Coming out of the 30-23 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 17, the focus for the Pittsburgh Steelers — at least from the talk-show perspective — wasn’t the fact that the Steelers were alive in the AFC playoff picture and are looking like a potentially formidable team due to the offensive improvements.
Instead, the talk was centered on rumors/reports that second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett refused to suit up as the backup in Seattle, which led to him being inactive as the No. 3 against the Seahawks.
Turns out, those rumors/reports were categorically false and really pissed off Pickett. He vehemently denied the rumors Tuesday during his session with the media, stating that the report attacked his character, which it did.
For teammates Cameron Heyward and Christian Kuntz, who appeared on the latest episode of Heyward’s podcast “Not Just Football w/ Cam Heyward” the pair strongly condemned the rumors, with Heyward stating that he’s sick of the focus not being on the Ravens and the playoffs when it comes to the Steelers.
“I told you I thought (it) wasn’t true at all. …I have never once heard about this,” Heyward said in response to a question from co-host Hayden Walsh regarding the Pickett situation. “From my understanding, if Kenny was healthy he was gonna be out there. But really, I can’t believe we’re even talking about this. Why is this a story? We can’t worry about the damn playoffs? Let’s just get locked in and focused on that at this point.”
Heyward sounds like many others when it comes to the Pickett situation. How is this a story? Head coach Mike Tomlin stated Monday that Pickett was cleared late in the week, but by that point hadn’t had enough practice reps as he was a limited participant all week. Therefore, Tomlin decided to keep him inactive because he felt he wasn’t ready.
Pickett reiterated that on Tuesday after shooting down the report.
Coming out of Pitt, Pickett’s character was held in high regard. He was billed as a team-first guy, a strong leader and competitor. That’s all checked out in the NFL, too, as he was voted a team captain in Year Two. Those type of players just don’t all of a sudden do an about-face and become selfish and refuse to be the backup.
Therefore, it’s understandable why Pickett came out the way he did Tuesday, punching back on a report he felt was an attempt at character assassination. Heyward and Kuntz have his back.
“I don’t even have a comment because it’s hilarious what gets made up, and people actually believe it,” Kuntz added.
“When did good journalism become ‘Gotcha! I got a rumor’?” Heyward asked. “…Bringing in the new year with more rumors, how about that?”
You can tell that Heyward and Kuntz are fed up with the endless storylines regarding the Steelers, especially at this point in the season when they are fighting for a spot in the playoffs and have a massive test ahead against the Baltimore Ravens.
Instead, they have to address something so silly like Pickett allegedly refusing to be the backup. It sounds sillier and sillier the more I write about it. But that’s dominating the talk the last few days surrounding the Steelers.
As former Pittsburgh tight end Jesse James once said, the Steelers are the Kardashians. That felt controversial at the time, but not much has changed in recent years to dispel that. It’s getting old for the players.
