Dec 9, 2017 6 min read

When he spoke earlier in the season about distractions – when the Steelers were seemingly going through one after another – coach Mike Tomlin said he welcomed them because he knew his team would face continued distractions if they were going to get to where they wanted to go, which is the Super Bowl.

But there are minor distractions, such as a wide receiver’s agent asking for his client to be traded. And then there is what this team has been through in the past week.

This distraction has been steeped in near-tragedy.

Linebacker Ryan Shazier avoided the worst-possible scenario, which would be losing his life on the football field.

And let’s be clear: we remain uncertain of exactly how badly he is hurt after injuring his lower back early in the first quarter of Pittsburgh’s 23-20 win Monday at Cincinnati.

Some of his teammates have said Shazier suffered a spinal cord concussion. Others have said spinal cord contusion. They are two decidedly different things.

That’s why, late in the week, the Steelers asked the media to refrain from asking players what they were hearing in regard to Shazier’s health. Much of what the players are hearing is second or even third hand. And they’re not doctors.

The Steelers have been understandably guarded with the information they have released about Shazier’s status, largely to protect his privacy and that of his family as they try to get through what has to be a very difficult time.

Because of the tough-guy sport that they play, we often forget that each player is somebody’s son, husband or brother.

The bottom line is that Shazier’s situation is bigger than football. This is about life and his quality of life.

If he plays football again, great. If not, the hope is that he at least regains the ability to walk.

By all accounts, from the players, the prognosis for that remains good. But, again, they are not doctors.

Perhaps defensive coordinator Keith Butler relayed the team’s position on Shazier’s status the best this week. Butler had a teammate in college who suffered a spinal cord injury while playing and was paralyzed for the remainder of his life. He has a little more perspective on the situation than others.

“I’m not going to say anything about Ryan right now because of the situation he’s in,” Butler said Thursday, a day after Shazier returned to Pittsburgh and had surgery to stabilize his spinal column. “All I am is hopeful that he gets well. I’m not worried about him playing for us again. I’m more worried about him, and so I think y’all have been updated as much as we have, so the thing that we’re hoping for, praying for, is that he comes back and he’s going to be OK. The football stuff is secondary. His life is a lot more important to me than football.”

• When you see something like what happened to Shazier, it’s a stark reminder of the frailty of human life, especially for the players.

Professional athletes, and football players in particular, view themselves as 50-foot tall and bulletproof.

They have to do that to put their bodies in harm’s way.

But, as defensive end Stephon Tuitt told me this week, the play after Shazier was taken off the field on a backboard was perhaps the strangest in which he has ever taken part.

Players on both teams were unsure how to proceed.

• Shazier’s situation wasn’t the only one the Steelers were forced to deal with in the past week.

Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s suspension for a block on Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict also was on their mind, especially after Cincinnati’s George Iloka had his one-game suspension for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Antonio Brown overturned on appeal.

To a man, the Steelers were upset Smith-Schuster got the same suspension that New England’s Rob Gronkowski drew for his dive at the back of Buffalo cornerback’s Tre’Davious White’s neck after a play concluded last Sunday.

Gronkowski’s after-the-play hit left White with a concussion.

“JuJu was just playing hard,” said Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey. “You suspend a kid for playing hard? And how do you equate that with what Gronk did? That doesn’t make sense. And you overturn the other guy because A.B. got up and scored a touchdown? Come on.”

• A big part of the problem in the game against the Bengals was TV broadcast analyst Jon Gruden’s overreaction to what was going on.

Gruden, a longtime coach who has been around long enough to have seen games played much more physically than the one we witnessed last week – including by his own teams Oakland and Tampa Bay – made it seem like there were cheap shots all over the field. Part of that was because of the emotions involved with seeing Shazier and Burfict taken off the field on carts – though Burfict reportedly got off the cart immediately after it reached the stadium tunnel.

But the NFL apparently disagreed with his assessment. The only two fines levied in the game involved the plays with Smith-Schuster and Iloka.

The rest was just football.

• Linebacker James Harrison said this week that if he had known what his role with the Steelers was going to be, he wouldn’t have re-signed with Pittsburgh last offseason.

The 39-year-old has played only 29 snaps and hasn’t been active for a game in more than a month.

“No. I would have signed somewhere else,” he said.

While it might not seem like there would be a market for a soon-to-be-40 linebacker, remember that Harrison had 71/2 sacks last season and had one in only 16 plays against Kansas City this year.