Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt is responding to criticism from his former teammate.
Late this past season, before the Steelers went on a three-game winning streak to help make the playoffs, Ben Roethlisberger was critical of his former team saying there isn’t accountability on the team, more specifically the offense.
“The tradition of Pittsburgh Steelers is done, maybe it needs to be formed a new kind of way,” said Roethlisberger on his Footbahlin’ podcast. “Who’s grabbing someone by the facemask and being like . . . that’s not what we do. Is that happening? You have guys on defense doing it but you need guys on both sides of the ball doing it. You need someone to stand up in that room, on offense, and be like ‘hey, this isn’t what it means to wear the black and gold’.”
Talking to Yahoo! Sports, Watt said while he respects Roethlisberger’s opinion and his years in the Steelers locker room, he is no longer on the team.
“It is all about the guys in the locker room and it’s hard for people on the outside to truly get a feel for what’s going on in the inside and we just have to come together as a unit and understand that we’re not going to solve our problems listening everybody on the outside,” said Watt.
He said that not listening to all of the outside criticism is part of the reason they were able to go on that winning streak and make it into the playoffs, “but more is required.”