Pittsburgh Steelers captain Cameron Heyward took issue with Ben Roethlisberger’s recent claim that too many current NFL players have a “me-like attitude,” saying his former teammate’s comments “make me they rub badly.”
Roethlisberger, in a wide-ranging interview published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday, said “the game has changed” and “the people have changed” when addressing the differences he noticed between his early and recent years with the Steelers .
“The team was very important,” Roethlisberger said, referring to his early seasons with Pittsburgh. “It’s all about the team. Now, it’s me and this and that and the other.
“I might be standing on a soapbox a little bit, but that’s the biggest takeaway from me from when I started to the end. It went from a team-first attitude to a me-first attitude. be hard. It’s hard for these young guys. Too. Social media. They treat them so well in college. Now this new stuff from NIL, which is amazing. They’re treated so special. They’re pampered like a early age because college coaches need them to win too I know coach [Terry] Hoeppner never spoiled me. neither [Bill] Cowher.”
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Heyward was Roethlisberger’s teammate from 2011 until last season, when the future Hall of Fame quarterback retired. On the most recent edition of his podcast, Heyward said he disagreed with Roethlisberger’s remark, saying it made him “a little upset.”
“We seem to be seen as selfish players, and I don’t think that’s the point,” the veteran defensive lineman said on the “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward” podcast. “We have a lot of young players who come from different backgrounds, they’ve been through different things than others or I have been through. That doesn’t make them selfish or more like me… There’s a lot of them. More guys from ‘team first than me attitude. I was offended by that.”
Heyward, 33, cited several current and former Steelers, including Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyson Alualu and Brett Keisel, who had a positive impact on the locker room and organization, referring to them as “ the first of the team”. despite the criticism about his personality.
A team captain since 2015, Heyward also said it’s “up to the leadership, including me” to help acclimate young players to the NFL and the culture of the Steelers, who won two Super Bowls under Roethlisberger.
Ben Roethlisberger and Cameron Heyward were Steelers teammates for 11 years, beginning in 2011. AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
“I’m responsible for these guys,” Heyward said. “Obviously, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a Super Bowl, and maybe that’s where Ben says, ‘Man, if these guys had grown up.’ But it’s up to the big guys to step up and hold the guys accountable. . . ‘a vet to take you under your wing and pull you in and say, ‘Hey, this is what it’s like to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.’ And that’s what I’m trying to do.
“Maybe Ben didn’t see it that way, but man, I’m going to protect my guys. Now you can’t call it a ‘me attitude.’ Everybody wants to be a Super Bowl winner, money, one day to be MVP. But when it all comes together, we care about one thing, this logo right here. . . . I’ve always tried to extend that to my younger teammates. I think Ben was a little stuck. that one.”
Roethlisberger, 40, played his entire 18-year career as the Steelers’ starting quarterback before retiring last January. He was a six-time Pro Bowler, finished his career with the fifth-most passing yards (64,088) in NFL history and led the Steelers to Super Bowl championships following the 2005 and 2008 seasons.
Heyward stressed he wasn’t “throwing shade” at Roethlisberger, saying he was “telling my side.”
“Don’t say Cam is yelling at Ben, he’s not,” Heyward said. “But I will say I’m going to protect my team. I’m going to make sure everyone knows that we only care about football on the field and less off the field. We can all understand that Ben has been a great quarterback. Don’t play this game and become on a Hall of Fame quarterback and do it at a low level.
“Ben has taken some hits that a lot of other teams couldn’t. He saved us, he won games we shouldn’t have won and he’s always stepped up. But it was the team around him that helped him do it and I don’t want anyone to ever forget that the whole team won, not just Ben.”