Or at least one of them, anyway.
Celebration has been the word of the week in Pittsburgh. No, not celebration that the once dominant Pittsburgh Steelers finally won a game. Rather, celebration in reference to the antics of wide receivers Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders. Of the two, Sanders’ flip dive into the end zone was probably the dumber of the two although in his defense at least his came as a result of scoring a touchdown. AB evidently thinks tying his shoelaces is worthy of a pose and ain’t I great? gesture.
Well, Mike Tomlin is putting his foot down on the latter. In his weekly press conference – I’m crushed at work so my eagerly anticipated weekly recap will be up tomorrow morning – one of the local media cheerleaders actually had the balls to ask him about the team’s excessive celebrations. Tomlin revealed he had banned Sanders style end zone dives from this point forward due to “The potential for injury.”
“It’s silly,” sayeth Coach T.
I definitely see where Tomlin is coming from. The first Steeler I can recall doing the flip dive this season was oft-injured running back Le’Veon Bell. Yep, the guy who you can on one hand how many weeks he’s been healthy and able to practice decided the best way to score was to launch himself over the goal line and land back first. Since no bad idea goes uncopied, Sanders must’ve saw Mr. Glass’s display and decided “Hey, I’ll do that…if I ever catch a ball for more than 8 yards.” I may have added that last part.
Even though I’ve been highly critical of Tomlin this season, I must say I’m enjoying the new hard-ass disciplinarian version of Coach T. Okay, it only took the team sinking to a 45 year low to bring it out but at least it happened. Following the team’s horrid 0-2 start, a bunch of veterans got together and banned the youngsters from playing shuffleboard, pool, and ping-pong. After their disastrous trip to England, Tomlin went one better by banning all table games for everybody.
In the wake of their victory over the Jets, there’s been no word whether they have gotten their ping-pong paddles back.
If Tomlin is worried about “silly” celebrations, there’s nothing sillier than Brown’s asshatery after every single catch. But – unless your name is Levi Brown – you can’t get seriously injured from simply extending your arm into the air. At least Tomlin decided to crack down on the more dangerous of the two celebrations. Though that he had to do so at all really speaks to the locker room leadership, or lack thereof.