The morning after the Steelers' 13-9 win over Kansas City, Brett Keisel slept in. It was a Sunday night game, the team's chartered plane had touched down at Pittsburgh International Airport in the wee hours, and the defensive end still felt sore all over in the morning.

But Monday, Nov. 28, was a special day for Keisel -- the opening of Pennsylvania's statewide rifle deer season. A longtime hunter and outdoorsman from the Wyoming wilds, Keisel climbed out of bed and into a Beaver County tree stand, where he scored an eight-point.

"My [deer] was shot . . . in Western Pennsylvania with my Ruger .25-06 . . .," he wrote on his Facebook page. "One-shot kill at about 120 yards. Deer was 100 percent wild, so is hunter."

Weeks later, Keisel's teammates were eating venison sausage snacks in the locker room -- "provided by the fruits of my labor," he said -- while in the hallway at the Steelers' South Side training facility, Keisel talked about hunting.

Now in his 10th season with the team, he said he's learned to find his way in the Western Pennsylvania woods.

"I try to hunt every year. The first couple of years [in Pittsburgh] were kind of hard, you know, because I really didn't know where to go," he said.

"But I got in with some friends who have some property around here. I got a few deer, but I'm just enjoying getting out in the woods and listening to Mother Earth."

Keisel is an experienced bow hunter -- his football sack celebration is an archer drawing a bow -- but this year his arrows didn't pierce a hide.

"I really like archery. It's still nice outside and I'm not too beat up," he said. "Usually when I get into December, my body's sore and I really value my sleep."

Skunked this year at archery, Keisel hunted on the opening day of rifle season on a friend's posted property.

"I got into the stand about 3 o'clock. A bunch of does came right out -- I waited, waited, waited," he said. "Then this buck came out. It was a pretty good buck, but I thought, there's going to be a huge one come out just after him, so I waited for a little bit."