No, George Pickens Didn’t Arrive to a Steelers Game 10 Min. Before Kickoff

Did Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens really arrive 10 minutes before game time for a 2022 game at Acrisure Stadium between the Steelers and New York Jets?

No, he did not.

That was a story told by Steelers fan “Jersey” Jerry of Barstool Sports on a recent episode of the Macrodosing podcast. Jerry said that he was told that Pickens arrived 10 minutes before game time for the Oct. 2, 2022 game between the Steelers and the Jets.

According to the story, Pickens blamed traffic after arriving what would have been multiple hours late to the game, and then went on to score a touchdown.

Pickens didn’t score a touchdown against the Jets that day. He also didn’t arrive 10 minutes before game time.

There are multiple photographs from Steelers team photographer Karl Rosner in the club’s official pregame photo gallery of the game that show Pickens participating in warmups, which start about 45 minutes before kickoff.

Pickens may have been late. He may have, as the story goes, gotten multiple texts from players and coaches, arrived nonchalantly chewing on some Twizzlers, and blaming traffic. But he certainly arrived at Acrisure Stadium more than 10 minutes before kickoff.

While he didn’t score a touchdown, he did record his first career 100-yard game in that contest against the Jets, which was also Kenny Pickett’s first appearance at quarterback.

As for Pickens, he’s run afoul of the team rules often enough to make the story seem plausible. He was reportedly fined $200,000 for violations of team rules in 2023.

But hey, the first rule of storytelling is to not let the facts get in the way of a good story, right?