After last Thursday night’s win over the Titans, Steelers receiver George Pickens reportedly was not happy. By the next day, he was scrubbing all references to the team from his Instagram page.
On Tuesday, coach Mike Tomlin met with reporters for the first time since the issue arose.
Tomlin called it “a pebble in my shoe.” Although a pebble in the shoe can be quite annoying, it was Tomlin’s way of calling it a non-issue.
“It’s like reality television the way you guys follow social media and write stories about it,” Tomlin said.
Yes, Mike. It is. That’s how it works. Pro football is the ultimate reality show. Don’t complain; it’s part of the reason why you make so much money. If people didn’t care about the NFL, the revenue wouldn’t be there to pay the best head coaches eight figures per year.
And while Tomlin has a clear interest in minimizing the situation, the truth is that young players use social media to send messages. Tomlin can either ignore the messages George Pickens is sending, or he can take them seriously.
That’s up to Tomlin. Ignoring it likely won’t make it go away.
it’s also possible that Tomlin is dealing with it (or has already done so) and that he has handled it. If so, he has no reason in sharing that information with anyone, especially not the media.