Heroes of the week:
JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers clocked up the two biggest media storms of his young career to date this past week.
First, his social media posts about a somebody stealing his prized bicycle made local TV news as a breaking story.
Some well-meaning soul took pity on the young man and handed his precious bike into the police.
If you’re wondering why an NFL player was riding a bike around, it’s because, at just 20, he doesn’t have a driving license yet.
As if that tale of a modest professional athlete being helped out by a good Samaritan wasn’t uplifting enough, the young rookie went on to have a stunning breakout performance in his side’s win against the Detroit Lions.
The highlight of the young WR’s 7-catch, 193-yard showing was a stunning 97-yard TD.
As he sped upfield on his way to scoring, he kept looking behind him, expecting to be caught, because his speed rating on a popular video game wasn’t as high as those of the Lions chasing him. Post-game, he explained: “To be honest, the reason I kept looking back is because my speed on ‘Madden’ is 82-83, so I think they are going to catch me.”
How did he celebrate his computer-contradicting TD catch-and-run? By tying up a pitch-side exercise bike with a chain, of course.
Smith-Schuster strikes as the type that’ll be creating plenty more headlines both on and off the pitch, and he rates as a welcome addition to our heroes of the week list.
Pitchside interviews across all sports can tend to grate a bit. Athletes often aren’t too pushed with producing honest or informative commentary on their performances for the press. Understandable and all as that is, given that they don’t get paid to talk, it bores at times.
Mark Ingrim Jr of the New Orleans Saints tore up the manual for post-game reviews, though, following his side’s win against the Chicago Bears this week.
The Saints running back fumbled two balls in the fourth quarter and gave the Bears a shot at getting back into the game. They didn’t, in the end, but Ingram was fairly forthright in his assessment of his own role in the game.
“The bottom line is that I was terrible today,” he said. “I sucked.”
His five-minute interview in the locker room was more-or-less a continuation on that theme and while it’s not nice to listen to a player being just that down on themselves, he gets an A1 for honesty and for keeping things interesting post-game.
