Home Player Spotlight For Steelers’ Fans, Mike Mitchell is ‘Love/Hate’

For Steelers’ Fans, Mike Mitchell is ‘Love/Hate’

by Steeldad

I don’t think there is anyone who can argue with the fact that Mike Mitchell is playing better this season than he did in his first year with the Pittsburgh Steelers. His overall impact on games is significantly better than at any point in 2014 and I wouldn’t have the time to hear any arguments to the contrary.

Mitchell is a fiery, excitable guy who thrives on making big hits and leaving a trail of humanity in his wake. It’s an attitude that many Steelers that came before have had. From Mean Joe Green and Jack Lambert to Greg Lloyd and Joey Porter, the attitude was simple; attack the opposition with great violence.

What is arguable when it comes to Mitchell is the way he behaves on the field usually after the play.

Search your Twitter timeline and I’m sure you’ll find comments on each end of the “Mitchell Spectrum.”

In my mind, what Mitchell does is expose loyalties and even more important he exposes generation gaps. His antics against the Bengals were awful and reeked of a “look at me” culture run amok. While his behavior wasn’t much better on Sunday, he at least has the good sense to go over and speak with the Raiders’ player he had nearly knocked out.

It wasn’t a necessary move but it was a classy move and it’s something I don’t mind. I don’t think it takes away the ability to play with great aggression or violence – it simply just illustrates that every guy out there is part of small bond and walking away healthy is the number one goal.

That’s the type of ‘Mike Mitchell’ fans don’t mind seeing. Yes, you’ll always have those fans who seek blood and guts and don’t want to see any sort of ‘goodwill’ towards an opponent but by and large we should be OK with that.

Where Mitchell rubs many of us the wrong way was illustrated perfectly in Sunday’s win over Oakland. Mitchell came up and lowered the boom on a Raiders’ ball carrier and got up celebrating as if he’d just won a Super Bowl and a Grammy for Best New Album. The problem? His antics followed a gain of almost ten yards. What on God’s green Earth is he celebrating?

Mitchell is by no means the only NFL player who celebrates in moments where 30 years ago a defensive back would have been pissed over giving up such a big play but he stands out on this team. Some of it stems from his poor play last year and some of it is just flat-out because he comes off the way he does.

I think everyone is glad he’s playing well this year but I guarantee you there is a great divide in terms of who likes his behavior and who doesn’t.

 

You may also like

6 comments

Ian November 9, 2015 - 7:13 pm

Fair, though Mean Joe, Lambert, Lloyd and Porter never told Steelers fans to “go kill yourself” http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/11/18/steelers-safety-mike-mitchell-tweets-kill-yourself-to-fan/

steeldad November 9, 2015 - 7:29 pm

Yeah…. I thought about including that but I tried to keep it more relevant to the last couple of weeks. I certainly recalled that classically stupid move though.

Ben Anderson November 9, 2015 - 8:50 pm

There are a handful of positions where the guy has to lead by keeping his head, getting his teammates lined up and making sure that people are aware of what the priority is on every snap. Free Safety is one of those. The free safety and the inside linebacker with the radio in his helmet, the guy calling the defense, in this case Timmons, both have to keep their heads and let their teammates fulfill any vacuum that might need filled by bluster, boasting and trash talk.
Mitchell is trying to play FS with a SS mentality and actions.
Mitchell celebrating a big hit yesterday while a live ball is on the ground and a whistle never blew is emblematic of Mitchell’s season.
Make a big play and immediately do something dumb that negates it.
Thanks, Mike. We enjoy loving/hating you.

Ian November 9, 2015 - 10:41 pm

Not to take the comments section too far off track here, but I’d be interested to see if they try to work in some snaps for Robert Golden over the next few weeks. Will Allen struggled a bit and the defense might be better off with Mitchell as SS and Golden as FS, though the “roles” of FS and SS seem a bit more flexible now with Butler than they did with LeBeau. Both Allen and Mitchell played down in the box at varying times (with Mitchell coming on a delayed blitz on the last Raiders TD to Crabtree). Just a thought.

steeldad November 10, 2015 - 2:04 am

I don’t think that’s a bad idea at all Ian. I’m hoping that Allen was just rusty but either way Golden has proven to be better than most expected.

GAME RECAP: Party Hard | The Steelers N'at November 10, 2015 - 4:21 pm

[…] Our buddy Ben Anderson absolutely nails it with this comment on this article over at Steel City Blitz. […]

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.