As one of the oldest franchises in the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers pride themselves on being an old-fashioned, blue-collar organization. In the dawn of social media under Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher, the Steelers worked hard to minimize those distractions and stay focused on football. But as social media continued its dominance in professional sports and players looking to grow their individual brand, the Steelers had to forfeit some control to maintain high talent level on the roster. Sure, this may not be the ‘preferred’ avenue to take, but fact of the matter is, this is today’s NFL; we might as well embrace it.
We’ve seen young Steelers players begin as rookies in the locker room vying for a roster spot explode on the scene into different social media platforms. Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell were a couple of ex-Steelers players who used social media to promote themselves; we see where they are today. Most recently, we saw the storm JuJu Smith-Schuster caused with his pregame dances on TikTok. Looking at the locker room today, there are a couple of key players who use TikTok as motivation in polar opposite ways.
Minkah Fitzpatrick and Chase Claypool are using TikTok to motivate them to perform for the Steelers
On Wednesday, Fitzpatrick, Claypool, and Miles Boykin joined the Varsity House Podcast to discuss all things football. With such a large presence in today’s football world, the topic of social media and TikTok reared its head. Coming off a record contract extension making him the highest-paid safety in NFL history, Fitzpatrick let everyone know where he stands on the matter:
“For me, personally (laughs), I want to keep it real. For me, I’m different type of player than some guys, but for me I use anything I can for fuel. Whether it be a tweet, whether it be I see what they do on a regular basis, like if I see, I’m gonna keep it honest; if I see someone doing a little dancing and whatnot, I’m not looking at him and being like all ‘this a dog’,” Fitzpatrick said. “For me, it’s like, I look at that and it’s like, as the type of person I am, the player I am, I look at it and for me, it’s like, is this dude going to bite my face off when it comes time to it? Is him doing those dances proving that he won’t, no, but it’s the mindset.”
Steelers' Minkah Fitzpatrick celebrates the big win over the Baltimore Ravens while they look on. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Fans have seen Claypool join in with Smith-Schuster in the last couple of years on the TikTok trend. As Fitzpatrick alluded to, Claypool knows he has a reputation now throughout the league on how defenders view him. Therefore, Claypool chimed in with how he counters the mindsets of the ‘Fitzpatrick’s’ of the league:
“Minkah, I love that, because you know how people come up to me and are like, ‘oh man, you’re a TikTok’er!’ This one dude on Dallas (Cowboys), I’m like, 'yo, wait 'til the next snap. Now I can say and now you can tell all of your friends you just got your a** beat by a TikTok’er.' That’s cool with me. The dude on the Dallas Cowboys in the Hall of Fame game or the sidelines was like, ‘oh TikTok’er TikTok’er’, and I was like ‘bet, watch this.’ I took this man 20 yards down the field and I’m like ‘bet,’ like looked at them, ‘what’s good?’ Then I said, ‘now he’s gonna be on TikTok with me.’”
Former Steelers' WR's JuJu Smith-Schuster dances in Cincinnati while Chase Claypool films him. (Twitter: @peterdianapghpg)
I have to admit, I like Claypool’s motivation drive in this instance. We’ve already seen Claypool being able to get up, high point the ball, and make tough, contested catches down the field over the defensive back. Going back to the days of peak Brown, although he had a strong social media presence, he still posted historical numbers on the field. As an offensive player, I agree with using the defenses’ bias against them to catch them sleeping in their scheme.
Looking on the other side of the ball with Fitzpatrick, the ‘old school’ approach still holds true. Simply put, if what Fitzpatrick described as his motivation before a game being social media blurbs, it obviously works. But compared to the Super Bowl winning Steelers teams of 2005 and 2008, Claypool argued how perception would have changed in those times if the social media we have today was prevalent during those years:
“I always think about these things, like if social media, like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, all these media articles were a thing back in the day, like the Bad Boys. Like in the Bad Boys era, like any era right, there’s gonna be so many ‘villains’ because ‘oh, this is how this person is.’ Back then, you only saw the person on the football field and that’s carried on to today, where it’s like, ‘oh, I’ll always see you as a football player’ and that’s what I’m trying not to be, is just a football player because obviously I carry my whole self, like my whole priority system is to be the best football player. I don’t put any priorities over football, other than family. But in terms of social media and stuff, it’ll never be social media over football or even 50/50. It’s 100% football, then when I’m done doing my 100% football, then it’s all the stuff I enjoy doing.”
It may not need to be said, but today’s NFL is much different than it was two decades ago, let alone than what it was in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The evolution of social media has single handily changed, not only the league, but the game of football and today’s players are under a bigger microscope than ever before. Fans have already seen what Fitzpatrick can do with his motivation from a defensive perspective. Fans saw glimpses of what Claypool can do on the field in 2020 as a stud on offense. But with a new quarterback at the helm in 2022 and the Steelers needing a strong receiver presence to help that adjustment, Claypool is going to need to prove his motivation works in 2022. This may sound strange to a lot of Steeler Nation, but TikTok may be the driver to some degree towards the Steelers’ success in 2022.
Click here to watch the full video of the Varsity House Podcast!
What do you think of Steelers players on social media? Do you think it is motivation or a distraction? Let us know in the comments below!
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