Steelers receiver George Pickens, presumably after an extended visit to Principal Mike Tomlin’s office, tried to tell reporters on Wednesday that he wasn’t upset or frustrated last week during and after a Thursday night win over the Titans, and that his decision to strip all references of the Steelers from his Instagram page had nothing to do with football.
Two of his teammates didn’t get the “serenity now” memo.
Via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com, both running back Najee Harris and receiver Diontae Johnson made comments to reporters on Wednesday confirming that basic premise that, indeed, George had gotten upset.
“I was telling GP, it’s OK, there’s nothing wrong with being frustrated, it’s just how you handle things,” Harris said. “Obviously, he’s a talented guy. Teams are going to do things to minimize him. But I was just telling him in the middle of the game too that you got to keep your composure.”
“I had a good talk with him,” Johnson said. “He understood, and I understood where he was coming from, as well. Nobody’s perfect. You can’t knock him. At the same time, he’s human, so I didn’t think too much about the situation. I know what it was from -- frustration from the game, obviously. . . . So, him doing what he did, yeah, there’s a better way to go about certain situations. But he felt like he had to handle it his way, but at the same time, it wasn’t the right time to do all that.”
Johnson said he waited until Monday to address the situation with Pickens.
“I chopped it up with him,” Johnson said. “Just kind of told him what he should do next time or just to not put that stuff out there. You don’t want people creating a narrative of you. He understands.”
He definitely understands. To the point at which he’s ready to deny that there was a problem at all, even though there obviously was.
