Cameron Heyward is facing a harsh reality at the age of 35. While we don’t know yet exactly how things play out, he is realizing how true it is that few players actually get to end their careers the way they want. Through 13 seasons, he still doesn’t have a Super Bowl, and the Pittsburgh Steelers may not even want him anymore.
He wants to sign an extension with the Steelers and play another three years, but he knows that’s not guaranteed. Heyward sounds quite resigned to the distinct possibility that he plays out the final year of his contract. But he wants Steelers fans to know one thing: he will never be in a Cleveland Browns uniform. Or any other rival jersey, for that matter.
Heyward has recently talked openly about the fact that he may have to play elsewhere in 2025. That is not what he wants for himself, but it may be necessary if he wants to continue playing. But things got out of hand when The Athletic reporter Mark Kaboly wrote an article in which a quote from Heyward made it sound as though he and his family would consider signing with the Browns.
“Steelers fans took it very literal. When I was talking to the reporter at the time, it was more like, ‘You know, I could play elsewhere. I’ve got family elsewhere. I’ve got family in Georgia, I’ve got family in Cleveland’”, Heyward told Jim Rome this past week.
“And Pittsburgh was not too happy about that. And rightfully so. I would never want to play for not only a rival, but a team that’s so close that there’s such bad blood there”, he added. “I don’t think I could do that. But my wife being from Cleveland was just not for it at all. I was like, ‘Babe, I’m not going to Cleveland. You don’t have to worry about that’”.
Cameron Heyward is on the record having said similar things in the past. Last year, when former Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl-winning QB Joe Flacco signed with the Cleveland Browns, he had certain feelings about that.
Kaboly defended his article on the radio, insisting that Heyward’s comments were in jest, which was never the problem. The problem is that the article did not adequately reflect the fact that it was a joke. He later insinuated that post-submission editing played a role in how the quote reads in the final piece. Perhaps that’s true, but either way, the end result doesn’t change. And it made Heyward’s Cleveland-area wife nauseated.
“She was like, ‘I don’t even want you going to Cleveland’”, he said. “She understood it; she is embroiled Black and Gold all of my career. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we’re not going to Cleveland, I’ll tell you that”.
It is funny, though, because Cameron Heyward has played with numerous division rivals over the years. Quite literally, 30 percent of his fellow defensive starters currently fit that description. Fellow defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi played for both the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, even with some “bad blood” between them.
This year, the Steelers signed a trio of former Ravens, two of them starters, namely Patrick Queen and DeShon Elliott. Because the Steelers are the Steelers. And the Browns is the Browns. You can come to Pittsburgh and see the light, which is good for the grass. But how could a Steeler, especially one as entrenched as Heyward, ever don the enemy colors?
