Disgraceful Yinzer Media Couldn't Wait to Smear Kenny Pickett on his Way Out the Door
One thing I noticed when the Eagles traded for Kenny Pickett on Friday was a curious number of tweets smearing the guy on his way out. Disgraceful Yinzer media flip flopping like John Kerry in the buildup to the 2004 Presidential election:
The Steelers made the move because of the way Pickett was poorly handling the arrival of Russell Wilson, according to sources. That came on the heels of Pickett’s behavior last season when he refused to dress as the emergency third quarterback in Seattle in Week 17. https://t.co/mirLR1UJFP
— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) March 15, 2024
Ken Pickett being a self-centered, arrogant punk will definitely be the most surprising story for me of this decade. I thought he was gonna be the #Steelers Sidney Crosby, but he turned out to be the #Steelers Barry Bonds w 10% of the talent.
— David Todd (@DavidMTodd) March 16, 2024
Pickett is a punk. I saw it first hand and heard what others have said. That said, I was hoping he would be a good teammate and put up a good fight to keep his job.
— Eric Hagman (@esh714) March 15, 2024
As Mike Tomlin always says, we want volunteers, not hostages.
Kenny Pickett cried himself out of Pittsburgh after throwing 13 touchdowns in 2 seasons.
Diontae Johnson gave up on his team and cried the whole year.
Sometimes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.…
— Jordan York (@JYorkFootball) March 16, 2024
In addition to this small sampling, there are 50+ tweets from the goofy WCW guy with the Liverpool avatar, but I’ll spare you M*** M***** on a Monday morning.
When I see stuff like this, my blogger antennae pop up, because the volume and tenor of the reporting is curious. It’s suspect. A lot of people all of a sudden had new information, that Pickett was being a selfish crybaby and forced his way out of Pittsburgh. The type of information that a front office source or agency sends out en masse, to take control of a narrative and, in this case, make the departing player look like the problem.
Interestingly enough, there was pushback on the other side, with “sources” magically appearing to dispute the Yinzer smear campaign:
NOTE: “preferred” is not bc Kenny Pickett is running away from competition. He was explicitly told by the #Steelers Wilson would start, reneging on the pledge he’d been given that after two years of chaos, he’d finally be put in position to succeed – per sources apprised of convo https://t.co/wwIIVrmFBM
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) March 15, 2024
Let’s pretend you’re not fully healthy and not fully cleared to play. And let’s say your team has a starter and a backup that week…but you can be the emergency 3rd QB if you get shot up. The trainers and docs say: not worth it.
You’re the bad guy for not overruling the docs?— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) March 16, 2024
That second tweet there is in reference to a rumor that Pickett refused to suit up for the Week 17 game against Seattle. Pickett denied that, saying he wasn’t medically cleared, and it became a big hullabaloo in podunk western PA.
Now to what’s actually important:
Kenny Pickett didn’t light the world on fire in Pittsburgh. He had a couple of 7-5 seasons, threw the same amount of touchdowns as interceptions, and went down in Week 13 of his second year with a high ankle sprain that required surgery. Mason Rudolph came in and won three starts in a row, and the Steelers qualified for the playoffs. Nobody out there was pining for the return of Kenny Pickett at that particular point in time.
The other thing that happened was the November firing of offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who was terrible. Seriously. His offense made the Wing-T look like Hal Mumme’s Air Raid. Pickett had Najee Harris and George Pickens and an average to below-average line. It’s a classic case of… wait for it… more than one thing being true! Pickett wasn’t amazing and the Steelers coaching and personnel was also underwhelming. The most accurate Pickett take I think comes from Andrew Fillipponi at 93.7 the Fan:
“You can think Kenny Pickett was a big disappointment. And also think the Steelers did a very poor job of giving him a chance to thrive here. It’s okay to feel that way. Because it should be obvious to even the biggest dum dums that both are true.”
This is western PA we’re talking about here, so there are quite a few “dum dums” out there, my Greensburg relatives notwithstanding. It kind of flies under the radar, since our ire is directed mostly at Cowboys and Niners fans, but Steelers fans and media can be just as bad in the privilege department. They win a bunch of Super Bowls and think they’re god’s gift to football. I was going to slit my wrists the next time somebody said “one for the thumb” at WVU in 2006. Nobody deserves a decade of utter mediocrity more than the Pittsburgh Steelers and their entitled fans and media, who lack the emotional intelligence that’s pervasive in southeastern Pennsylvania and into the great state of New Jersey. I have no doubts that Kenny Pickett, playing for a real franchise with a real culture and real fans, will settle in and become a solid backup for Jalen Hurts, ready to take over for the former at a moment’s notice.
Go Birds!