PITTSBURGH — Depending on one's understanding of the basic tenets of psychology, how Steelers players reacted to their Thanksgiving night game against the Baltimore Ravens being switched to Sunday was either an example of cognitive dissonance or, quite simply, selective memory.
For this discussion, we will choose the latter, which describes a person's ability to remember certain information but not other information.
Two weeks ago, the Steelers placed five players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, including their star quarterback and run-stopping inside linebacker. Fortunately for them, four of the players were placed on the list because they had exposure to the infected player, not because they tested positive.
What's more, those four players were placed on the list on Monday, meaning their five-day quarantine period in which they were not allowed to be at the team facility or attend practice ended on Saturday. That meant Ben Roethlisberger and linebacker Vince Williams, along with two other players, were eligible to return and play the next day against the Cincinnati Bengals. The timing was fortuitous for them.
If the game were scheduled for Thursday night, for instance, Roethlisberger and Williams would not have been able to play against the Bengals. Without Roethlisberger, maybe they wouldn't have beaten the Bengals. Maybe they wouldn't still be unbeaten.
Apparently, some of the Steelers players (and too many of their fans) have chosen to forget about that. Which brings us to what has happened to the Baltimore Ravens and that Thanksgiving night game.
Steelers players taking to social media to complain about the Ravens game being moved to Sunday — they called it "B.S ... a joke," among other things — is as short-sighted and socially naive as it gets. JuJu Smith-Schuster blamed the NFL for moving the game because "another team can't get their COVID situation together." Well, what does he call what happened to the Steelers two weeks earlier? Apparently, he is forgetting his own team may have been guilty of the same thing of which he is accusing the Ravens. That is called selective memory.
Whenever Mike Tomlin has been asked about the effects of the pandemic, as he was before the Bengals game, his response has universally been the same: The Steelers have to be light on their feet and adapt to the situation presented by a disease that nobody can control. He has been steadfast in his comments since the beginning of training camp.
Too bad some of his players don't listen when it comes to such a serious matter, especially one with which they were confronted just two weeks earlier.
One other thing:
It is generally agreed around the league there isn't a more physical, more violent rivalry than the Steelers and Ravens. Having those teams meet on just three days' rest is not the best way for the league to show concern for player safety. It's the reason players often complain the league is filled with hypocrites. According to the NFL Players Association, half their membership is opposed to Thursday night games because they don't give their bodies enough time to recover.
The NFL likes to point out that injury rates on Thursday night are similar to those on Sunday and Monday night games, maybe even better. But the fallacy of that is players who aren't able to play on Thursday night might have been able to play on Sunday because they had three more days to recover.
So what's the problem with getting extra days to get ready for the Ravens?
Yes, scheduling the Steelers and Ravens on a Thursday night, on Thanksgiving night, is a ratings bonanza for the networks and the league, an attraction that would outdraw the traditional post-dinner viewing of "Christmas Vacation." But, if the game was to be played on Sunday (before now being moved to Tuesday), what would the detriment have been to the players who had more time to prepare and, more important, more time for their bodies to recover?
Mike Tomlin has said all along he doesn't mind his players using social media to express their opinions, so long as they do it in a thoughtful and classy manner.
In this instance, they forgot the thoughtful part.
