PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers receiver George Pickens made a statement on “Sunday Night Football,” when he sported an eye black sticker that read: “OPEN F—ING ALWAYS.” The message made waves on social media. The NBC cameras zoomed in on Pickens’ face.
Countless blogs and media outlets wrote stories about it. Radio stations had a field day. By Tuesday, just about everyone in the football-loving world had seen it and formed some type of opinion on the matter.
Advertisement Well, everyone except his head coach, Mike Tomlin. “I don’t know what messaging you’re talking about regarding his eye black,” the coach said Tuesday when asked directly about it. Maybe I’m just a skeptic, but that seems pretty hard to believe.
GO DEEPER 'Gotta stop kicking our own ass': Steelers' shortcomings go well beyond the final drive Now look, the truth is what Pickens writes on his eye black is not a big deal. Not at all. I don’t care if he has a quote from the Bible, an autograph from Babe Ruth himself or the entire third chapter of “To Kill a Mockingbird” written on his eye black.
It really does not matter. Sure, a league that fines players for wearing the wrong socks on game day probably doesn’t want F-bombs broadcast in prime time and Pickens’ wallet may be a little lighter by the end of the week. But when it comes to actual game results and on-field performance, eye black means absolutely nothing.
Had Pickens played to his outsized potential, scored a couple o.