Steelers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool have been very brash throughout the season, with unprofessional comments even following postseason elimination.
My mother always told me that the way I presented myself is a “reflection on the family.” Well if that holds true in the NFL, then Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has a couple of children that he needs to have a heart-to-heart with. Those children are outstanding wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and rookie Chase Claypool.
Earlier in the season, Tomlin had found himself in a sticky situation regarding the lack of maturity on his receiving corps, with JuJu dancing on opposing teams’ midfield logos before games. This juvenile behavior–following consecutive losses–led to Mike having to pull Smith-Schuster aside and tell him to give it a rest, as the deluded arrogance of it all was not a good look on the admirability of the team as a whole.
But even after the debacle was brought to JuJu’s attention, he still went on to speak in degradation of the Cleveland Browns heading into their matchup on Wild Card Weekend. Well, after a pathetic showing from Pittsburgh on both sides of the ball, one can probably guess who had the most egg on his face. Ridiculously, it didn’t end there either.
Not too long after the humiliating loss, Claypool went live on social media (a well-known error amongst Pittsburgh receivers) to talk some more trash on the Browns. In the clip that has since gone viral, he is heard saying that they would only go on to be beaten soundly by the Chiefs in the Divisional Round. After much well-deserved mockery for this remark, Chase said that the reason for him being so “salty” was how classless Cleveland was in the handling of their win.
Yes, he really said that.
Now while the Browns were in fact rather unsportsmanlike with their rare victory, dancing on an opponent’s logo, openly doubting your playoff competition, and trying to predict failures to mask your own doesn’t really add up too nicely in the eyes of most people either.
Mike Tomlin’s Steelers really do try to endorse the whole “football is family” vibe within the bond of the team, and that is a great thing to have in any sport. But with that family dynamic comes a standard of selflessness, maturity, and humility. While JuJu and Claypool are absolute monsters on a football field, no one is lacking in those departments more than they are.
To put it simply, with an esteemed franchise should come an esteemed attitude, and these guys have clearly not picked up on the volume of such a matter. If the Steelers want to be taken seriously, yet it almost seems as if they go out of their way to not be. It is not cute, it is not funny, and it is not cool. In reality, it is quite frankly nothing more than asinine. When the respect of some renowned players goes down, it will likely go down for everyone else on the squad as well. So if JuJu and Chase care at all about the reputations of themselves and/or their teammates, then they need to take a page out of my mother’s book and keep their lips sealed from here on out.