Miami football alum Anthony Chickillo highly critical how he was coached by Al Golden

The irony is that Chickillo’s girlfriend Alysha Newman, a former Miami All-American pole vaulter and Canadian Olympian is likely to be inducted into the UMSHoF someday.

Chickillo makes light

of the fact that Newman will someday be inducted but his collegiate career will never get him there.

"“We joke all the time because she knows my dream was to go into the Miami Hall of Fame… know she’ll go into the Hall eventually.”"

Chickillo reached out to the Athletic and the Herald because he felt remorse over the way he treated Miami football fans and media. The Steelers defensive lineman wanted closure on that part of his life. Chickillo told Miller Degnan he let his ego get in the way of treating people with respect as a college football player.

"“That chapter of my life hasn’t really closed and I wanted to close it. For so long I’ve carried hate inside and I don’t like the feeling…get rid of the boy and be a man. I’ve dropped my ego’, When I came to Miami I was a five-star high school prospect and third-generation star. The fan base loved me. As a young kid having success you think you know it all. But you don’t…I kind of just cut them off (Golden and D’Onofrio) and then cut off the Miami media. I took it out on the wrong people. The Miami fan base is passionate and I was looked at as the guy who would help bring us back and it didn’t turn out that way. When people are saying you suck all the time, as a young kid it was easy to be affected."

Chickillo admitted to Manny Navarro he regretted his behavior in college. He has accepted that the behavior is in the past and Chickillo has moved on from it.

"“That’s just kind of how life is, you expect it to go one way and it goes another and you gotta respond the right way…Did I respond the right way? I don’t think I did. There’s a lot of things I wish I could have done different in college. But you can’t go back. That’s life and you have to move on.”"

Chickillo wasn’t the only one affected by the Miami football fans telling him he sucked. His father lost friendships as a result of having to defend to him not living up to his status as one of the most sought after recruits in the 2011 class.

Chickillo agreed to a two-year $8 million contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers in March. This is Chickillo’s third contract with Pittsburgh. Chickillo spoke with Navarro about how the taunts about his play affected his father and how he grew up going to Miami football games.

"“My dad lost a lot of friends…It was tough, really hard…I grew up going to the Orange Bowl as a kid. I grew up watching Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Vilma, Jerome McDougle, Jeremy Shockey, Andre Johnson, Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, those were all my heroes. After every little league game from second grade to eighth grade, we would drive down to the Miami games, tailgate and go see the games in the Orange Bowl. In elementary school, I used to write papers that I wanted to be like my dad and be a football player at Miami. When things started going south, when the fan base turned against me, the Miami media started writing stories, and it got worse. But when you don’t have the support of the head coach, and they’re not putting you in the position to succeed, the position to make all the plays, that was the hard reality.”"