Pittsburgh Steelers rookie wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster will not be present when the Baltimore Ravens come to town on Sunday evening. Instead, Smith-Schuster will be serving his one-game suspension for a dirty hit on Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict last Monday night.
The suspension has of course drawn some outrage from Smith-Schuster’s teammates. One disgruntled teammate in particular is center Maurkice Pouncey. Here he rages and compares Smith-Schuster’s situation to that of suspended New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.
“And then JuJu gets suspended for that? It’s stupid. It just blows my mind that the league would even have us answering that stupid-ass question, Pouncey said, per Jim Wexell of Steel City Insider. It kinda pisses me off because that kid there plays hard. He’s such a great kid. He’s not a dirty player. If that’s the case then make Gronk sit two games, three games. How can you justify that compared to what JuJu did? That’s just stupid.”
Gronk was suspended one game for unnecessary roughness to Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White for this cheap shot (watch here).
As for Smith-Schuster, he appealed his one-game suspension, but was denied. His teammates are also fired up at the fact that Cincinnati Bengals safety George Iloka had his one-game suspension lifted. In the same game Smith-Schuster tackled Burfict, Iloka made an nasty hit on wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Clearly, the Steelers feel Smith-Schuster is not being treated fairly. Though, it is natural that his teammates feel protective and supportive of him.
The obvious thing that hurts the Steelers is that they will be without one of their better receivers when they face the Ravens this week. But Smith-Schuster’s suspension is what it is and the young rookie will earn a lesson for his poor judgement and behavior.