “Draft Day,” about when the Steelers picked him in 2007. He also produced a movie called “Money and Problems,” about two brothers scrambling to make ends meet.

Woodley wants to take his movie-making to the next level, so he enrolled in a yearlong program at the Motion Picture Institute (MPI) in Troy, Mich.

“For me to become a better leader, I needed to get educated in this film world,” said Woodley, who completed the program in September. “I’m there to become a better producer, to learn every job, what everybody does.”

Among the projects Woodley is focusing on is NIL money, the payments college athletes receive for using their name, image and likeness for commercial purposes.

“I want to educate [college] players about life skills and dealing with all types of finances, whether it’s bad contracts, shady people, scams, gambling, cheating on tests,” said the Michigan All-American.

Woodley has long been an advocate of education. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan and a master’s degree in sports management from California University of Pennsylvania (now Pennsylvania Western University).

“Education is key,” he once said. “Coming up, I saw a lot of athletes that weren’t able to go to college because they couldn’t make the grades, and I’ve seen a lot of athletes in college fail because of grades. I’ve seen guys in the league fail, lose money and lose everything they have, simply because they lacked education.”