Steelers fans blame Isaac Redman?
By Tim Weaver
Idiots. Every NFL fanbase has them. From the lowliest team to the top Super Bowl contenders, you can find them everywhere. The Pittsburgh Steelers are no exception to the rule.
When your team loses a playoff game it’s only natural to feel frustrated. Some people (the aforementioned idiots) like to take out those frustrations on Twitter and call out players who made mistakes when it really counted.
The Steelers had a shot to upset the Denver Broncos on the road in their divisional round playoff game yesterday, but they couldn’t come through in several big moments. More than any other play, the fumble by Fitzgerald Toussaint in the fourth quarter cost Pittsburgh the game. Watch Broncos safety Bradley Roby make the key strip:
Here is the play the seemingly won the game for the #Broncos. Bradley Roby strips Fitzgerald Toussaint. pic.twitter.com/Hcjp2z2Fnx
— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) January 18, 2016
On the ensuing drive Denver got a rushing touchdown from C.J. Anderson that gave them the lead for good. That’s why some fans are blaming Isaac Redman for Pittsburgh’s loss.
Wait, what?
Yes, even though Redman retired after the 2013 season and hasn’t played in two years some Steelers fans tweeted complaints at him on Sunday evening. Many of these misguided folks have since deleted their tweets, but it’s too late now and the cat is out of the bag.
Here’s a sample of some of the most ridiculous things that people were tweeting at Redman:
Why the confusion?
Toussaint wears number 33, which is of course the same number that Redman wore during his playing days.
What are we to make of this? Our guess is that most of these so-called Steelers fans haven’t actually watched a game since 2013. Of course it’s always possible that they were simply too drunk to read the name on the back of the jersey.
Even if they had gotten their target right, the criticism of Toussaint is unjustified. It’s easy to point your finger at any one player and blame them for a loss. Football is an incredibly complex game with 22 moving parts on the field at any given time, and an almost unlimited number of formations and schemes.
The Steelers had 60 minutes to beat the Broncos and they came up short. Blaming the whole thing on Toussaint for fumbling is just about as ignorant as it gets.
Stay in school, kids.