Cam Heyward disagrees with Ben Roethlisberger’s take on Steelers leadership
When you have the resume of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you drop a couple of bad games and suddenly the sky is falling. Sure the 2023 Steelers haven't put out a great product all year, but winning was masking much of the odor seeping from the locker room…Until now. Pittsburgh's culture and mentality is taking shots […]
When you have the resume of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you drop a couple of bad games and suddenly the sky is falling.
Sure the 2023 Steelers haven't put out a great product all year, but winning was masking much of the odor seeping from the locker room…
Until now.
Pittsburgh's culture and mentality is taking shots from all directions, most notably from a QB that led them to two championships. Well, Ben's former teammate and current team leader took an issue with that:
Is The Tradition Gone?
“Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done,” Roethlisberger said on his podcast, Footbahlin. “Who is grabbing someone by the face mask and saying, ‘That’s not what we do.’ Is that happening? Yes, you have guys on defense doing it, but you need guys on both sides of the ball doing it. You need someone to stand up in that room, on offense, and be like, ‘Hey, this isn’t what it means to wear the black and gold.”
A strong statement that only added to some comments he had earlier in the week about Coach Tomlin, Steelers team captain Cam Heyward took issue with Ben's statement:
“Ben has an opinion, and he’s entitled to that, but I don’t agree,” Heyward said on Good Morning Football. “We lost these last two games, and it’s been rough. But the Steelers way is about grinding it out and it doesn’t matter what’s going on. So, there is plenty to be done about it, and the tradition starts by winning games, having good defense, scoring points. So, hopefully we can adjust to that this week.”
I respect the candid nature and brutal honesty of Ben Roethlisbereger. His no-nonsense attitude has gotten him in hot water with the media before, but at least he's known for being a straight shooter.
But in this case, he couldn't be more wrong.
Ben is not in that locker room everyday, he's not around the team, and he barely knows the guys on either side of the ball.
So to come out and take a shot at the leadership of not only the coaching staff but at players like Minkah Fitzpatrick, T.J. Watt, and Cam Heyward is not only distasteful, it's disrespectful.
It's easy to talk from a couch while the current group is fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot.
Could Pittsburgh start faster? Yea. Have they taken lesser opponents too lightly? Probably.
But let's not act like Ben didn't have his own leadership issues when he was on the team, especially in the latter part of his career.
And no one should be arguing that the Steelers are in a good place right now. But the last thing they need is alumni, especially ones with the status of Big Ben calling out the team's culture and leadership.
So maybe Ben was using some reverse psychology to provide the team with some bulletin board material. That's all I can think of at this point.
Because anything else is just doing more harm then good.
T.J. Watt doesn’t fall for the trap NFL has set for Steelers
Here is what Watt had to say about the NFL’s investigation.
