his freshman season, he also had three quarterback pressures and a forced fumble. Hampton majored in history. In 2000, The Daily Texan, the student daily paper at Texas, characterized Hampton as "relentless," even quoting Hampton. "The way I see it, you never know when your last play is going to be," Texas' star defensive tackle said. "So you should go hard all the time. There's no reason to take a play off.." At the time, Hampton was 6'1 and 325 lbs and safety Greg Brown said "I have never seen him take a down off, he's just so intent on destroying people that he never takes time to rest. It's gotta be a gift." Hampton played with Shaun Rogers, a 2nd round pick of the Detroit Lions in 2001 and a Longhorn from 1997–2000; and after Hampton was quoted saying "No one guy can block me. Two guys can probably get it done but never one guy. I can always overpower one," the Daily Texan printed this: "He's says he's never even been caked. Ever," fellow defensive tackle Rogers said. "He says he wasn't even caked in junior high, but I, at least, am humble enough to say that I might have been once or twice. So I'd say some of what he says is questionable." Professional career 2001 The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Hampton in the first round (19th overall) of the 2001 NFL Draft. Hampton was the fifth defensive tackle drafted in 2001. On July 22, 2001, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Hampton to a five-year, $6.80 million contract with a signing bonus of $3.10 million. Throughout training camp, he competed for the job as the starting nose tackle against Kendrick Clancy. Head coach Bill Cowher named Hampton the backup nose tackle behind Kendrick Clancy to start the regular season. He made his professional regular season debut in the Pittsburgh Steelers' season-opening 21–3 loss at the Jacksonville Jaguars. On October 26, 2001, Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Bill Cowher named Hampton the starting nose tackle for the remainder of the season, but stated he would still be rotated by Kendrick Clancy. On October 29, 2001, Hampton earned his first career start and recorded two combined tackles during a 34–7 victory against the Tennessee Titans in Week 7. In Week 9, he collected a season-high four combined tackles and made his first career sack on quarterback Tim Couch in the Steelers' 15–12