You may have been wondering what Pittsburgh Steelers’ Head Coach Mike Tomlin’s thoughts were on the recent incident from Sunday. The incident, where Cincinnati Bengals’ star Ja’Marr Chase spit on Pittsburgh Steelers’ star Jalen Ramsey, is what I’m referring to. We now have our answer and I was left incredibly unimpressed.
I expected a much more professional answer by a 19-year head coach than what we ended up getting. When asked at today’s Press Conference what his message was to Ramsey who had been ejected was, Tomlin replied, “I have no message if someone spits in your face. Do what comes natural.”
Seriously? So Tomlin has no problem with one of his most important defenders throwing haymakers on an opponent because he had been spit on? Especially in that situation? Ramsey had just received his first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the play before. The secondary was already a bit “patch work” with Darius Slay out and Brandin Echols less than 100%.
Football is an emotional game and sometimes those emotions can run hot but you have to rise above them. The ultimate team game requires that you put the team first, not yourself and that’s what Ramsey ultimately did. If you think I’m excusing Chase for spitting you’re wrong. I’m not doing that at all. It’s a loser’s way of saying ‘I give up because I have nothing left in my arsenal so here, take this spit!’ But the onus then falls on you to handle your business.
For Tomlin to suggest that any player “Do what comes natural” is reckless and is just asking for further problems. He’s enabling not only Ramsey but other players as well by tolerating the very behavior that got Ramsey booted. And what about the message being sent to players at the college and high school level? Is Tomlin telling them it’s OK to ‘do what is natural’ too?
A more appropriate was response from Tomlin would have been, “Spitting doesn’t belong in our game. I’ve had several conversations with Jalen that I will keep in house. But, like I said after the game, we cannot be getting ejected regardless of circumstance.” Wouldn’t that have been more prudent? It covers all of the bases and it moves on to the next subject. Instead, you get people like me questioning why retaliation is ever warranted.
Spitting at another person is awful, disgusting and never acceptable. Retaliating in a way that jeopardizes your participation and more importantly, your team’s success is just as bad in my opinion. Tomlin missed a chance to state it exactly in that manner too.
