Steelers Now
In a corresponding move to the Pittsburgh Steelers signing running backs Trey Sermon and Max Hurleman, the team announced on Tuesday that they have released running back Aaron Shampklin.
Shampklin signed a reserve/future contract with the Steelers in January after spending most of the 2024 season on the team’s practice squad. He was elevated to the active roster ahead of the Steelers Week 4 matchup with the Indianapolis Colts, in which he made his NFL debut. He was released on October 28, 2024, and re-signed to the practice squad.
Shampklin recorded one carry for five yards in the Steelers’ 27-24 loss to the Colts in Week 4. That was his only carry of the season.
The Paramount, California native and Harvard graduate first signed with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2022 and has spent time with the Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Gamblers of the USFL before catching on with the Steelers in January.
In three preseason games for the Steelers this season, Shampklin ran 13 times for 40 yards and caught three passes for three yards. After being released in the final round of cuts in late August, Shampklin did not make the team’s initial practice squad, but he was re-signed to the practice squad on Sept. 4 after Boston Scott suffered an injury.
With Shampklin out of football for the entire 2023 season, he went back to his hometown and taught math at Perry Lindsey Academy.
“I worked in the front office,” Shampklin said this past October. “If a teacher didn’t show up, they would put me in the classroom. Then they realized that I was really good at math, so they eventually made me a sixth grade math teacher.
“I really connected with the kids, too. It felt good to give back to the community in a different kind of way. It’s my hometown. They all knew I went to Harvard, so I was a walking example that they could do it, too.”
Shampklin had doubts at times about his football career, but he kept on pushing. Knowing that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
“There were a lot of sleepless nights,” Shampklin said. “Staying up until 2 in the morning and having to get up for a lift at 6 so I could have that football and school life balance, that definitely helped to prepare me for this moment now.
“Sometimes the field goal post felt like it kept getting moved, but every time I felt like I should do something else, God kept putting me back. Football is still there. You just have to be patient. God works in mysterious ways.”
If Shampklin’s football career doesn’t pan out, he knows he has a Harvard degree to fall back on. But that’s not his focus now.
“Committing to Harvard was basically my parents making me see there was more to life than football,” he said. “That wasn’t a deterrent for me. I knew the NFL would...
