The Pittsburgh Steelers have earned a reputation as a hard-nosed physical team. Even when they were laughable losers in the franchise's dark ages, nobody enjoyed playing against the Pittsburgh teams. The 1970s Steelers, led by Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Mel Blount, paired winning with an intent to impose their will on opponents.
Greg Lloyd and the early 1990s defenses that peaked in a visit to Super Bowl XXX were a very nasty group that reflected the leader of the defense. Lloyd recently admitted that his goal was to get opponents to quit football after he hit them. The 2005-11 Steelers defenses led by James Harrison were so aggressive that Mike Tomlin said during his appearance on the "Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger" podcast that they were responsible for the NFL’s Player Safety protocol.
The 2023 Steelers defense is built differently than the physically imposing groups of the past. The Steelers gave up 200 yards rushing to the Cleveland Browns on "Monday Night Football." In two games, the defense has allowed 52 points. TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith are fantastic edge-rushers. They could play on any old-school Steelers defense, but both are quiet gentlemen who generate turnovers, not bruises.
Cam Heyward, the longtime defensive captain, is the closest thing to a player with a genuine mean streak on the Steelers defense. He is not only injured and going to miss half the season, but might be better classified as chippy than menacing. The Steelers don’t have a nasty warrior like Harrison and Lloyd on this team.
Nick Chubb suffered one of the ugliest injuries you will ever see on the football field. The audible reaction from the crowd in the stadium watching the injury was eerie when viewed on television. Joe Buck remarked how classy the fans in Pittsburgh are for giving Chubb a huge ovation and chanting his name as he was carted off the field.
The class of the fans in the stadium did not extend to social media. What happened to Chubb was an unfortunate part of the game of football, not an evil plot executed by Minkah Fitzpatrick. It didn’t take long for all the dirty play takes to start flowing on social media. Ryan Clark was ripped for defending Fitzpatrick and calling the out-of-control complaints soft.
Pro Football Talk, which broadcasts live on Peacock, aired at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning. The show features Mike Florio and Chris Simms, who discussed the topic of the hit on Chubb and the potential for it to be a career-ending injury. Simms, a former quarterback, decided to channel a page out of Ben Roethlisberger's patented passive-aggressive playbook and opine about the hit.
"I don't love that he is engaged with somebody else," Simms echoes the social media mob. "Minkah Fitzpatrick goes low on him. I just didn't love that. I don't think it was necessary. That was one thing that jumped out to me a little bit."
Simms played in 23 games during his NFL career and had 28 opportunities after his 10 fumbles and 18 interceptions to try to make a tackle in the NFL. It is an utter disservice to an All-Pro like Fitzpatrick to suggest that tackling a running back known for breaking tackles is a dirty play.
"He was being hit. He had somebody bear-hugging on him," Simms continued. "Minkah Fitzpatrick came in like a heat-seeking missile and dove at the side of his knee. Players are smart enough to know don't do that. I did not love that, and it’s deflating. The Browns are out of the playoff conversation without him."
The engagement rules are for quarterbacks like Simms. The NFL brought this on themselves. The rule that was explicitly installed after Tom Brady lost a season, paired with an ever-shrinking strike zone, leaves defenders vulnerable to penalties and attacks by offensive players like Simms, who would love nothing more than to see defenders restricted even further.
The NFL and ESPN were so concerned about Chubb's injury near the end of the first half that they took a moment for Buck and Troy Aikman to address it before the second-half kickoff. The broadcast duo were very concerned about the incident and addressed the elephant in the room: the scramble to replace Chubb on the fantasy football waiver wire.
The concern for a hit on a star running back would have a lot more impact if the NFL cared about the position beyond fantasy football. Analytics says running backs are a dime a dozen, and Jerome Ford did nothing to dissuade that notion by rushing for over 100 yards in Chubb's absence. The attacks on Fitzpatrick are ridiculous, led by failed quarterbacks and disappointed fantasy football owners.
It is unfortunate what happened to a talent like Chubb. He is, by all accounts, a great person and workout warrior. Hopefully, he can return. It is sadder that an All-Pro safety is being labeled a dirty player because of former quarterbacks and a social media mob that is only truly interested in who they are forced to pick up for a little game that has too much influence on the NFL.
More must-reads: