It just a few weeks ago that Pittsburgh Steelers fans were beside themselves when it was revealed that wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster had the intention of celebrating at midfield inside of the star against the Dallas Cowboys after scoring a touchdown. He did score a touchdown in the game, but a Cowboys player slapped the ball out of his hand.
After the game, multiple Cowboys players said that they saw Smith-Schuster on the star during pre-game warm-ups, and that they had the intention of stopping him from celebrating on the logo if he attempted to do that during the game, hearkening back to Terrell Owens.
Smith-Schuster, for his own part, acknowledged that he was planning on doing that, but that once the ball was slapped out of his hand, James Conner came over and basically told him that they still have a game to play and there were bigger fish to dry.
While the wide receiver did score last night in a losing effort, he did not celebrate following his fourth-quarter touchdown, which only pulled the Steelers to within 10 points before a successful two-point conversion attempt. However, as they he did in Dallas, he also had danced midfield on the Buffalo Bills’ logo before the game.
And like in that game, the Bills were aware of it, and that they weren’t exactly fans of it, either. They implied that they see Smith-Schuster doing this before every game on the road—though I don’t know whether or not that’s actually true.
“I ain’t gonna lie, seeing them dancing on our logo pre-game and seeing all that, that turns you up a little bit”, said safety Jordan Poyer. “It kind of gives you a second itch to play with some extra fire. We were hyped up on the sideline. We had a big win, and we were just having fun”.
Jordan Poyer and Levi Wallace said they noticed the #Steelers dancing on their logo pregame.
“That turns you up a little bit. We were hyped up on the sideline.”
To be fair, Jerry Hughes and Micah Hyde said they did not notice it. #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/LEgwyysnFt
— Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) December 14, 2020
Bills S Jordan Poyer said after game they noticed JuJu dancing on team logo before the game and that hyped them up. “That turns you up a little bit. Gets you a second itch to play with some extra fire.” #Steelers pic.twitter.com/BZjCEUlYZN
— Steelers Depot 🎄 (@Steelersdepot) December 14, 2020
Did the Steelers give the Bills bulletin board material that made the difference in the game? Of course not. But that won’t stop fans from freaking out about these sorts of things. They were about to dump him to the curb after Dallas. How about now after a loss?
In reality, as is often the case, Smith-Schuster was one of the few offensive players who accomplished anything on the night. He caught six passes on seven targets for 55 yards and one touchdown, and all of those numbers were the most or tied for the most on the team.
Two of the Steelers’ final three games are on the road, and both are against divisional opponents, including the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night next week. Will the 24-year-old wide receiver warm up on their logo before the game—and will anybody care?
