Pittsburgh Steelers players stood in silence on the Heinz Field grass Friday night, arms interlocked while coach Mike Tomlin spoke for them about the social injustice issues taking place in the country.
It’s a cause that has unified sports teams and leagues against police brutality and racial inequality.
On Saturday morning, two of the Steelers’ veteran leaders decided it was time for their voices to be heard.
Defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, a team captain, and linebacker Vince Williams spent about 20 minutes addressing the team’s decision to have Tomlin speak on their behalf. Then, they answered questions about ways the Steelers are trying to make a difference amid the roiling social unrest in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting.
“We can’t be blind to what is going on,” Heyward said. “We’ve seen too many injustices to be silent. Our communities hurt day in and day out. We’re left with the question: Why? As we are held accountable on the field, we want to be accountable off the field and encourage others to be as well.
“We didn’t just want to give a statement. We know and understand that statements do a lot, but it’s not enough.”
The Detroit Lions were the first NFL team to skip practice Wednesday as a form of protest to the Blake shooting. The NBA and NHL postponed playoff games beginning Thursday, several MLB games were halted and multiple NFL teams canceled practice in protest of the racial injustice that continues since George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
Steelers players met with Tomlin, one of only three African-American head coaches in the NFL, on Friday morning and devised the plan for him to make a public address. Tomlin spoke for nearly three minutes, then gathered coaches, players and administrators, including team president Art Rooney II, in the middle of Heinz Field for a group prayer.
“We didn’t feel like it was appropriate on Thursday to be brash about what we were going to say,” Williams said. “We took that day and continued to go to work and press forward. We came together as players and came in with a statement. We made a stance. We thought that there was nobody better than coach Tomlin to deliver it because of who he is in the NFL and who he is as a person.”
“We decided to come together, lock arms and make a stand to show compassion because even though we may be in the NFL and are professional athletes, we are still very sympathetic to everything going on, and we still feel that.”
Heyward and Williams were not on the original list of players submitted to reporters for availability Saturday on a video conference call. They, along with center Maurkice Pouncey, another team captain, were added late Friday night,
Pouncey, though, did not participate in the call. He has worked closely with the Pittsburgh police department and for the past three years has donated tickets to Steelers home games for police to take youth from the city’s neighborhoods. He also helped provide a $20,000 donation to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Fund in 2019.
“We understand that we get to meet the good cops, but there are cops not being held accountable,” Heyward said. “Simple as that. We have an opportunity to strengthen that when we say the good cops stay in place, but the bad cops don’t get to keep policing us.”
Williams also has met with Pittsburgh police chief Scott Schubert in an effort to “change the perception of police” and its relationship with African-Americans in Pittsburgh.
“We’re not just an organization to make brash or bold statements,” Williams said. “We are encouraged to actually go out into our communities and to take things on as a personal approach to them. … I think we have been getting it done, but we just have to be more diligent about it. We have to apply more pressure.”
Heyward supports a repeal of Act 111, a 1968 legislation that allows, in part, for police unions to collectively bargain internal discipline, which can lead to reversals of firings or other discipline of officers that were found guilty of misconduct. He also wants community leaders to ban choke holds by police.
“Those are the things we can do whether it’s lobbying or speaking with different communities’ leaders to make that change,” he said.
Steelers players have not yet met to discuss if any activism will take place during games once the season begins in little more than two weeks.
Three years ago, when President Donald Trump ripped players who knelt for the national anthem, the Steelers tried to take a unified approach on Week 3 in Chicago by remaining inside the tunnel leading to the field. The plan backfired.
“There’s always room for (individual expression),” Williams said, adding Rooney II has supported their decisions. “We’ve never been hindered in any way. Nobody has ever told us what we couldn’t do. That’s just how we get down. I’m sure we’re going to come together as a team, collectively, and talk about it, because that’s more in line with how we do business here, but I don’t know.”
Heyward was asked how the media could help make sure the Steelers’ players message is spread the appropriate way.
“We just ask that when we do make this change, that it’s written down, that it’s covered,” Heyward said. “Vince and I come from different communities, but we are going to make a change. We just ask that it’s reported because we want to provide an outlook where we are optimistic about our future, where children see they can be the next Vince Williams, the next Cam Heyward, or they can be a doctor or a police officer.
“To do that, we are really going to have to see positive changes.”
Joe Rutter is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe by email at jrutter@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Sports | Steelers/NFL
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