It appears the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt planned to return to the team until a last minute changes of plans. According to his teammate Tyson Alualu, Tuitt called his teammates recently to let them know the news of his pending retirement.
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On Thursday after OTA practice Alualu spoke with the media from his locker. Reporter Chris Adamski from the Tribute Review recorded this clip of Alualu speaking about Tuitt.
"I can't speak for him at the time at the right time he will kinda explain his situation," Alualu said. "But he did look like he was planning on coming back and whatever it is kinda came up and he came to a decision that is best for him and his family. So, you know we have to respect that. Like I said if he's good we're good.
You know when he called us a couple of days ago, of course when he told us the news it was 'are you sure you want to do this?' Just throughout that conversation that's all I told him. 'If he's good we're good.'
Tyson Alualu said Stephon Tuitt called his teammates a couple days ago about his decision to retire.
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) June 2, 2022
“I said, ‘You sure you wanna do this?’“ pic.twitter.com/HSSb00aO4d
There were a lot of questions yesterday about whether the Steelers knew or not about Tuitt's decision ahead of time. Now we know that they knew, but only a few days in advance. The Steelers having Tuitt announce the decision on June 1 saved them more money rather than if he had done it prior to June 1.
