He was medical director of the Pittsburgh Marathon when the Steelers contacted him about the role. When he was offered the job, he took it without hesitation. “As a diehard Steelers fan, I only thought about it for a millisecond,” he said.

Dr. Roth encourages anyone interested in the intersection of sports and emergency medicine to pursue this line of work. “You’re not a sports medicine doctor, you are an emergency physician, taking care of emergencies on the field. There’s some overlap but we have our own expertise.”

Dr. Roth has fond memories of sitting in the cheap seats to watch games with his father as a child. Now, he is on the sidelines and in the locker room. Some days he feels like a kid again.

“Sometimes I pinch myself,” he said. “Nobody is going to ask me what plays to run, but when I help determine how to treat an injury, I feel like part of the team.”