George Pickens Acknowledges He ‘Ticked’ People Off, Says He ‘Kept Receipts’
PITTSBURGH — George Pickens emerged victorious after a rocky week, with a career-best performance in a must-win game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
After the win, Pickens took a victory lap, acknowledging that his comments earlier in the week had upset people, but not apologizing for them and say that he “kept receipts” regarding what was said about him.
Pickens addressed the elephant in the rook that was his own comments from Tuesday, when he defended not blocking for teammate Jaylen Warren in last week’s Steelers loss to the Indianapolis Colts, saying that he would do the same thing again and that he was afraid to be injured. He also said that media members shouldn’t be able to criticize him because they didn’t play the game.
Those remarks were so inflammatory that head coach Mike Tomlin had to address them during the week. Pickens apologized to Warren privately and said that he would block for him in the future while leaving his teammates answering for his words for most of the rest of the week.
Pickens began his media availability with a statement that acknowledged the stir he’d caused, but he didn’t apologize for it.
“I know I made some comments before the week that kinda, ya know, ticked you guys off,” he said. “I just wanted to say that I’m here to win, make the proper adjustments and be a great player, to be honest.”
When asked what he’ll take away from the up-and-down week, he said that he learned that some people in the media have a job to do, but said he’ll remember what was said about him.
“I kept receipts, for sure,” Pickens said. “People, they’ve just got a job to do. That’s probably the biggest thing that I’ll take out of it.”
If you were looking for contrition, that’s not exactly a lot of it, but if you were looking for production, well he brought that in spades.
Pickens caught two touchdown passes and hauled in 195 receiving yards, the most for a Steelers wideout since Antonio Brown last crossed the 200-yard mark in 2018.
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