A very short, but wild social media storm came about for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, Diontae Johnson on Friday. NFL analyst, Gregg Giannotti said live on air of the radio show, Boomer And Gio, that the pass-catcher and quarterback, Mitch Trubisky's altercation early in the 2022 season, was more than just a verbal one. Giannotti claimed that someone in Pittsburgh told him Johnson actually punched the then-starting signal-caller, which is one of the reasons rookie, Kenny Pickett ended up replacing him at halftime of the team's Week 4 matchup against the New York Jets.
Steelers wide receiver, Diontae Johnson (#18) gets ready for the snap up at the line of scrimmage during a 2022 bout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (@JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
Rumor Of Physical Altercation Between Steelers' Diontae Johnson And Mitch Trubisky Debunked
Giannotti's friend and Pittsburgh radio host, Andrew Fillipponi said on Friday that he was the individual who definitely blew the situation out of proportion.
"I take 100% blame and responsibility for what happened here," Fillipponi said as he went on to admit he went too far in discussing the incident.
Fillipponi continued discussing the matter and said that when he was talking to someone from outside of Pittsburgh regarding the altercation, he definitely was wrong in how he described what had happened.
"I take the blame because I think the way that I said it to him mischaracterized the altercation. Looking back on it, I definitely made it sound a lot worse than it was and that's on me."
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Mitch Trubisky (#10) looks on at 2022 training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (@JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
Fillipponi seems to have some self-awareness about the accusation he ended up putting on Johnson. He said that he wants to find a way to reach out to the offensive play-maker and apologize.
"I'm going to have to find a way to reach out to Johnson because I don't want his reputation to be that he punched the Steelers' quarterback in the face. Now I'm getting from people that that's not how it happened, so now I have to do a mea culpa."
A mea culpa, for those who have never heard that before, is when someone acknowledges that they made a mistake. Everybody makes them, but this was a bit far-fetched. There's no way that it would have been bottled up so long and just now come out after the 2022 season. Besides, Johnson is a competitive, great player, but soft-spoken and not the type of guy to land a punch on a teammate.
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, Diontae Johnson (#18) makes a catch at 2022 training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (@JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
This shouldn't come as a surprise to many people. Fillipponi should have been the first person that should have come to everybody's mind when Giannotti said that radio shows covering the Steelers were talking about it. He is an extremely outgoing radio personality and tends to occasionally take things a little too far.
Taking a deeper look into the accusation, there is no way that Johnson wouldn't have been benched or suspended for punching a teammate in the face. It's hard to misconstrue someone saying that something like this happened, so it shouldn't be found as surprising if that is exactly how Fillipponi described it to Giannotti.
Are you surprised it was Fillipponi that helped spark the rumor that the incident between Johnson and Trubisky was more than just verbal? Let us know in the comments below!
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