The Lions released cornerback Cameron Sutton on March 21, and it seemed as if his career might be finished. It came a day after the team learned a warrant was issued for his arrest in Florida for one count of domestic battery by strangulation.
The Lions have a zero-tolerance policy on matters of domestic violence.
The Steelers signed Sutton on Wednesday, and he practiced with the team, almost two months after Sutton entered a pretrial diversion program to settle the battery charge.
Sutton still faces potential NFL punishment.
“Adversity strikes everyone in life, so it’s all about how you handle it, how you necessarily go through those phases, and just knowing who you are individually, not letting someone else dim you a light,” Sutton said Wednesday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.
The Steelers made Sutton a 2017 third-round pick, and he spent six seasons with the team before playing in Detroit last season. It’s not like Sutton was worth the grief the Steelers will get for the signing, considering he allowed 1,173 receiving yards and eight touchdowns with a 122 passer rating against him last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
But the Steelers obviously are comfortable with any backlash, as is Sutton.
“I’m never worried about a narrative. I’m never worried about what necessarily people say because obviously more than likely they don’t know me more than anybody else. You know what I mean?” Sutton said, via Pryor. “And again, it gets back to just your foundation, your morals, who you are individually as a human being and just what you stand on. Holding my head high.
“Again, everybody goes through adversity; everybody goes through things in their life that can change in both directions. So it’s all about how you stand on that and what you do from that. And like I said, I’m ready to keep moving in the right direction. Everything else will keep falling in line, and we just keep moving from there.”