Coming back at you with another take on WR George Pickens and his lack of effort blocking for RB Jaylen Warren against the Indianapolis Colts because… why not? Pickens has been under fire all day by members of the media, both locally and nationally for his attitude during the game last Saturday, as well as his attitude afterwards. He called out the media for criticizing him when he didn’t want to get hurt on the play, stating that they can’t judge because they haven’t played the game.
Well, several members of the media have played the game at the NFL level, including former DL Marcus Spears, who now co-hosts NFL Live on ESPN. Spears laid into Pickens while on the air, calling out the young wide receiver for his comments when Pickens should be checking himself rather than pointing the finger for not executing on the football field.
“Let me say this, ’cause I saw George Pickens’ comments about how the media says things and people that never played the game,” Spears said on NFL Live. “You ain’t gotta play the damn game, first of all homie, to see that you ain’t do a damn thing on the play that’s in question. The second thing is I want to inform the guys in the league because I care about these young bulls, and I want ’em to have success. When you start blaming the media, you flailing, bro. That means that you are looking for something else to take the attention off what actually happened. We all looked at that damn tape and saw you not touch a soul during that play.”
Now, that’s what I call spicy.
Spears has room to talk about playing in the league, having spent nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens from 2005 to 2013. He played in 124 regular season games with 90 starts and then into the TV business as an analyst, first for college football covering the SEC, and then transitioned to the national media with ESPN covering both college and pro football.
Still, it doesn’t take a nearly 10-year NFL career to critique Pickens’ effort on that singular play like Spears referenced above. Anyone with eyes could call out a lack of urgency to play for his teammates on that specific play. Even my mother, whose only exposure to football was cheering on her three boys from the sidelines and cleaning our stained football pants every week. Pickens is in the wrong to come at the media because he needs to know, as a professional football player, that they will be seeking a story, good or bad, to write about. Calling them out and getting defensive isn’t going to do him any good compared to owning up to the mistake on the field, saying he needs to learn from it, and that he will do better next time.
Head coach Mike Tomlin attempted to put out the fire on Wednesday, having an impromptu press conference to defend Pickens and state that he is still playing on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Tomlin did say that Pickens does need to grow up a bit and handle his emotions better both on and off the field, but that the player we see from the media perspective isn’t the same guy in the meeting room or the locker room with the rest of the team.
Regardless of whether Pickens is better-mannered in front of the team compared to the media, the second-year wideout must start better controlling his emotions, and fast. He’s starting to get more enemies than fans in Pittsburgh, which is saying a lot due to the talent that we all know he has. Still, it’s up to Pickens if he wants to tap into that raw talent and become the player he can be on the field and in the locker room, or if he wants to follow in the footsteps of Antonio Brown and Chase Claypool as the next wideout to get shipped out of town after a failed attempt to keep his antics under control.
