In the second quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, S Damontae Kazee was ejected from the game after delivering a massive hit on Indianapolis Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr., who was diving for an off-target throw from QB Gardner Minshew II. Kazee was handed a suspension that was reduced to three games, which sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season.
While Kazee’s issues have been financial and playing time-focused, Pittman has suffered a different kind of problem. After taking the hit, he was left lying on the field for a few moments before he was able to walk off it. He was unable to finish the game and missed the Colts’ 29-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons before returning to the field last Sunday for the Colts’ 23-20 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
However, that doesn’t mean that Pittman isn’t still feeling the after-effects of the Kazee hit. Pittman joined The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday and discussed how he is doing with Eisen, who actually called the Colts-Steelers game.
“It was definitely a[n] experience,” Pittman said. “I’m still kind of recovering from that even though it happened like three weeks ago. Trust me, I still feel it, but I feel like everything is progressing well. I was very fortunate to get up with minorish injuries. I’m just happy that I’m here today and that I’m still able to play and come back so soon.”
People have continually debated whether Kazee deserved a suspension for the hit. Even Pittman himself said that the NFL “made an example out of him” and doesn’t feel like Kazee should have been suspended. Regardless of what people feel, neither Kazee nor Pittman wanted the outcome of that hit for either of them.
Unfortunately for Pittman, the road back from that kind of head trauma is not easy. Nor is it always linear. Hence why he’s still feeling the repercussions of the hit. As noted above, he did play on New Year’s Eve versus the Raiders and caught five passes for 46 yards.
As for whether Pittman’s head will be on a swivel more as he works his way back to full efficacy, Eisen asked him about going over the middle after the hit.
“One positive is I barely remember what happened,” Pittman said with a laugh before continuing on the topic of playing in the middle of the field. “That is the sort of thing that makes me, that contested catch. I don’t shy from it, and that’s the first time that anything like that has ever happened. Hopefully the last, but you can’t play scared because if you play scared, that’s usually when bad stuff happens.”
No matter whether you think Kazee was trying to hurt Pittman, that the suspension was ridiculous, and that the NFL has gotten too soft, or somewhere in between, I think we can all agree that we are glad that Pittman is continuing to improve and getting back to playing football at a high level.
You can watch the rest of Pittman’s interview with Eisen below.
