PITTSBURGH – Mike Tomlin’s affinity for using signature slogans comes in handy these days.
In addition to leading his players on the field and in the classroom as training camp opens this week, the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach also talks to his young players about the impact of their actions off the field during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You’re sending a thoughtful message,” Tomlin said when he was first available to the camp media. “You use slogans and you know I like slogans. What you are talking about is harmful conduct. It is a term that is used often in our business and with good reason. Because in this COVID environment, if you don’t exercise discretion and consider how you move, that conduct is detrimental – to your cause and to ours collectively. … It is a failure, all fail in this environment. We will continue to present the messages this way and be very transparent. That’s it. It is conduct detrimental to their efforts and ours.
The rookies arrived in Pittsburgh last week, while the rest of the team started showing up for COVID-19 testing earlier this week. Although more than a dozen players in the league have announced their intention to retire from the season, Tomlin said he hasn’t spent much time anticipating any possible unsubscribes from his squad.
“These are very individual decisions and we respect them,” he said. “We will only deal with them if and when they arise.”
In conversations with his players, Tomlin and his team have stressed the importance of making smart decisions away from the team – a message he frequently conveys to his players, telling them, “Don’t be ‘the guy’. “
“It’s not at all difficult,” rookie wide receiver Chase Claypool said Thursday. “I think it’s pretty straightforward. They present the guidelines quite clearly. All you have to do is follow them. It’s almost hard not to follow them.
Tomlin’s message wasn’t hard for rookie linebacker Alex Highsmith to grasp either.
“For me, right off the pitch, I’m not really someone who comes out,” the 2020 third-round pick said Tuesday. “I’m a social guy, but I’m not a going guy. put myself in a bad position that would ruin the opportunity I have right now. I’ve never been a guy who goes to bars and stuff like that. … I’m not going to jeopardize this opportunity by putting myself and others at risk.
Players who contract the coronavirus through high-risk activities could face team discipline and the loss of a paycheck, according to a new NFL protocol, described in a memo sent by the NFLPA to agents over the weekend, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN.
The memo states, “Clubs / NFL may challenge the designation as a football-related injury if it can prove the player has contracted COVID-19 from engaging in high-risk driving below. (This issue remains open.) “
If the team wins the challenge, then they could put the player on the non-football injury list, giving them the option of not paying it.
According to the memo, the NFL defines high-risk driving as participation:
a covered disco for more than 15 people
an indoor bar for more than 15 people, other than to fetch food
an indoor party with more than 15 people
an indoor music concert / entertainment event with more than 15 people
a professional sporting event, other than applicable NFL games or events, with more than 15 people
an indoor religious service attended by more than 25% of the capacity of a place
“We have to conduct ourselves accordingly,” Tomlin said. “There has been a lot of work to position ourselves to be where we are now.”
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