A week after sparking some civic conversation over one player straying from the team's collective social justice message, the Steelers essentially saw everyone go their own way for the 26-21 victory over the Broncos Sunday at Heinz Field.
The decal on the back of Terrell Edmunds' helmet: 'Black Lives Matter.'
For Cam Heyward, Diontae Johnson and James Conner: 'End Racism.'
For Ben Roethlisberger: 'It Takes All Of Us.'
For Benny Snell, it was the name of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician who was shot eight times and killed by three Louisville Police officers who entered her apartment with a no-knock search warrant. The targets of their investigation were 10 miles away.
For Maurkice Pouncey, it was the name of Eric Kelly, one of three Pittsburgh Police officers slain in a 2009 shooting in Stanton Heights. Kelly, who was Black, responded to a call for backup after fellow officers Paul Sciullo and Stephen Mayhle had already been shot.
Pouncey complained publicly on Instagram in the middle of the past week that he'd been "given little information" on the Steelers' plan to honor Antwon Rose Jr. He's also been an outspoken, active supporter of police and community organizers working together in Pittsburgh and his native Lakeland, Fla. He added in his Instagram message that by wearing Rose's name on his helmet, he "inadvertently supported a cause of which I did not fully comprehend the entire background of the case."
Other players wore no messages at all, with the only clear commonality being that each was allowed to make his own choice. No statement was made by anyone associated with the team, officially or otherwise, explaining the change in approach.
Before the season opener last Monday against the Giants in East Rutherford, N.J., the Steelers' management had decided to go with the name of Rose Jr., the 17-year-old who was shot three times in the back by a police officer in East Pittsburgh, which isn't part of the City of Pittsburgh. Rose was shot after fleeing from a car that, minutes earlier, had been involved in a drive-by shooting. The officer who did the shooting was acquitted after a four-day trial.
Alejandro Villlanueva, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, split off from his teammates that night, covered Rose's name with white tape and hand-wrote the name of Alwyn Cashe, an Army sergeant who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. That's the same name Villanueva had on his helmet Sunday.
Several Broncos kneeled for the playing of the national anthem but, again, no Steelers did. The only player on the Pittsburgh sideline to take any visible action was Chase Claypool, who raised his fist. Claypool is Canadian, born and raised near Vancouver, British Columbia. He and Eric Ebron both raised fists last Monday.
Claypool hadn't been available to media until Sunday, and he was asked about his action before both games.
"Being Canadian, being a visitor here, I don't feel completely comfortable taking a knee," he said, "but I wanted to hold up a fist to show unity."
