Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey has arrived at Latrobe for the start of training camp, and he answered questions from the media regarding him being photographed with his twin brother Mike Pouncey during his birthday party a few weeks ago while wearing “Free Hernandez” hats.
Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports via Twitter that Maurkice said, “he took a lot of heat” for the wearing the hat, and that he has since talked to head coach Mike Tomlin about the incident.
Will Graves of the Associated Press also reports on Twitter that Maurkice apologized again for the incident and let it be known that he is ready to play.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Maurkice, however, would not say whether or not he has talked to his former University of Florida teammate Aaron Hernandez since he was charged with murder a few weeks ago.
There will certainly be more quotes coming from Maurkice over the course of the next few hours, but it appears as though he is handling the backlash much better than his brother did when he arrived for the start of the Miami Dolphins training camp last week.
Maurkice did well in getting this out of the way right away so that it doesn\’t serve as a distraction for him or the rest of the team. You have to wonder if Tomlin advised him to do just that.
