Mike Tomlin is in favor of the NFL’s crackdown on taunting. Unless it affects his team.
With the Steelers down 30-0 in the second half of their brutal loss to the Chiefs, wideout Ray-Ray McCloud caught a pass for a first down, and then embarrassingly signaled that he was moving the chains. The display was even worse than Chase Claypool’s clueless taunt with time running out against the Vikings, because again, the Steelers were down by 30 points. The officials appropriately flagged McCloud for taunting.
Yet, Tomlin doesn’t think the cocky pass-catcher did anything wrong.
“I categorically disagreed with it. I thought that Ray Ray was signaling first down, and he turned around to do so and the guy just happened to be there. I think we have to exercise some common sense,” Tomlin told reporters, via ProFootballTalk.
Ah, common sense, you mean like not celebrating when your team is getting destroyed? Claypool was benched immediately for his taunting, while McCloud stayed in the game.
This is another sign the Steelers’ culture is broken. Tomlin has been unable to control bombastic receivers for the bulk of his tenure, from Antonio Brown to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Now that they’re losing, it looks even worse.
By the way, McCloud isn’t even good, unlike AB, Smith-Schuster or even Claypool. He caught just four passes for 25 yards Sunday. He’s one of the last people who should be above the rules, apparently except in Tomlin’s world.