Has anyone ever so quickly devalued his reputation with Steeler Nation like Cam Heyward?
Training camp seemed to have dodged turmoil when T.J. Watt signed his extension. Then the big-deal leader dictated otherwise.
Only Heyward’s biggest apologists see him as being wronged. If he signed a bum deal a year ago, it’s because he refused to bet on himself.
He’s already been paid a $13.45 million roster bonus for this season. He’s already made $146.3 million in his career. Heyward’s problems are strictly first-world. Heyward’s ego is bruised, not his wallet.
Nobody believes that the Steelers laughed at Heyward when he said he’d make All-Pro last season. That’s a total fabrication.
Heyward went from Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year to a selfish jerk, and it happened overnight.
He thinks a cliffhanger on his podcast trumps serving as Steelers captain. Heyward seems to have changed since joining the media’s periphery.
On Sunday, we get to witness how it plays out.
When asked if he’d be playing at New York, Heyward said, “We’ll see.”
A Steelers captain who is under contract left doubt regarding his participation less than a week before the first game. Now that’s leadership.
Mike Tomlin said, “I’m certainly expecting Cam to play.”
Media veterans say that Tomlin wouldn’t have said that if he isn’t sure that Heyward is going to play.
But Tomlin said “expecting.” He didn’t say “definitely” or “100%.” There’s wiggle room, and deliberately so.
Here’s betting that Tomlin and Heyward haven’t had a candid, one-on-one conversation about Heyward’s situation. That Tomlin is tiptoeing around it.
That’s how Tomlin traditionally handles disgruntled players: He mostly ignores the situation till it bleeds out.
That’s what happened with LeGarrette Blount, James Harrison, Melvin Ingram and George Pickens.
Blount left a game early. Harrison fell asleep during meetings. Ingram stopped showing up. Pickens got to a game egregiously late and still played.
Tomlin never said anything. Then one day, those guys were gone, and we heard the “volunteers, not hostages” banality.
Antonio Brown had to practically burn Acrisure Stadium to the ground before he got benched for a game, then traded.
That’s Tomlin’s way.
For a swashbuckling coach full of empty platitudes, he’s non-confrontational. I could be wrong. But I’m not.
As for Heyward, he doesn’t have the guts to not play. Even though it’s the logical next step in his war against financial injustice.
Heyward is mad at everything now.
He complained that fans don’t give his younger brother Connor enough credit: “I just ask that you respect the way that the kid works. Stop looking at him like he’s my little brother.” Cam called his brother a “special-teams energy-bringer.”
It’s every little boy’s dream to be a special-teams energy-bringer. The fourth-string tight end.
If Cam wants fans to not see Connor as his little brother, perhaps calling him a “kid” was a bad idea. Connor is 26.
Connor is a mascot. A nepo baby.
Want proof? Cut him and see if another team picks him up. (See Watt, Derek.)
The Cam Heyward saga has been exhausting.
I’m looking forward to Sunday’s 17-13 rock fight at New York. It figures to be rotten football, but at least the blah, blah, blah will cease for a few hours.
And then start up again.
This is the business I’ve chosen.
