The Pittsburgh Steelers have seemingly been the face of locker room issues the last few years dating back to the electrifying teams that featured Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell. Since then, things have calmed down drama wise in Pittsburgh's locker room, but there have still been concerns about Head Coach Mike Tomlin's ability to keep his locker room in check. Outside of a few incidents that were heavily publicized, Tomlin has kept the Steelers' locker room civil, but that goes unnoticed due to events like Brown's Facebook live after a game in the locker room while Tomlin spoke to the team.
The Steelers are one of the NFL's greatest franchises, holding six Lombardi Trophies and have a number of highly-respected current and former coaches and players. Brown and Bell's interesting social media presences doesn't define the organization or say anything about the Steelers' ability to keep a locker room intact. Right now the Dallas Cowboys have two of their players feuding online.
Cowboys' start pass rusher Micah Parsons hosts a podcast called The Edge. His teammate Malik Hooker very ironically went on a podcast and said this about Parsons hosting a podcast.
"Because if we're at work and the run game's terrible, but you're doing a podcast every week and you know the run game's terrible, then what are you really caring about?"
This is a nightmare for the Cowboys, two of their good defensive players feuding online over podcasts. Former Steelers receiver Plaxico Burress discussed the Cowboy's podcast-related issues on the Up On Game podcast and had this to say about the matter:
"This would never happen in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. These things would never happen, because you know what, everybody is their own leader, man. Listen if you got a problem with somebody, it's going to get addressed, whether you like it or not. That is how we governed our football team... Man, we address you to your face in Pittsburgh."
Burress had two stints with the Steelers. He was drafted by the Steelers in 2000 where he spent his first five seasons, Burress then returned to the Steel City in 2012 in what was his final season in the NFL. In general, the world is a lot different now than it was the last time Burress was a Steeler. The era of social media has changed a lot of things and it's hard to say if Burress' comments on the Steelers locker room from his experiences still hold true in 2024.
Steelers Have Dealt With Their Fair Share Of Social Media Drama
Brown's locker room live stream caused a lot of turmoil in Pittsburgh and just about everything he does or says now is concerning to say the least. Other than that, The Steelers had Juju Smith-Schuster doing TikTok dances on other teams logos and Martavis Bryant tweeting out that Smith-Schuster was drafted to be his then teammate Sammie Coates' replacement, not his.
While Bell held out of the 2018 season for a new contract, he made a rap song where he detailed how much he wanted in his contract. There was a five or six year stretch where it felt like most Steelers news was non football related, but we may have made it through that phase, at least we hope.
The Steel City hasn't exactly been calm and perfect since Brown and Bell left the team, but there have definitely been less non football related problems surrounding the team. Coach Tomlin has made a point out of filling the team with high character guys that go about their business in the right way. One of his signature quotes "We want volunteers, not hostages." is exactly how he's constructed his teams of late.
