Media perception and locker room perception are two different things. Sometimes they can align, but often they are miles apart, and I think Steelers WR George Pickens is one of those polarizing figures with a large difference in his public and private perception.
Pickens has created this issue for himself with some of his on-field incidents at the end of games and even showing up late to one of the games last season. Is he a sore loser with some maturity issues? I think you could make a strong argument there. But a bad teammate? I don’t think the Steelers’ locker room views him that way.
“GP is freaking phenomenal, bro,” Beanie Bishop Jr. said via The Christian Kuntz Podcast this morning. “Probably won’t see another guy like him. I’ve never played with a guy that can just show up and –”
Christian Kuntz was quick to hop in and finish Bishop’s sentence for him.
“He can just roll out of bed and run a full route and catch a ball over somebody,” Kuntz said. “He’s tough, too.”
Does that sound like the words of two teammates who are fed up with Pickens or think he’s a bad teammate as the media consistently portrays him?
Bishop and Kuntz aren’t the only teammates to paint Pickens in a positive light. Last year, Donte Jackson said “nobody has as much fun” when talking about Pickens. He painted a compelling counternarrative that Pickens loves football and puts everything he has into the game.
There were also some of the Mic’d Up moments that showed him cheering on fellow WR Mike Williams after making a game-winning touchdown catch against the Washington Commanders. Here is that clip below.
Does that seem like a bad teammate or somebody who has a bad attitude in the locker room? HBO’s Hard Knocks even showed Pickens goofing around and singing the answer to a question in his WR meeting room.
Does he have a quirky personality? I don’t think there is any doubt about that. Keep in mind he just turned 24 years old on Tuesday. I would hope nobody holds me to my behavior when I was in my early 20s. Pickens is younger than some players who will be drafted next month.
The media consensus, which views Pickens from a narrow and negative lens, is that he will play out the final year of his contract and that his departure will be an example of addition by subtraction. I simply don’t see it that way.
