No sooner than the Steelers took Najee Harris as their first selection, the smack talk with their rivals, the Ravens had already started.
Trash talk between the Ravens and the Steelers is nothing new and nothing out of the ordinary. Although typically, not much occurs during the off-season. Leave it to Marcus Peters, the Ravens cornerback, to draw the ire of Steelers fans by video bombing Najee Harris post-draft press conference.
Perhaps Harris and Peters are off-field friends and granted, Harris did invite him to his draft party. That still does not give Peters the right to try to upstage Harris in his media interview. If he wanted to congratulate him and say I’ll see you on the field, rookie, ok, perhaps that might have had some class.
Peters throws Harris off-kilter and tries to hammer the point home that Harris will have to face the Ravens twice a year. That kind of lacked class. Better yet, he could have let Harris have his media interview and have his moment in the sun. Not that anyone on the Ravens has class.
Perhaps Pittsburgh fans should not take the incident seriously as it does not seem Najee Harris got upset over the incident. It might be a fair point. It may have been different if Peters played for the Rams, Lions, or Panthers, the Steelers play those sparingly and do not have an intense rivalry. However, Peters plays for the Ravens. In case he forgot, the Steelers manhandled the Ravens for two wins in 2020, and it’s not beyond the pale to expect them to lose to the Steelers twice in 2021.
The Steelers will still have a lot of returning talent in 2021. Plus some new offensive threats. In short, when they face each other this season, his actions won’t go unnoticed, even if the incident is minor in comparison to other events between the Ravens and Steelers. Once Harris gets settled in with the Steelers, he will soon learn the rivalry with the Ravens is huge and nasty at times. Come game time; he might even want a little payback.
Had Peters let Harris have his moment with the media, all would be well. He didn’t, and fans won’t forget it either come the start of the season. Fans won’t Let Harris forget it either. It will be interesting to see how witty Peters gets after Harris burns the Ravens for 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns this fall.