The fainting of the Steelers’ free agency makes people in Pittsburgh scratch their heads and scream chickens. What are those who were once astute Steelers thinking!?!
Now, the supposedly promising Steelers receiver, Chase Claypool, goes and kicks his team while he’s down when he gets involved in an ugly bar fight in California, with a bloody video to boot.
Yes, yes, Claypool fans: I know that there may be extenuating circumstances here, and certainly more context for the story will come. But it is precisely the wrong image at the wrong time for these Steelers. Rising NFL stars, like Claypool, need to realize that they are under a microscope all the time, especially in a bar equipped with video monitors. In fact, wherever you are in public, it is better to smile because you are likely to be on camera.
Claypool is not smiling now. And neither are the Steelers.
Wasn’t it bad enough that the free agency already put a frown on the face of many Steelers fans?
The stumbling blocks of your favorite football team there are reminiscent of the classic Rolling Stones rocker, “You don’t always get what you want” – except the other way around. Instead of getting what the team needs, the Steelers are satisfying fans who are reckless in their desires (even wasteful).
Oddly, the Steelers rewarded soft-hearted fans by re-signing their ever-smiling and experienced social media receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster. With that, JuJu lovers got what they wanted.
Unfortunately, the Steelers did not get what the team needed, at least by the standards of any fan who thinks clearly and cares about defense and small things like winning.
This criticism is crystallized by the rejection of cornerback Steven Nelson.
Smith-Schuster returns to a receiving room of absolute abundance. In addition, the Steelers are ridiculously good at sketching and developing young talent for picking up passes. The most recent example of this is the former Fighting Irish – now just fighting – receiver Chase Claypool. More about your inopportune blows in the salon in a second.
In a simultaneous stroke of Steelers’ non-genius, the team told the opening cornerback to seek an exchange or take a walk. Somehow, Steven Nelson’s services on an increasingly thin secondary inexplicably were no longer needed. Worst of all, the Steelers are proven to be terrible when it comes to writing cornerbacks.
Artie Burns, anyone? (I think not.)
It was a cash movement, the Steelers will tell you. Possibly.
But it was bad football.
Cue all consternation in the Steelers Nation. Pittsburgh is rightly baffled. It’s just a bad month. Or does this portend a pathetically poor pig season in Pittsburgh to come?
Sports analysts at Caustic Steel City are not hiding or measuring words. Some have been devastating in their criticism of the Steelers’ seemingly absurd free agency movements. And all of that was before Chase Claypool was caught on video, apparently testing by kicking a guy’s leg on the floor. Oh boy!
I present to you all the side effects of the city of rio in this controversial edition of the Steelers Update Podcast.
NOTE: New Steelers Update episodes are available every Wednesday afternoon at PennLive.com and wherever podcasts are found, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts.
Or just click and listen, here and now:
The latest news that adds to the Steelers’ misery comes from the TMZ website, run by celebrity scandals, where video of receiver Chase Claypool kicking a guy on the floor is spread all over the place.
Pittsburgh Live Visual:
This stupid move from a promising Steeler is the only thing that makes the Steelers’ JuJu resignation a little better – or at least a little less stupid – in comparison.
Furthermore, Claypool’s boxing showed that JuJu being rudely slapped with the harsh realities of the free agency was just a touch of love. The veteran Steelers receiver with a tendency to self-promotion certainly didn’t catch the huge offers his big ego expected. But at least his return to lead a reception room that still looks a little immature in the light of Chase’s fight at the bar now makes some sense to the Steelers.
How’s it going:
What it means:
Introducing his veteran Steelers ‘mature’ receiver, while he thanks his warm welcome to lead the team of talented young passers. I’m sure we have nothing to worry about right now, right?
All he wants to do is dance. Big names from Pittsburgh’s past, not so much:
But did JuJu really choose Steelers over better offers? Or the humble social media star crawled back to Pittsburgh after his free agency at the height almost collapsed:
At least someone is happy. Live look at Steelers GM – ops, I mean quarterback – Ben Roethlisberger:
Smith-Schuster certainly can’t be smiling about the dollars in his business. Want to talk about a real receiver currency? Here it is:
JuJu’s money is two bits compared to Golladay’s Bitcoin. Is it a slap in JuJu’s smiling face? Possibly.
But it’s better than a kick in the face – right Chase?
Before Claypool could even think of taking a PR approved apology trip, some suck-ups in Steel City were doing it for him. The young man must confess his mistake, even if there are extenuating circumstances here.
Simply put, the former recipient of Fighting Irish needs to know when to choose his battles. Preferably, be it on a football field, not inside a hall, from now on.
The timing of the unfortunate incident could not be worse for the humble Steelers. They are emerging from a free agency with little depth and much greater needs.
At least there is a remote ray of hope: if the next season really implodes, perhaps a franchise quarterback could be reborn from the ashes of Pittsburgh.
It has happened before:
In short: it was another expensive free agency period, proving that the free agency is never free for its Steelers. Instead, Pittsburgh is paying a heavy price, not in player salaries, but in all the holes that pop up like Swiss cheese on its 2021 list.
Claypool’s horrible boxing simply adds a little damage to the image to the myriad insults of off-season football in Pittsburgh.
There!
John Luciew is an award-winning reporter for PennLive and a ticket holder for the 25-year Steelers season. His column and podcast are presented from the obsessively over-informed perspective of an avid Steelers fan. Check out your latest Steelers podcast every Wednesday afternoon, wherever podcasts are found.