The Pittsburgh Steelers brought back cornerback Cameron Sutton, who spent the first six years of his career with the organization, after being released by the Detroit Lions following criminal charges related to a domestic violence incident in Florida. Sutton could play a key role for Pittsburgh’s defense in 2024, and he addressed his mindset on resurrecting his career after getting released by Detroit.
“My job is not to appeal to someone else. My job is to be the best version of myself, and how do I give that off to the mass or how do I give that off to everyone around me? I’m in full control of that. So I’m never worried about a narrative, I’m not worried about what necessarily people say because obviously more than likely they don’t know me more about anybody else,” Sutton said Wednesday via video by 93.7 The Fan on Twitter. “Holding my head high, everybody goes through adversity, everybody goes through things in their life that change in both directions. So it’s all about how you stand on that and where you go from that.”
Cam Sutton said he couldn’t talk about the case, as for what he would say to #Steelers fans pic.twitter.com/jC5OZy1jPq
— 93.7 The Fan (@937theFan) June 5, 2024
The Steelers know Sutton well and were obviously comfortable with bringing him back. The team held a meeting with Sutton prior to the 2024 NFL Draft, but it took until today for Pittsburgh to work something out with Sutton, the latter signing a one-year deal for the veteran minimum. He turned himself into police on March 31 and was booked on one misdemeanor count of domestic battery for the March 7 incident on March 7. He entered a pre-trial diversion program in April to resolve the case.
It’s obviously a serious incident, but the Steelers had checked in with and stayed in touch with Sutton throughout the offseason. Now they bring back a player who’s familiar with Pittsburgh and who they’re familiar with.
Sutton said he can’t talk about the case, but the framing of the incident as “adversity” likely won’t sit well with many. Adversity comes in many shapes, and Sutton doesn’t necessarily have to answer to anyone but himself, which is the point he was seemingly trying to get across. But a domestic violence incident isn’t something that should simply be framed as adversity.
Given that the Steelers and Mike Tomlin know Sutton better than most, hopefully there won’t be any issues with him in Pittsburgh, and there weren’t when he was here for the first six years of his career. Getting back to a familiar place with a support system around him will hopefully be a good thing.
