Steelers: Ryan Clark says Diontae Johnson deserves to be benched
Despite what you see for 60 minutes on gameday, the NFL is one big fraternity. Players from opposing teams are often extremely tight off the field, but especially if they dawned the same colors at one time or another. But former Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark doesn't see it that way, as there […]
Despite what you see for 60 minutes on gameday, the NFL is one big fraternity.
Players from opposing teams are often extremely tight off the field, but especially if they dawned the same colors at one time or another.
But former Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark doesn't see it that way, as there is no love loss between he and current Pro Bowl WR Diontae Johnson:
Make An Example Out Of Him?
"And I said this last week and I meant it wholeheartedly: If Diontae Johnson does what he's been doing, because this isn't the first time he's had these issues, I'm not throwing the football to him on fourth to two," Ryan Clark told the Pat McAfee Show when discussing the controversial play to end the Patriots game. "You aren't getting the opportunity to save my team. You aren't getting the opportunity to be the hero because you haven't earned it."
Clark wasn't saying that Johnson didn't deserve the ball on the last play because he was bad, but rather that he wasn't upholding the Steeler way, and being true to the culture that Clark and his teammates worked so desperately to instill for the next generation of Steelers. As many people that have a vested interest in the Steelers believed, Johnson's effort against the Bengals was inexcusable, and should have resulted in a sterner punishment than a forced apology:
"And I'll be honest, I would've liked to see Diontae Johnson sit the week after the Cincinnati game, added Clark. "I think that would've been something to show this team that they will not tolerate people playing and working below the standard."
The problem with Clark's statement isn't that he's wrong, it's that the "Standard" that Coach Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger, Clark and many others worked so hard to create, takes on a whole new definition in Pittsburgh now.
That standard was Super Bowls, the standard now is attempting to break .500 and get a winning record.
Maybe that's a coaching problem, maybe that's a locker room problem, or maybe things have just grown stale.
But Clark isn't lying when he says the players in Pittsburgh no longer care about the Steeler way, and that's something that shouldn't be tolerated no matter who the player is, and no matter what changes need to occur.
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