{"id":262738,"date":"2025-10-31T11:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/262738\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:20:09","slug":"hes-going-to-survive-this-long-road-lies-ahead-for-acrisure-stadium-fall-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/262738\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He’s going to survive this’: Long road lies ahead for Acrisure Stadium fall victim"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend of Keith Keller, the TV crewman who plunged at least 50 feet from Acrisure Stadium\u2019s main scoreboard<\/a> last weekend while prepping the Pittsburgh venue for a prime-time Sunday Night Football audience, said the Chicago-area man has a long road \u2014 and a lot of medical bills \u2014 ahead of him.<\/p>\n

Keller, who is in his 50s, fell from the North Shore stadium\u2019s scoreboard to \u201ca mid-level catwalk\u201d around 10 p.m. Saturday while mounting a remote camera as a contractor for NBC, police and one of Keller\u2019s work colleagues told TribLive.<\/p>\n

NBC was in town to broadcast the NFL\u2019s match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n

Keller remained hospitalized Thursday. Surgeons have worked to repair his lower legs, which were \u201cshattered,\u201d the bones broken in multiple places, according to longtime friend Bill Brennan, 63, of Plantation, Fla., a Fort Lauderdale suburb.<\/p>\n

Keller also lacerated his liver and spleen in the fall, Brennan said. A ventilator continues to help him breathe.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if Keller will suffer more permanent injuries but the prognosis \u2014 all things considered \u2014 appears positive, Brennan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in disbelief that he\u2019s still with us. You don\u2019t fall 60 feet and survive,\u201d Brennan, who started working with Keller in sports broadcasting more than 25 years ago, told TribLive Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, as of now, he\u2019s going to survive this,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not a real religious guy or anything. But when you see something like this, you\u2019ve got to scratch your head and think about things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh police have said the distance of the fall was about 50 feet; Brennan said he believes it was closer to 60 feet.<\/p>\n

Brennan said he and Keller\u2019s wife, Stephenie , launched a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> Tuesday to help the Illinois couple pay medical bills and their mortgage while Keller is out of work.<\/p>\n

Within the fundraiser\u2019s first 24 hours, more than $110,000 poured in. The total from nearly 500 donors topped $140,000 Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Brennan feels the fundraiser\u2019s success illustrates what friends and work colleagues think of Keller\u2019s warmth and infectious sense of humor, as well as his knack for connecting with people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what a good guy he is,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cLook at the GoFundMe. You tell me what kind of man he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan and Keller are part of a loosely linked network of TV sports pros, including dozens of contractors and crew members, peppered throughout the nation. The group has frequently texted with one another since Saturday.<\/p>\n

These workers\u2019 days setting up cameras and other broadcasting gear at stadiums often exceed 10 hours and can run as long as 17, Brennan said.<\/p>\n

That hard work breeds a kind of intensity \u2014 Brennan said Keller\u2019s work ethic \u201cwill put 80% of this country to shame\u201d \u2014 but also a strong, even familial, bond among those who do it.<\/p>\n

Brennan didn\u2019t know a lot of details of Keller\u2019s fall. He called his colleague safety-conscious. But he said Thursday he didn\u2019t know if Keller was wearing a helmet or other protection at the time of the fall \u2014 or what conditions were like on the field.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh police and the Pittsburgh Steelers provided no updates Thursday on Keller\u2019s fall.<\/p>\n

The next emotional hurdle for Keller\u2019s peers will be waiting at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., home turf of the Washington Commanders. Crew members will travel there to prep for a Sunday Night Football broadcast featuring the visiting Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat game\u2019s going to be a tough one, an emotional one \u2014 I know if I was on it, I\u2019d be emotional,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cBut, the fact that we\u2019re talking about this four, five days out, the fact that he\u2019s not on life support, that\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A friend of Keith Keller, the TV crewman who plunged at least 50 feet from Acrisure Stadium\u2019s main…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-262738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}