During the 2022 season, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety turned commentator Ryan Clark took a bit of a shot at the current team. Clark, who was a part of one of the best defenses in the team's history, helped the Steelers go to two Super Bowls and win one. After the Steelers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he vocalized displeasure with what he saw.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety turned commentator Ryan Clark
Clark was critical, in part, of the passion behind the players' efforts.
"I am in no way saying that those men didn't want to win. What I'm saying is from the outside looking in, only one strained the entire day and it was the quarterback."
Clark went on to say he wouldn't welcome any of today's players on his 2008 team.
"The only one on this team that I'd take in 2008 to go down an alley with me, is the young kid that's playing quarterback. He's the only one who wanted something yesterday."
Cam Heyward, current defensive captain for the Steelers, recently appeared on Dave Dameshek's podcast Minus Three. Dameshek asked Heyward about Clark's comments and how personally he takes them.
"Ryan Clark said, 'these guys don't care as much as we did, it was all about ourselves.' Correct me if I'm wrong, you rightly got a little bit of a chip on your shoulder because it was a reflection on you."
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Pittsburgh Steelers DT Cam Heyward
Heyward, who is always professional and calm countered.
"I love those dudes, like there's not a guy on that team that I don't appreciate more than anybody - RC (Ryan Clark), Ike T. (Taylor), TP (Troy Polamalu) - they're all my big brothers. I don't have any problem when we do fall short. It does fall on me and I'm not running away from that. I think sometimes we get into it's a shot at me and now I gotta throw a shot back. I don't look at it like that."
Heyward understands that the defensive units of the Steelers have long been their pride and joy. Each decade has its own unique personality but they all work to uphold a standard set long before any of them were born.
"The standard was set, with the 70s Steelers. It's not like the 2000s Steelers went away from that, they said 'okay we'll take that and we'll do our own thing' and that's all we can ever ask. There was a standard set and if my big brothers can tell me my team isn't playing like the standard, so be it. I'm going to demand more from my guys because there's a quality to the way the Pittsburgh Steelers should play and when we fall short of that you know I have to wear it, heavy is the head that wears the crown."
Dameshek says he's glad that Heyward showed good sense and didn't fire back. He joked that he would have had a few choice words for Taylor and Clark, reminding them that while the "best defense ever" was chasing Larry Fitzgerald up and down the field, Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes stepped in and saved the day.
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Heyward says that isn't entirely true and it is unfair to try to take the victory away from anyone.
"You got to say Lamar Woodley gets the sack at the end of the game, so it's a team game. We talk so much about individuals and offense versus defense but there is not a man in that locker room that you can take that Super Bowl away from. You can't take away the greatness of that feeling because everybody is part of it - the practice squad, the staff, everybody is excited to win that Super Bowl and everyone has a say in that."
What do you think about Clark's comments? Do they ring true? What do you think about Heyward's ownership of the defense? Does Clark have a right to comment on the team's performance like this or is this just him getting trying to get attention? Click to comment below.
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