Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh Steelers, social media antics didn’t end with Antonio Brown’s Facebook Live incident. Steelers players are heading down a social media path that has recently been traveled, and the results will not be good.
I would have thought that the Twitter drama would have stopped with the departure of two very vocal, attention-driven players: Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. However, Steelers players continue to find themselves in the social media spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Yesterday, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic took to Twitter with a comment regarding his thoughts on a statement JuJu Smith-Schuster had said. Colin Dunlap captured a screenshot of a comment Steelers edge defender, Bud Dupree, made in response to Kaboly:
Apparently Bud isn’t on the text chain about limiting distractions. pic.twitter.com/8tR04csD1k
— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) May 22, 2019
Dupree’s comments to Kaboly were completely uncalled for. The distractions would cease to exist if players like Dupree wouldn’t try to start Twitter fights with anyone that even hints at the notion of attacking (of all people) Antonio Brown.
Unfortunately, Dupree wasn’t the only one making headlines on Twitter. 2018 1st round pick, Terrell Edmunds, was spotted liking a tweet from Antonio Brown – a tweet where he clearly referred to Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, as “Two Face”:
Current #Steelers player, Safety Terrell Edmunds [their first round pick last year], "liked" the comment by Antonio Brown @AB84 calling out Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger "Two Face". pic.twitter.com/pwfNBEDVQB
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 20, 2019
Terrell Edmunds "likes" AB's "two face" tweet. Bud Dupree is calling a Steelers reporter "fat boy" because he had the audacity to quote another Steelers player. Man, this team's really learned its lesson.
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) May 22, 2019
Steelers players are electing to bring this drama upon themselves by making poor decisions when it comes to social media.
Why does it seem like players are working so hard to defend Antonio Brown? Are Dupree and Edmunds siding with Brown over Roethlisberger with the comments they have made? Would these antics continue if Bill Belichick were the head coach in Pittsburgh?
I know players have the right to voice their opinions on the internet for the world to see, but Mike Tomlin needs to put a swift end to this. The social media drama helps nobody, and Steelers players need to stop getting offended over every statement made by the media.
Ben Roethlisberger is your quarterback. The players in black and yellow are your teammates. If you are going to defend anyone, defend them for once.