After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of division foe the Cincinnati Bengals 41-10, Mike Tomlin seemingly has punted on this season in a press conference held on Tuesday morning. Tomlin was asked if he accepted Claypool’s request to play more music, thus, in his eyes, making practice more fun. Let’s just say Tomlin shut that down completely.
Claypool plays wideout. I’ll let him do that,” Tomlin said. “I’ll formulate the practice approach and I think that division of labor is probably appropriate.”
This all stems from what Claypool said to the media following the loss to the Bengals, suggesting the Steelers should attempt to make practice more “fun” by playing music. Tomlin wasn’t the only one that took an issue with this. DT Cam Hayward appeared on a Pittsburgh radio station Tuesday morning, hoping that Claypool was just joking.
I hope he was kidding,” Heyward said Tuesday morning, “Because as soon as he said it, I was literally about to rip the speaker out. That is not what we need right now. It’s Xs and Os and it’s execution.”
Not the best thing for Claypool to say after taking a beating. Tomlin is realistic that this team won’t amount to much and will have to wait until Ben retires this year and potentially find his replacement in the draft.
I don’t think Claypool meant any harm just trying to figure out ways to kickstart a struggling team. I understand Tomlin’s reply, but Hayward should have been a little more understanding. Some players play and practice better with music.
They are making it seem like he said something really outlandish when it wasn’t a bad suggestion, but it has been rejected.
None of the suggestions will matter if Big Ben plays like he is a 100 years old.
Flip the page to watch the comments that cause Mike Tomlin and Cam Hayward to criticize Claypool.